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Remembering Ing & John’s Street Art 2019 before the COVID-19 arrived, New York Times, AXIOS, PBS News, and NBC News

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Remembering Ing & John’s Street Art 2019 before the COVID-19 arrived, New York Times, AXIOS, PBS News, and NBC News

Remembering Ing & John’s Street Art 2019 before the COVID-19 arrived

Ing & John’s Street Art 2019, Downtown Newark, New Jersey, USA

Kai, The Artist, and Ing and John’s Artwork

July – December, 2019

Photographs by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts

My first day of Street art was on Friday, July 26, 2019.  I took some plants from our backyard garden to display in front of our shop.  I started my first display of artwork with “Elephants at the Water Lily Pond” I produced in 1999.  There are always people walking by our place, but more during lunch time.  Most of them are the office workers.  Also, in the evening, people walk by going home from work.  Some people are interested in the artwork, and ask questions, while others are oblivious to the artwork that I display.

I love plants and flowers.  It makes me happy when I see the freshness of green leaves and beautiful flowers blooming.   Our shop is closed temporally, and the window gate is down. I thought that if I display our artwork and some of the plants from our backyard garden in front of the shop gate, it would make it more pleasant for the people who pass by.  I am happy to do it, and I hope the artwork and the plants will help the downtown office workers or others feel fresh and lively.    

I love street art for many reasons. First of all, the artwork is there for the public.  It is for everyone who passes to their destination.  Without spending time visiting art galleries or museums, they can see art while they are going to work or getting lunch.  Some may pay attention to the artwork and some may not.  Some may ask questions about the artwork.  I hope, at least the artwork will activate the thought process of those passing by.

This artwork of mine titled, “I Have A Dream – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr”, I displayed from, Wednesday, August 14, 2019, to August 21, 2019.  I produced this work in 2010.  I also added more plants to fill the front of shop space.

My Thai classical artwork was displayed on Thursday, August 22, 2019.  I produced this artwork in1994.

For more photos and information, please visit the following link:

Ing & John’s Street Art and International Street Art-Part 1

https://ingpeaceproject.com/ing-and-johns-street-art-and-international-street-art/ing-and-johns-street-art-and-international-street-art-part-1/

On Monday, August 28, 2019 John added his work to the display.  John’s artwork is on the far left, “Impossible Dreamer”.  “Gandhi Man of Peace”, in the middle is my artwork, which I produced in 2010.  The far right is John’s artwork “Beneath the Lake”.  Thanks to John Watts, my husband, for helping to display the artwork in a better presentation.

I am happy to display our artworks in public.  There seems to be a positive reaction from the people who view them.  People comment about the beautiful plants and unique artwork.

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts and John Watts, Monday, October 7, 2019

I am very happy to have an opportunity to display our artworks in public.  There were people asking some questions about our artwork.  Some people took pictures of our artwork.   It seems to be a positive reaction from the people who view them.  People comment about the beautiful plants and unique artwork.

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts and John Watts, Tuesday, October 22, 2019

For more photos and information, please visit the following link:

Ing & John’s Street Art and International Street Art-Part 3

https://ingpeaceproject.com/ing-and-johns-street-art-and-international-street-art/ing-johns-street-art-and-international-street-art-part-3/

Kai, our grandson, who love to do painting.  He volunteers to do artwork in front our shop.

This is the nature of life.  One minute we are here and the second minute we are gone.  What remains’ is what we did with the minutes before, while we are still alive on earth.

On Tuesday, September 24, 2019, while we were taking our artwork down at night time, a homeless man asked me, “Do you sell the paintings?”.  “No, I said, we put our artwork up for people to see, and it makes the sidewalk more pleasant to walk by.”   Then he pointed to my Gandhi artwork and asked “Who is this man?” I explained to him that “His name is Gandhi.  He helped his country of India to gain independence from the 200-hundred-year rule by the British Empire.  He achieved this by non-violent mean.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who fought for human rights in this country, USA, followed Gandhi’s non-violent philosophy.  I felt very glad that the homeless man asked me the questions. 

I do not think that homeless people or working-class people will have a much of an opportunity to visit art galleries or museums. This is one of the reasons that I love Street Art.  The artwork is in public view.  Some might like the artwork or some might not, but it can create inter action and activate the viewers to think.  This thinking process helps create learning and reasoning about what others show or tell you to believe. 

There are some people asking us about our artwork that we display in front of our building.  So, we decided to post a sign to let people know who did the artwork along with my Peace Poem.

Little one on mother’s bosoms

Happy to hang along

Where ever she goes

Ride, ride, ride

Happy mother and happy child

I am a lucky one

Ride, ride, ride

Mommy, Daddy I love you

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Sunday, November 10, 2019

I wish some of the homeless children that I saw in the parks or the public library will have comfort and be as well provided for as this child.

This past summer I took our grandson, Kai to Newark Museum, I found out that it is free admissions for Newark residents, for others it cost $15.00 for an adult and $7.00 for a child.  I took Kai to Military Park to play.  I met a woman who has seven children and is not a Newark resident, so she can only bring the children to the park and cannot afford to pay for the Museum entrance tickets.  I think the working-class, poor, and homeless children, need as much as education as they can possibly have.  Museums and libraries are good places for children to learn.  They can form good habits of learning and be able to do well in school and have ambition to get higher education, such as college or university.  Education can help people get out of poverty. The cities nearby Newark, such as Irvington, Jersey City, and others cities have poor and working-class children.  These youngsters will be left out of the experience and enjoyment of seeing the fantastic artwork collections that Newark Museum offers to Newark residents, and well to do families out of town that can afford the price of admission.

