Sante Pheap Kambpuchea

Peace Art Project Goes Global

2008-05-03T14:16:00.000-07:00

Loads of cookies and sandwiches and juices and happy faces and smiles and colors and circles...and peace.
Special thanks to Hiep and everybody else who helped us out and those who joined us, and those who did both!

Peacycle, love and baking cookies until 2 AM...

Peace Art in the US

2008-03-28T15:44:00.000-07:00

I know this is a little last minute... but I wanted to invite you all to be a part of our first Cambodian Kids Imagine Peace Art project, here in the U.S. of A.

Saturday, March 29th @ 3pm
Sound Trolley Records
440 E. 17th Street
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
(949)642-4846
located behind the cleaning place.... feel free to email or call with questions.
Pass this on to anyone who would be interested to join us for peace and art!!!
Peace, love and reunion...

Shipping Peace Around the World

2007-10-16T14:16:00.000-07:00

So by articles like this, more people get to know about our project. We are trying to ship the show to the US by the end of this month so more people will probably get a chance to experience peace through art with children.
We'll let you know about the details...

P.S. It's lovely to ship the Peace around the world... I guess it just costs so much huh?!

Peace Train

2007-08-15T06:33:00.000-07:00

Yay! We are back on track!

We had asked our friends to save their empty milk and juice cartons for us. Today we took them to the kids from all the organizations and each group of children made a few train wagons. They decorated it and wrote their names on them. Our plan is to give each group their wagon back at the day of our exhibition at Meta House so that they will all attach their wagons and the long train would probably makes them feel more connected with each other in this peace journey that we have started .

And well, we got our fliers printed. We wanted to print t-shirts based on the logo for the kids and those who wish to get one… but at loy e … (no money!)

Peace, love and new friends...

Peace Day #11 --- Souls- "photograph peace!"

2007-08-03T04:01:00.000-07:00

We are at the end of our Eleven Day Peace Art Journey. We purposely chose this particular group to write about for the last email. These are our photography students who inspired us so much that we started this peace art project.
We had a non-violence workshop with these kids about a month ago. The photographs that they took and the things that they said in our group discussion about the violence they face everyday in their community, moved us so deeply.
We took the students to Java Art Gallery where there was a painting exhibition titled, “Things”. We wanted the students to see the paintings and pay attention to the objects that they see everyday. Then we asked them to think about the things that are peaceful or safe to them. Some of these students have been participating in photography classes for the past two years, so they are familiar with composition and lighting. We asked them to take pictures of their safe and peaceful objects, keeping in mind different aspects of photography. As part of their group project, they also had to take pictures of different parts of their body, creating their own personal peace signs so that we can put them all together as one big poster.

Here are some quotes of what kids said about their own pictures and also their classmates’ pictures…

“The picture is like the world… and the candle is the equator. One side of the world is dark and the other is light.”

“I chose the glass because glasses are shared by all of the people around the world. It brings everyone together, like when people get together to drink tea or when someone comes to our house and we give them water. I took the picture at this angle outside because the wires confirm how we are all connected. The glass is like the globe and the sky and clouds represent the world.”

Peace, love and speechless from our side…

- Don't forget...we will have all of the children’s artwork from this project exhibited at Meta House in Phnom Penh, August 23rd @ 6 pm.
---- You can see more of these kids' pictures at: www.cambodian-kids.blogspot.com

Peace Day #10--- Little Folks - "Fishing Dreams"

2007-08-02T03:24:00.000-07:00

Imagine if catching dreams were as easy as catching fish…
After watching a documentary at Meta House about children affected by Aids, Amanda kept thinking about the organization that she used to work with. These children are care takers for their parents who are infected by this disease. As she was talking to me about this organization, we saw one of the staff members. We took this as a sign and thought of getting them involved in our peace project. Remembering their traditional dance performances that she’s seen, we thought of using the hand woven fish trap that they use in one of Amanda’s favorite dances. Each traditional dance tells a story, and we thought that the kids would be able to tell a story about their dreams of peace. After the kids painted their stories of peace on narrow strips of canvas, we then wove them through several fish traps. Then we asked the kids to write their hopes and dreams for a peaceful future on small pieces of paper. One small boy, that wasn’t even originally part of the workshop, grabbed a marker and paper and in a few seconds drew a picture of a gun circled with a line through it. After seeing this, the other kids got motivated and came up with thousands of ideas and powerful words. After a few hours when they finished, we placed all of their writings inside of the fish traps. After that we reached into the trap and fished for dreams that are shared by all of us.

Peace, love and seeing the city through the stripes of the fish trap on the back of Amanda’s motorbike (visualize this… Setareh wearing it on her head, oh the looks we got...)

