(Sounds of restaurant) Yidan Guo: Good morning!

This is your coffee with two creamer, two sugars.

Now we'll bring this coffee to there.

NARRATOR: FROM FIVE IN THE MORNING UNTIL ONE IN THE AFTERNOON, YIDAN GUO IS A PICTURE OF ENERGY, AS SHE SCURRIES TO COMPLETE ORDERS AT A MCDONALD'S IN POCATELLO, IDAHO.

Guo: Where do you need the bacon?

(Music) Guo: It is very tricky.

NARRATOR: BUT AS SOON AS SHE CAN, GUO IS HARD AT WORK ON ANOTHER PICTURE, ONE OF HER OWN CHOOSING.

Guo: Eventually I will get there.

Just takes more time.

NARRATOR: AN ARTIST FROM CHINA, GUO'S EXPERTESE IS WATERCOLOR PORTRAITS.

Guo: I feel there are a lot of potential in watercolor beyond most people's expectation with watercolor or understanding with watercolor.

I love when I can make watercolor look as rich, as deep, as solid as a piece of oil painting.

Holding two brushes is specifically from my previous training with Chinese "meticulous painting."

One is for coloring, the other one is for blending.

The major feature of watercolor is if you make a mistake, you can't cover it up.

So that is scary.

NARRATOR: BUT GUO IS NO STRANGER TO TAKING RISKS.

IN 2013, SHE LEFT HER JOB AS A PROFESSOR IN CHINA TO TEACH AT SOUTHERN UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY.

THEN, IN 2019, SHE MOVED TO POCATELLO TO GET A MASTER'S DEGREE FROM IDAHO STATE UNIVERSITY.

ALONG THE WAY, SHE FELL IN LOVE WITH THE UNITED STATES -- BECOMING A PERMANENT RESIDENT.

Guo: I felt the, the freedom I get here, which I did not get in my own country.

And also, that just I have this dream to develop my art, and I want to freely express myself.

NARRATOR: THAT FREEDOM, THOUGH, HASN'T COME WITHOUT CHALLENGES.

Guo: At the beginning, the language barrier was a big problem for me.

I still felt that I was an outsider.

And this feeling still, uh, is here.

NARRATOR: AND AFTER A RELATIONSHIP ENDED, HER WORLD CAVED IN.

Guo: At that time, my life hit a bottom, rock bottom.

So I thought, "Oh, maybe I need to do a portrait on myself."

And at that moment I thought that I have always been pretending that I'm fine, I'm good.

But what if I don't look pretty in the photo?

What if I just show an authentic version of myself?

I need to face myself.

I need to face life.

So I paint everything.

Those paintings almost became a channel for me to, to express myself, to channel to my, um, emotions.

Being a real artist, you can't be only true to others and avoid yourself.

Guo: Welcome to McDonald's.

Will (you) be using your mobile app today?

NARRATOR: SO GUO GOT THE JOB AT MCDONALD'S TO PAY THE BILLS.

AT FIRST, IT WAS A SHOCK.

Guo: That is something unimaginable to me.

Especially to Chinese, if you received higher education, you were a respectful faculty, a professor in the university.

And now you work at McDonald's?

That's something unimaginable to me.

NARRATOR: TWO YEARS LATER, THOUGH, IT'S BECOME AN IMPORTANT PART OF HER LIFE.

Guo: This job gives me the opportunity to get to know the real world, the real society and get to know the real Americans, the real people living daily lives.

NARRATOR: AND HER STRUGGLES ALSO LED TO AN EPIPHANY.

Guo: I wonder how the other women felt like, how their immigrant journey looked like.

NARRATOR: SO SHE BEGAN PAINTING THE PORTRAITS OF OTHER FEMALE IMMIGRANTS TO THE UNITED STATES.

Guo: They're hard workers, and they developed this resilience in them, which is something very, very good.

Guo: So thank you for accepting my invitation to participate.

Bahija Karim: Oh, you're welcome.

NARRATOR: TODAY SHE'S MEETING TWO OF HER NEWEST SUBJECTS: BAHIJA KARIM, A FORMER REFUGEE FROM AFGHANISTAN WHO RUNS A RESTAURANT, AND JUDITH LUBEMBA, WHO SPENT MOST OF HER LIFE IN A REFUGEE CAMP IN ZAMBIA AND NOW WORKS IN HEALTH CARE.

