Walking Papers

Well.

It's OH-fishel.  As of last night at midnight, I am no longer in active service with the Marine Corps.

I have my DD214 copies and my orders releasing me from active duty. It's no April Fools joke, and I'm still a bit sad to see it become reality. If I had my "druthers", I'd still be on active duty.

I had the best job in the Corps. No other billet like it. What a privilege it was to be able to do all the Corps let me do, and to represent the Corps to the folks at home (and art world as well).

I met a lot of great folks, went to many great locations (as well as garden spots like Iraq and Afghanistan), and drew and painted a lot of interesting scenes.

"Slice of Life" scenes were a lot of what I did, and now my little slice of life in the Corps and Combat Art Program is over. A new slice is being carved out.

I hope it's got some nice decorative icing on it.

Thanks to all the people who made the calls and did the paperwork to get me on active duty, to keep me on active duty, and finally to send me on my way back into the 1st CivDiv.

TGIF

 "What counts most is finding new ways to get the world down in paint on my own terms." --Georg Baselitz

This is my final Friday as an active duty combat artist.

Just finishing up several paintings to turn in before the end of Monday.

EE AY ESS

EAS. No, it's not a protein supplement.
No, it's not a company name.
It's my E. A. S.... my "End of Active Service."

The countdown has begun.
Monday, 31 March 2014 will be my last day of being an active duty Combat Artist.
Though I wanted to continue in this billet, the Marine Corps has decided that I've been here too long, and should be shown the appropriate pasture.

I will keep you posted on the activities of this, my last week as an artist for the Corps.

Semper Fi
and
Semper Gumby

Humanitarian Relief-- Operation Damayan assists the people of the Republic of the Philippines

In November, I had the opportunity and privilege of going to the Philippines and take part in Operation Damayan, the humanitarian relief efforts following Typhoon Haiyan.

I was only there for a few days, before the operation wrapped up, but I was there in time to sketch and photograph some of the activities of the Marines as they helped the people of the Philippines, especially in the hardest hit area around Tacloban on the island of Leyte.

Here are some of the sketches I made:

 

 

The whole area surrounding Tacloban City was nearly wiped out by the storm. The only structures still standing were made of concrete blocks, and even they were heavily damaged by the typhoon's raging winds and water.

The Philippine people have my great respect, because of the dignity with which they handled themselves in such a trying situation. They were patient and friendly with the Marines as they stood in line waiting for clean water that the Marines had brought in.

Combat Artist in Action

Here's a drawing I did today, featuring a combat artist in action, fulfilling his prime directive-- visual "reportage"!

CWO2 Mike Fay is pictured, sketching while at Mojave Viper out in 29 Palms CA, back in 2008. We'd just gotten done with a hike and the Marines were sitting down for a rest, and CWO2 Fay took advantage of the situation, set up his stool and sketch gear, and recorded what he saw.

I have been wanting for years to do a painting of a combat artist to match the one done by Tom Lovell in the late 40s. Now at least I've done the basic drawing for it, if I never get around to the oil painting!