Peace Day #9 --- Sovann Komar - "Dream Jar"

2007-08-01T09:48:00.000-07:00

Hopes and dreams should be kept safe and easily accessible, to remind us of a meaningful life. If you could imagine your dreams as objects, what would they be? And where would you store them?
Once as we were driving on our limousine motorbike, we were trying to come up with ideas of how we could store our dreams in a way that we could save them and see them at the same time. On the streets of Phnom Penh there are many mobile vendors selling different types of fruits; some are kept in large plastic jars marinating in a sour sauce. Automatically we thought that our ideas would look perfect in those same jars with the bright red lids, just without the sour flavor. What better group of kids to do this project with, than the kids at Sovann Komar. This group of children speak fluent Khmer and English and it is easier for us to speak to them. We love to fanaticize with them and talk about our dreams, and they sure do have a lot to say. They are also very young, so their imagination is so pure and amazing! After being lost in the overly packed, dark, maze through small walkways of bad smells and hanging animals of the Phsar Thmey (Central Market), we finally found a vendor with those beautiful jars and brought them to Sovann Komar. We asked the kids to draw their idea of the objects that they would like to fill their dream jars with, so that they could fill them later. “Marshmallows, buses, flowers, my friend, play doh, water from the sea, watches, marbles, leaves, stones…”

Peace, love and drinking coffee out of plastic bags in the middle of the night...

Peace Day #8--- Rudi Boa- "Clean Village"

2007-07-31T18:45:00.000-07:00

We remember the first time we went to Rudi Boa community center. We crossed over the train tracks and drove slowly into the small entrance of the village and down a steep hill with the brakes fully pressed. The narrow road felt even smaller with families hanging out in front of their homes or shops that are lined up next to each other, and people walking or playing outside. After a few quick, sharp turns, the street opened up and there was the Rudi Boa center, sitting on top of a lake. The lake was completely covered in plastic bags and garbage, making it difficult to even see the water in the lake. We were shocked to see kids in the water searching for shells to sell on the streets. After seeing their living conditions, we looked for creative ways to get the kids involved in cleaning up the lake. However, we realized that things are more complicated and the problem is more then just the plastic bags in the lake.
Believing in the power of imagination, we came up with the idea of having them create their own peaceful, clean, village. We asked them to close their eyes and imagine what this village would look like and tell us the images that they see. It was such an awesome few minutes, with the kids shouting out their ideas and the translator explaining to us… Then we asked them to draw and color all of those things, cut them out and paste them on one big peace of paper. So, together they created one big peaceful village.

Love, Peace, and Strawberry ice-cream bubble tea...

-- Thank you Phana for translating and picking out the jai in Amanda’s hair while Setareh was going crazy with all of those kids!

Peace Day #7--- CCF- "Violence in the news"

2007-07-29T08:41:00.000-07:00

When we ask children what peace means to them, they come up with many answers… freedom, happiness, love, playing, nature, and more commonly… NO VIOLENCE.
We get to know about violence that is happening all around the world by reading newspapers and seeing pictures. We have been saving newspapers for other art projects that we wanted to do, so we took all of those along with different colored paper and old magazines to the kids at Cambodian Children’s Fund. Our idea was to cover all of the violence that we see in the media with colors and drawings. We asked the kids to cut out words and images that were relevant to violence and paste them on a piece of cardboard. We handed them oil pastels and they began to color, write and draw peaceful things that they want to see instead. When they were finished, they placed their collages all in a line and as we walked around to look at them, we could follow the story of Peace that they told.

Peace, love and jumping contests with seat cushions and dancing with the kids after art class...

Peace Day #6--- CDCC- "Peace Garden"

2007-07-27T09:47:00.000-07:00

Amanda and I have just gotten back from the most peaceful journey through a colorful garden with the kids from CDCC.
I know you might think that this is one of our crazy, tree hugging ideas, but it isn’t. During one of our art classes at CDCC, a group of older girls were making flowers out of thin wires and colored nylons. There was a small girl, maybe six years old, who was watching them. The small girl decided to make her own flower, however it didn’t so much look like the flowers that the other girls where making, but more like a lollypop… and cooler! We loved it and at the same time shouted, “Peace Garden!”
So we made a Peace Garden...

Peace, Love and Jai,

*CDCC is abbreviated for Cambodian Dump Children’s Center. (we don’t like the name… CDCC is much better)
**Jai = lice... small animals living on your head...

Peace Day #5--- TASK - "Body Outline"

2007-07-25T04:03:00.000-07:00

Body is just a cover protecting what's inside of you. What is inside of you?

TASK is an organization who works with children who have many different disabilities. With these kids we wanted to focus on body and the peace that is within. We bought a very big canvas. On our way home, I was thinking “Where are we going to find a lamp?” … and the Lamp God said: “let there be light.” There were at least four lamp stores all next door to each other and were filled with every kind of light bulb and lamp that you could imagine. So, for three dollars, we left with a lamp. Driving on Amanda’s motorbike with a huge canvas, a lamp, a bucket of paint brushes, and a big box of paints, we went to TASK. We told the kids that we were going to outline their shadows onto the canvas. We turned all the lights off and the kids got so excited, none of them shy and we started the outlining….
There was one boy who was in a wheel chair, when it was his turn to get his body transferred to the canvas the staff at TASK helped him out of his wheel chair and gave him a walker. He was so uncomfortable and nothing felt right about that, you could see it in his face. We wanted the kids to feel comfortable with their bodies and show it... we had to stop the staff and we brought the boy his wheel chair. His expression changed instantly after and he was happy and comfortable again. As I got ready to outline his shadow, he raised both of his arms up as and gave us the impression that he was so proud of himself. I know this sounds a bit cheesy, but it is so true!
When we finished outlining all of the kids, we gave them the paints and they filled in their bodies with happy, peaceful colors!

