Part of an interactive catalog with the theme Music/Man featuring the music that inspired the paintings. Click on this image to see the whole catalog:
The song that inspired this piece is War Paint/Soldier Boy on the album American Warriors: Songs For Indian Veterans by the Black Lodge Singers (you can hear the whole song here). My muse is my son-in-law who is a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe and has served in Afghanistan in the U.S. Army. The song starts with spoken words telling us that the color red symbolizes the heart, expresses humility and shows the spirits that you're ready for anything. It demonstrates that your heart is good and you're going to fight for your family and whatever you believe in. So often boys and men are brought up to feel like it's their duty to fight, to become warriors but the fight is not always for what they personally believe in. Yet they fulfill their manly duties even if it goes against their own values which can have lasting consequences on their minds and lives. While the warrior is the ultimate universal symbol for manhood we forget the fragile humanity under the armor. This warrior shows us the war paint of his tribe on his face and the pain of war in his eyes.
The Soldier Boy came home a changed man looking for new horizons.
Part of an interactive catalog with the theme Music/Man featuring the music that inspired the paintings. Click on this image to see the whole catalog:
The song that inspired this piece is War Paint/Soldier Boy on the album American Warriors: Songs For Indian Veterans by the Black Lodge Singers (you can hear the whole song here). My muse is my son-in-law who is a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe and has served in Afghanistan in the U.S. Army. The song starts with spoken words telling us that the color red symbolizes the heart, expresses humility and shows the spirits that you're ready for anything. It demonstrates that your heart is good and you're going to fight for your family and whatever you believe in. So often boys and men are brought up to feel like it's their duty to fight, to become warriors but the fight is not always for what they personally believe in. Yet they fulfill their manly duties even if it goes against their own values which can have lasting consequences on their minds and lives. While the warrior is the ultimate universal symbol for manhood we forget the fragile humanity under the armor. This warrior shows us the war paint of his tribe on his face and the pain of war in his eyes.
The Soldier Boy came home a changed man looking for new horizons.