Veterans Day & Art

Veterans Day - Memorial Murals

The third mural in a series of three will be unveiled this Veterans Day in Amherst, Ohio.

Mike Sekletar first completed a reproduction of the famous Iwo Jima flag raising photograph on Iwo Jima during World War II in 2011.

In 2013, Sekletar added a mural based on a painting of a veteran visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

This year, the artist is completing the series with a tribute to veterans of the Korean War. Various roles of our military in that war are represented, such as nurses, combat soldiers, aircraft, and a battleship.

The Korean War mural will be dedicated today in a ceremony in Amherst. Murals are often used to honor soldiers, battles, and particularly veterans for their service.

SOURCES:

cleveland.com,. 'Third Mural Joins Tribute To Veterans In Amherst'. N. p., 2015. Web. 5 Nov. 2015.

U.S. Military Memorial Sculptures

In honor of Veterans Day, our Art segment will focus on sculptures that serve as military memorials. This is the United States Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C. The memorial consists of a round, granite amphitheater with fountains, pools, flagpole masts, and sculptural panels. The historic achievements of the U.S. Navy are put on display there, along with a statue of a lone sailor near the edge of the plaza. This memorial was dedicated on October 13, 1987.

This memorial near Arlington Cemetery honors those who have served in the U.S. Air Force. The American designer also designed the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The Air Force monument was unveiled on October 14, 2006. The three memorial spires range from 201 feet to 270 feet high and appear to be soaring. The design is meant to depict the moves of the Air Force Thunderbirds in a bomb burst maneuver. The three spires without a fourth is deliberate. It is meant to suggest the missing man formation used for funeral fly-overs.

This statue near Arlington Cemetery is based off of a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph, captured by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press. The photograph shows a group of six Marines raising a flag in Iwo Jima after Marine Divisions invaded the island to capture a mountain-top. President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicated the 32-foot-high memorial on November 10, 1954 to all U.S. Marine Corp personnel who have died in the defense of the U.S. since 1775.

The names of over 58,000 Americans who were Killed in Action or Missing in Action during the Vietnam War are carved in this memorial's 246-foot-nine-inch-long walls. Around 3 million people visit this memorial every year in Washington, D.C.

This memorial in Washington D.C. was established in 1993 for women in the U.S. who served in the Vietnam War. 265,000 women risked their lives during that war to assist wounded soldiers.

On July 27, 1995, this memorial in Washington, D.C. was dedicated for the 5.8 million Americans who served in the U.S. armed services during the Korean War. The memorial depicts 19 approximately seven-foot-tall stainless steel statues, wearing ponchos and standing in patches of Juniper bushes.

This sculpture outside the Wounded Warrior West site at Camp Pendleton was modeled after a photo taken during a battle in Iraq in 2004. A wounded soldier is helped from house-to-house fighting by two other soldiers. The sculpture is titled, “No Man Left Behind”. The sculpture project was supported by Hope for the Warriors, a nationwide nonprofit that assists Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families.

These are just a few of many sculptures located throughout the nation that honor our military.

Norman Rockwell's Soldier Art

The painting on the left is called, The American Way. It shows an American soldier feeding a young barefoot girl. Rockwell was honoring how American soldiers would show kindness to people when they were stationed in a foreign country. Rockwell called that kindness, “The American Way”. The painting on the right is called, O’er the Land of the Free. It has a similar theme to The American Way painting. Rockwell is showing the kindness of an American soldier as he works with two children of live in the country where he has been sent.

"To Make Men Free" was painted by Norman Rockwell in 1943. It depicted soldiers from all the wars which the United States fought from the Revolutionary to her entry into WWII.

Norman Rockwell’s Thanksgiving 1943 Saturday Evening Post cover showed an Italian refugee girl seeking warmth from an American soldier’s jacket. She has a meager meal on her lap. Rockwell’s painting pointed out how American soldiers fighting in Italy during World War II were giving people freedom. Countless American families sat down to Thanksgiving dinner without their loved ones. Their prayers were that they would come home safely. Many would not. Rockwell reminded us during those dark times why our loved ones were over there. Seeing the girl who needed help must have comforted many families who saw more clearly why, and for whom, their loved ones were in harm's way.