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Thursday, November 14, 2019

For more photos and information, please visit the following link:

Ing & John’s Street Art and International Street Art-Part 5

https://ingpeaceproject.com/ing-and-johns-street-art-and-international-street-art/ing-johns-street-art-and-international-street-art-part-5/

Left:        Midnight – John Watts’ Artwork

Middle: Vincent van Gogh and his letters to his brother – Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts’ Artwork

Right:    Homage to the Dragon – John Watts’ Artwork

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts and John Watts, Saturday, November 30, 2019

Kai, The Artist our grandson, who just turned four years old.

It was time for the four-year-old artist to relax and play.

I have a better chance to learn human behavior and development from our grandson than our only daughter when she was young.  This was because we were so busy with working and now, we have more time to observe our grandson’s interaction with other children, including his behavior as a baby and his progress up to now.

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts and John Watts, Saturday, November 30, 2019

For more photos and information, please visit the following link:

Ing & John’s Street Art and International Street Art-Part 7

https://ingpeaceproject.com/ing-and-johns-street-art-and-international-street-art/ing-johns-street-art-and-international-street-art-part-7/

I am done, Grandma!

Time to run

And have fun

Catch me

If you can

Run Grandma run

Fun, fun, fun

You can’t catch me!

It’s great fun to

Run, run, run

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Emerging Cinderella from pink flower    

Modified Artwork by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts

Vincent van Gogh admiring flowers

Artwork by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts

Hi! Mr. Kai!

How are you?

Hello Mr. Snake!

I am fine

Thank you

How are you, Mr. Snake?

I miss you Kai

I was alone in the box last night!

Can I kiss you?

No! You might bite me!

I am not going to bite you

See! I have no teeth

I only have long tongue to smell you

OK! You can kiss me

And you are going to sleep with me tonight

Can I hug you, Kai?

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Kai was talking to his mother about the Magic Dragon.

Now, the Magic dragon has appeared.  Trick or treat anybody???

For more photos and information, please visit the following link:

Ing & John’s Street Art and International Street Art-Part 9

https://ingpeaceproject.com/ing-and-johns-street-art-and-international-street-art/ing-johns-street-art-and-international-street-art-part-9/

Left:        Midnight – John Watts’ Artwork

Middle: Vincent van Gogh’s Broken Frames– Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts’ Artwork

Right:    Homage to the Dragon – John Watts’ Artwork

John Watts’ Sculptures

Kai’s Painting on Friday, September 13, 2019

After working very hard with his painting, the artist spends time to exam the flowers.

For more photos and information, please visit the following link:

Ing & John’s Street Art and International Street Art-Part 11

https://ingpeaceproject.com/ing-and-johns-street-art-and-international-street-art/ing-johns-street-art-and-the-international-street-art-part-11/

The reason I am re-posting some parts of, Ing & John’s Street Art of 2019, is because I miss our life and activities before COVID-19 arrived.  I enjoyed posting our artwork on our shop window shutter.  I had a chance to see people outside the house.  Especially, when I had conversations with people who were interested in our artwork.  We usually went to do our shopping, especially for food in different places.  We went to obtain our Chinese food at China Town in New York City.  After we had some food from China Town, we would head to Central Park, Washington Park.  John had some of his readings, and plays performed in NYC, which was his best opportunity to meet friends involved in theater. 

On March 10, 2020, I went to a hospital to support our daughter when she gave birth to our second grandson, Bodhi.  That is the last day I step outside our house until now.  It will be two years next month since that event.  Thanks to my husband, John Watts for doing all the grocery shopping and other necessary activities outside of the house.  When the weather is warm, I would go to the backyard and tend my garden, enjoying and seeing the flowers bloom.  Some butterflies and bees came to drink nectar from the butterfly bushes and other kinds of flowers.  Roses were blooming beautifully in Spring and Fall, when the weather was cooler.  Now, the weather is very cold, some plants dormant for the winter and others are completely gone.  On Saturday, December 29, 2021, I looked at my backyard, and I saw snow over the garden.  I took photos of the backyard.  John took photos of the front of our shop and the street, before he had to clean the snow from our sidewalk.    

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Sunday, February 6, 2022

I took photographs from our backyard garden.

John took photos of the front of our shop and the street, before he had to clean the snow from our sidewalk.    

The New York Times on January 30, 2022

By Remy Tumin

Snow removal outside the Federal Courthouse in Boston yesterday. Katherine Taylor for The New York Times
1. The East Coast is digging out from a major winter storm.
After dropping a blanket of snow over parts of New York and New Jersey yesterday — as much as 18 inches on some parts of Long Island — the “bomb cyclone” marched northeast, bringing gusting winds, flooding and near-record snow accumulation in New England. Thousands of flights were canceled up and down the coast.
Nearly 70,000 households were without electricity in Massachusetts, especially on Cape Cod and the nearby islands, where heavy winds made restoring power difficult. As much as 30 inches of snow had fallen in some parts of Massachusetts, while Boston had about two feet. The storm drew comparisons to the nightmarish Blizzard of ’78, which buried the city under more than 27 inches of snow.
Parting shot
Photo: Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

Manhattan’s Chrysler Building (center), as seen yesterday from the observation deck of Summit One Vanderbilt.

