Nurun N Papa is a free-lance artist from Dhaka, Bangladesh, currently based in Boston, MA.

She works in mixed media, and her subjects of her art are mostly Bangladeshi motifs-the boat, monsoon, urban decay, and, most importantly, the rickshaw. "I love the T," she says, "but my heart remains in Dhaka with the noisy and colorful rickshaws." She likes working with surface texture, giving her paintings not only realistic colors but a real "feel" as well, with jagged brushstrokes that come out of the canvas. This is perhaps because her Master's degree was in mural design: Nurun was one of the first two women to get a degree in the subject in Bangladesh.

            A photograph is a very powerful thing.  With every exposure a moment in time is captured forever.  All the moments I’ve captured have caused me to reflect on my life and the world around me, and have changed my perspective of both.  A major struggle in my life has been coping with an eating disorder, and the low-self esteem and pessimistic outlook on life that have come with it.  Through my photos, I have been able to realize the subtle beauty in life, and amazingly, in myself.  I’ve learned to appreciate everything that crosses my path, for beauty and inspiration are always in front of your eyes; often, you just need to take a second look.

            The graffiti series is a result of my new outlook.  I don’t photograph graffiti to condone the act and its negative impact it has on owners of private property.  I photograph graffiti simply because its there, waiting to be discovered.  So often, people don’t notice the beauty that is hiding in countless allies in cities across the globe, blinded by a stigma against the act itself.  If you look aesthetically, you begin to see a collage of colors, shapes and a whole new urban dialect all spun into one.  By capturing small pieces of graffiti here and there, I am making each tag timeless when it will eventually removed.  Also, by isolating one small rectangle of a greater whole, I am giving the graffiti a new context and the viewer a new perspective.  I hope you enjoy it.

Matt Says:

"As anyone who knows my most probably personality will tell you, I am sporadic in my endeavors and social engagements, always seem to be “going somewhere,” yet wander aimlessly through the world.  I am incredibly focused, but space out frequently – often at the same time as I am delving into a problem of interest.

In illustrative essence, I am like a bullet being shot through the ocean – directed and penetrating, yet subject to the ebb and flow of the meandering tides.

It is through this lifestyle that I come across most of my subject matter for photography.  “Random” encounters during an endorphin-fueled biking or hiking excursion along side with a slew of domestic stagings of intriguing and amusing objects characterize most of my work.  Accordingly, my natural bent towards light, color, and nature is quite evident in the angles that are congruent to my aesthetic tastes.

Concerning other sides of my personality, I got into mathematics starting at age 3, picked up my first instrument (clarinet) at age 8 – initiating a lifelong love for music – progressed to alto sax and guitar, while evolving in academic endeavors to the natural sciences – particularly chemistry and physics.  Finally, philosophy has dominated my intellectual life through the last 5 years and has shifted my career goals from straight science to a more synthetic approach to incorporate the disciplines of “hard science” – physics, chemistry, biology – with those of the “soft sciences” – sociology and psychology – as well as treading the boundary between physical and metaphysical reality.

I find that my photography feeds/informs the other areas of my intellectual and aesthetic life – inspiring my musical expression and lyrical writing, imbuing my scientific and mathematical knowledge with childlike wonder, and providing me the simple pleasures allotted from a solitary excursion into the world...

I hope you enjoy and are intrigued…"

A trip to Chad under the auspices of Physicians for Human Rights and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative to study sexual violence among Darfuri women at a refugee camp in eastern Chad reveals extraordinary images of quiet resilience and dignity against a harsh environment.  Lin Piwowarczyk, MD, MPH explores the interface of art and trauma in this gallery show of photographs and paintings inspired by this opportunity. As a clinician who works with refugees and survivors of torture at the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights, she believes that art often speaks to the soul of the survivor - transcending the traumatic experience, for both artist and viewer.

Proceeds to benefit women at Farchana Refugee Camp, eastern Chad.

Whether I am painting or writing poetry, I try to use that sacred time as an opportunity to channel my feelings and thoughts into my expression. As I explained in my latest poetry book, “The Woman Has A Voice”, - I am a woman who has experienced trauma and is still healing from that challenge. Survivors of abuse, whether it be physical, sexual or emotional, often do not have a way to express their feelings or feel too shy to deal with their unresolved conflicts. I have found both painting and poetry to be excellent resources for me to reconnect with my inner self, the self that I often ignored or dissociated from when I was going through my trauma as a child.

 

Please feel free to enjoy the full extent of my moods expressed in these paintings. I have been told that my jagged strokes, layers and layers of paint, vivid colors are quite reminiscent of Van Gogh and Chagall. But all I can really say is that I draw from my pain and my faith in humankind. Beneath this torrid motion or angst, you may find glimpses of lighter or quieter moments. I have always struggled with coping – whether it be from abuse or from having epilepsy (temporal lobe) which are smaller seizures but the effect is that it leaves me disoriented and shaky.

 

I have learned over the years from my erratic past that everyone has something and that no one’s life is perfect. All I can do is cope, paint or write poetry and be mindful that I am a survivor not a victim. My art (whether it be painting or poetry) can be “impulsive”, “compulsive”, “erratic” and “passionate”. There is an endless amount of energy being aroused and represented. My subjects of study have included: mermaids, unicorns, angels, sunflowers, naked goddesses of Sappho, hysterical cats, swimming dogs, epileptic mailmen, landscapes–(Austria & Cambridge) —or whatever pops into my imagination at a given moment in time.