A Soldiers Art
My love for portraits in the visual arts as well as literature informs my pursuits in Studio Art. In addition to visual representations of American lives, I am interested in the rivaling depictions in them in biographies, memoirs, short stories, poetry in addition to historical works. I am focusing on veterans’ portraits as I try to find the spirit of the soldier. My father was a marine in Vietnam and as an adolescent, he encouraged me to join the marines and to go to a military language school in Monterey, California. As an adolescent I had no interest in joining the marines, but after my father’s death, I wanted to understand more about him and his experience in the military. I remember my father not really wanting to talk about his military service, but he watched Ken Burn’s Civil War documentary. I recently watched Ken Burns series on the Vietnam War to learn a little of what he went through. Because the series was so good, I watched his film on the Civil War. I began to read about wars and soldiering in general and about the marines in particular. I decided to focus on the Civil War and have joined the Blue and Gray Society in order to get advice on books to read and now have contacts with current artists who create Civil War art.
I feel that I can best portray veterans in clay and in watercolor. I love realism and have discovered that there has been a resurgence in learning from the masters. The Art Renewal Center is leading the way in realism. It is a center that promotesthe tradition of realism with its museum of master works that are available for download. ARC maintains lists of affiliatedartists who are considered to be living masters and sells nineteenth century books which represent the flowering of Realismand Naturalism in art. I purchased the Bargue-Gerome Drawing Course which is a complete reprint of a famous, late nineteenth century drawing course. It contains a set of almost two hundred masterful lithographs of subjects for copying by drawing students before they attempt drawing from life or nature. At the time of publication, it was still assumed that imitation of nature was the principle goal of the artist and that the most important subject for the artist was the human body. With great care, I am introduced to continually more difficult problems in the close observing and recording of nature. I have been copying the plates in the first section in order to improve my painting and sculpting skills.
I became interested in ARC as I became disillusioned with modern art. Personally, I find more satisfaction in viewing art that is based in realism no matter how fantastic the subject than in observing modernist art. I want to learn the craft of realism in watercolor and in clay portraits. It has been a struggle to find artists who teach the craft of realism. Putney Painters in Putney Vermont is an atelier that offers workshops with living masters. The atelier was begun by the artist Richard Schmid whose book Alla Prima II: Everything I know about painting- and more has become something of a Bible to me. The book offers to the artist the wisdom and technical savvy of a classical education and a lifetime of painting and teaching in Direct Painting. I made Schmid’s color charts using his twelve colors of paint. Each chart has 60 colors that have been mixed with one of his twelve colors. I spent hours this past Spring creating the charts.
I am also interested in creating self-portraits. Self-Portraiture has existed for 1000s of years. Self-Portraits in sculpture are more numerous than paintings being that sculpture is more durable. Sculpture is my concentration at Colby-Sawyer and I have taken workshops with Philippe Faraut, a sculptor who works in clay, wax, stone, porcelain and bronze. He is an expert in ethnic differences and forensics. I hope to improve my ability to create likenesses in my works. I hope in the future to represent various human qualities in my sculpture like hope or determination or sadness and anger in addition to portraying the aspects of war that are dehumanizing. Most cases of PTSD come from soldiers killing others-not from fear of being killed. I would like to explore the depth of emotions in soldiers and their expressions of grief. The common soldier is asked to kill but officers in the military usually do not have to kill anyone. I would like to explore the dynamics of officer and soldier relations and try to portray their relationship in a group of sculpture. I hope to find opportunities to sculpt while working at a military museum, possibly getting commissions through the museum.
As for my watercolors, I use transparent and arbitrary colors. My watercolor portraits have improved in quality. I use layer after layer of colors and even the washes alternate warm and cool in the background. I am experimenting with arbitrary color and dots of color this semester in watercolor. I know that I shouldn’t even think of a background but think of a painting as a target and increase emphasis as I get to more important areas that I want to focus on. I try to find the narrative in the painting. I think what is the story of this piece. Is it the eyes or maybe it is the hands that I want to focus upon.
The paintings that connect me to a sense of beauty in the relationship of the parts have created my love of realism. But the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. When I go to an art show, I look for connections to others work and I hope to make connections to my own work. I hope that I will be able to connect to something in my memory of my father. My homage to his military life will incorporate my portraits of veterans along with their stories I have obtained in interviews. I hope to be to portray the spirit of the veteran and my spirit in my Self-Portraits. My pieces have enlarged my world. I hope to enlarge my audience’s world as I try to make connections to my audience. Working in realism and improving my skills is a way for me to make these connections. I am trying to find the spirit of veterans in sculpture and watercolor as a kind of homage to my dad. I think that I wish I had gone into the marines but it is too late now. But I hope to work for a military museum after graduation. My subject is also my audience.