TUM SAREN studied at the University of Fine Arts in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from 1980 to 1991, and received an M.F.A. In painting and lacquer work in 1991. He is presently a lecturer in painting at the Faculty of Plastic Arts of the Royal University of Fine Arts.

"I have painted three paintings on the theme 'Remains of War' in order to critique society and to express the suffering of the Khmer people during the last three decades. The picture entitled 'The Wait of the Orphans to pick up scraps of food' wished to show clearly that war leads only to destruction and despair. The countryside ordinarily is a place where people farm, thus growing things which fulfill their needs. These orphans, however, have no such place, nor a family or caring society to help them not to feel hunger."