AXIOS AM on January 30, 2022

By Mike Allen
4.  Epic nor’easter

Photo: Nantucket PoliceSeveral streets on Nantucket, the fabled island off Cape Code, “flooded with seawater during high tide … as the powerful nor’easter brought with it storm surges of over 3 feet,” The Boston Globe reports.·  Go deeper: Historic bomb cyclone blizzard slams New England, may break records, Axios’ Andrew Freedman reports.Photo: Andrew Kelly/ReutersA person ski over the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday.Photo: Julio Cortez/APSpotted in Ocean City, Md.

·  Storm latest.

PBS NewsHour Weekend Full Episode January 29, 2022

Jan 29, 2022  PBS NewsHour

On this edition for Saturday, January 29, major winter storm in the Northeast brings blizzard conditions to some areas, Burmese people continue their fight for democracy, and in remembrance of the Holocaust, a message for future generations. Hari Sreenivasan anchors from New York. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

PBS NewsHour Weekend Full Episode January 30, 2022

Jan 30, 2022  PBS NewsHour

On this edition for Sunday, January 30, the Northeast digs out after the first winter storm of the year, President Biden backs NYC Mayor Eric Adams on his crime policy after two police officers were fatally shot, and in our signature segment, singer-songwriter Tori Amos on loss, grief and regeneration. Hari Sreenivasan anchors from New York. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

#NightlyNews #WinterStorm #Covid

Nightly News Full Broadcast – January 30th

Jan 30, 2022  NBC News

Northeast recovers from blizzard aftermath, Covid cases falling nationwide, and the List of Supreme Court Justice candidates grows. » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC » Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews NBC News Digital is a collection of innovative and powerful news brands that deliver compelling, diverse and engaging news stories. NBC News Digital features NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com, TODAY.com, Nightly News, Meet the Press, Dateline, and the existing apps and digital extensions of these respective properties. We deliver the best in breaking news, live video coverage, original journalism and segments from your favorite NBC News Shows. Connect with NBC News Online! NBC News App: https://smart.link/5d0cd9df61b80 Breaking News Alerts: https://link.nbcnews.com/join/5cj/bre… Visit NBCNews.Com: http://nbcnews.to/ReadNBC Find NBC News on Facebook: http://nbcnews.to/LikeNBC Follow NBC News on Twitter: http://nbcnews.to/FollowNBC #NightlyNews #WinterStorm #Covid #SupremeCourt

Across the U.S., a sprawling winter storm brings snow, ice and tornadoes

Feb 3, 2022  PBS NewsHour

Crews and residents across the Midwest are digging their way out as a sprawling winter storm pushes further across the country. Some places have reported over a foot of snow, creating dangerous driving conditions in several states, while more than 4,000 flights were canceled Thursday alone. Nicole Ellis has our report. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6 Follow us: Facebook: http://www.pbs.org/newshour Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/newshour Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/newshour Subscribe: PBS NewsHour podcasts: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/podcasts Newsletters: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/subscribe

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Ing & Johns Street Art & International Street Art Part 19 & 20

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Ing & Johns Street Art & International Street Art Part 19 & 20

Ing & Johns Street Art Part 19: John Watts demonstrated pottery, and Ing’s Peace Project, Ing & John’s Artwork,

International Street Art Part 20: Colossal- JR Reproduces Images of More Than 1,000 NYC Residents in Massive New Mural, Illustrative Murals in Shades of Grey by Paola Delfín Characterize Human Bonds, Floating Worlds Drift By in Murals by Cinta Vidal and A Historic Staircase in Caltagirone, Sicily Used as a Backdrop for Light and Flower Festivals

Ing & John’s Street Art & The International Street Art Part 19

The Halsey Street Festival, Part 4, Thursday, September 19, 2019,

On Halsey Street between Bleaker Street and New Street, Downtown Newark, New Jersey, USA

 John Watts demonstrated pottery,

Ing’s Peace Project, Ing & John’s Artwork,

A lot of Merchants, Food, Music and Fashion Show

Photographs by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts

A lady from local media station videoed and interviewed John.

This artwork is my – Finished “Peace” artwork 8

Shadow of Peace and La Asociación de Barranquiteños de NJ Inc., Puerto Rican Festival in Newark on August 6, 2011, organized by Carlos Maldonado Pastrana, President of La Asociación de Barranquiteños de NJ.  Finished artwork, after the written comments by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts

Link to Peace Comes to 5th Annual Arts Music Fair Elwood Park Page:

5th Annual Arts & Music Fair, Elwood Park

I was very happy to see a lot more people participating in my Peace Project.  I believe that peace is one of the essential conditions of life.  Life without peace for one’s self causes an individual to be unhappy.  Society without peace cause problems for everyone, particularly in countries such as Syria.  Greedy leaders, politicians and corporations can create a great deal of harm to people around the world.

Humanity is now able to achieve highly advanced levels of technology.  However, some are afraid of development in certain technologies, such as the robotics, which may have the potential to control human activity in direct ways.  Humans produce high technologies including robotics, but all these technologies are dependent on the beliefs of those who create them.  If the people who build them are peaceful, the products will likely benefit humanity and hopefully do no harm.  On the other hand, if greedy people make the products, then everyone should worry.  The things they create may be dangerous and intended to kill millions of people.  Their nuclear weapons, armaments, or robots, can cause irreparable harm. 

