Joe Bonham Exhibit, UNC Charlotte

The opening night took place from 4:30-6pm on Tuesday, May 22nd at the UNCC Student Union Gallery. In order to make it on time to my own opening, I was forced to ditch Geology class a half-hour early. When I arrived, the gallery space was already open to the public, and I was greeted by a camera man from Carolina News 14.

The Joe Bonham Project represents the efforts of wartime illustrators to document the struggles of U.S. service personnel undergoing rehabilitation after traumatic front-line injury. The project was founded in early 2011 by Mike Fay, and is based on the central character in Johnny Got His Gun, a 1938 novel written by Dalton Trumbo. The project has been exhibited in three different states: New York, Virginia, & now North Carolina.

Here are some pictures of the opening.

Front entrance into gallery.

 Carolina News 14 cameraman taking shots of our work. 

Me, in mid-interview, with Carolina News 14.

Mingling.

Victor Juhasz's wall.

Me and my awesome beard.

Jeff Fisher's wall.

Mike Fay's wall.

Aside from local TV coverage courtesy of Carolina News 14, (which I plan to post to the blog when I get my hands on the clip), the Joe Bonham Project in Charlotte also received some very nice publicity in several city papers, including: Charlotte Observer, Charlotte Examiner, & the Morning Call.

 The Charlotte Observer

 Charlotte Examiner

The Morning Call

On a seperate front, the Joe Bonham Project made the New York Times featuring my good friends Victor Juhasz and Jeff Fisher on one of their sketching trips to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. 

New York Times

It's nice to see that Joe Bonham Project is getting the coverage that it deserves. As artists, our job is to tell the stories of America's wounded through art, and the only way that these stories are going to get told successfully is through coverage. We have another show coming up for the entire month of November at the Pepco Edison Gallery in Washington, D.C. We hope to have some of the wounded portrayed in our work in attendance also. The day of the opening night is still unknown. Details will follow.

Watercolor Experiment

Last summer Victor Juhasz, Mike Fay, and I were invited to sketch at a Troops First Foundation sponsored event at the Chevy Chase Golf Course in D.C. Most of the service personnel in attendance were amputees from Walter Reed Army Medical Center. For us, the better part of the day was spent following these guys around from hole to hole trying to capture any little gesture that we could muster onto paper. Evidently, I think I had a much harder time doing this than Victor, who is a freak of nature when it comes to life sketching. There were times, however, when I did snap a few action shots with my camera and, ever since that day, those pictures had been tucked away in an SD card, collecting lots and lots of dust.

Just recently, I decided to be different, to stray away from my comfort zone (the pencil) and go bold. I used watercolor.

It's very rare that I use color for the fact that I am red/green color-blind. I can see red and green, but in a slightly different way than most other people. I have trouble distinguishing values. 

These paintings were done from photographs that I took before the start of the golf tournament.

Random Soldier. Watercolor on 15x11 watercolor paper.

Random Soldier. Watercolor on 15x11 watercolor paper.

It took 2-3 hours to do each piece. I tried not to try too hard, if that makes any sense. The look that I was going for was "controlled chaos with a sense of immediacy". As far as painting is concerned, I still have a long way to go. But with more practice, I believe that I will develop into a damn fine painter.

I look to experiment with other media as time moves on.

Flipping Tires

"I remember landing on my stomach right after the explosion. Concerned, I started to look around to see who stepped on it. But then the pain kicked in---and I realized it was me."

Sgt. Adam Jacks was a squad leader with Lima Company, Battalion Landing Team 3/8 of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit when he lost half of his right leg to an Improvised Explosive Device while on a foot patrol in southern Afghanistan. Already a battle-hardened veteran from the previous deployment, Jacks was no stranger to close calls. This time, however, the Taliban had his number and, on the morning of 3 April 2011, Jacks' physical and mental fortitude would be put to the ultimate test.

So here I was with Sgt. Jacks 8 months later at one of the many gyms aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. His mission: to workout feverishly like a raging lunatic. My mission: to sketch and take pictures of him while in beast-mode. Jacks wasted no time, first hitting the kettle bells, and then the tire.

