At What Cost Peace?

20" x 16", oil on canvas, 2014

Many of the paintings from To the Sound of Trumpets, my WWI-inspired art project, work better when viewed with the rest of the pieces than when taken out of context. By itself, this (and others) may seem a little heavy-handed, but I think it's a key piece in the Remembrance section.

The main inspiration for this painting came from a scene in Alejandro Jodorowsky's extremely surreal Holy Mountain where little, blue birds flew out of a small hole in the chest of a man who was recently killed. After seeing image after image of peace doves and hands holding doves, I subverted a painting by Nancy Howe and added the visceral connection to the soldier to indicate that peace may be the goal, an ideal, but it comes at a price.

The working title for this was Peace Extraction, but I opted for the longer, Star-Trek-third-season-era-like title because it's a little more narrative, but I still like Peace Extraction.

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