[From the diaries -- Hunter]
NPR had a piece this evening on the opening of the Faces of the Fallen exhibit in Washington DC. This collective work of art first came to my attention when our local paper printed a story on it a couple of weeks ago.
From the website Faces of the Fallen
The exhibit opens March 23, 2005 in the Women In Military Service For America Memorial at the gateway to Arlington National Cemetery and will be on display through September 5, 2005. It features over 1,000 portraits of America's fallen heroes, representing those who have been lost through November 11, 2004. More than 150 American artists are working from previously published photographs to create the images. Personnel for whom photographs are not available will be individually identified and represented by service-appropriate silhouettes.
Well-known Washington portrait artist Annette Polan, inspired by the newspaper photos and the stories that accompanied them, conceived the project and recruited the artists. Polan explains that portraiture is a time-honored way to pay meaningful tribute to the dead. She quotes Vincent van Gogh who believed that portraits are a way into the heart and soul of the subject. "I would sooner paint people's eyes than cathedrals, for there is something in the eyes that is lacking in a cathedral, however impressive it might be."
My words can never do justice this exhibit. I'm planning to visit DC during Spring Break in April and I just want to mention what I expect to see there.
I expect to see an artists portrait of my wife's cousin, Seth Dvorin, who was killed in Iraq on Feb. 3, 2004.
A cousin my children will never have a chance to meet. Seth's Mom, Sue Niederer has been a tireless voice in the struggle to end this madness. She is known to most of you as the woman who challenged Laura Bush in public and was arrested for it.
I expect to see the portrait of a hometown boy, Kevin Kimmerly, who was killed in Iraq in September, 2003, and who's funeral procession passed by my door on it's way to his final resting place about a mile from here.
This picture was taken during the ceremony and still haunts me. I did a posting on this at the Bartcop forum the day of the funeral that sums up my feelings at the time.
I expect to see the sad, weary faces of others coming to see how their loved ones are mirrored through the eyes of strangers.
But I expect that some these things I see, I will see through the tears in my eyes.