When art, music, and poetry are integrated into the art room, children can confront difficult themes in works of art and process information in highly personal ways (Jewitt & Kress, 2003). An arts classroom gives children the time and place to confront images of war and violence and decode the multiple levels of meaning (Arnold, 1997) found within them. In this paper, the author discusses how her third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students asked questions, created visual responses, and wrote about war and violence as depicted in four artworks, including Francisco Goya's "The Shootings of May Third 1808," Kathe Kollwitz's "The Prisoners," Frank Gaylord II's "Korean War Memorial," and Pablo Picasso's "Guernica." These works have serious emotional themes, and can become sources for artistic and written expression to help children confront their worst fears. (Contains 10 figures and 1 endnote.)