It’s not really possible to provide an exact number of children who, up to this point in 2024, have lost their lives to war, mass shootings, domestic violence, forced displacement, starvation, or various forms of abuse leading to suicide, because the number changes every day.
Multiple organizations such as UNICEF and Save the Children estimate that the Syrian Civil War begun in 2011 has taken the lives of more than 32,000 children, and the more recently renewed war between Russia and Ukraine roughly 550. The violence between Israel and Hamas/Iran/Gaza, with U.S. support of the former, has killed an estimated 16,500 children.
All of the above should be horrendous enough to make humanity rethink its reliance on violence as an acceptable means of resolving conflicts. Only that has not proven to be he case and, as the Commonwealth Fund research organization reports, “Firearms are the leading cause of death for children in the U.S. and are the weapons used most often in domestic violence against women.”
Love and Acknowledgement
My Kaleidoscope Moons for Children art series began in late 2018 and launched on the Fine Art America website January 9, 2019, with a mixed-media piece called Kaleidoscope Moon for Children Gone Too Soon Number 1 – Ascension. It was originally intended as a declaration of remembrance dedicated to young members of my own family who lost their lives to gun violence.
The series, which now includes 7 images, was later expanded to include recognition of the fact that too many families around the world were experiencing the same tragedy mine had. The work also serves as visual affirmation that that those lives which had been lost nevertheless remain deserving of love and acknowledgement.
Unlike the first Kaleidoscope Moons for Children art print, Kaleidoscope Moons for Children Gone too Soon Number 7 (a detail of which is posted with this article) depicts 3 moons rendered in Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle. The polychromatic designs suggest diverse cultural distinctions linked by common existential challenges and shared desires for harmonious coexistence.
My hope is that a greater conscious recognition of what happens to children in the name of such things as border lines, terrorism, retaliatory strikes, ignorance-driven intolerance, and modern-day tribalism can help inspire more compassionate nonviolent approaches to resolving divisive conflicts. If humanity has the ability to take joyrides in spaceships and land AI-powered robots on distant planets, it should not be all that difficult to prevent the daily slaughter of the world’s children.
By Aberjhani
Bright Skylark Literary Productions
EDITORIAL NOTE: This article has been adapted from the original curator post for the mixed-media painting titled: Kaleidoscope Moon for Children Gone Too Soon Number 7 Love and Acknowledgement.
