Like many following the aftermath of last week's terrorist attacks, Bill Bartee went online to find out how he could help those in need.
"As an artist, I experienced a major desire to do something and I didn't find a place to do it," he said.
So Bartee launched an online exhibit as a forum for artists and writers to display their works in response to the attacks.
"As artists we have an ability to express ourselves and to help in a way that is humane ... in a different kind of language," Bartee said. "If I hadn't done this, the pain would be immense."
The multilingual online art exhibit, "Why: Art about the attack on the World Trade Center & Pentagon," will be installed in computers for a show opening Nov. 2 at the Quorum Gallery in Addison, Texas. Artwork will be collected on the website until September 2002, recounting a year of evolving ideas about the attacks.
Rather than providing insight into why the tragedy happened, the "Why" project gives artists a forum to voice their own themes and messages to an international audience.
"Art is more of an effort at raising questions than delivering answers," Bartee said. "It's about those things that can't be put into words that we're all going through."
"The need this site serves is a personal testament to the power of art in chronicling major events in our collective history," said Mikon Haaksman, an artist participating in the project.
The body of work includes digital art, poetry and drawings created by visual artists and writers from around the world reacting to the attack. So far, more than 24 artists from nine countries have submitted their work.
"The Internet is the perfect arena for this type of exhibit because it is the best way for an international group of artists to post their work," Haaksman said. "We are all affected by the terrorist acts, and the tragedy does not belong to only Americans. The Internet allows us to create a forum that isn't bound by borders, language and customs."
Some of the images intertwine personal compassion with abstract symbols such as a depiction of the twin towers aflame, the American flag and an ash-covered scene of firefighters searching the rubble. The images and poetry convey a range of artists' emotions, from hope to fear, from pain to pride.
Immediately following the attacks, the site received an outpouring of patriotic-themed submissions.
"I think that the declaration of a day of mourning and prayer made some people think of submitting art that fit those emotions," Haaksman said. "I think that as time passes the works will take a different shape."
A group of high school art students in Edmond, Oklahoma, who recently heard about the project are making a mural that they will photograph and submit for the website.
"My students just wanted to do something different," said Kathleen Blake, an art teacher at Edmond Memorial High School.
Those involved in the project hope that the site will continue to serve as a time capsule of present-day thoughts and emotions.
"I think the 'Why' project has both sociological as well as historical importance," Haaksman said. "It is a way for people to express themselves about a particular world event, while giving all of us a record of how we dealt and are dealing with the attacks. Someday in the future when this is just a memory, someone will be able to look at this project and know what we are all going through today."
