The drawing -- seemingly created by a child -- is finished in all black, with stick people bodies splayed across paths and near square houses. There are red splatters, and a cross with the word "familia" written vertically down the base.
A quilt, made by a mother whose daughters were abducted by the paramilitary, features pieces of fabric from their clothing: denim, floral patches, swatches with buttons and zippers. These are part of "Remember Me: Voices of the Silenced in Colombia," a traveling exhibition to bring awareness to the violence in Colombia, where 70,000 people have been killed and 4 million have been displaced in 50 years of unrest. It will be on display through Sept. 12 in the foyer and narthex at Peace United Church of Christ, 1111 N. 11th Ave. E., and will be shown at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, the College of St. Scholastica and the University of Minnesota Duluth, before ending up at First Lutheran Church at the end of November.
The art comes from Colombia and was made or inspired by victims and their families. Some of the pieces included are by children, who created drawings -- some lurid, with smiley-faced gunmen and dead bodies -- as art therapy.
Lyn Pegg, a member of Peace Church and the organization Witness for Peace, said she believes most Americans associate the violence in Colombia with the drug trade, but they don't realize there has been an internal civil war going on for decades.
"We really want people feeling in their hearts the conditions the everyday people are living," she said. "They are affected by political and economical violence."
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On Friday, Lyn and John Pegg led a small group through the seven pieces of the exhibit, and spoke about the political climate: the displaced people, the violence witnessed by children and the U.S.'s involvement.
At one station, a see-through box has piles of nickel-sized photographs of people who have gone missing. According to Lutheran World Relief, about 3,000 people from the municipality of Putumayo are missing and believed dead. A paint brush is available to brush through the layers of the piece. At the bottom is a replica of a mass grave, which represents where people search the bodies for missing loved ones.
Another shows a large- scale photograph of a crumbling doorway, part of an urban slum where Colombians have descended to escape the threat of violence.
"I think of this as a meditative piece," John Pegg said during the tour. "Like the Stations of the Cross. Look at the pictures, think about it and be prayerful."
The pieces are accompanied with explanations about who made the art and the inspiration. Bob Niedringhaus, president of First Lutheran -- which also will host the exhibit -- said the tour was an education about strife he didn't know much about. Most of his church's concentrations have been on El Salvador and Guatemala.
"It's going to light some people on fire," he said of the art work.
