#artistic antics

They are mother, Aya, who is not in Gaza, but whose two children Mona & Karem are still. They are 3/4th of the way funded for the two children to be evacuated.

There are only a few YT people that I follow who worked to raise funds at all. And then there is Amanda, who helped get a family of 14 to Egypt, and then a separated couple, followed by a family of 8, and now she has taken on this family of 3.

But that first family? The father was diagnosed with prostate cancer even before war broke out and is only now able to start treatment. She is helping them raise funds to pay for his medical care.

And that second family? Several daughters had begun university before and are trying to begin their education again. She is helping them raise funds to get degrees.

The third is a couple who have been successfully ¡reunited! who are now trying to open a new bakery since that is their livelihood. I have a link that does an overview for all four fundraisers but I’m putting it here because the video for it has Amanda making Apple Pie soap.

And I know, once this fourth family is reunited safely? She will help if they need a way to rebuild their life while almost assuredly asking for information to begin helping a fifth family.

I donate the small amount I can each paycheck. BUT! The way I am able to most help is by watching her videos. And sharing them with others. Because the money she makes from YT and TikTok views has all been contributed to the fundraising she’s leading. (She has also set aside specific weeks where all sales from her business get donated as well. She makes me cry with the amount of dedication she’s put into this.)

So if you can donate money, awesome. But what I’m really pitching is donating your time by watching a handful of videos where you also get the joy of seeing some pretty soaps too!

Some of my favorites:

Rainbow Roses

A Dinosaur Love Story

The art studio was as it always was. Silent. Everyone sat at their desks, coming and going as they pleased, some moving to the sinks to refill their water for painting whilst other's dug through the cupboards quietly to find the coloured pastels and chalks, however all in all the place was quite empty, it was surprising how hardly anyone here did art. yet Morgana preferred it, there was no one nagging her, no Professors to pry over her with watchful eyes. They had had a lecture this morning about conveying emotion in drawings and given an assignment to create either a pencil sketch, painting, charcoal or coloured chalked piece with some obvious form of human nature depicted upon it.

Everyone of course had fled to the art studio to work, Morgana found it easier to work here than in her room because all the equipment was around her, should she need the lightbox or access to the internet to print out some ideas, they were all close at hand, and the room was large and white with bright lights overhead as the desks were long with stools to sit on. The sky outside was growing dark, it was about half five in the evening but luckily this place opened until ten, at least not everyone chose to stay here.

However, Morgana was quite happy working away at her own pace, painting the top of a large white skull with the effect to look like the bottom half was melting away, into long wet tears, decaying in an upsetting sense, or so she liked to think.

However she was most annoyed when she saw the water tub at the corner of her desk, murky and cloudy from the painted brushes she'd dipped into it to wash them clean, skew across her page and soak in the paper, ruining her work.

"Idiot!" Morgana yelped as she glanced up with a frown, huffing in frustration. She quickly moved off her stool so the water would not seep off the page and down onto her jeans. Finally her glance turned up at the boy who'd done it. He was stall with short cropped hair, she'd seen him before.