After a few minutes of sketching Jacks while on the move, I decided that I would just be better off taking photos instead and then work from them when I got back to the studio. The gym was virtually empty, with the exception of one employee. So essentially, Jacks had the whole place to himself.

In between breaks, Jacks talked about his aspirations for becoming the Marine Corps first combat amputee Drill Instructor. He also discussed how important it was for him to remain in the infantry, and how leading Marines was his life. Jacks didn't want special treatment, just another shot.

I then took a seat on the tire right next to Jacks and asked him to dig deep and to tell me what happened on the morning he was hit. 

"It was around 0847 when my squad was tasked to destroy an enemy listening & observation post. When we made our movement to the LP/OP, there was a loud explosion to our south. CAAT Black was on a dismounted patrol aprox 400 meters to our south. During this time I was tossing JP8 upon the LP/OP and was about to throw the thremite grenade when I turned around to tell the squad that as soon as I was done we are going to support CAAT Black. As soon as I turned back around I had stepped on a pressure plate improvised explosive device. The IED blew me up in the air then landed on my stomach. Once on the ground, I looked up at my first team leader and told no one to move to me because of the secondary IED'S and such.... I did not know I was the one who was hit until I rolled over and seen that I was badly wounded. I proceeded to call out to my squad corpsman and to issue orders to my team leaders..."

"...and this is where the shrapnel blew through my leg...probably the worst pain of my life" 

While pointing to the scar tissue on his inner left thigh, Jacks described the immense pain that he felt when shrapnel [from the blast] tore right through his flesh. Oddly enough, he admitted that the mangled leg didn't hurt nearly as bad as the leg that was fully intact. 

"I still get phantom pains every now and again. It's something that I'll probably have to deal with for the rest of my life"

In the end, Sgt. Jacks was awarded the Purple Heart medal for wounds received, and the Bronze Star medal with Combat Distinguishing Device (valor) for his actions on April 3rd. Today he is back with 3/8 and, despite his disability, he continues to stay motivated, setting the bar high for junior Marines to emulate.

Big Pine

"The pilot [Schwab] executed a superb, basically miraculous landing without power..." 
                                       -Capt. Christopher Maitin, U.S. Army (engineer on board) 
 

Late last fall I received an email from a Mrs. Karen Schwab requesting for a portrait to be drawn of her deceased husband, Chief Warrant Officer Jeffry C. Schwab, U.S. Army. As you may or may not know, I am usually immersed with requests but, for whatever reason, this one really caught my eye. When we think about "Gold Star parents", or "Gold Star spouses", naturally, we tend to think about families who had suffered the loss of a service member from the current War on Terror. Most of us, however, seem to forget about the mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, and even the children of those who were killed in smaller, less publicized contingencies.

Ever heard of the Big Pine II Maneuvers?

Neither have I, until Karen sent me the link to a Time Magazine article titled Off Course and Under Fire, describing what had happened on the tragic morning of 11 January 1984 during a routine flight over Honduras.

CW2 Jeffry Schwab deployed to Honduras in December of 1983, in support of the Big Pine II Maneuvers. He left behind his wife Karen, and two boys Brandon & Jason (2 years old / 10 months old). Big Pine II was an extensive military exercise in Honduras that involved up to 5,000 U.S. military personell. According to this link, its purpose was to demonstrate the ability of United States military forces to operate in Central America and to persuade the Sandinista government of Nicaragua to desist from fomenting insurrection in the region.

I was literally an infant when this was happening.

Anyway, I returned Karen's email and told her to count me in [on the project]. Karen was willing to commission me for the piece, but I refused payment as I never charge Gold Star families. A few months later, Karen and I shared a phone conversation that lasted nearly 3 hours. She explained, in vivid detail, what had happened the day she heard her doorbell ring and, through the peephole, saw what she feared the most. Her accounts were chilling.

I immediately grabbed my pencils and went to work.

CW2 Jeffry Schwab, Graphite on Bristol. 