Lubemba: My parents are both Congolese.

They came from Congo.

NARRATOR: BEFORE SHE EVER PICKS UP A PAINTBRUSH, GUO INTERVIEWS THE WOMEN IN DEPTH.

Guo: Can you tell me the reason that how you, uh, had to leave your country?

Karim: The Taliban hit Kabul and we flee Afghanistan.

And they threw bomb in our house.

Guo: These interviews are so important for me to get to know them, get to know the story, get to feel.

I want to feel their feelings.

And helps me to deepen my art.

Bahija's son: She got news that her parents passed away and she just, she was just very sad that she wasn't able to see her family.

Guo: You never saw them?

Karim: No.

Guo: Your parents passed away in Afghanistan?

Guo: I'm sorry.

Lubemba: Life becomes so difficult and so limited.

Guo: Right.

Lubemba: You can't travel to other cities.

Guo: Right.

Lubemba: You can't have a certain job.

AFTER THE CONVERSATIONS, SHE TAKES PHOTOS.

(Camera click) Guo: Yeah, that's nice.

Pause.

NARRATOR: BACK IN POCATELLO, GUO GOES THROUGH THE IMAGES TO CHOOSE THE ONES SHE'LL PAINT.

THEN SHE ALWAYS STARTS WITH A DRAWING.

Guo: So with watercolor, it's different from, like, acrylic or oil.

You have to have a very, very detailed, solid foundation as your drawing part, as watercolor is transparent.

So there's no room for mistake.

It's not easy to step into the painting process.

You need to start with some kind of thing, almost like a ritual.

I start with a big brush, with washing, with big brush strokes and start to, to, bring myself into that mood.

NARRATOR: ONE OF HER SIGNATURE TECHNIQUES IS TO ALLOW THE PAINT TO RANDOMLY DRIP.

IT'S A METHOD SHE FIRST SAW USED BY ONE OF HER FAVORITE ARTISTS, THE CHINESE-BORN AMERICAN PAINTER HUNG LIU.

Guo: She even named her technique as "weeping realism."

So I thought, "Wow, that's perfect."

Because all the turmoil, all the emotional swing in them can be reflected in this dripping technique.

And sometimes when I paint, a sudden emotion just invade in me and I start to, to, to   sobbing, to tearing, to cry with myself.

But I keep painting.

(Sound of car going by.)

Guo: It's my great honor to be presenting today at the Northwest Conference on Resettlement.

A FEW MONTHS LATER, GUO SHOWS BOTH PAINTINGS, ALONG WITH OTHERS IN THE SERIES, TO A STATE CONFERENCE ON REFUGEES.

Guo: The project explores the topics of migration, displacement, fluid identities, and humanity.

Guo: Just take a look.

JUDITH STOPS BY THE EVENT TO SEE THE PORTRAIT OF HERSELF.

Guo: The last one is yours here.

Lubemba: Oh, wow.

Woo!

Guo: Do you remember?

Lubemba: Yeah, this is so beautiful, very good.

It's just exactly like a photo, like.

Guo: Yeah?

Lubemba: Wow.

I'm so happy.

(Laughs.)

This is a good job.

Guo: Thank you, thank you.

Guo: Are you ready?

GUO ALSO GOES TO BAHIJA'S RESTAURANT TO SHOW HER HER PORTRAIT.

Karim: Oh, wow.

Guo: Do you remember?

Karim: Yeah, thank you so much.

It's beautiful.

Guo: I'm one of us.

I'm one of you.

So I really understand you.

And I myself, still, I'm struggling in life, so I understand your struggles.

Nothing stops us from stop.

We just keep moving forward and hope (the) future gets better.

Karim: Yes, we have a hope for the future.

Guo: Yes.

The transformative experience among first-generation immigrants, it's very, very, very huge.

And this feeling of being an outsider or living in between is something like engraved in our soul, in our blood.

And I want them to know how wonderful they are and how much influence they have on me, and how much people should understand them, support them, and respect them.