Older people, especially, should realize that they cannot take even one penny with them when they die.  Being greedy will only gain them unhappiness and cause problems for others.  History will record your actions for the children, grandchildren and future generations that look back at the legacy of your contributions to the world. 

It is time to seek peace in ourselves, and spread harmony for all humanity.   Now is the time for adults to cultivate peace in the hearts of the next generation so the whole world can grow in universal harmony.   

Please continue to view The Halsey Street Festival Part 5

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts and John Watts, Thursday, April 9, 2020   

For more photographs and information please visit the following link:

Ing & John’s Street Art & The International Street Art Part 19

 Ing & Johns Street Art & International Street Art Part 20

International Street Art Part 20

JR Reproduces Images of More Than 1,000 NYC Residents in Massive New Mural

JR Reproduces Images of More Than 1,000 NYC Residents in Massive New Mural

FEBRUARY 4, 2020  GRACE EBERT

“The Chronicles of New York City” (2020). Photos by Marc Azoulay. All images © JR-ART.net, shared with permission

French artist JR (previously) is back in New York, transforming pockets of the city with his latest work. Installed on stacked shipping containers, “The Chronicles of New York City” is a compilation of images depicting more than 1,000 New York residents, who the artist photographed and reproduced for the large-scale work. Created in Williamsburg’s Domino Park, the black-and-white mural is JR’s biggest public project to date in the city. It overlooks the East River and features people living in all five boroughs gathered in a public space that mimics the newly built park.

Since opening his exhibition “JR: Chronicles” in October of 2019, the artist has been transforming areas throughout the city, like a space at the Kings Theatre in Flatbush and the Brooklyn Academy of Global Finance in Bedford Stuyvesant. “The Chronicles of New York City” is the centerpiece of the exhibition, which is on view through May 3, 2020, at Brooklyn Museum, and is accompanied by audio recordings of those portrayed in the monochromatic mural. The public installation was a collaboration with architectural firm LOT-EK, which is known for its sustainable design and helped in creating the site.

“Working at the intersections of photography, social engagement, and street art, JR collaborates with communities by taking individual portraits, reproducing them at a monumental scale, and wheat pasting them—sometimes illegally—in nearby public spaces,” says a statement about the exhibition.  See where JR’s work pops up next by following him on Instagram and peek in his shop to check out what’s available for purchase.

Illustrative Murals in Shades of Grey by Paola Delfín Characterize Human Bonds

 Illustrative Murals in Shades of Grey by Paola Delfín Characterize Human Bonds

JANUARY 29, 2020  GRACE EBERT

“Èèn” (2019), for The Crystal Ship, Oostende, België. Photo by Arne Deboosere. All images © Paola Delfín, shared with permission

Paola Delfín’s monochromatic murals found in Cancun, St. Petersburg, and cities worldwide all share a message of unity and community. The Mexico-based artist often creates impeccably detailed and stylized profile views, which show her subjects looking down or into the distance, joined by plants, grasses, and flowers of the local environment.

Her lifelike works center on ideas of women’s strength and their ability to build community, in addition to the ways families are bound together and remember their ancestors?—although Delfín tells Colossal she has a more personal connection to the Cancun mural, which depicts a couple staring forward as they cradle a small boat.

My family, uncle and aunt, are part of (the) pioneers. They moved to this city almost 40 years ago and watched it grow. They started a school. My uncle worked on a ship for many years. Now the younger generations are trying to bring more culture since this city transformed into a tourist paradise, and sometimes we forget this was the place where centuries ago the great Mayan culture (rose).

The artist finds murals challenging because of her desire to “leave something meaningful” for those who pass by her work. Before she begins creating in any location, she studies the history and culture of the neighborhood she’s working in and talks to its residents to learn their stories. For “Familia/Suku,” the artist spoke with Tampere residents to understand how immigrants and natives across generations form a community in the Finnish city. In the horizontal piece, Suham, an Iranian expat, leans toward elderly Maya, who has lived in the country for 50 years, while Suham’s daughter Sofia stands in front of them.

Head to Delfín’s Instagram for more of her large- and small-scale projects, and check out Street Prints to see her work in progress.

“La emperatriz“ for Shine Festival in St. Petersburg, Florida. Photo by Michelle Tannu

“Familia/Suku” (2019), for Upeart Festival, Tampere, Finland

2019, for Proyecto Panorama, Cancun, Mexico. Photo by Gino Caballero

“Juntos” (2019), Paulino Navarro, Mexico City. Photo by Edgar Olguin

Floating Worlds Drift By in Murals by Cinta Vidal

Floating Worlds Drift By in Murals by Cinta Vidal

JANUARY 16, 2020  GRACE EBERT

In Hong Kong. All images © Cinta Vidal, shared with permission

For Cinta Vidal, everything depends on how you look at it. The Barcelona-based artist is known for her gravity-defying projects that manipulate architecture and household objects to create inverted environments dissimilar to daily life. Like her smaller-scale inverted works, Vidal’s murals are concerned with human subjectivity and feature both peculiarly arranged architecture and objects like books, chairs, and even a canoe floating through the air. They cover walls throughout Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and Barcelona, among other cities around the world.

Whether it be a young girl seated on an oversized globe or a man peering over a balcony that’s tipped at a 90-degree angle, the works consider how perspectives are informed by a subject’s position.

Everyone has their own view on the world, and my work is my way of expressing this idea: it’s impossible to view something from every perspective at the same time. There’s always a choice, a perception. In my work there also lies a desire to take things out of context, releasing them into the air and, by doing so, giving them new value.

