Melissa Smyth is an associate editor at Warscapes and a lecturer at Franz Fanon University. Follow her on Twitter: @perrykeetsmyth https://www.newsdeeply.com/syria/contributor/melissa-smyth/rss en Civil Society Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Thu, 18 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000 Melissa Smyth https://www.newsdeeply.com/syria/articles/2016/02/18/seen-for-syria-a-qa-with-soulaf-abas https://www.newsdeeply.com/syria/articles/2016/02/18/seen-for-syria-a-qa-with-soulaf-abas Syrian painter Soulaf Abas translates bloody images of her homeland she sees on the TV screen into works of art, in part to urge the casual viewer to reconsider the violence that has become normalized after five years of war, and in part to urge herself to come to terms with what Syria has become.