'Dennis'
Viet Nam 1968-69
20x20 torn paper collage
Unfinished portrait of Dennis with Photo
Dennis, a very good friend of ours, emailed me and ask me if I would do his portrait from Viet Nam for his wife for Christmas, and it not only scared me to death, but also honor that he would trust me with it.
I told him I would try but no promises. When he sent his pictures they made me cry, at the thought of what he and his wife and family went through knowing he was in such danger. Every picture he sent me had a special story about it. I printed out some some of his writing, and put it on the edges of the canvas. I printed his photos out, and made them in a gray color, and put them in it too.Their daughter was born while he was gone so her birth date is on it.
There is a lot of history , sadness, courage, honor, bravery and love in his story. I was surprised at some of the words I was able to find to go on it, that was just the right thing.
He decided to give it to his wife on Veterans day instead of waiting for Christmas. We are very fortunate to have men and women who will go and serve and defend our wonderful country., no matter what their part was. I am married to one myself.
And I want to say Thank you to Dennis for sharing this time of his life with all of us. It has been a long time coming. I am very honored to have gotten to do this for him and his family.
