Cover image via tinypic.com
While your Malaysia Day celebrations might have been overshadowed by the red shirt rally
A group of 29 local artists created artworks consisting of paintings and digital artworks to celebrate and share their feelings about what being Malaysian is all about
The project, dubbed #BangkitMalaysia #StandUpMalaysia, consisted of 32 artworks drawn by the artists from the Doodle Malaysia group on Facebook sharing their inspiring messages of unity and oneness.
Co-organisers of the project, Faizzal Fah'd and Allison Li-Sin Hill revealed to us that the idea came about during a conversation on the recent events taking place in the country.
"What we realised was that, yes, the sense of pride was momentarily dented, but the love is always there."
"It is time to stand up for what we believe in – stand up for our stories, our values, our opinions," Allison said. "So Bangkit Malaysia, or Stand Up Malaysia is simply a platform for our members to express this. What will you stand up for? Tell us in your art. And wow, did they tell us!"
Below are just 14 out of the 32 artworks created:
Alex Lim's artwork presented the universal message of oneness that despite our skin colour, we all bleed red in the end through his well received Happy Boy cartoon
Image via Alex Lim
More Happy Boy cartoons [here](https://www.facebook.com/Happy-Boy-521084298025445/timeline/).
Arif Rafhan Othman's simple black and white ink sketch called Malaysians to quit being keyboard warriors and make their voices truly heard for the country especially in these trying times
Image via Arif Rafhan Othman
Chyuan Lee's thoughtful painting invoked the innocence of the Malaysian people
Image via Chyuan Lee
See more of Chyuan Lee's work [here](http://hebechyuan.deviantart.com/).
While Elly Alias' piece reminded Malaysians young adults of how life was much simpler back then
Image via null
Hafiz Asrun on the other hand presented an alternate look at the country's national monument, which consisted of common Malaysians
Image via Hafiz Asrun
And since we're still on the topic of the national monument, this is Lydia Rayyan's flower power version
Image via Lydia Rayyan
More of Lydia's work [here](https://www.facebook.com/tocangdua?fref=ts).
Marts Aziz's vector styled sketching of flowers on a Malaysian flag evoked the sense of running through the streets, waving the national flag proudly
Image via Marts Aziz
Another flag inspired artwork by Suffian Hadi Ayub
Image via Suffian Hadi Ayub
Joshua Chung, meanwhile, presented a tongue-in-cheek artwork, where the uniting factor for Malaysians has always been our food (in this case, kuih bangkit)
See more from Joshua Chung [here](https://www.facebook.com/jcshua).
Image via Joshua Chung
And Lisa SL. Foo's sketch provided voices for non-human Malaysians too (the orang utan, the Sarawak Hornbill, and other Malaysian kuih-muih)!
Image via Lisa SL. Foo
With the country seemingly being run by mindless zombies, Zam Katang drew a possible scenario should the zombies run over while Malaysians remained asleep
Image via Zam Katang
This one was not a sketch, according to Nicholas Quah, but an artwork consisting of words
Ruby Subramaniam's attention grabbing painting is dedicated to all the women in the frontline
Image via null
And Allison Li-Sin Hill cartoon drove home the message and objective behind the project
Image via Allison Li-Sin Hill
