Ross Bleckner sees tragedy, beauty, horror, illness, sex, fear, and death in his paintings. Half a world away from his sunny Chelsea studio, he found much of the same trying to bring some comfort to former child soldiers and sex slaves in Uganda, who are haunted by an orange-tinted visage of the warlord who allegedly tore them from their homes.

Bleckner, known for large-scale abstract paintings and his dedication to AIDS-related causes, said he has always been fascinated with politics, history, and journalism, yet he does not consider himself an overtly political artist. But on some level, he said in a recent interview, “everything is political.”

“What I want to give off in my work is an engagement with real issues and ideas,” Bleckner told ARTINFO in his studio. “Along those lines, I see what you do in your studio and outside your studio as very connected.”

In January, Bleckner traveled to Gulu in Northern Uganda on an official mission for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). In Gulu, he did art therapy with 25 young people, now aged 13 to 21, who had been kidnapped as children — some as young as 9 — and forced to fight for Joseph Kony, the guerrilla leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, or work as sex slaves. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Kony for his role in the “brutalization of civilians,” including murder, abduction, sexual enslavement, and mutilation. In recent years, Northern Uganda has been plagued by scores of rebel groups that abduct and recruit thousands of children to fight against the Ugandan army and civilian communities.

Although Bleckner is used to teaching – he is a professor of studio art at New York University – it was a shock to him to work with kids who had never even seen paint and didn’t know that yellow and blue, when mixed, make green. More surprising was that many of the children repeatedly drew Kony with an orange face. “They’re still scared of him,” he said. “But the amazing thing is that when you see these kids, they’re incredibly gentle and open. Once they trusted me, they were really ready to move forward and actually express their appreciation for their lives.”

On May 12, the UNODC will appoint the 59-year-old Bleckner as a goodwill ambassador at an exhibition and ceremony titled “Welcome to Gulu.” Two hundred of the children’s paintings will be exhibited and sold at the benefit, with proceeds going to support child soldiers and abducted girls. Attendees are expected to include actor Nicolas Cage, hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons, designer Calvin Klein, and artists Ghada Amer, Chuck Close, Eric Fischl, and Jeff Koons.

Simone Monasebian, the chief of the UNODC’s New York office, told ARTINFO that she thought of Bleckner for the appointment after seeing his paintings of cancer and AIDS cells, which she says told the story of HIV “in an imaginative and beautiful way,” last year. “We wanted someone to bring that same imagination to human trafficking, to empower people to want to do something about it without turning them off,” she said. “We knew a painting, unlike music, needs no translation. It is immediately accessible to everyone.”

The United Nations estimates that human trafficking is a $32 billion-a-year business, with women and children the majority of the victims.

Funds to ship brushes, paint, and paper for the mission were provided by Eleanora Kennedy. Louise Blouin, publisher of Louise Blouin Media, ARTINFO's parent company, provided additional support in funding a documentary crew to film the mission.

For more information or to find out about tickets to the May 12 "Welcome to Gulu" exhibition and benefit, contact monasebian@un.org.