I’m putting up another painting by Paw Lway Shee, a portrait I call Karen Girl, as her temporary art agent, I’m asking for $40.  Shipping is free. If you are interested, please contact me by e-mail, [email protected]. This painting is smaller than the others, it’s 8 x 10.

The refugee stories are always hard to hear no matter where they come from. The refuge experience is by itself deeply traumatic. Some of the stories I hear from the Karen community – they were driven out of Myanmar, formerly Burma, by the Army there – are as bad as the ones told by the Iraqi children.

Art if a gift to Paw Lway, her teacher says, it is the way she processes the experience of being driven from her home, forced to flee her country, survive the lawless refugee camps, and process the slaughter and genocide she has seen.

These are the true stories of the refugees, not the demonizing and hatred spewed about them online and in Washington, these are the stories that should be on the news and discussed in Congress. The Karen refugees have undergone a particular horror – homes and villages destroyed, people burned alive, raped, bayoneted and tortured, years in filthy and dangerous sprawling, muddy, hot and cold with little decent shelter or nutrition.

Only the very lucky  and the very few got out.

There are tens of millions of Iraqi refugees, only 57 were admitted to the United States in the last year. The Karen have  fared better over the past three decades approximately three million Karen refugees have been forced from their homes and  accepted into the United States, although that number has plummeted since the 2016 presidential election.

PawLway Shee comes out of this diaspora, and it has not turned her to the dark side, but the brighter world of art. She is a warm and open  young woman, shy and completely self-taught, and until we rushed in some art supplies, had little to work with. She is very close to her classmates, especially Blue, Issachar and Asher.

Sue Silverstein has been teaching her and offering her a save refuge for several years now, the art room is her self place, a second home. She is doing beautiful work with her new home.

This summer, she is staying home caring for her siblings – her parents work all the time – but for several hours, several days a week, Mrs. Silverstein opens up her classroom so the young refugee artists can come and paint and draw and see one another.

Artists who have seen Paw Lway Shee’s work are shocked to hear she has never had any formal instruction. She is self-taught and self motivated, she has a natural eye for portrait and color.

Her figures are drawn from the Karen culture, perhaps in the hope of remembering what she and her family lost and will never see again.

The Karen culture is deeply religious, family and work centered  – Buddhist and Christian – and colorful, culture and religion are  intermingled with dancing, singing, colorful clothes, food and festivals. It is this rich and very colorful culture that inspires Paw Lway’s work and shapes it, her powerful and very natural gifts permit her to bring it to life.

This portrait is  sensuous and beautiful. If you want to buy it please e-mail me: [email protected]. It costs $40, no charge for shipping. I’ve tentatively titled the portrait “Karen Girl,” but Paw Lway may change that. Thanks for supporting this work, this artist is especially gifted.