I'll be showing this painting up in Haliburton, at Rail's End Gallery, in October. I'd been thinking about doing this piece though it clearly falls into the category of unnecessary. The photo is good at getting the point across: Three guys who spend their days and night shuttling folk and material around Kabul pose for a photo at the request of the war artist who's about to fly home.
There's risk involved in their job— there always is, but at the same time, they know how to do it and seemed to enjoy the gig well enough.
I guess this is the sort of painting that gets done to honour the hard work and sacrifice of the troops: Something totally worthwhile and meaningful, but not really what I'm focusing on so far as my practice and this project go.
However, the curator up at Rail's End told me that some folk (maybe just one, but more than likely there's more) in town have the predictable, conservative reaction when they hear an artist from Toronto is doing a show about the military: They assume it's lefty peacenik reactionism. A loving depiction of three guys posing in gear seemed like a nice way to give the skeptics exactly what they claim to want but assume professional contemporary artists won't give.
