Far From My Mothers Home. The Soldier and The General.

Both pieces: 48x60". acrylic and pastel on canvas

These are two main attractions of my new show and both are part of the same series "Far From My Mother's Home." The idea was to do portraits of people at war. The first is a soldier...the second, a general. Both are blurred, abstracted and torn apart by what they've experienced and what they've had to do, but as the title says, it was far from their mother's home...or far from who they really are or what they are used to.

I get tired of hearing so much negativity toward certain groups of people just because they happen to be involved or their job dictate their actions. We all do it to meter maids, cops, and cashiers all the time...but I really doubt too many of those people to go their jobs and say "I'm gonna screw with people and ruin days."

It might happen, but I don't think most have a personal desire to do it.

Carried into the more serious realm, war, many of the people involved, I think, are much like you or me; They would rather not be there...they don't personally hate the people they are fighting...they don't wake up with the desire to kill. I know there are exceptions and many of them, I just don't think it's fair to apply those exceptions to everyone.

The main point here is to present these people as they really are to us...anonymous people who happen to get a stereotype applied to them because of their involvement with war. We have no idea who they are personally, we have no idea what each of them believes, we have no reason to assume they enjoy the atrocities that are happening...but we group them into our "hate" of war and violence and they lose their humanity.  I'd like to call attention to that and to express the idea that we really have no concept of who these people are or what they are going through. We have no reason to hate them, just what they are involved with...when they return to their homes, they are just like you or I.

Both pieces can be seen at Daniel's new show "We Are Giants." Opening tomorrow...
http://marionart23.blogspot.com/2012/09/far-from-my-mothers-home-soldier-and.html?spref=fb

NOTE: This does NOT apply to people who perform horrendous atrocities during war...just the people who are hated because they are associated to those atrocities through their connection with the military.