Peace, Love and Dust in our teeth from smiling on a motorbike!

Peace Day #4--- CCH - "Peace Sign"

2007-07-23T19:16:00.000-07:00

"Signs, Signs everywhere a sign, do this don't do that So I got me a pen and paper and made up my own little sign!"

We gave the children at CCH (Center for Children's Happiness) a big peace of paper with about twenty little squares to fill in with their personal signs for peace. Once they came up with a few different ideas, we gave them each a cut, square fabric to then transfer their personal peace signs to. They used fabric markers, colored fabric, fabric oil crayons and they imaged peace.
We are in the process of sewing all of the squares together to make a huge Peace Sign Quilt. Now that each kid has their own personal sign for peace, the quilt with all of them together could be one big sign for Peace.

Peace, art, love, and one way roads...

*I probably don't need to say this but you can view bigger pictures but clicking on them...

Peace Day #3--- Aziza Schoolhouse - "Window Project"

2007-07-20T05:54:00.000-07:00

Look out of your window and see past the bars, imagine a peaceful scenery. Imagine your hopes and dreams turn into colors and shapes...
In Tonle Bassac area there is a street along side of these old huge apartment buildings that are now completely over loaded. However, it’s full of life, colors and a ton of kids. Behind these buildings is where you’ll find Aziza Schoolhouse. Going to Aziza three days a week and seeing those buildings from the front and the back created the idea that each balcony full of colorful laundry, plants and wire fences is like us looking through the window of each family’s life. And this is how the window project began.
We talked with the children and asked them to imagine peaceful things that they would like to see outside of their windows. We encouraged them to think about colors and shapes instead of objects. Then we handed them the paper and paint and the miraculous windows were created. It was amazing to see how the children see their peaceful place as they were going crazy with the colors and design.
We cut out the shape of the buildings from several big cardboard boxes, and we are placing the children’s paintings on the buildings where the windows might be...

Peace, love and imagination,

BTW, We have a GREAT NEWS! Thanks to Nico at Meta House in Phnom Penh, our dream has now come true…. We will be able to exhibit the kid’s Imagine Art for Peace Project at Nico’s art center opening August 23rd. We will send more information later.

---Thanks to Sophon and Yuth for helping us with this project.

Peace Day #2 --- CCPCR - "Circle Painting"

2007-07-17T04:11:00.000-07:00

Today, Life is a circle....

Who would have known that a small Vietnamese artist could inspire us so much to paint circles all day? Well he did. His name is Hiep Nguyen and I have worked with him before on these meditative circle paintings. Every Sunday at Cambodian Center for the Protection of Children's Rights, we have a painting and drawing class. Whenever we arrive there, the girls would be working together in their rooms on a huge puzzle. Seeing them work together, singing, giggling, whispering and just their cool connection; lead us back to Hiep's circle painting idea. With the help of our translator's mother, we began the session with an introduction to meditation. As she had the women in such a peaceful state, we mixed the magic colors that were then soon put on a canvas of love and peace! There was a special moment that we must share with you.... There is a bright, young and most pleasant girl at the center, who is also deaf. We had her paint the first circle of many, in the center of the canvas. At the very moment she completed that first circle everyone in the room couldn't help but clap continuously.
...So there began the circles...
Peacycle, Love, Art, and Motorbikes full of art supplies,

--- Thank you Srey Net, Pisey and her mother for joining us and helping with the translation and meditation.

Peace Day #1 --- Aziza's Place - "Safe Box"

2007-07-14T17:09:00.000-07:00

While the electricity was off the other night, Amanda and I sat in the dark too lazy to look for the flashlight or candles. As the cars and motorbikes were passing down the street, the lights from their vehicles were creating this movement of light in her apartment. As our eyes followed the light around the room, we discussed how peaceful it seemed and I said, "Life is like a box." And as you are all thinking now, Amanda replied..."huh?" I explained, "If we make a safe box, then it's like we have created a safe and peacful life." So we went and bought a huge box! This is how our "Safe Box" began. We discussed with the children what they think a "place" is? Then we asked them to come up with ideas to make our huge box a safe place. "Colors. Mountains. Lights.Aziza. houses. birds. rainbows. trains. elephants. lakes. Butterflies.clouds. trees.balloons."
And so they painted....
After the magical painting happened, we put the box back together.We all got to experience this new, colorful and most peaceful place with a flashlight! Do you follow?
Today was our first Peace Art day and we will have nine more for you to enjoy and experience with us.
Get ready to live...
Peace, Art, Love, Happiness, and motorbikes...