As a new Colorado resident in 2011, I was eager to settle into the city and find an outlet for my next artistic endeavor.  My kids attended the same school as the daughter of Project Worthmore founders, Frank and Carolyn Anello, and through a Project Worthmore class project, I got to know more about the family’s budding NPO. I remember learning that there was a refugee community just outside my neighborhood.

Their stories of trauma and perseverance from fleeing their former country were both heartbreaking and inspiring, but didn’t compare to the level of difficulty they often face in their new American environment.  As a portrait artist, I was drawn to the range of emotions in the faces of displaced people and felt compelled to translate their stories through paintings. . . . READ MORE

By Carmen Melton

“Reflexion”

36×36″ oil on canvas 2012

“I can travel a million miles and a thousand worlds from this place of anger and uncertainty, where I am safe from the small thoughts that forced me here.”

– young Karen refugee