Portfolio > Figures

This is a painting of two Syrian refugee children. They were in a refugee camp on the border of Turkey. I was moved to paint them because I wanted to help them. The image was taken in 2011 by a Reuters photographer named Osman Orsal. I tried to contact him to find the names of the children, but I got no response. Since the image was taken many years ago, I wonder where they are now, and if they were separated from their parents.

The fence broke up the composition and made it more abstract. I have always been interested in boundaries, and how they affect us. Some might be imaginary, but others are sadly, very real. Living in the US and seeing how the refugees have been treated at the border of Mexico has been unsettling.