Mourning Soldier
Andrew Munroe
Spray Paint on Canvas Board
April 2017
Kneeling on the ground in front of a rising sun, a soldier mourns a friend and comrade who was killed in a war he was opposed to. The soldier mourning represents the brutality of war, the lives it takes, and the sadness, while the sunrise in the background represents that even in destruction and chaos there can still be beauty.
“Mourning Soldier” was created for all of the soldiers who lost their lives in wars across the decades. During this project I learned that men and women were drafted into wars that they opposed, many of them high school age, and sent to foreign lands to fight in a war that never benefited anyone. Years later, the survivors of these wars still live with PTSD, reliving memories of the horrors that happened to them. All of the loss that the soldiers experienced influenced me to create an art piece as a memorial for those brave men and women.
War is not always about killing and taking over territory, that the people in the war matter and that they had lives, families and lovers, just like us, and we sent them to foreign lands to fight wars. I want the audience to feel the despair that the soldiers felt, but also to understand that not everything in war is destructive. There can be sunrises and peace, even if everything's falling apart around them. I want you to understand that the people fighting the war are still living beings and that they should be remembered forever.
I first created this concept in Photoshop, then decided to paint it on a canvas with spray paint. I decided to use spray paint because nature of the medium seemed to reflect the concept of war. I started with the background gradient and then moved on to the finer details, such as the stencils and clouds. Throughout the project, my concept didn’t change too much; I moved a few things around and added elements such as emphasis with the soldier, but the general idea stayed the same.
Andrew Munroe
Spray Paint on Canvas Board
April 2017
Kneeling on the ground in front of a rising sun, a soldier mourns a friend and comrade who was killed in a war he was opposed to. The soldier mourning represents the brutality of war, the lives it takes, and the sadness, while the sunrise in the background represents that even in destruction and chaos there can still be beauty.
“Mourning Soldier” was created for all of the soldiers who lost their lives in wars across the decades. During this project I learned that men and women were drafted into wars that they opposed, many of them high school age, and sent to foreign lands to fight in a war that never benefited anyone. Years later, the survivors of these wars still live with PTSD, reliving memories of the horrors that happened to them. All of the loss that the soldiers experienced influenced me to create an art piece as a memorial for those brave men and women.
War is not always about killing and taking over territory, that the people in the war matter and that they had lives, families and lovers, just like us, and we sent them to foreign lands to fight wars. I want the audience to feel the despair that the soldiers felt, but also to understand that not everything in war is destructive. There can be sunrises and peace, even if everything's falling apart around them. I want you to understand that the people fighting the war are still living beings and that they should be remembered forever.
I first created this concept in Photoshop, then decided to paint it on a canvas with spray paint. I decided to use spray paint because nature of the medium seemed to reflect the concept of war. I started with the background gradient and then moved on to the finer details, such as the stencils and clouds. Throughout the project, my concept didn’t change too much; I moved a few things around and added elements such as emphasis with the soldier, but the general idea stayed the same.
Truth of War Reflection
How did we explore the truth of war in this project?
For the start of this project, I thought that we were simply going to learn about different wars and what they did for our country, like an average school. However, as we went along, we were told that we would be exploring how wars in general affected the people, the planet, and how there will always be a reason to go to war no matter the cost. At first, we started with looking at documents about the Cold War, such as what it was, when it happened, and who was affected by it. We explored the truth of war by learning that people were afraid of communism to a point that people were blackmailed by their families just so that they wouldn’t be taken away by the government. After the Cold War segment, we moved more towards Vietnam and what happened over in that area, such as the Gulf of Tonkin incident, where the US was involved in a scandal that may or may not have been planned. Then we started to read a book of fictional war stories called, “The Things They Carried,” in order to understand what the soldiers were going through and the emotions they experienced. Near the end of the project, we had two veterans from Vietnam come in to talk about their experiences and what it left them with, which was really emotional and enlightening. Then in the very end, we created an art piece to show a truth about war that we felt was prevalent to today’s society. Overall, we learned about the truth of war by digging into the brutal history that it created, we looked into the lives of veterans, and we questioned the motives behind the actions of the US and its allies whenever it involved a war that we were learning about.
How did you strengthen your skills during this project?
