Nikki Yeager

Built on Tragedy:

It's not about a Monk sitting on skulls, but if that's what you see you're welcome to think of it that way. I'm the last person to decide what something "should" mean for another person. I just write these to describe what, exactly, it means to me.

This one means that until 1979 there was a genocide going on in Cambodia. A genocide that lead to the death of nearly 1/3 of the population. A genocide that killed innocent mothers, fathers and children. Everyone belonged to someone but Pol Pot decided that didn't matter... it shouldn't matter.

In fact, they came in with guns and uniforms and a promise of a better life. The Khmer Rouge regime took hold on the belief that the hill tribes of Cambodia had the right idea - non education and non-industrialized was the way to go. They believed so much in the idea of an unsophisticated life that they killed 1.4-2.2 MILLION human beings in pursuit of the "ideal" lifestyle.

In 1975 the killing started.

First it was the Vietnamese, then the Chinese, then any other minority group that was non-Khmer but living in Cambodian boundaries. Next came the educated class. The teachers, the lawyers, the doctors, the college graduates, the multi-lingual, the knowledgable. Education didn't fit into the plan, nor did intelligence. Families were murdered for educating their children, children were educated only on the Khmer Rouge policies.

The killing continued.

Next to go was the family structure. Communal life was a life worth living so parents were slaughtered and disrespected. Children were immediately torn from families, taught that parents held no place in society, everyone existing only for the common good. Love was tossed aside.

Children were taught to shoot their mothers in the back of the head for misbehaving. Dig the grave and move on.

The killing continued.

The highest estimate of deaths stopped near 2.5 million. The population was previously at 7 million. This was about 30 years ago. Think about it for one second. 30 years ago means that every adult man or woman in Cambodia experienced death and destruction. Nearly every person over 30 escaped the Killing Fields by some stroke of luck or another. I have friends who are old enough to have experienced the tragedy.

Yet Americans never learn about it.

Life continues. Work goes on. Khmer citizens go about their daily routines without education (the teachers were murdered), without modern conveniences (who would invent and manufacture those goods? The knowledgable were tortured and disposed of) and stuck in a third world slot for goodness knows how long.

But the culture is beautiful.

The sun rises every day and reveals a country more rich in history and enjoyment than any I've ever seen. The people joke and laugh in a lighthearted way unknown to Americans.

In the end, my life is more lovely for the people I knew in Cambodia.

Yet it all happens on top of the graves of thousands. It's all built on a past that haunts even the most jovial people..it was only 30 years ago but most of my U.S. friends would never know about it if I didn't paint this picture.

How it was Made:

I didn't plan on making it as large as it is (nearly my height and 40" across) but it happened that way because I kept combining more Chipboard. The skulls and tree are made with modeling paste and then painted with acrylics. The Monk is painted with acrylics and the general ground is covered with a sand-and-varnish paste I concoted with some craft sand and liquid matte varnish. I still need to devise a way to hang it but it's sturdy for now

Art Description Deux: Real Life is Trash can be found on my previous blog post.