A Brushstroke of Humanity: Meadow Lakes Resident Showcases Moving Portrait Collection of Immigrants
Meadow Lakes resident, Betsy Ashton, is displaying her art exhibit, “Portraits of Immigrants: Unknown Faces, Untold Stories,” at the Meadow Lakes community.
The art exhibit showcases several paintings created by Betsy. Through the art exhibit, she introduces viewers to the lives of people she has met from different countries who have immigrated and now live in the United States. The portraits depict real people with real lives that come from a variety of different cultures.
The inspiration for the art exhibit came to Betsy during the 2016 Presidential elections when she was hearing rhetoric about immigrants that was not accurate and was filled with hate. This inspired her to learn more about the life experiences of immigrants she had met and befriended while living in New York City.
“The real reason I created this exhibit was to say let’s just foster kindness and understanding instead of slinging around hate,” said Betsy. “The things I was hearing about immigrants were inaccurate, so I decided to interview the people I see and interact with daily.”
Betsy used the journalistic skills she developed during her career as a CBS News correspondent to interview the people in her portraits. She wrote the accompanying bibliographical captions for each of her portraits. When the viewing public experience her paintings, Betsy wants them to better understand who these people are, what sacrifices they made to come to this country, and all their contributions to our society.
Betsy is an experienced artist whose portraits are displayed in art exhibits and collections around the world. Her official portrait of former Ambassador Philip Lader resides in the collection of the US Embassy in London, United Kingdom and her portrait of actor Hal Holbrook is in the Hall of Fame collection of The Players in New York City. Her portrait of author Louise Erdrich is displayed in the collection of the Kenyon Review at Kenyon College.
The “Portraits of Immigrants: Unknown Faces, Untold Stories” art exhibit will be in the Meadow Lakes community until August.