Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Getting set to go


In about two weeks I'll be redeploying to Iraq. This will be my second trip to Iraq (third counting Operation Desert Storm). In May of this year I returned from a one month trip to Afghanistan. This was my second assignment to produce combat art of the Marines in Afghanistan. I initially deployed with my fellow Marines to Afghanistan during January of 2002. It is my hope to post to this blog my personal reflections on my experience along with photos of my combat art as its created.

My job as a Marine is to create art. My title is combat artist. The Marine Corps, while it makes it possible for me to travel to combat zones, does not dictate to me in any fashion what art I am to produce, either in content, or quantity. I literally have free reign over my activities and artwork. The resulting artwork is the property of the Marine Corps Combat Art Collection, which is a department with the Marine Corps Historical Division.

My experiences as a combat artist, and the art I've created has been the subject of numerous newspaper, television, radio and magazine articles. I had a one man show of my work at the Farnsworth Museum this past winter titled Fire and Ice: Marine Corps Combat Art from Afghanistan and Iraq

Here ia a sample of some of my previous combat art:

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Dear Sgt. Fay,

Thank you for serving. I am writing to compliment your work as an artist. Your blog site is a beautiful compilation of art, and words. I found myself in awe and inspiration. I am a fellow illustrator, though never served in the military, but I have the deepest respect for our soldiers. Your illustration style, knowledge of the figure, attention to uniform detail, and exercise of restraint are outstanding.

I just wanted to take a moment to share my thoughts as I perused your site. So glad I stumbled upon it.

I wish the best for you,

Jason Laramie
Medical Illustrator
www.laramiestudio.com

Anonymous said...

I have often wondered what life for our troops are like. Regretfully I never had the opportunity to enlist, but I have many times prayed for our troops and continue to do so to this day. I will be reading your blog from begining to end and fine tuning my prayers for our military as I go along. Thank you for giving us a first person account of life in the military. I look forward to reading.

Anonymous said...

I have often wondered what life for our troops are like. Regretfully I never had the opportunity to enlist, but I have many times prayed for our troops and continue to do so to this day. I will be reading your blog from begining to end and fine tuning my prayers for our military as I go along. Thank you for giving us a first person account of life in the military. I look forward to reading.