The artist tells Colossal that once she chooses a location to paint a mural, she studies the areas nearby. Vidal intends each project to become part of the existing environment, often prompting her utilize the color already on the building’s surface as her background. “Paint(ing) a mural is about interact(ing) with the wall and everything that surrounds it,” she writes. To get the latest on the artist’s creations, follow her on Instagram.

International University Barcelona.

“Floating Napa” in Napa Valley, California

“Viewpoints” for Thinkspace in Los Angeles

A Historic Staircase in Caltagirone, Sicily Used as a Backdrop for Light and Flower Festivals

A Historic Staircase in Caltagirone, Sicily Used as a Backdrop for Light and Flower Festivals

AUGUST 12, 2013  CHRISTOPHER JOBSON

Photo by Andrea Annaloro

Photo by Andrea Annaloro

Photo by Andrea Annaloro

Built in 1608, the Staircase of Santa Maria del Monte is a 142-step staircase in Caltagirone, Sicily made from thousands of ceramic tiles, one design per step, as a fitting tribute to a city known for its design and production of ceramics and terra-cotta sculptures. For centuries the stairs have been used as a backdrop for various festivals for which images of patron saints and other local themes are illustrated using thousands of flowers or candles. You can learn more about the La Scala Flower Festival over on My Modern Met, or the light festival called the Scala Illuminata. Photos by Andrea Annaloro. (via My Modern Met)

For more photographs and information please visit the following link:

Ing & Johns Street Art & International Street Art Part 20

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The stolen childhoods of Kashmir in pencil & crayon & Ing’s Poem

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The stolen childhoods of Kashmir in pencil & crayon & Ing’s Poem

By Soutik Biswas BBC News, Srinagar

May 29, 2017, BBC News from the section India

 

These are pictures of loss of childhood and innocence. They speak about a violent world outside shuttered homes. They reveal the terrors of the present and the fears for the future.

The colours are vivid. Red dominates, in blood and fire. Black is an ascendant colour, clouding the skies and scorching the earth. It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.

The artwork is by schoolchildren in Indian-administered Kashmir, home to one of the world’s most protracted conflicts. These days, they mostly depict childhoods ruined by the violence of adults.

The meadows, streams, orchards and mountains that make their home “heaven on earth”, as a Mughal emperor once exulted, is missing in much of their work. Stone-throwing protesters, gun-toting troops, burning schools, rubble-littered streets, gunfights and killings are some of the anxious, recurring themes on the canvas.

Last summer was one of the bloodiest in the region for years. Following the killing of influential militant Burhan Wani by Indian forces in July, more than 100 civilians died in clashes with security forces during a four-month-long lockdown in the Muslim dominated-valley.

Security forces fired metal pellets from shotguns into protesting crowds, leaving many blinded. More than 1,200 children below the age of 15 were among some 9,000 people injured in the protests. Most of them, according to reports, were “young, [and] were either blinded completely or lost their vision in one eye”.

As violence spread on the street, schools shut. Children stayed indoors for months, drowning in the noise of TV news. At other times, they read and drew. They missed their friends and cricket games. Teachers gave lessons at home, and parents invigilated during home exams. One school even held an exam in a small indoor stadium.

“I would hide in a corner of my house’ (Video production: Shalu Yadav and Neha Sharma)

 When the schools reopened in the winter, teachers found many of the students irate, nervous and uncertain. They were children of government workers, businessmen, doctors, engineers, bankers and farmers.

They came looking “pale, like zombies”, the principal of a leading school told me.

They cried and hugged each other. Having spent months cooped up in their homes in near-captivity, they asked their teachers why they had closed the school. Some of them behaved strangely. They screamed without any reason, banged the tables and broke furniture. Counsellors were called in to calm them down.

“There was anger, a lot of anger,” the principal said.

Then, some 300 of them went to a school hall and sat down with paper and pastels. And they drew furiously.

“That’s all they did on the first day. They drew what they wanted. They didn’t utter a word. It was all very cathartic.”

‘I cannot see the world again’

The children drew mostly in pastel and pencil. Many wrote over their pictures, using speech bubbles, headlines and sentences.

In many of their pictures, the valley is on fire, and streets are littered with the black detritus of rioting against an incongruent backdrop of a blazing sun and birds in the skies.

Then there are young faces scarred and eyes blinded by pellets. It is a recurring, heart-wrenching theme.

“I cannot see the world again and cannot see my friends again. I am blind,” says the subject of one such haunting image.

Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies, as a poet wrote, but in Kashmir, children have lived in the shadow of death for as long as one can remember. There are bodies lying on the street, and there are people on fire in the paintings.

“These are the mountains of Kashmir. And here’s a school for kids. On the left are army men and opposite them are stone-throwing protesters who are demanding freedom,” said a schoolboy in Anantnag, explaining his drawing.

“When protesters throw stones at the army, the army opens fire at them. In the crossfire, a school kid dies and his friend is left alone.”

The other recurring theme – and nightmare – is the burning down of schools. There’s a powerful picture of children trapped in a school on fire, screaming, “help us, help us. Save our school, save us, save our future”.

Others are angrier and more political.

There are drawings with pro-freedom graffiti, and signposts which say Save our Kashmir in pastels. Others extol Burhan Wani, and resonate with anti-India slogans. There are maps of Kashmir oozing red.

