Right To Play
Play, defined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as the right of every child to engage in play is as important for every child’s development as nutrition, healthcare and education. So many children in the world are denied this basic and simple right. Let’s begin to change this in our own surroundings first, by remembering to create time, space and freedom for the children around us - and the child within us- to just play.
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I exist
Just because you don’t see me doesn’t mean I don’t exist.
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Happiness
watching the Emirati girls standing side by side -their long black hair swaying from left to right to the beat of the drums, to celebrate their heritage and to showcase their prideful folklore - reminds me that music is the first language of happiness; everywhere and always.
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Bring It On!
Life is big, let’s keep living it.
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Freedom
Let go like you have nothing to lose.
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Dana on a Swing
At a time when many around the world are struggling with existential questions, we forget that our children are watching. We forget that they, finally, might have the only answers. We forget that, in our quest to “provide for them”, we often take away what they really need. Children need time to play. They need the space to play. They need the permission to play. They need us to stop fighting and killing and polluting so they can play. With this painting I present to you Dana, from the UAE, playing on a swing. Let’s celebrate the future and remember who it belongs to.
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Live to Fight Another Day
We each fight our own daily battles. And regardless of how small or invalid or insignificant or uncomfortable or unreasonable they may seem to others, every day we’re still here is a victory.
Change the Story
Every time we take something away from a child we change their story. Stop politicizing children’s rights, their freedom, their health and their education.
Dynamic paintings like this one, with different panels that you can switch around to change the energy and the meaning of the piece, have an added dimension to them that makes the onlooker and the artist partners in creating the image
and in telling its story.
