What does a war look like when you sit still long enough to draw it? Reportage artist and TED Fellow George Butler sketches the people that the news passes by: a 99-year-old survivor of the Holodomor famine in Ukraine, a man gathering books blasted into a rose garden, an architect whose home was hit by a Russian missile. Urging us to slow down in the age of immediate news, Butler shows how a drawing reveals what a headline can’t. (Recorded at TED2026 on April 16, 2026)
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@Kenzukirix
September 27, 2026 at 11:10 am
For me drawing is an attempt to understand what I feel about the world I live in.
@BuiNhatAnh-e4j
September 27, 2026 at 11:14 am
Chills down my spine… 🥺 News gives us the facts, but drawings like this capture the actual heartbreak. Huge respect to George Butler for showing the human side of war that often gets left behind. 🙏✨
@roycohen3054
September 27, 2026 at 11:24 am
Have you been to both sides of the same conflict and drawn people of both sides?
@follow-focus-your-dreams
September 27, 2026 at 11:38 am
الله أكبر
@isratibnatlizna293
September 27, 2026 at 11:39 am
Truly inspiring work! Thank you George Butler for sharing these stories through your art.
@josephmichel8194
September 27, 2026 at 3:21 pm
So very touching… Thank you for sharing!
@user-kq2tc5hy5g
September 27, 2026 at 5:33 pm
Obviously it doesn’t bother you to see people suffering, otherwise you wouldn’t continue doing it, let alone give a TED talk about it! that is at best indifference and apathy towards other people’s suffering.
@aiantenor9080
September 27, 2026 at 8:50 pm
Cherish human connections through drawing