Beyond Semiotic Representation: A Study of Emotion in Ukrainian Children's Paintings

Abstract

As part of the project of Ukrainian children support, Mom, I See War presents, on its official website and social media, more than 4,000 drawings by children from war-affected areas (mainly Ukraine). Based on the artworks in this platform, the study goes deeper from the mere symbolic interpretations, and discusses the various stages of emotional expression within. Through a close-reading of different aspects within the drawings, the study is performed within the theoretical framework of emotion study, political and cultural theory. While each painting contains a complex combination of various personal emotion, the paper makes a general outlining of all the paintings as a whole, and analyses the various stages of emotional expression among the whole group. In a reaction towards war conditions, four stages of emotion are presented, including fear, pain, anger and hope.