Oh, My. Go read this. And look at this slideshow. (Thank you for passing this along, Red Thread)Ross Bleckner has been chosen to be the next United Nations Goodwill Ambassador: he has been painting with children who were abducted and conscripted in war.
These from the NY Times article linked above:
Mr. Bleckner said that when United Nations officials first approached him, they asked him whether he thought art could perform a useful role in drawing attention to the plague of human trafficking, which they said still receives too little attention, despite the widespread use of children in many conflicts in Africa.
“And I said to them that if art can’t perform a role like that, then it has no role at all,” he said on Tuesday.
He said that after several days of teaching them rudimentary painting and drawing skills, many began to open up to him and to create work that powerfully expressed their experiences.
Mr. Bleckner said that he planned to return to the area early next year to enlarge the painting project and that — in his role as ambassador — he hoped to enlist many more artists to become involved in efforts to fight child enslavement and trafficking.
And it is more than stopping the child abuse: Mr Bleckner wrote this in the catalog of 200 of the children's paintings to be sold in New York for their benefit, “It is a personal interaction which gives someone the tools to create something that they can be proud of, and which can help them on the arduous path to restoring their dignity and sense of self-worth.”
Art Saves Lives
This first one I called "asteroids" - I'm reading a book called 
It keeps me entertained.
Oh! Good work all of you! What fun it is to work ... I mean play with you!
Whoooopee! We - I - we are in the newspaper! CHECK IT OUT!!: 
We don't actually have a dog. I think faeries live there now. Or wood sprites. Someone like that.
We had an ice storm. It blew out my telephone, but we kept our power. Odd thing about the beauty of events like these ... crystal shimmers on every last thing it touches, but heavy and devastating if one or another cannot hold the weight. Something here about bending under the force of it, accepting that it marks and changes us, and we unbend in the sun that melts the ice later. But refuse to let the heaviness move us and we are liable to snap. 
Sarah is my great, great grandmother - my mother's father's father's mother. She was pretty intelligent and well educated, I think. She married a judge who's first wife had died and ended up having 7 children and step-children. In her photo she was wearing a pretty severe dress (as was the custom back in that day) and it occurred to me that she might like some of the dressing freedoms that we have today. I chose some light blue print for her but then seemed to hear about how she would actually like to try on this red. here she is turning this way and that in the mirror, as we will do, testing the look on her. I think that Sarah was an amazing woman and that I would have like getting to know her. Her best friend was Helen:
Helen is another of my great, great grandmothers - my mother's father's mother's mother. Helen and Sarah spent some time in Logansport, Indiana befor Helen moved to Neenah, Wisconsin with her husband. They did that thing of marrying their children to one and other. Perhaps not the best of ideas for Nellie and Zach, but that's what happened. Anyway, when I started my conversation with Helen, it turned out that she was very interested with the fact that my two children were born in Asia. Helen wanted to be dresed in Chinese or Viet Namese clothes. Pretty sweet. Helen was an avid gardener and ended up moving to southern California in 1905. When my great aunt (Emma, but we called her Bob - I wish that I knew that story) was still alive I had a chance to visit that house A. Maz. Ing. 
We celebrate the abundance of a year of our work. Some of it was difficult, some of it a joy, but the dreams we had last year have produced the abundance upon which we will survive the winter ahead. Would you like to 
This year, for my party with you, I drew upon some work I did about 30 years ago. This is a twisted column vase. I figured out how to make crochet spiral up to the Heavens! I like how it looks. Yes, I crocheted all of these pots for the party; I have had this long fascination with 
I hadn't done any crocheting in a long time and it was good to have an excuse to do it again. I thought that I might 
This is Shanna, who wishes you Glad Harvest. Her dress was embellished with buttons, keys and other fripperies from my junk drawer.
Please meet Franna, who, as her bird so boldly exclaims, is the voting fairy. She wants you to know that she heard on public radio that the polls only indicate the probable voting preferances of those of us who are registered to vote, while the choices of those who are actually, statistically, most likely to vote show a slightly different picture. This year's presidential election is therefore possibly in the feet of the "under 30, unmarried and non-white" crowd. This is what Shanna has to say to you: "Get your feets to the polls on the 4th of November!!!"
In case you are wondering, Franna's dress is made from cut paper snippetts left over from an ATC making foray. Her wings and the golden eagle coin on her stand are color photocopies of a bead ribbon and chocolate coin wrapper that I had - yeah, in my junk drawer. 
Here is Roxanna. Her dress is a luscious blend of paper cut snippetts, leftovers from the flag-string behind her and some sparkles from my junk drawer. Her wings and bird were found in my prototype book Your Artist Journal which is in redesign at the moment.
And finally meet Deeanna, who is another Voter/Woman of Power. Her Junque Couture includes color photocopies of ancient Chinese key reproductions, a glass heart, that bead ribbon again, an iron gear whatchamacallit and a copper colored foil candy wrapper.
Check out the wall paper: 
What IS that noise outside? Com'on. Let's go check it out ... What is that over there?
Oh! It is the Gnomies!
Hi Gnomies! How are you all this fine fall day?
Mamma Gnomie reports that they are all well. She wanted to know if their mining work had disturbed us. It really didn't, I just forgot that Autumn is the best time for them to gather their gold for the year. Young Gnomie showed us shere the King was:
He is offering us a tour. Shall we see what they have been up to?
Someone scouts from above, and, using ancient Gnomie methods, locates where to dig.
Look what Green Gnomie found!!
It is getting close to suppertime. I have a big feast laid out - will you all come back to my house and share it with me? Yes? Great! 
Oh! No! There are the squashes! I forgot to make the soup! - Hey, you all wouldn't mind if I got out my magic wand and kinda, well, made it that way, would you?
Oh, look what the Gnomies brought: over there on the left - some gold coins! How generous they are. You can see how much they love what they do:
And they loooove that 
Now for dessert: I have made you some Great Wheel cookies. 
The Great Wheel is how the Old Ones in north-western Europe imagined the year and the turning of the seasons. Here, let me show you:
See how we move around the wheel? 
Well, the Wheel is moving into the time of slowing down, turning inward: indeed, we are moving into the time of dreaming. 
Birds are the symbol, especially at this time of year, of journeys, and, because they are inhabitants of the skies, of Heaven.
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