Overall, this project required me to use all of the resources I had in order to do the research, essays, write the artist statement, and create the art. At the start, it was just like a normal project, we would look at documents, videos, read articles, then write a short essay about what we learned and how it impacted the people. However, the deeper we got into the project, the more I found myself having to use more of my thinking skills in order to solve a problem or understand what someone else was feeling. When we had to write an essay on the Gulf of Tonkin, I found myself having to think from the standpoint of the president, captain, and the Vietnamese, which I felt strengthened my writing skills because I started thinking from other perspectives. It helped me understand what they were going through and thinking, which helped me make a decision about where I wanted my essay to go. I also feel that I strengthened my artistic skills during this project because I learned a whole new technique and medium in order to create my art piece with the time I had. I also strengthened the rest of my skills during this project by taking on problems from different angles then I usually do, such as looking thru the eyes of others, and learning something entirely new.
What enduring understandings will you take away from this project?
During this project, I learned a lot of new things about war, destruction, people, and politics. I learned that people will do anything to get out of a draft if they are powerful enough just so that they don’t have to fight. However, this project pushed me to understand concepts that I had originally wanted to disregard as stupid and weird. I came to understand, through all of the documents and articles, that communism wasn’t inherently bad, and that people were told to hate it because it would ruin their lives and take their children. I came to understand that war doesn’t choose who lives and who dies, the people do that, and they have the power to stop it. But most importantly I came to understand that the truth of war is dirty, war invades people's lives and steals it away from them. Through this understanding, I realized that finding the truth about war is important because it gives you the chance to know what you are supporting, whether you are doing something good or bad, and if all the lives it wasted was worth it. I realized that some people don’t get to chose whether or not to go to war, while the privileged can, and that it was unfair to ask those with families to do so. I understand that it is important to find the truth about war today because we need to become more informed of what is going on around us and how we can stop it if needed.
For the start of this project, I thought that we were simply going to learn about different wars and what they did for our country, like an average school. However, as we went along, we were told that we would be exploring how wars in general affected the people, the planet, and how there will always be a reason to go to war no matter the cost. At first, we started with looking at documents about the Cold War, such as what it was, when it happened, and who was affected by it. We explored the truth of war by learning that people were afraid of communism to a point that people were blackmailed by their families just so that they wouldn’t be taken away by the government. After the Cold War segment, we moved more towards Vietnam and what happened over in that area, such as the Gulf of Tonkin incident, where the US was involved in a scandal that may or may not have been planned. Then we started to read a book of fictional war stories called, “The Things They Carried,” in order to understand what the soldiers were going through and the emotions they experienced. Near the end of the project, we had two veterans from Vietnam come in to talk about their experiences and what it left them with, which was really emotional and enlightening. Then in the very end, we created an art piece to show a truth about war that we felt was prevalent to today’s society. Overall, we learned about the truth of war by digging into the brutal history that it created, we looked into the lives of veterans, and we questioned the motives behind the actions of the US and its allies whenever it involved a war that we were learning about.
How did you strengthen your skills during this project?
Overall, this project required me to use all of the resources I had in order to do the research, essays, write the artist statement, and create the art. At the start, it was just like a normal project, we would look at documents, videos, read articles, then write a short essay about what we learned and how it impacted the people. However, the deeper we got into the project, the more I found myself having to use more of my thinking skills in order to solve a problem or understand what someone else was feeling. When we had to write an essay on the Gulf of Tonkin, I found myself having to think from the standpoint of the president, captain, and the Vietnamese, which I felt strengthened my writing skills because I started thinking from other perspectives. It helped me understand what they were going through and thinking, which helped me make a decision about where I wanted my essay to go. I also feel that I strengthened my artistic skills during this project because I learned a whole new technique and medium in order to create my art piece with the time I had. I also strengthened the rest of my skills during this project by taking on problems from different angles then I usually do, such as looking thru the eyes of others, and learning something entirely new.
What enduring understandings will you take away from this project?
During this project, I learned a lot of new things about war, destruction, people, and politics. I learned that people will do anything to get out of a draft if they are powerful enough just so that they don’t have to fight. However, this project pushed me to understand concepts that I had originally wanted to disregard as stupid and weird. I came to understand, through all of the documents and articles, that communism wasn’t inherently bad, and that people were told to hate it because it would ruin their lives and take their children. I came to understand that war doesn’t choose who lives and who dies, the people do that, and they have the power to stop it. But most importantly I came to understand that the truth of war is dirty, war invades people's lives and steals it away from them. Through this understanding, I realized that finding the truth about war is important because it gives you the chance to know what you are supporting, whether you are doing something good or bad, and if all the lives it wasted was worth it. I realized that some people don’t get to chose whether or not to go to war, while the privileged can, and that it was unfair to ask those with families to do so. I understand that it is important to find the truth about war today because we need to become more informed of what is going on around us and how we can stop it if needed.