WOMEN IN ART

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It was during the filming of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in Cambodia that Angelina Jolie first became aware of worldwide humanitarian crises. After contactingUNHCR for information about international trouble spots, Angelina began visiting refugee camps in these areas to learn more about the conditions there.

In February 2001, she went on her first field visit, an 18-day mission to Sierra Leone and Tanzania and later expressed her shock at what she had witnessed there. During the following months, she returned to Cambodia and met with Afghan refugees in Pakistan where she donated $1 million in response to an international UNHCR emergency appeal. She insisted on covering all costs related to her missions and shared the same rudimentary working and living conditions as UNHCR field staff on all of her visits.

On August 27th, 2001 Angelina was named a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva. Since then, she has been on field missions around the world and met with refugees and internally displaced people on 20 different countries. "I hope to raise awareness of the plight of these people. I think they should be commended for what they have survived, not looked down upon."

Angelina uses her public profile to promote humanitarian causes through the mass media. Over time, she became more involved in promoting humanitarian causes on a political level and she has established several charitable organisations including the Maddox Jolie Project in 2003 (renamed the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation in 2007) which is dedicated to eradicating extreme rural poverty, protecting natural resources, and conserving wildlife in Cambodia's northwestern province of Battambang, the birthplace of her son Maddox. In 2006 she partnered with Global Health Committee director Dr. Anne Goldfeld to establish the Maddox Chivan Children's Centre, a daycare facility for children afflicted and affected by HIV in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh and in that same year, she and Brad Pitt announced the founding to the Jolie-Pitt Foundation which made initial donations to Global Action for Children and Doctors Without Borders of $1 million each.

Angelina co-chairs the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, which she co-founded with noted economist Dr. Gene Sperling in 2007 and the partnership funds education programs for children affected by conflict. In 2008, she founded Kids In Need of Defense, which provides free legal-aid to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children with no legal representation.

Angelina Jolie has received wide recognition for her humanitarian work. In 2003, she was the first recipient of the Citizen of the World Award by the United Nations Correspondents Association and, in 2005, she was awarded the Global Humanitarian Award by the UNA-USA.

Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni awarded Jolie Cambodian citizenship for her conservation work in the country on July 31, 2005 and in 2007, she received the Freedom Award by the International Rescue Committee.

About the Artist

Tracie Koziura has been exhibiting her art internationally since 2008. Her biggest passion is wolves which are the main subject of her work although she also enjoys creating a variety of other subjects including landscapes, portraits, wildlife and domestic animals. Specialising in pastels, charcoal and tinted graphite, Tracie's images are realistic, inviting the viewer to connect with the subjects character and inner spirit. Despite being a relative newcomer to the world of art her work has been described as sensitive, adventurous and alive.

"I love the freedom creating art gives me; to explore; to study; to learn about the world around me and all that exists within it. Art has opened my eyes to so many things I had taken for granted - unique subtleties I had been too busy to notice. When I paint, the world comes to a halt; the details of life come into focus. It is truly addictive, this desire to create!"

Exhibitions:
2009 Summer Art Exhibition - UK.
2009/2010 Christmas Open Exhibition - UK.

Media:
Nov 2009 - Interview with The Pastel Guild of Europe.
Nov 2009 - Art feature in SAA PAINT - "Defiant Harmony"

Contests:
Oct 2009 - Pastel Guild of Europe Juried Art Contest winner - "Winter Watch"
Apr 2011 - The Artist In YOU! Artist of The Year 2011 Award - "Silent Witness"