Sit down with Seattle-based author and artist Shane Patrick White as we discuss what the Lower Your Sights project means to him, his contribution to the anthology, and his thoughts on the unifying power of art.

Q: What does this project mean to you?
Shane: It’s a chance to explore a lot of the history I’ve been studying over the years. When this project came across the wire I was reading BLOODLAND; a history of Ukraine before and during WWII. I was well-informed about WWII and some 20th-century Russian History but was surprised that so little was spoken about Ukraine. It was a chance to create something informed in a medium that can be very powerful, despite language barriers. History may be written by the victors, but it’s the first person accounts, the stories that are handed down from generations that can give us the whole picture.

Q: What is your contribution to Lower Your Sights? (Short Story, Pinup, Etc.)
Shane: A five page story called SEA OF BONES.

Q: In addition to supplying food and essential supplies, Voices of Children also provides art therapy to help kids cope and overcome the stress, anxiety, and trauma of living in war conditions. Do you believe art has the power to heal?
Shane: It’s a start. Expressing ourselves in our early childhood with colors and shapes was our building blocks for communication. There’s no reason we should simply abandon it because someone says “we’re not good at it”. There’s lots of reasons that art is useful, and healing is just one of them. It usually starts with creating a safe environment for expression. Which we sorely need the world over.