We Imagine Peace - World Peace Project

W.I.P. official logo created by, April Brosemann and Jessica Martin

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other”

- Mother Teresa

            We Imagine Peace is an international organization of artists established by April Brosemann(Me), Kira Rose, and Erik Terrell. The mission of W.I.P. is to spread world peace through a number of different charity fundraising collaboration master pieces, and showcase the contemporary rising talent of artists worldwide. These unique art projects express unity and the idea “We Are One”. We hope to creatively inspire artists to desire and thirst for a brighter future by expressing the way they view the world in an active pursuit for peace, happiness, and a love for all mankind. Our current project is “World Peace”. The showcased artwork will collectively come together to form the shape of Earth emphasizing our theme of World Peace. To pull this off the W.I.P team selected six topics that reflect peace/nonviolence (TOPICS: love, compassion, patience, tolerance, humility, and forgiveness). Artists were to create an art piece that represented one of the six topics. The exhibition showcasing this wonderful group of artists and artwork will be held on June 16^th 2012 at Nicks Taste of Texas in Covina, CA. After the event all the artwork will be auctioned off, and all proceeds will be donated to the Helping Hands Charity, Inc.

Humility in Brown - Bryan Thorpe

            This beautiful artwork by Bryan Thorpe represents the power of touch to encourage an open mind and understanding. This power of touch enables trust and honesty and breaks down boundaries between individuals. The way the hands cradle each other shows a moment of true compassion and humility. We must always remember those less fortunate, and learn to set aside our individual pride. The color brown is reliable and solid because of its earthy tones and abundance in nature. Thorpe has had a rough road battling alcoholism and says, “Humility has been a driving force within my own recovery.”

White Ant in Sea of Blue – Lance Jeschke

            Lance Jeschke’s art bursts with originality. In this painting the ant symbolizes both strength and unity. Ants are truly a humbled creature devoting their life for the greater good of their colony. The fact that the ant is painted in white represents the pureness of his intentions and willingness to serve.  The sea of blue gives the overall art a peaceful and tranquil feeling. Jeschke had this to say about his unique piece of art, “Ants may be some of the lowliest of creatures but actually some of the most important.”

Green Love – Heidi Lancers

Heidi Lancers’ Green Love is a beautiful depiction of love for the world. The metaphorical wish for world peace is stunningly expressed through individual love songs. It is as though these songs of love are being tunefully played through the wish of an innocent girl and will soon hit earth with a global impact. The whimsical movement takes on a windblown natural feel. Green is a cool color that symbolizes nature and the natural world. Green also represents tranquility, good luck, and health, and is known for its calming effects. Every aspect of this one of a kind painting is peaceful and beautiful. Lancers had this to say about her painting, “I went with the subject "Love" in variations of green. I closed my eyes and this image came to me in a flash, so I had to follow through with the concept. The songs are personal favorites of mine but ones I think all can relate too. The color green to me means renewal, regrowth, and purity.”

Tolerance in Hopeful Yellow – Laura J Holman

            Laura J Holman is an exceptionally talented artist. This piece is gorgeously detailed in different variations of yellow. Yellow is primarily a cheerful color, but also is known to heighten feelings of frustration and anger. It is fantastic that Holman played with the idea of using yellow to teach tolerance. Because of the agitation caused by yellow it can be very difficult to focus and concentrate on the color for too long, and it take patience and tolerance to do so. There is also a representation of tolerance for all mankind depicted in the different faces within the flowers. She painted each face a different skin tone addressing the global idea of racial equality. The faces in the flowers draw attention to the beauty of the woman, which symbolizes the true beauty that exists within the soul despite outward appearance.  Holman had this to say about her striking painting, “While the color yellow is probably the least favorite color for any artist to use, I felt it was perfect for expressing the theme. The color yellow exudes optimism and enlightenment while encouraging communication- a key factor in the concept of tolerance... I took liberty here with the actual lei flower so that the faces would work within this particular flower design. I feel the warm colors in this piece along with the woman's riveting stare pull you in and demand your attention-attention to the concept of tolerance.”

Compassion – Patricia Allingham Carlson

            Patricia Carlson has been a huge advocate for W.I.P. by recruiting her artist friends and student artists to get involved with this wonderful creative cause. This beautiful piece she created for the “World Peace” project tells an amazing story about life and love. Compassion is a tribute piece for a young man who lost his life in park. After he passed away his compassionate brother built a memorial in the park that Patricia Carlson later visited and drew inspiration from. This artwork demonstrates the joy of life, and savoring every moment with loved ones, being patient, and taking time to enjoy a ray of sunshine or a cool breeze. In essence this is a representation of being thankful for the beauty and wonderful people that surround you. Carlson had this to say about the young man who passed away, “I learned “Sully” was a wonderful person, a light too bright to stay on earth. I dedicated the painting to Sullivan, for the rocks and park he loved.”

