Our newest Marine Corps combat artist, Sergeant Kristopher Battles, made it to Iraq this past weekend. I first met Kris early last winter as a direct result of political commentator Michelle Malkin featuring my milblog at her website. Kris checked out Fire and Ice and sent me an email inquiring about the Marine Corps Combat Art Program. It seems that not only was he a trained practicing fine artist, but a former jarhead as well. One thing led to another (you can read about it at his blog) and Kris, the married father of three, found himself back in the big green machine. He's a good Presbyterian, so the concept of pre-destination falls neatly in line with his highly motivated sense of destiny and devotion to the combat art mission. Kris is presently getting his sand-legs under him at Camp Fallujah. Jet lag has to be endured and learning his way around the sprawling Fallujah base mastered before heading out to the field and into the goo. You can stop by his blog,
Sketchpad Warrior, and follow his adventure in both image and word. He posted today, so go on by, take a gander and leave a couple words of encouragement. Also, if you'd like to see his civilian art visit the
website dedicated to his landscape and portrait painting.
I'll be heading down to Cuba the end of next week for short visit to produce art of the Marines who guard and patrol the environs around GITMO. Because I won't be in town for the election November 7th I went ahead and voted this past week up at the Fredericksburg town hall. I won't tell you how I voted, but I will give you a hint. A good pal of mine, a retired Marine gunny, forwarded an email to me last week....maybe some of you have seen it.....the gist of it simply says that in the world there are three types of folks; sheep, sheepdogs and wolves. Well, this old sheepdog certainly didn't cast his lot this mid-term election with a certain political party that would do well changing it's mascot to a sheep. I hope all you fellow sheepdogs and sheepdog breeders get out and vote. As for you sheep......the slaughter's down the road to the Left.
With today's posting are images of a work-in-progress titled "Danger Close". If you think you know why I picked that title leave your explanation in the comments section.
Danger Close: oil on canvas, 20x16, work-in-progress
Danger Close: under-drawing
Danger Close: oil on canvas, 20x16, work-in-progress
Danger Close: under-drawing
11 comments:
I love your art, and I love your views of the world.
As for your picture in the post, I venture a guess that the picture is titled so because of the angle of the mortar tube. Higher angles mean that the target is closer to the firer. the extreme high angle means that whatever they are shooting at, it is close.
KG Kleinfelter-Bingo, you get the stuffed Chesty Puller doll! By the way are you Pennsylvania Dutch?
Hey, it don't GITMO better than that. ~sorry REALLY old joke but it had to be done.
Have you ever done images of Marine life on a gator? I served on a gator as a sailor, and would be very interested to see any images you have done of the Marine seaborne life.
Thanks for the heads up.
"The meek (sheep) will inherit the earth"
Seems so prophetic this year
Madtom,
Don't even compare the Democrat Party with "sheep" of the Bible.
You have become a party of "goats".
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance ... Then, he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat...'
Matthew 25:31-46
Maybe, if you actually try reading the Bible you would know that the "meek" in the case you are quoting from Psalms 37:11 translates into "People who are not proud." In order to be a "meek sheep" you must not be proud, you must yield to the Shepherd (the Lord). The Democrat party seems to be grieving the Shepherd time and time again -Embryonic stem cell research, cloning, gay marriage and the list goes on and on.
"My dear children, the end is near! You have heard that the Enemy of Christ is coming. And now many enemies of Christ are already here. So we know that the end is near. Those enemies of Christ were in our group. But they left us. They did not really belong with us. If they were really part of our group, then they would have stayed with us. But they left. This shows that none of them really belonged with us.
1John 2:18-19
That sounds like what the Dems. have become since they started bowing to the liberal leftist agenda.
Love you Madtom
It sad to say but the angle of the tube speaks more truth about this stupid war than any of the righty nonsense written on this blog. ih
Your art work as usual is outstanding. And as to the previous commentor on this blog, the only nonsense on this blog, would be that comment.
yossarian, trolls normally do two highly predictable things when visiting "righty" blogs: 1. They are either anonymous or have a moniker that is not trackable back to a site or an email address (the word bushwacker also comes to mind)and 2. Revisit the site of their crime to see if they've gotten the attention they crave...so here's your five seconds of personal attention. And yes, this is a highly manipulative effort to get you to leave another of your pithy comments in order to prove MY point. Hey, a Catch-22 situtation, what say you yossarian.
To everyone else, please don't feed the troll anymore attention.
Back to the beginning of the post -- it's great that you are so supportive of "Sketchpad Warrior." He's very appreciative of all your advice. :)
The painting is amazing, as usual. I'm SO glad we have REAL people, talented artists, documenting the truth.
It's too bad the general public isn't more aware of what you and the rest of the USMC History Division is doing.
Enough said.
Mike, you and Sgt. Battles are absolutely fantastic. And now there's a Marine Historian with a blog, too. www.marinehistorian.blogspot.com
Mrs Battles and family, thank you for YOUR service, too. God bless all our military and their families.
Hey Uncle Mike good shit. I was gonna say the trajectory of the mortar means that its "going HIGH and landin CLOSE". And I'm just a civilian puke doing his small part by selling comm tools to the asskickers in the thick of it. As for MadTom the meek render themselves powerless to the hands of GOD not to the hands of EVIL. Who is your Shepherd?
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