I think many artists are moved to create art in response to war. Some of my favorite artists are artists who used the pain and suffering of war as their muse: Schiele, Grosz, Goya and Manet. As an artist I am drawn toward all the images from Ukraine showing destruction. Perhaps it is because the bombed structures look like my failed origami shapes. I marvel at how easily a building or life can unfold. I still remember this amazing article I read in Gastromica (a wonderful journal about art and food out UC Berkley). This article by a young mother in Yugoslavia vividly described how quickly a normal peaceful middle class life unraveled due to war and I remember feeling chills because I realized that it is not like you have weeks or months to decide if you will leave your home. Everything unravels rather quickly when it unravels. Just weeks ago in Ukraine parents were taking their children to school, mother’s were nursing babies, grandparents were helping out, young people were attending college and working. All that seemed solid is now crumbled.
