The ArtistAlyson Curro

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Ten-year-old Sandar Khinelay on her stomach, with thebook close to her face.She was not reading.Sandar Khine cared moreabout the painting on thebook cover than the storyinside.She stared at the painting,and then she stared at herblank sheet of paper.She wondered if shecould create something asbeautiful.

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She slowly drew her firstline.As she continued, everyline became easier, andSandar Khine became moreconfident.

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Ten years later, SandarKhine went to art school.She left as a painter with adeep love of lines.After art school, SandarKhine needed to findmodels to draw.She heard of a group ofmale painters who metweekly, shared the costs ofa model, and drew together.What a great opportunity!At first, they refused to letSandar Khine join because

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she was a woman.Finally she was allowed toparticipate when a malefriend in the group spoke upfor her.

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It was in that group thatSandar fell in love withdrawing the human body.And not just any humanbody—Sandar Khineespecially enjoyed drawingbig women.They had more lines, andlines were beautiful.

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Being an artist in Myanmarbefore 2012 was very hard.The military controlled artand banned anything it didnot like, including the colorred.Artists were put in jail; artgalleries were closed.These days, the governmentis more democratic, art ismore accessible, and SandarKhine is well known.She is a leader in a group ofMyanmar artists who like to

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try new things.

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But Sandar Khine’s work isstill hard.Even though things arechanging, many art galleriesare still afraid to openlyshow her work.People ran out of her firstart show in Yangon—all ofthe human bodies shockedthem.Some people wonder whySandar Khine continues ifbeing an artist is so hard.But she says they miss

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the point: ’If you havesomething to say, you mustsay it.’And Sandar Khine has a lotmore to say.

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Use these prompts to writeyour own story on a piece ofpaper.

When are you happiest?What do you love doing?Life can betough sometimes. Describea tough moment in your lifethat you overcame.Tell a story of you future.What do you dream ofdoing?

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Draw your portrait.

Brought to you by

Let’s Read is an initiative of The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia program that fosters young readers inAsia. booksforasia.org

To read more books like this and get further information about this book, visit letsreadasia.org

Original StoryThe Artist, illustrator: by Alyson Curro. Released under CC BY 4.0.

This work is a modified version of the original story. © The Asia Foundation, 2019. Some rights reserved. Released underCC BY 4.0.

For full terms of use and attribution, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/