The sweetest gift

MANILA, Philippines - His work is not really unusual; he draws pictures to make a living. His hands, his pens turn blank paper and canvass into visual feasts good for bedtime storytelling.

His life mission and advocacy, however, dwarf the simplicity of his work: to make the saddest children happy through drawing.

Singaporean artist Peter Draw holds two world records  one for drawing the world’s largest caricature (that of Jackie Chan) in 2007 and another for drawing nearly 1,000 people non-stop, without food, for over 24 hours to raise funds to provide a home for a family in Indonesia.

A third attempt was made on the first Saturday of October when he presided over what was expected to be the world’s largest art lesson held simultaneously in 12 countries and made possible by Cisco video conferencing technologies  TelePresence, Cisco TV, and Cisco WebEx. 

The art lesson began beautifully enough with a children’s story entitled “The Sweetest Gift.”

One winter day, a boy named Peter was walking in a snow-covered road and met a shivering little girl without a hat. Peter took pity on the girl and gave her his hat. Further down the road, he met a boy who was shivering like the girl because he lost his winter scarf. Peter gave him his scarf. Then he met a puppy with a broken leg, limping and shivering in winter cold. Peter gave him his winter jacket and gloves to keep him warm. Now, Peter knows the feeling of cold.

A lesson in generosity and human compassion? The fictional story of the boy Peter, says the real life artist Peter, talking on the giant virtual TelePresence screen, was inspired by his own life story.

“I was born poor. When I was six years old I attended a free drawing class conducted by an artist in Singapore. I enjoyed it very much so I came back to join the second class,” Draw narrates. 

But it turned out that only the first lesson was free. The charge for the succeeding lessons was $40. Draw didn’t have the money to pay for the lesson but he refused to leave. Draw says he was pushed out of the classroom, the door was slammed shut and he hit the floor. He ended up observing the class by the window on tiptoe. At that point, he says, he knew the feeling of cold. 

But in adulthood, Draw looks back at the incident and take inspiration from it, saying that no dream is too big. Since he was 16, he has dedicated his life to giving free art lessons to children.

Supported by the Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ASEAN governments, he has toured 10 cities in Southeast Asia, including Manila, meeting 10,000 children and has published the book “What Makes Me Happy: A Collection of ASEAN Children’s Drawings.”

The goal of that Saturday’s two-hour lesson was for the children to be able to draw the characters in “The Sweetest Gift,” starting with the boy Peter, then the girl with Peter’s hat, the boy with Peter’s winter scarf and the dog with Peter’s jacket and gloves.

For a couple of hours, Draw and the children in different countries  Australia, Korea, USA, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Singapore  were drawing furiously on paper to make the perfect body for the boy Peter, the perfect hat for the little girl, the perfect look for the puppy with the broken legs and the perfect nose and hand gestures for the boy with the winter scarf.

Together, they learned about perspective, pressure and shading in between shouts, pouts, giggles and tears that little children make when around each other.

“Show me your drawings,” Peter would say, and the children would flash their papers up to be beamed live to Singapore where he is sitting in front of a giant TelePresence screen.

Whether the event will make it to the Guinness Book of World Records for gathering the most number of children in a virtual art class is beside the point. The lesson that Draw wants to bring home to every child who participated in the event is that “it is really easy to be kind to other people.”

Like all children’s stories, “The Sweetest Gift” has a fitting ending.

On Peter’s way home on the same snow-covered road, he met the little girl again and he was surprised to find that she’s no longer wearing the hat he gave her. “What happened to your hat?” he asked. “I gave it to my little brother because he needs it more.” Peter was teary-eyed. “Don’t worry,” he said, “I’ll give you something else to keep you warm.” “But what can you give me, you have nothing else to give, except the clothes you are wearing,” the girl said. Peter then stepped forward and gave the little girl a hug.

“This is not just an art lesson for children but also a way of teaching them a way of life, to show them that people’s simple actions can be a big help,” Draw says. “Not too many years ago, I was just one of them. Idedicate this lesson to all of you who have a dream. No dream is too big, anything is possible. Believe in yourself,” he tells the children.

From the Philippines, the children who attended the event were mostly orphans from the Asociacion de Damas Filipinas in Paco, Manila, and some children of Cisco employees who gathered at Cisco’s Makati office.

“I couldn’t believe that this could be possible without technology. It is really amazing,” Draw says of the technology that brought together that many children from all over the world to participate in his art class. He admits though that he is not the most high tech guy around.

“I prefer my paper and pencils all the time,” he shares.

The next step for him after the virtual art lesson, he discloses, is setting up a virtual academy using Cisco technology to reach more children. “I am going to travel to many more places to continue what I have done  I will be going to places where war has just happened and to make sad children happy,” he says.

Is he coming back to Manila? Probably not at this time but Draw relates that he had a very good experience teaching Filipino children in 2008.

“The children there are so beautiful. I remember giving a girl a box of colored pens. She was the oldest in the group so I gave her the box. What she did really surprised me. She took out the pens and gave them one by one to the other children. It touched me so much,” he shares.

Everywhere, the children were also singing, he says. “The event coordination was not so good and there were delays. After the children’s performance, the principal started singing and all the teachers sang one by one, too. It was amazing.” 

In Manila or elsewhere, there will always be children who need to be happier. And thus, Draw says his life’s work will never be finished.

“I’ll feel that my job is done on the day that I stop drawing and that will not happen. I am going to draw and draw and draw until I cannot draw anymore and then I will draw some more. I think this is a lifetime pursuit,” he says.

Every child, after all, needs the sweetest gift.