In another village in southern Kashmir, a prominent artist found children drawing Indian flags fluttering on top of their houses.

Rival neighbours

A scowling face of a man split into two is a metaphor for the bitter and festering rivalry between India and Pakistan, and the tragedy of a land sandwiched between the rival neighbours.

There’s a heart-breaking pencil drawing of a mother waiting for her son. The children also vent their frustration over the shutdown of internet and mobile phone services during the protests.

Five years ago, Australian art therapist Dena Lawrence conducted some art lessons with young people in the valley. She found black was the predominant colour in their paintings, and most of them reflected “anger, rage and depression”.

Kashmiri artist Masood Hussain, who has been judging art competitions for children aged four to 16 for the past four decades, says their subjects have changed.

“They have gone from the serene to the violent,” he tells me. “They draw red skies, red mountains, lakes, flowers and houses on fire. They draw guns and tanks, fire-fights and people dying on the street.”

Arshad Husain, a Srinagar-based psychiatrist, says the artwork of the children in the valley betrays their collective trauma.

“We think children are too young to understand. That’s not true. They absorb and assimilate everything around them. They express it in their own way,” he says.

“Mind you, most of this artwork is coming from children who stayed at home. Imagine the children on the streets who are closer to the violence.”

It is all reminiscent of children’s art inspired by 9/11: weeping children, the twin towers on fire and being yanked off the ground by Osama Bin Laden against a blood-red skyline, a scarred girl wearing an I Love New York T-shirt.

In Kashmir, where fairy tales quickly turn into nightmares, hope is not extinguished yet.

Let our future be bright, make us educated, don’t make this crisis a reason for darkness, pleads a girl in a drawing. It’s never too late.

Illustrations gathered from children in Indian-administered Kashmir

For more information please visit the following link:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-39801538

 

Ing’s Peace Project and Far Brook School & ST. Philips Academy in Newark, Ben’s 2nd grade and two 4th grade classes also, the adults Comments and artworks during 05.10-15.2012, organized by Joanne Leone and Rebecca Champbell.  Finished artwork, after the written comments by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts 

The following are Far Brook School and ST. Phillips Academy in Newark, NJ, Ben’s 2nd grade and two 4th grade classes also, the adults Comments and artwork on “What does Peace mean to you?” Shadow of Peace poster 5:

Singing, drawing

Running, Jumping, Flying

Planting as a community

The Beach

Notes

Kissing my Mom

School makes me peaceful

Sitting

Link to Far Brook School and St. Phillips Academy in Newark, NJ page:

https://ingpeaceproject.com/1-academy-street-firehouse-youth/3-far-brook-school-and-st-phillips-in-newark-nj/

I included “Ing’s Peace Project and Far Brook School & ST. Philips Academy in Newark, Ben’s 2nd grade and two 4th grade classes also, the adults Comments and artworks”, into this project because I would like to show how the children in a country without war expressed in writing and artwork.  Their comments and artwork are opposite. When adults make decisions to do something, they have to keep in mind how it is going to affect little children.  This can apply to families that have no war experience, but when parents fight or neglect children then the result will be as bad as affects on children in the war torn countries, such as is expressed in the following news on, “Texas toddlers die ‘after left intentionally in car for 15 hours’”.

 

Texas toddlers die ‘after left intentionally in car for 15 hours’

June 10, 2017,  BBC News from the section US & Canada

Two young sisters have died in Texas after their mother allegedly left them in a car for 15 hours in temperatures of up to 32C (90F).

Amanda Hawkins, 19, left the girls, aged one and two, in the car at 21:00 on Tuesday (03:00 GMT Wednesday) to visit friends nearby, police said.

Her daughters cried during the night but she ignored them, a sheriff said, and returned only at noon the next day.

Ms Hawkins has been charged with two counts of child endangerment.

Kerr County Sheriff Rusty Hierholzer said it was the worst such case he had seen in 37 years on the force.

Hot car deaths: The children left behind

Ms Hawkins left one-year-old Brynn Hawkins and two-year-old Addyson Overgard-Eddy in the car to visit a 16-year-old male friend and others at a house in the town of Kerrville, 65 miles (105 km) north-west of San Antonio.

The sheriff said the male friend had at some point slept in the car alongside the children but they were not let out.

Ms Hawkins finally took the children out at noon the next day and found them unconscious.

She tried the bathe them, the sheriff said, but fearing she would get into trouble did not seek medical help immediately.

‘Smelling flowers’

Only after a friend suggested it did she take them to the nearby Peterson Regional Medical Center.

She reportedly told staff that she, the teenage male and the children had been at a nearby lake and the girls had “collapsed after smelling flowers”.

“They thought maybe they’d gotten into something poisonous – that’s what the story was,” Sheriff Hierholzer told the CNN affiliate station KABB.

“She left them in the car – intentionally in the car – while her and the 16-year-old male friend were in the house,” he said.

The girls were quickly taken to the University Hospital in San Antonio but died at about 17:00 on Thursday.

Police say the charges may now be upgraded.

Ms Hawkins’ husband was reportedly not present during the incident.

For more information please visit the following link:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40234401

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts’s Commment:

I was preparing the project about article, “The stolen childhoods of Kashmir in pencil and crayon”.  I feel very bad and sad for the children in Kashmir.  This morning I went to the BBC News website to check on the current news; I found the news article, “Texas toddlers die ‘after left intentionally in car for15 hours”.  This news provoked my thoughts about human behavior in all parts of the world.  One has to be educated and conscious in everything everywhere.  An accident can happen anytime and anywhere but if the result of the accident came for ignorant or selfishness people then we have to exam the way that society behaves.  It is so sad when bad things happen to anyone but it is worse when that accident causes innocent children to suffer or lose their lives from the adult’s action.

