Soldat

Acrylic on Canvas
24x30
Sep-Oct 2006

Soldat with custom barbed-wire frame

I intended this painting to be a commentary on the horror of warfare. Seems these days we are all too accepting of sending our young men and women to fight wars for the good of the elite or some other cause whose worthiness is up for debate. I hoped to conjure the emotion of pure dispair, fatigue, and loss. I built the frame with the barbed wire, rusted bits of metal and scarring from fire and "shelling" to contribute to this effect. War is not a video game. It is not bloodless. It is very real. The trauma of which lingers with the solder long after the final round has been shot.

While in the middle of this painting, one of my very best friends died tragically. I've not been in the best of spirits (reason why I hadn't completed it earlier, as originally promised.) Upon hearing the awful news, and seeing my incomplete work almost simulatenously...I felt exactly what the painting represented. Therefore my intent has changed slightly. It is my representation of pure dispair, regardless of the guise it takes.

The feedback I have received so far has proven a point to me...you either "get it" or "you don't." Since Florida is the cultural abyss of the planet, I haven't met many who quite understand what is going on without having to explain it. I experience "Pure dispair" every time. It's a vicious cycle.

Painting Location: With Artist, Mary Esther, FL (SOLD)

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