‘The Long Road Project’ is a collaborative project with the Toowoomba based NGO ‘E-Raced’. The project aims to generate a more empathetic view from the public on the topic of refugee immigration into Australia. The body of work consists of four expressive portraits of Majok Piok, Khaled Ali and Prudence Melom, the founder of E-raced. The three sitters’ are active members of E-raced; they share their journeys as Refugees to youth in schools around Australia in an attempt to stop racism through the power of storytelling. The artist travelled to Toowoomba to meet the sitters and build rapport in person before she began painting the portraits. This enabled her to accurately portray the individuals on a personal level. She was able to match the colour palette of each portrait to the sitter’s character. The artist carefully selected appropriate photographs to use as inspiration that expressed ‘the inner self’ of each sitter. When exhibited, minimalistic booklets accompanied each portrait featuring raw, unedited scripts of the stories shared with the artist during the recorded interviews. The project will develop as the artist continues to utilise contemporary portraiture techniques and the power of storytelling as a platform to work towards herself and Prudence’s important goal.

To read Prudences story please contact Siena via email.