Photo by ELIZABETH A. MUNDSCHENK
“Art is number one for me,” says Mirsen Durmisevic, 22, an artist from Bosnia living on Mary St. in Utica.

Many refugees find voice,
solace in art

By JESSICA RYEN
Observer-Dispatch


Photo by ELIZABETH A. MUNDSCHENK
Bojan Bratic, a Yugoslavian artist now living in Utica, says he conveys many messages through his art. “The fact that I was a refugee once makes me more sensitive to stuff around the world,” he says.

For Mirsen Durmisevic, art is a way to express himself and cope with the horrors of the war he left behind in Bosnia.

Before fleeing with his family for Germany in 1995, he had seen their apartment bombed and attempted to survive on rationed food.

Today, Durmisevic paints portraits, draws with charcoal and burns images upon wood.

“For me, art is like going away and putting your problems away,” said Durmisevic, 22, of Utica. “It gives me the peace.”

For some refugees and immigrants, artistic expression — whether it be painting, dancing or music — is a therapeutic approach to help them deal with the struggles they have endured. For others, it is a way to convey a message that might otherwise be difficult to say.

When Durmisevic and his family arrived in Utica in 1997, he was faced with new challenges — he didn’t know English and had few friends. So he began taking classes at Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute.

Art is a universal language, said Cheryl Fletcher, an art teacher at Thomas R. Proctor Senior High School in Utica.

“You don’t have to know English to know art,” she said. “(Students) can look at something and don’t have to put it into a mathematical equation and then translate into their language.”

Bojan Bratic, a graphic design major at Mohawk Valley Community College who is from the portion of the former Yugoslavia now known as Serbia and Montenegro, said he conveys messages through his artwork.

Though Bratic, who left his country in 1992, didn’t see much of the war in Bosnia, he remembers the pre-war atmosphere and likens the feeling to Sept. 11, 2001. Bratic, 23, of Utica recently debuted his artwork in an exhibit at The Resonance Center — which provides space for local artists.

His most popular piece, “Apocalypse,” sent a provocative message about the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“Evil kills good and good tries to fight evil,” Bratic said about the painting that holds myriad “good” and “bad” symbols. “The fact that I was a refugee once makes me more sensitive to stuff around the world.”

Art helps people express emotion, art therapist Carolyn Szala said.

“We get very caught up in a verbal world and we lose that connection that we have to our feelings,” said Szala, program coordinator of the Recreational and Art Therapy Department at Northern Westchester Hospital. “We have to get underneath, and that’s why we have to use images.”

When David Tavakkoli’s artwork published in an Iranian magazine in the early 1990s, he was forced to flee from Iran to Japan where he was able to show his art safely.

After he tried to return to Iran a few years later, Tavakkoli was jailed for a year. He ultimately came to the United States to pursue his dream of becoming a successful artist.

Now studying animation and restoration at MVCC, most of his “messages” are clear rebuttals against fanaticism.


Photo by TREVOR KAPRALOS
“Art helps you talk,” says artist David Tavakkoli, 32, a native of Iran living in Utica. “It helps you to have a symbol and you can move people with that symbol.”

Tavakkoli, 32, depicted Utica firefighters helping New York City firefighters after the 9/11 attacks. The painting was displayed during a remembrance ceremony this month at Utica’s Proctor Park.

“That’s the beauty of art,” he said. “It comes from your heart, your feeling. I don’t want to be famous. I just wanted a message to help or give them a moment to think.”