Special Projects

"Frontline Heroines" series, of oil portraits of female journalists, honors the courage of reporters and human rights workers around the world. For generations journalists were considered neutrals rather than targets. For the past twenty years I have worked as a radio and television reporter, but became alarmed when I noticed female journalists, whether war correspondents began to become targets in war zones or at the hands of thugs, as directed by dictators or drug lords.

When the International Press Institute reported more than 740 journalists were killed on the job between 2000 and 2009, I decided to begin my series "Frontline Heroines" to honor these brave professionals. As both a reporter and painter, I felt it important to pay tribute to these women who paid the ultimate price to protect the freedoms so many of us take for granted.

My series included many of the well known journalists, such as CNN's Margaret Moth, Marie Colvin, and Dickey Chapelle, the first female journalist killed in a war zone.

Photos clockwise:

Opening night at Fountainhead Gallery, artist with owner and son, Omar Torrez.

1. "Neda" Neda Aqha Soltar, an Iranian Journalist

2. Dickey Chappelle, photojournalist in Vietnam

3. Anna Politkouskaya, Russian journalist, author, and critic of Vladimir Putin

4. Marie Colvin CNN war correspondent in Syria

5. Margaret Moth, CNN Photojournalist in Bosnia.

The Margaret Moth painting was recently selected by the curator at the Rosetta Hunter Gallery at Shoreline Community College to be included in the permanent collection.

I also included many less familiar reporters from the Middle East and elsewhere. This series of 25 portraits was first exhibited at Seattle's prestigious Fountainhead Gallery, complete with live music by my son, Omar Torrez. After that it traveled extensively throughout the Northwest over the next two years. Venues included the Rosetta Hunter Gallery, Francis Anderson in Edmonds, and other galleries including a show at the University of Washington (UW), where the UW purchased several key pieces for permanent display.

I hope this "Frontline Heroines" project will remind people of the ultimate sacrifice these heroines paid on our behalf.

Praise for the series.