Stages Claudine Rwandan Refugee Tutsi graphics image, Gale Franey The Graphic Groove Website

Claudine was a Tutsi Rwandan refugee, a victim of the brutal massacre, the bloody event that was mostly ignored by the world.

Claudine's brother Emmanual stayed in the YMCA Hotel and we used to sit in my office talking. He told me Claudine's story, how after surviving the initial massacre, some time later, in Burundi, she was walking home from the market, and some Hutus slit her throat and she died, leaving behind her young child. Other family members were also slaughtered and the ones who survived are now struggling to take care of the children of their siblings. They struggle even to pay the school fees to keep the kids in school, and Emmanual on his modest income was always in deep anxiety wanting to send money, while he was also struggling financially.

The only possession Emmanual had to remind him of his sister was her refugee ID, which you see here. The photo is a worn, black & white image showing only her head & shoulders. This struck me to be so entirely sad so I decided to make a graphics in memory of his sister, aiming to bring some color, life and hope to her image.

	Claudine was a Tutsi Rwandan refugee, a victim of the brutal massacre, the bloody event that was mostly ignored by the world. Claudine's brother Emmanual stayed in the YMCA Hotel and we used to sit in my office talking. He told me Claudine's story, how after surviving the initial massacre, some time later, in Burundi, she was walking home from the market, and some Hutus slit her throat and she died, leaving behind her young child. Other family members were also slaughtered and the ones who survived are now struggling to take care of the children of their siblings. They struggle even to pay the school fees to keep the kids in school, and Emmanual on his modest income was always in deep anxiety wanting to send money, while he was also struggling financially. The only possession Emmanual had to remind him of his sister was her refugee ID, which you see here. The photo is a worn, black & white image showing only her head & shoulders. This struck me to be so entirely sad so I decided to make a graphics in memory of his sister, aiming to bring some color, life and hope to her image.
My heart goes out to Claudine and others like her who perish so needlessly. I have empathy for all Tutsis and Hutus who have both suffered so terribly during the horrendous tradgedy that still lingers in the hearts of every Rwandan.	The process of making the graphic was extremely time consuming due to the condition of the very small damaged photograph from the Refugee ID that I was working from (above). It had a lot of dirt and scratches on it. I began by scanning the image at very high resolution, which enabled me to zoom in to closely view and make repairs. Hours were spent with the Healing Brush, the Clone and Patch Tools. I also spent many hours playing with color, duplicating the image & applying a sepia tone to the layer, then duplicating it & superimposing Blending Modes over the original layer to further enhance the skin tone. I found the hand image and flower image among stock photos in my Big Box of Art. I resized and rotated the hand to match the image. I also spent time matching the color tone of hand to the face. Afterwards I added colorful image layers to represent the clothes and background, aiming to add a vibrance of life, hope and a spirituality, with the aim that this might bring a little dignity to her wretched and untimely death.
	This is Emmanual sitting in my office, always trying to remain positive after having lived through the Rwandan tragedy and through so many other difficulties while trying to settle into life in Canada.