The power of art

The first week at Wat Opot I met the art group, mostly teenage boys and girls working with Hoeut,the art teacher.
The big project was the mural on the school wall and the mural was nearly completed only some ants needed to be painted and Pisey was working one day with the other boys to complete the mural.
I had a closer look at what they were doing, being interested in everything to do with art and Pisey greeted me in English and we started talking.
Pisey is really involved in his art and so he and I planned a painting session together for that afternoon.
We were sitting in the gazebo near the pond and I was amazed how quickly and confident his painting came along and the ease in which he used his colours and brushes.
I got to know Pisey better over the following weeks and we both shared our love for art.
One afternoon when I was tidying up the work room, Pisey came and asked me if I wanted to see his art work and I felt very privileged that he wanted to share his art portfolio with me, because paintings and drawings are very personal and it takes a bit of courage to show your work to someone else.
Pisey's art work is very broad and he has many different styles and used many different techniques.
Hoeut has taught him well.
Pisey made a beautiful pencil drawing of his father and really captured his likeness and his personality and that is not an easy task.
One colour full drawing caught my attention and I asked Pisey what the drawing was about.
He told me that one night he was dreaming about his mother and in his dream he and his sister Srey Lek were holding his mothers hand and they were walking towards the village were they once lived and they had to cross the river to reach the village.
The next day Pisey did the drawing.
Pisey told me that he wanted to become a famous artist and he wanted his mother to be proud of him.
When I looked at the drawing I could see all the sadness and all the love Pisey wanted to share as a tribute to his mum and words could not have been more power full.
Pisey lost both his parents through Aids and he looked after his sister and mother when she was very sick till her death at Wat Opot.
More of Pisey work is on the website under stories: www.watopot.org