El Salvador 1988       
These paintings are the result of a brief visit during the civil war 
        
  campesinos, El Salvador     With local churches, Myrrh was working in the mid-eighties with Salvadoran refugees who told stories of horrors they left behind. The churches organized a group of five to go and take a small amount of relief supplies. Myrrh's group visited many struggling community groups and churches, and also a refugee camp of 10,000 people in Honduras.

They heard the suffering of people, but also saw how people were organizing in love and faith to survive. She expected to be overwhelmed by sadness, but found a joyful resilience that inspired her.

Myrrh chose raw plywood with its grain pattern to paint on with acrylic, because it best captured the warm colors and roughness she found in rural El Salvador. They were painted in 1989 and 1990.		     San Salvador  
They strike at us to get the guerrillas. 24 X 30 inches. Several of these paintings are based on photographs Myrrh took in a remote contested zone.
  Life in the Shadows, 18 X 24 inches. In the distance, the elite shopping center and homes. In the foreground, a smelly river with shacks. Myrrh carved the outlines of the shacks in the wood.    
        conflictive zone          
              refugee camp clinic  
   
Constant Reminders, acrylic on wood, 30 X 24 inches. The peace poster contrasts starkly with bullet holes. (Myrrh drilled these holes into the wood). 		     
   
Nurse in a clinic for underweight children. Acrylic on wood, 24 X 30 inches. The face on the wall is her face.		        
                 
                         
 
   
      refugee camp directiva   refugee camp kids      
      We Govern Ourselves, Acrylic on wood, 24 X 30 inches
In the refugee camp, relief agencies taught people to read and write, learn accounting and management, and self-government. This particularly benefited women. These skills were very useful after the war.		        
        The Children of Colo,
acrylic on wood, 18 X 28 inches. The children were very shy until adults assured them we meant them no harm. In the camp, Honduran soldiers harassed the refugees.		      
      pilgrimage, San Salvador          
<Portraits      
  Volcan San Miguel, El Salvador
Justice will Flourish like the Palm, Acrylic on wood, 24 X 30 inches. A significant number of people were even willing to demonstrate for justice at the risk of getting shot during the war.
To this day, when government is unresponsive, people demonstrate. A lively press airs all sides of issues.		 Beyond is Home, Acrylic on wood, 24 X 30 inches.
Looking from Honduras near the refugee camp into El Salvador. Before the end of the war, the refugees elected to go back home under extremely harsh conditions.
EL SALVADOR IN PEACETIME>> 

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