 

 Face to the Sun with Three Generations

Grandpa helping with the baby carriage

Mother walks close to her son

In the parameter of the sun rays

Their shadows shine upon the ground

Older generation passing all

To the next generation

Forming a link of chain

Continuing to nurture and progress

When war comes

Just like an axe

Cutting the link

With separation and despair

The end of the link become weak

Facing the world alone

No one care

For all the adults and the leaders of countries at war

Remember that your children are going to suffer

From the action that you created

Wise men and women will want

To see their children grow and glow

Then peace will come

When you are closing your eyes

And taking your last breath on earth

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Monday, June 1, 2017, 9:14 pm

On Friday, May 31, 2017 about 5 pm I was walking our grandson home from the play ground at the Military Park.  Just before we reached to the intersection of Halsey Street and New Street I met my husband and our daughter wanting to see me and our grandson in the park.  We decided to walk home.  I saw the evening sun rays shining on my husband, daughter and grandson, and the three shadows cast upon the ground.  I took some photos of this image with my camcorder.  When I saw the pictures I decided to write a poem about this beautiful moment.

I saw the article from the BBC News on “The stolen childhoods of Kashmir in pencil and crayon”.  I thought about my poem, in which I talked about the war torn countries causing so much trouble to all their citizens, especially the children, who will suffer the most.

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Remembering 9/11

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Remembering 9/11

Memorial to World Trade Center 

John and I had planed for a while to take a trip to Swansea, UK to visit John’s older sister Phyllis.  Finally, we bought two tickets from Air India.  We were scheduled to leave Newark, NJ on September 10, 2001.  We always plan to stay more than three weeks vacation as we wanted to spend as much time with Phyllis as we can, since Mom, John’s mother passed away in summer 1994 and Phyllis was alone by herself.  So we planed to stay with her until October 9, 2001, which was the day we returned home to Newark.

On September 10, 2001 I got up early to prepare for the trip with John.  We took the Path from Penn station,Newark to World Trade Center, NYC at about 2:00 PM.  After we got out from Path train we took the escalator and went up to the first floor Of WTC’s building passing a bank and shopping area to get to the NY subway that took us to Kennedy Airport.  Every thing was nice and smooth.  The weather was very good.  People enjoyed walking, traveling to somewhere or shopping much like any other time that John and I came to NYC.  Our plane took off at night.  John enjoyed being on the plane, sipping a drink after a nice Indian curry meal on the flight.  John was watching a movie while I tried to find the best position to sleep in until we landed at Heathrow Airport. It took about six hours.  From Heathrow Airport we took the bus to Swansea where we had to sit for five hours.  At about 3:00 PM we reached the bus stop in Swansea. A Taxi man drove us to Phyllis’ house for duration of about fifteen minutes.

“Do you know the World Trade Center collapsed?” 

The taxi man asked us while he took our luggage out from the trunk.

“No!  It is impossible.  We just came from World Trade Center.”

We responded.

“Two planes hit the twin towers.”

The taxi man gave us more information.

After greeting Phyllis, we ran in the living room and turned on the TV and found out that there were no Twin Towers any more.  We learned that the terrorists hijacked the airplanes and used planes as weapons to destroy the buildings and people on the plane and thousand more in the World Trade Center Towers.  We also learned about the disasters in Washington DC and Pennsylvania.

We spent most of our trip, almost a month, watching the TV to find out about the news of WTC disaster.  We were gathering news papers for more information also.  We made a lot of phone calls to our daughter who was home in Newark.

John and I have many fond memories of WTC.  We had to pass by WTC every time we took trips to NYC, especially when we went to Chinatown to buy Chinese food and grocery.

In 1975 I just started dating John.  John helped me to frame my paintings for the exhibition in East River Saving Bank on the first floor of the WTC.  My parents and family who came from Thailand to visit us in the US liked taking trips to World Trade Center.  My parents were lucky enough to go up to the top of WTC to view NYC from the high distance.

After we came back home to Newark, NJ from Swansea, the first thing I wanted was to visit the remains of WTC to join others who felt the sadness from the loss of so many people.  We also went to Jersey City by the peer at the bank of Hudson River opposite WTC to look at the empty spots where Twin Towers would have been. Our hearts ached and we were confused as to the cause of this destruction.  We liked to bring friends and family to view the NY skyline and watch the 4th of July fire works by the Hudson River with the WTC in the background.

I began doing the artwork relating to WTC, a few ceramic sculptures as a Memorial for the Twin Towers.  I kept my artwork to myself.  I showed them to only few people who were close to me.  I did not want to provoke negative feelings or bad memories in others.  I felt such sadness about this horrible event.  It is the same sadness for any horrible event such as Holocausts, the nuclear bombs in Japan, the killing field in Cambodia, in Rwanda and other places in the world.  We humans never learn to be civilized.  We seem so quickly to forget the horrible events that took place and then bad things happen again.  We kill each other directly and indirectly.  The indirect actions of corruption, greed and power hunger cause direct action to surface.  Innocent people will always end up suffering the effects.  Hopefully we will be wiser and able to learn from past events and improve our human race to be able to live with each other in peaceful coexistence.

