To Suemarie LaMaker's practiced eye, the lines in her latest art collection look a little crooked, and, in some spots the paint is layered on a tad too thickly.

"Look at this," she said, waving her hands at the piles of colorful paintings and mini-quilts that cluttered the floor of her Alpine studio Thursday. "Some of it's not even good." But then again, the retired art teacher pointed out, "good" was not the goal for this particular art collection. She didn't design "Remember Me Zambia" to impress art critics; she painted it to inspire compassion for the African poor.

The pieces, which employ a variety of mediums, including knitting and photography, were inspired by the artist's recent stint teaching art and infant massage in Zambia. A child stares out of one of the boldly colored paintings, his little brother slung across his back. In another, a mother recedes into a whimsical landscape, her baby on her hip.

"I want to show people that these people are not poor, backward bushmen," LaMaker said. "They are beautiful, emotional, intellectual people."

LaMaker hopes people will donate school supplies and care kits for African orphans after viewing her art show. Following its monthlong debut at the Utah County Health and Justice Building in April, the artist plans to lend the show to schools and businesses looking to do charity projects.

The show is the continuation of what LaMaker considers a lifelong mission. She fell in love with the African people as a child, watching documentaries about the country's starving children.

"I would watch those little kids with their bloated bellies for hours," she said. "It was my childhood dream to do something for the orphans."

Even so, LaMaker was shocked by the extent of the poverty she encountered when she finally made it to Africa five years ago as a volunteer for the Utah-based charity, Mothers Without Borders.

"We get busy in life," she said. "In our abundance, we forget there are people who don't live like us."

After returning home, LaMaker started a nonprofit organization of her own. So far, the organization, which is also called Remember Me Zambia, has collected enough cloth diapers, one-piece baby undies and blankets for several thousand infant humanitarian kits and put a young high school graduate through a semester of accounting school.

With the help of this art show, LaMaker hopes to start organizing kits for schoolchildren, including pencils, sharpeners and markers. At the Zambian school where LaMaker taught, each child had only a pencil and a razor blade to sharpen it.

"The way to help these people be free from their poverty is to give them a hands-up," she said. "They are just as intelligent and creative and innovative as we are; they just need hope."

There will be an artist's reception at the Utah County Health and Justice Building, 151 S. University Ave., on April 4 from 6 to 9 p.m. Those interested in LaMaker's nonprofit organization can contact her at suemarielamaker@juno.com.

---

E-mail: estuart@desnews.com