'Freedom of creation is something important for me': Hong Kong artist describes depicting protests
Amid the clash of police batons and protesters' rallying cries, at least one Hong Kong artist is laboring to prove the pen indeed is mightier than the sword.
Twenty-five-year-old Kay Wong, who was born in Hong Kong, has documented through her artwork some of the summer's most critical moments: violent standoffs between police and protesters, an international airport forced to ground its planes and the plight of everyday citizens through it all.
"I think the freedom of creation is something important for me, and I'm afraid that if something happened to the freedom of creation, we'll just be lost," said Kay, explaining she refuses to just hide at home while others risk their lives.
For inspiration, Kay said she pours over newspaper photographs or attends rallies throughout the city, walking among the more radical Hong Kongers and taking pictures with her cell phone.
Kay said she believes the police used to protect its citizens.
Perhaps not anymore, though.
"Maybe now, today, lots of people think that the protests [are] changing because they are not peaceful anymore," Kay said. "But after a few times of peaceful protests, the government and maybe also the police did something bad [to] us, and just so many people just get angry ... [so] they try to use [a] different way to fight."
Still, she said she hopes her artwork helps show in a more personal light a conflict that's entered its fourth month.
"We," she said, referring to artists, "just try our very best to do what little part that we can do."