Ten years have past since the 9/11 events and I would like to share my artwork with others and express some of my thought on my Peace Project website.

Many thanks to my daughter and son-in-law who subscribe the website for me and my husband who has the patients to correct my writing.

The followings are the pictures of my sculptures I produced on March 16, 2002 I made especially as a memorial to the Twin Towers and the people who lost in these events:

The description of WTC memorial:

Two towers stand erect, supported by two long panels.  Outside of two panels are animal designs in one side and the garden and plants on the other side.  The long path between the two towers inside panels is blank spaces which can be the area that the loved ones or any ones express their thought in writing.  And the corridor between two panels can be the place for children to play hide and seek.

I made this small scale Twin Towers sculpture as a replica for loved ones or any ones who comes to mourn, let go of sadness and to remember the loss.  I hope we can realize that we should enjoy and appreciate one and other while we are still alive.

Memorial to World Trade Center 

Time to mourn

Time to cry

Wipe the sadness away

Time to remember

Time to live

Get up and go

Work awaits

I will go on

Remembering the past

With heavy heart

When you are apart

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Sunday, September 11, 2011, 5:57 AM

 

 

Lost Hope 

Little girl feels

Little girl hurts

To feel the pain so young

Her innocent lost

Even though it hasn’t begun

We all lost our innocent and freedom

Innocent of hoping working hard

We will be better some day

But freedom lost

Sudden someone comes

And take the hope away

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Sunday, September 04, 2011, 9:45 PM

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001 a total of 343 firefighters died with thousand of innocent civilians in the World Trade Center and other locations. Their lives were taken away by fanatic, brainwashed believers of a distorted version of their own religion.  If the hijackers believe in humankind and nature they would not kill themselves and others.  So, one should always learn to questions what one is told to believe. 

I salute all the brave firefighters and others who risk their lives saving others.  May peace be with the brave firefighters, all their families and the others. 

Respectfully yours, 

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Friday, August 8, 2003

 I wish it were!

Something that have wings

To save him

I love butterfly

Deep in my heart

I sent the butterfly

To catch him

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts,Sunday, September 15,2002

 Order from the Top 

Sharp bayonet piercing on my back

As I am dying

Why do you kill me?

I don’t know you!

And you didn’t know me!

Oh! I forget

It’s an order from the top

If you didn’t kill me

I probably will kill you

Because I got order from the top also

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts Sunday, 8.28.2011, 6:27 PM

 

Mother liberty holds the twin towers

Close to her heart

Protecting World Trade Center

With her believe 

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Mother Liberty, do we still breathe free in this land of liberty?

Breathe free with fear for this event has come

Don’t shed your tears for this human race

The lesson learns might make us grow

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Tuesday, August 30, 2011, 10:55 PM

 

 What is the same and different between these two men?

One, they are both human beings

Two, they are both dead

Three, they are well known

Four, they both had a goal to be achieved

Five, one is nonviolent and other is violent

Six, one is spinning cotton on a wheel and other has a weapon

Seven, one is productive and other is destructive

Which do we prefer after  we analyzing the lives of these two men?

History will record these two men’s actions when they were alive

I hope we can learn from these two people without vengeance and hatred

Let us teach our younger generations all over the world

To understand that we are all the same

If we harm others then we will harm ourselves in the end

Do not brainwash the youngsters!!!!!!!!!!!

Flowers from my little garden

Floating in the air

Let each beautiful one

Touching each soul

Seeing beautiful things

Rising to the sky

Just wait for a little while

I will be with you all

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Monday, 9.13.2011, 1:20 PM

World Trade Center Remembered 

World Trade Center falls

Becoming colorful Twin Towers

Teaching us

They are here

And they are gone 

Thinking how good

When they are standing there

As we take things for granted

Even with the love ones 

Or the cleaning workers

Or the others that faithfully

Do their jobs for everyone

World Trade Center

 Becomes colorful

In our mind

 

I didn’t do anything

Why you hate me this much?

What did I do wrong?

Or did my fellow countrymen

Cause the trouble to the others

That I do not aware of?

 

These questions and thought

Become active

In my brain neurons

Start charging for reasons 

Thanks to the Twin Towers

You make us think

I miss you

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts Saturday, August 27, 2011, 3:40 PM

2 Responses to Remembering 9/11

  1. Chelsea M says:

September 19, 2011 at 10:47 am

I have to be honest I have not looked up images form the events of 911 in many years. It was in that time that I moved to NYC and I came to my new home while it was in a state of broken fear.

You have created some very powerful images, in particular I’m moved by the image of the flowers in the dust cloud and the collage work with the people’s silhouettes infront of the wreckage. Your poems are so simple but speak in such short lines of deep feeling. Its the way my mind tries to come to terms with the events, in little lines and snapshots of images. Thank you for sharing your work, on such a hard and painful subject. Perhaps through art we can come to terns and work through some of the emotions left to us from that day.

Reply

  • ing says:

September 20, 2011 at 5:01 am

Hi Chelsea,
Thank you so much for your comments. It was painful having to remember the horrible day. I hope we can learn from the event and make sure that it will not happen again. But looking at the situation, a lot of human behavior and the turmoil all over the world right now, it will probably take quite a long while for the human race to reach maturity and act as a civilized society as a whole.
Take care,
Ing

Link to World Trade Center Under the Same Moon:

https://ingpeaceproject.com/remembering-911/world-trade-center-under-the-same-moon/

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