This picture was meant to be much larger, but accidents happen and the only way to salvage the remainder of the piece was to cut it down to an odd size. Nevertheless, I made it work and had it matted and shipped to Karen for Valentines day---sort of as a gift from Jeff himself, but through me. 

Upon receipt, Karen graciously sent me her thanks. She loved the drawing and had found a special place in her home for it. She forwarded me this picture.

A week later I received a very nice card from Jeff's younger sister, Robyn, and a week after that I received another card, but this time from Jeff's mother, Helen. It was all too moving, and I have a special place where I keep such tokens of appreciation.

Even though the portrait went to Karen, Jeff's mom wasn't going away empty handed. For months, Karen supplied me with several images of Jeff, along with information on what may have happened on that fateful day when his bird went down. For quite some time, I had been tinkering around with an idea of a collage. There was even a moment when I was working on what I thought was going to be "the one", but frustration got the best of me when I lost control of the drawing while experimenting with chalk. I had to can it (seen below).

The drawing of CW2 Schwab that never was...

Despite the latest morale-plundering disapointment, I continued to push forward in my studio. I started to study each picture that I had of Jeff. I began reading deeper into the several newspaper articles involving the incident. I also started to take into account everything that Karen previously told me over the phone. In the end, I came up with something that I felt was fitting. I'll explain:

CW2 Schwab conducting pre-flight checks just days before his death.

As a reader, the Time Magazine article Off Course and Under Fire leaves a lot to be desired. I encourage you to take a glance...
  

Obviously, there was, and still is, a lot of confliction as to what actually took place that morning. Did the wind take the bird across the border? Not according to the weather forecast. Was it pilot error? Not according to the two engineers that were on board. Then what happened?

I purposly left this drawing unfinished because there are still several questions that remain unanswered. The piece represents two things:

• Jeff doing what he loves the most in his final days alive, and
• the unreconciled accounts of what took place the morning that he was killed.

CW2 Schwab was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and the Meritorious Service Medal for his sacrifices that day. It's been 28 years since his death but, to family and friends, he is still very much alive.

Random Life Sketches II

"Fantastic! Now try, just humor me, and draw without worrying about absolute accuracy. Explore a less formal side to your drawing..."

This was said via facebook by Victor Juhasz, a Board member for the Society of Illustrators after posting my last entry titled Random Life Sketches I. A week later, a box of woodless pencils and a brand new Mole Skin pad arrived at my door step---courtesy of Victor. Enclosed in the package was a note that read:

All you owe me are loose, relaxed, I-don't-give-a-shit drawings.

-Victor

I accepted his challenge by dedicating all of my free time yesterday to capturing gestures and working loose. Seriously, I just let the shit rip. It was awesome.

Between classes I would hit up the different buildings around campus looking for something simple to sketch, particularly someone sleeping (which is extremely common at UNC Charlotte). With little effort, I found just that in the lobby of the Rowe Arts building.

The next batch of sketches were from other parts of the campus throughout the course of the day. My goal was to spend no longer than 10-12 minutes on each sketch.

The sketch below is of another snoozer, this time in the Atkins Library. I couldn't finish the sketch because the very large black man that I was drawing woke up glancing at me with a stern look of disapproval. To savor my life, I casually walked away.

I couldn't finish this one either. I was literally 10 seconds into sketching, when my subject (a female) packed up her belongings and left. She was also not in the mood to be drawn.

After my last class, right before my shift at work, I felt the urge to do some hand studies.

And earlier today, my son was able to sit relatively still for about 8-10 minutes to get in a quick sketch of him.

Lastly, I sketched my grandmother-in-law, Geraldine Holthouser. 

But not only did I sketch her, I had my wife tape it. It was actually her idea that the whole "process" be filmed.

All in all, I had a lot of fun stepping out of my comfort zone and into something more free. On the flip-side, I am currently in the beginning stages of one of my notoriously photo-realistic pieces. If you keep up with my facebook page, you will know that this drawing is for a Gold Star wife of a fallen Army pilot who was killed in action while conducting joint-exercise manuevers in Hondorus (1984).

This is a teaser. Remember, what you are seeing is just a small part of the drawing.

Stay classy.