Disaster Relief for Burmese Refugee Camp
February 25, 2012
On February 23rd, a fire swept through Umphiem Refugee Camp on the Thai-Burma border, engulfing houses, schools, and mosques. Umphiem, Thailand’s second largest camp, is home to 20,000 Burmese refugees. The fire destroyed approximately one third of the camp, leaving thousands of people with nothing but the shirt on their backs.
Video Still from Umphiem Fire, February 23, 2012, taken by Adam and Trish
If you would like to help, donations can be made here.
Our dear friends Adam and Trish live and teach in Umphiem, and have set up this page about the relief effort. Pictured above and below are two stills from a video by Adam and Trish on the day of the fire. We wish them well!
Video Still from Umphiem Fire, February 23, 2012, taken by Adam and Trish
When I lived on the Thai-Burma border, one of my practices was to make what I call Memory Drawings. Essentially, when I saw a moment that I wanted to remember, I would later document it with a quick sketch.
Pictured below are two such drawings. First, a family with a trash cart made from salvaged corrugated sheet metal.
Memory Drawing, Burmese Refugee Family Collecting Plastic in Mae Sot, Graphite on Paper, 2011
After a night of drinking by the fire, my neighbor, a cattle herder, decided to start the day with a little cockfighting at dawn.
Memory Drawing, Morning Cockfight, Graphite on Paper, 2011
To see more of my artwork, please visit MikeSchultzPaintings.com.
Like this:
Burma Drawings
February 19, 2012
Earlier this week, I shipped out three drawings for a show in Richmond, Virginia. I made these works while living in Mae Sot, Thailand, on the Thai-Burma border. They are part of a larger series, a meditation on the on-going humanitarian crisis in Burma.
Burma and the Witness’ Dilemma, Ink on Paper, 9 x 12", 2011
As an NGO worker, I felt a wide range of emotional responses to what I witnessed abroad: empathy, joy, sorrow, guilt over my own privilege, and sometimes an empty, callous feeling, all depending on the situation. My internal response to any given circumstance seemed to morph over time.
Burma as a Tree, Ink on Paper, 9 x 12", 2011
All three works were made with washes of Japanese sumi ink on paper. This last image, seen below, was in celebration of the SuperMoon that occurred on March 19, 2011. A SuperMoon, coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979, appears quite large in the sky. “In short, Earth, Moon and Sun are all in a line, with Moon in its nearest approach to Earth.” That night, the moon looked bright and enormous over Mae Sot.
SuperMoon, Ink on Paper, 9 x 12", 2011
To see more of my artwork, please visit MikeSchultzPaintings.com.
Like this:
Light House
February 5, 2012
This artwork, Light House, is the third component in the Winter Night Triptych, a series of three petite watercolors. My intention was to make images that interlocked visually and thematically, revealing a narrative. However, it is also important to me that the paintings are able to stand alone, if they are viewed or framed, separately.
Light House, Watercolor on Paper, 3.5 x 5", 2011
Here is the black and white digital mock up I made of the composition, and the original thumbnail study from my sketchbook.
Study for Light House, Digital, 2011
Sketchbook Thumbnail for Light House, Graphite on Paper, 2011
Pictured below, are the three images that make up the Winter Night Triptych. In retrospect, I would like to have shown the white mountain, small and in the distance, of the painting with the cottontail rabbit. It is implied with the mountain and the radio tower, but I believe it would have been a nice visual echo if it were in all three pictures.
Winter Night Triptych, Watercolor on Paper, 2011
To see more of my artwork, please visit MikeSchultzPaintings.com.
