Refugee
Kate Green, charcoal on paper
www.katecgreen.wordpress.com

She stands quietly, her gaze slightly to one side. Behind her a stormy sky, a smudgy moon and light in the distance, which could be a happier time but could equally be the livid light of conflict. Even the trees bend ominously like dark flames or wind-blown flags. The artist, Kate Green says, ‘I produced this drawing while working as a receptionist at a charity caring for survivors of torture. Sometimes I chatted with refugees when they came in for the gardening group. I was so moved by their warmth and radiating love in spite of the atrocious things each had lived through. Much joyous laughter could be heard from those gardening meetings and it was evident that growing things was proving to be healing and restoring. I was utterly bowled over when, one evening, a regular gardening refugee presented me with a beautiful Middle Eastern scarf as a gift. This was my seed for developing the large charcoal drawing and I drew the lady, wearing that scarf, as I listened to the Holy Spirit in a cloud of charcoal dust. I didn’t know anything about her story but felt led to draw her on her allotted piece of ground, surrounded by trees, with her spade and a marrow she might have grown. For me, it was God, life and art mixing at an extraordinarily wonderful level and it still encourages me onto the listening path in my artwork to this day.’

Art in focus is curated by Meryl Doney

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This article was published in the October 2021 edition of Reform

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