The Military Artist

Although Veterans’ Day has past, I did not get a chance to discuss or show my support in a blog post so I want to mention a few items of note in this one. We have so much to thank our Veterans for. I’m thinking of this as I travel to New Orleans for a family reunion. I think of my many blessings of family as Thanksgiving comes around and the incredible sacrifices military families have given with service and loss to their country — all for our gain and to preserve the American way of life and freedom.

I was glad to see the army has kept its long tradition of official artists to document ongoing wars and military history. Sgt. Martin J. Cervantez was profiled in the Washington Post recently for his painting and military service as one of the army’s official artists. Here is some of his work

This last painting is interesting to me because the light on the military personnel’s shirt in the foreground is painted in such a way to suggest that the commander has a priestly robe – the duplicity of wearing both military garb and performing the role of making life and death decisions. I’m not sure if this is intentional, but it’s what I first thought of when I saw it.

Here is the link to all the galleries of the Army’s official military artists at the U.S. Center for Military History. Viewing the other artist’s works is well worth the click.

Here’s a previous post I wrote on Combat Art for Veteran’s Day last year and another post on The Art of Camouflage.

Another mention regarding Eric Grohe’s military mural, Liberty Remembers, the artist is described in this article as still being moved even though his public art is now 10 years old.

Ocean City, Maryland has a new Veteran’s Day Mural by Carla Migliaccio.

Since I haven’t added music here in a while, here’s a little Talking Heads, Life During Wartime, to Kick Start the Weekend. I always feel like I should be doing an aerobic exercise when listening to this music. As it turns out, I probably was when dancing to it in college but now,  just watching the video wears me out!