Lamar Bisharat grew up in Tammoun, a small village near Nablus, filling sketchbook after sketchbook with characters, colors, and stories. Drawing and painting were not hobbies — they were how she made sense of the world and communicated what words sometimes couldn’t reach. Lamar has Asperger’s syndrome, and her way of seeing and processing the world around her shows in every piece she creates: precise, layered, and entirely her own.

At nine years old, Lamar joined Art to Heart. Over the six years that followed, she worked with Art to Heart’s trainers through intensive, long-term mentorship — developing her skills in portraiture, anime illustration, and visual storytelling. Art to Heart offered her more than technical training. It offered continuity — a creative home where her artistic practice could develop at her own pace, in her own direction.

Those years were not without difficulty. As Lamar moved into her teenage years, she began experiencing subtle but persistent exclusion and bullying. Her way of communicating set her apart, and not everyone around her knew how to meet her where she was. Her art absorbed what she couldn’t always say out loud. Her trainers at Art to Heart helped her channel those experiences directly into her work — and the work became sharper, more emotionally charged, more distinctly hers.

On 21 October 2024, Art to Heart organized Lamar’s first solo exhibition at her village school in Tammoun — a deliberate choice to celebrate her art at the heart of her own community, among the people who know her best. Surrounded by her family, classmates, and teachers, the exhibition traced her creative development from her earliest childhood sketches to the intricate works she produces today. For Lamar, being celebrated as an artist in her own school, in her own village, was not just a milestone — it was a moment of recognition that belonged to her completely. Alongside the exhibition, Art to Heart supported Lamar in launching her first storybook and coloring book — The Journey of Lamar and Ashqar — written and illustrated by her during her mentorship sessions at Art to Heart.

This was not a conclusion. Art to Heart’s work with Lamar continues — building the advanced technical and professional skills that will open real opportunities for her as an artist and illustrator.

Lamar is not a story about what art can do for persons with disabilities. She is an artist who happens to have Asperger’s syndrome, who has been working seriously at her craft for six years, and whose first solo exhibition at fifteen is the beginning of a professional creative life — not the peak of it.

Written by Suha Khuffash , Executive Director, Art to Heart Nablus, Palestine