Patience Green – Celie, 13                  Patience Yellow – Madelyn, 13

            Both Celie and Madelyn are only 13 years old and art students of Patricia Allingham Carlson. One thing W.I.P. strongly believes is that art is universal and is for everyone regardless of age, race, sex, or location. These two young budding artists demonstrate a love for nature and peace throughout the world.  Mother Nature brings new life year after year. The world and all things in it have learned with great patience comes great reward. The innocence represented through these artworks has a profound impact, and these two young artists desire to help those in need through their creativity is truly enlightening. Celie says, “Patience is green.” Madelyn says, “Yellow reminds me of patience because it is such a calming color to me. I love yellow.”

Blue Tolerance – Danielle Davis

Danielle Davis is a truly unique and diverse artist. She aims to express conceptual ideals and inspire understanding through numerous abstract ways. Blue Tolerance has a very peaceful, natural, purity vibe. The dark blues contrasting against the white and lighter blues gives this piece dimension and beautiful flowing movement. The way these colors blend, you can almost feel the freshness bounce right off the canvas. This is a very simplistic yet gorgeous representation of Mother Earth. Danielle Davis says, “I create using simple colors, forms, direction & shapes, presenting them in a symbolic manner that examines the way we as people relate to ourselves & the world in our purest senses. My themes are often explained from the point of a direct observer to achieve this, but always abstract to reflect that greater view...the only absolutes are the questions themselves.”

Yellow Love – Angie Jonas

            Angie Jonas is an amazing collage artist. Yellow Love is a very interesting piece that interweaves a story of romance with and love of nature in a very detailed and discrete way. Much like this busy artwork, love can clutter the mind and overwhelm the senses. This piece tends to evoke emotion and bring back memories of a high school crush or love so scattered and innocent; a mixture of emotions that are the ingredients to finding true love. The male and female hand clasped so tightly together demonstrates the bond created between companionships, and a love that cannot be broken through the tribulations of everyday life.  Jonas said this about her collage, “Don't judge love...God has no gender, God is Love, love has no gender. Simple as that!”

           The We Imagine Peace team has worked for months promoting W.I.P. and recruiting artists all over the globe. We have artists involved from across the United States, England, Australia, Ireland, Spain, and many more. We are so fortunate to be able to work with magnificent artists who are willing to share their talents in a hearty pursuit to help those in need. We chose to donate to the Helping Hands Charity Inc. because they promote a similar message to what our project portrays. They are a passionate caring organization who believes in good people helping good people. Parallel to our mission, they aim to provide disadvantage individuals with tools, support, and training necessary to become creative and useful, self-sustaining citizens.  The Helping Hands Charity Inc. says, “We stand for people empowering those in need by giving them a helping hand-up, not just a hand out.” The greatest way to achieve peace is through each other, and there is something special to be said about people coming together for the greater good of humanity. This is exactly what We Imagine Peace aims to do.

“If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.
If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.”

-   Lao Tzu

                                           Blue Humility – “There is always                                             

someone/something bigger than us,

we are very small in the universe, but we should

also care about everything around us

and not be selfish” – Jess Harel

Piece Peace – “What a wonderful world we

would have if we could literally "piece peace"

together.” – April Brosemann & Angela Hobby

Tolerance In Brown – “Peace can be promoted by

protecting and respecting our environment,

only then we have respect for other human beings.”

- Isabel NLopes

Sea of Compassion - "Sea of Compassion

is my representation of yellow and compassion

in a seascape form" - Erik Terrell

Tolerance – “I believe tolerance is a starting

point which should eventually disappear in favor

of acceptance. " - Scott Hamilton

I’ll Save You – Vit Raiser “When the power of love

overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace”

– Jimi Hendrix

Green and Yellow for Patience – “A beautiful old ash

tree patiently clinging to life as every remaining moment

of life is a silent blessing to the world.”

-   Alan Withington

Love in Green – “There are certain things in life that

 evoke feelings whether it be staring into the burning embers

of a fire, the smell of bacon in the morning, or the simple lyrics

of a song...  All you need is love, Love is all you need...

when I hear this song it just makes me smile and I know

everything will be alright.” – Kira Rose

To view more artwork by the all the artists involved in this collaboration, or to get updates on our future projects and exhibition opportunities please visit our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/weimaginepeace