Jamie Handyside sits at a table in a sunlit classroom painting the red background of a portrait she’s creating.
She and her subject are both 16-year-old girls. But in so many other ways, they are literally and figuratively worlds apart.
Jamie is a junior at Shaler Area High School.
Her subject, Tamador, is a Syrian refugee living in Jordan.
A Wisconsin-based nonprofit called The Memory Project brought them together. The organization collects color photographs from global charities of children who have been neglected, orphaned or otherwise disadvantaged. The photos are sent to schools in the U.S., where art students create portraits of them, which are given to the children. A video of the artworks being delivered is sent to the young artists, completing the circle.
The aim is “to help the children feel valued and important, to know that many people care about their well-being …,” according to the project website.
The conduit between the project and the classroom is teacher David Boyles, who good-naturedly answers “creative facilitator” when asked his title. A colleague at the high school told him about The Memory Project, and Mr. Boyles contacted the organization.
This is the eighth year his studio art students are participating. They have painted children living in Africa, India, Indonesia and Central America. Last year the photographs came from Peru. This is the first time the children have been refugees.
The art students volunteer to make the portraits, which is considered “an auxiliary project,” Mr, Boyles said. The students fit in portraiture work around the assignments given to all of their classmates. Twenty-two signed on this year.
“The students accept all responsibility,” Mr. Boyles said. They’re guided by their “own sake of honor, own sake of integrity, own sake of pride,” he said. Mr. Boyles offers his young artists “multiple prompts … but it’s not prudent to give a regimented idea.”
They may use any medium they wish. Size is standardized and the style should be recognizable. Not knowing much about the refugees’ backgrounds, “we can’t break into a Matisse,” Mr. Boyles said. The students research the circumstances and locations of their subjects before the photographs arrive.
The art students are given the subject’s first name, age and favorite color. Hence the red background for Tamador’s portrait.
Jamie said she chose to do the project because “I just like the cause, who it’s going to.”
That sentiment was echoed by the other students.
Claire Schreiber, 16, was painting Remus, 9. “I think it’s a wonderful thing to be able to send them portraits. They probably don’t get things like this very often.”
Junior Kiki Agbale, 17, said he committed to make a portrait, “knowing they’re for kids in Jordan who are struggling.” He’s hoping his child, Sanad, who is 10 or 12, “can look up and see it and smile.”
Senior Kelly Lazaro, 18, who participated in the project, saw a video of an earlier delivery of the portraits.
“I thought it was surprising how much they loved them. I think it will be nice giving back to these kids who can’t do it themselves, who don’t have the resources.
“It’s like a memory we all have, doing this.”
M. Thomas: mthomas@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1925.
First Published: December 30, 2016, 5:00 a.m.
