An exhibit currently on view at The Hardware Store Restaurant Gallery tells the story of 45 people whose lives have been upended by war and migration, but whose faces still shine with hope for a new life in the United States.
All the paintings in the show, “Facing the New US — Oil Portraits of Immigrants & Refugees,” are the work of revered island oil painter Pam Ingalls and will be on view until May 31.
Ingalls is best known for her still life paintings done in the Russian Impressionist style. But she has loved portraiture for as long as she’s been painting. For the last 12 years, she’s done an annual portrait show, usually of a specific group of people. One year it was Vashon teens, another Vashon elders. Another show was filled with portraits of the residents of a village in Jamaica.
This year, inspired by the global refugee crisis, Ingalls traveled to Chicago to paint a group of people who have been resettled through the Heartland Alliance, a Chicago organization that helps refugees and asylum seekers find work and housing and learn English.
The result of Ingalls’ visit to Chicago is hanging in The Hardware Store Restaurant, but this story isn’t just about paintings. It is also the story of Ingalls’ glimpse into the lives of refugees and asylum seekers entering the United States.
“It was an honor to hear a few of the stories and to paint these brave souls,” Ingalls said.
Ingalls’ story starts with Mary Jude Ramirez, a friend she has known for decades. Ramirez now works for the Heartland Alliance. As Ingalls spent time with Ramirez’ clients, she was moved to capture their images and their stories.
“I call the show ‘Facing the New US’ because they are the new faces of America — us — and more so because they are the same as the rest of us,” Ingalls said. “I want people to connect with their humanity and their strength.”
Many of the people Ingalls painted are from Syria, and their stories are horrific. None of them wanted to leave their homes, loved ones and communities, but their towns — Homs, Aleppo and now Idlib — were bombed into rubble, Ingalls said. They come to the United States with the hope that their children might recover from the deep trauma they’ve experienced, and that they might all be safe.
One of those is young Zaher from Syria. After his father was killed there, he became the head of his family, since he is the oldest of five.
“I could feel the responsibility on his shoulders when we spoke,” Ingalls said.
Two of the Syrian refugees Ingalls painted are settled here on Vashon. They are Safa Jneidi and Iyad Alati, from Aleppo. These two arrived in the U.S. after years in Turkey, not speaking any English. Since arriving on Vashon, they’ve started a catering business, including a Syrian food cart they host at the Vashon Saturday market and two days a week in the lot at Vashon Village. Unlike many of the traditional portraits in the show, Ingalls’ portrait of Jneidi and Alati show the pair in action, behind their food cart, ready to serve up such delicacies as grilled kofta, dolmas and hummus, eggplant baba ganoush and baklava.
Several of Ingalls’ portrait subjects are from Myanmar, formerly called Burma. They are Rohingya, an Indo-Aryan Muslim group who have faced waves of persecution and genocide by Myanmar’s military regime. The United Nations has declared the Rohingya, in Myanmar, to be the most persecuted people in the world.
Anisar and Sahara, mother and child, are Rohingya who have been in the U.S. for about a year. Anisar spent most of her life stateless in Malaysia, where Sahara was born. This is the first time she has had legal permission to live anywhere since she left Myanmar.
Noor Azizah, also from Myanmar, couldn’t read or write in any language when she arrived in Chicago and didn’t think she ever could. After three years of study, she is now fluent and literate in English.
Mohamed Ekram, also Rohingya, is alone and hoping to bring his mother here to be with him.
Because they generally don’t speak English, and because of federal regulations that require them to be financially independent within 90 days, refugees usually accept the first jobs offered to them, Ingalls said.
Nur, from Afghanistan, is working as a cook to support his family, and to learn English. Mohamed, from Eritrea, is well-educated, deaf and has difficulties with one leg, yet he is also searching for work, and, according to Ingalls, “lifting everyone’s spirits with his smile.”
Family ties, lost and sometimes salvaged, are common threads among the refugees’ stories, Ingalls said. Agencies like the Heartland Alliance and volunteer groups such as Vashon’s Refugee Resettlement Committee try to help people reunite with their displaced loved ones. Resources are spare, but there are success stories.
Joseph, from The Republic of Congo, fled his home with two of his four daughters. His wife was sent in another direction with the other two. After 12 years of searching, not knowing if his wife and daughters were still alive, they found each other only a week before Ingalls met him.
“He told me the night they finally spoke on the phone was the first night he’d slept since he left Congo,” said Ingalls.
And, there are more success stories, like Adawya from the Central African Republic.
“I met Adawya at her apartment, where she lives now with her son,” Ingalls said. “She was working at a factory then, but has since gotten a job cleaning at a hospital. These are the people that do the jobs in the background, that hold the U.S. together.”
These are some of the stories Ingalls is sharing with islanders who stroll through her show at The Hardware Store Restaurant this May. She reminds people that the show is about us — that is, the global, collective “US”, where our lives, hopes and aspirations intersect.
The paintings will be on display until May 31. In June, the show will travel to Chicago, where it will be part of the World Refugee Day Celebration there on June 20.
Part of the proceeds from the sale of each artwork in the show will go to the person who modeled for the portrait, and part will go to the community where they came from, Ingalls said.
