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Month: March 2022
Wanted
Wanted for crimes against humanity, the criminal now known as the butcher of Russia, for his merciless massacre of innocent Ukrainian children, men and women, grandparents and parents. Today we learn that many of the over 300 killed in the Mariupol Theatre attack were children and pregnant women sheltering after they had escaped the bombing of the Mariupol Maternity and Children’s Hospital.
This ongoing “Massacre of the Innocents” breaks all of our hearts as it continues unabated, with the fresco by Giotto di Bondoni in the Arena Chapel in Padua as meaningful today as it was when he painted it over nine hundred years ago.
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war crimes
As the relentless bombing continues today, the war crimes against the people of Ukraine, especially the children, by Putin and his nazified Russian army will never be forgotten. Judgement day for him must come soon, whether from the people of Russia who do not support him, or from the newly proposed Nurenberg-style international tribunal. He has joined the ranks of every evil despot in history becoming a modern-day Hitler with crimes against humanity that have no regard for human life, however young, those beautiful innocent children who are always in my thoughts as I know they are in yours.
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From Spirit Park revisited
We walked in the Pacific Spirit Park today after listening to President Zelenskyy’s impassioned address to the Canadian Parliament in which we learnt that ninety seven children have been tragically killed in his beloved country together with so many of the country’s brave men and women and now including three brave journalists. Our condolences and thoughts are with all the families, friends and colleagues grieving today.
This drawing is from a larger piece from 2017 drawn in protest at that time to an event that had produced the same sense of heartbreak and outrage that I know we all feel today. Some of you may remember the full piece can be seen here: “From Spirit Park to Spirit Dark”
These sunflowers are a message of love and support as we continue to Stand with Ukraine.
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“Stop the War”
“Stop the War.
Don’t believe propaganda
They are lying to you”
The words and heroic bravery of Marina Ovsyannikova, an employee of Russia’s Chanel One bursting into their main evening news with her message. On another dark day a brief but unforgettable moment when the light of truth and the strength of a remarkable human spirit shines brightly like a shooting star streaking across the blackness of a starless sky.
never out of mind
Where our thoughts are today and everyday 💙💛
“They died by a bridge…”
This beautiful family killed so cruelly by a Russian mortar in Mariupol from my post two days ago for International Women’s Day are anonymous no longer thanks to an article in yesterday’s New York Times. The photographs of Tetiana Perebyinis and her two children Mykyta, 18 and Alisa, 9 are being carried by their grieving husband and father Serhiy to whom we send our truly heartfelt condolences on his unbearable loss. Please read Andrew Kramer’article, “They died by a bridge in Ukraine. This is their story” so that the lives of the Perebyinis family can never be forgotten and are made as real for you as they now are for me, a heartbreaking story that becomes symbolic of countless thousands of others that sadly we may never know. 💙💛
crime against humanity
From Giotto to Picasso, from Guernica to Mariupol, another Massacre of the Innocents today with the bombing of the Maternity and Children’s Hospital of Mariupol, a crime against humanity that is a despicable atrocity that needs us to bear witness to in any way we know how. My drawing today, which will become a painting in due course, is born from a profound sense of helplessness and heartache that I know is felt by us all. 💙💛
International Womens Day
On this International Women’s Day my thoughts are of the women and children of Ukraine and of the mother and her two children killed by Russian mortar fire in Irpin and of the photojournalist Lynsey Addario who bravely risked her life to record this crime for all the world to see, and who with so many other brave women journalists with their male colleagues are ensuring the documentation of the history of these dark times. Together with the brave Ukrainian women who are fighting for their country they are all true heroes on this International Women’s Day of 2022. 💙💛
Words and voices from Canada at the Vancouver Art Gallery yesterday standing with the people of Ukraine and for an end to the agony of this senseless war as we continue with broken hearts to mourn the women, men and children who are being so cruelly killed each day by a heartless and demented war criminal who must one day be held to account.
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thechangingpalette 