Thin Places LOVE story - Over the past two years I've been seeing how music and art can let justice flow...and I have recently launched Thin Places LOVE as a justice arm of Thin Places Productions to create a "thin place" through the act and art of LOVE. The MISSION is simple - to LOVE ORPHANS (Bring Love In) and HATE TRAFFIC (child-sex trafficking - Agape International Missions). Our Thin Places Christmas show has focused on these two areas of injustice, but I feel the synergy of focusing on ORPHANS for Thin Places Christmas, and I'm creating Thin Places Easter show for 2013 with a focus on fighting TRAFFICKING through music and art. This past year I reconnected with an old friend, Shane Grammer. He is an incredible artist who traveled to Cambodia to paint and bring hope to young girls rescued from the child-sex trafficking industry. Here is a video of his journey.

Shane Grammer's Cambodian Flowers Series

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Message behind the art:

In 2010, Shane Grammer traveled with a team to Svay Pak, Cambodia with Agape International Missions. The mission was to bring hope and joy through the arts to girls who were rescued from the child-sex trafficking industry. Upon returning from Cambodia, Shane was deeply moved by the experience. The faces he saw began the journey of the Cambodian Flower Series. The Cambodian Flower series visually represents the emotional journey child victims of the Cambodian sex trafficking trade go through in their life. The chaos of dark colors surrounding these girls portrays the deep feelings of rejection and abandonment as girls are sold by their own family members including brothers, cousins, and even mothers to pedophiles from all over the world. Shane used pink to represent purity and innocence in the first painting of the series, but when he learned that one of the most famous brothels had a pink room dedicated specifically for virgin girls, the color took on another meaning. The pink not only stands for innocence, it also represents the exploitation of that innocence. The flowers surrounding each girl is a symbol of that girl’s purity, that no matter how abused and exploited, she is still a beautiful Cambodian flower. The bright yellows, oranges and whites are used to capture the hope each girl has of restoration. Even though the Cambodian Flower girl feels ruined and beyond redemption, the truth is they are still pure like the Cambodian Flowers that surround them, and that their purity will be transformed in a way that allows them to rise above the horror they have experienced.