My Art in a Veterans Memorial Park
A few years ago a group of our local veterans secured the use of a piece of property in our town that was once the local park, but had been left with just grass, trees, and maybe a few picnic areas.
(On a side note it does still have an in-town walking path up a hill and thru the trees and brush past a small local hospital and back to the park. Good exercise.)
Thur much hard work and with donations and fund raising cook outs etc. the park has become a very nice tribute to the veterans from our county! We do not have a large population even though the county is one of the larger ones in East Tennessee, so it is all the more impressive because of that fact!
I was asked by one of these hard working folks to paint a flag on a cement block wall! An interesting job.
It is a full sized flag and it took me several weeks working as many hours a day as I could stand in the heat, since, of course, it was painted in July and August so it would be ready as soon as possible. Ready for Veterans' Day at the latest.
My husband and I taped off a section and he painted a base coat on the wall. We had to do some research to know what would work and last outdoors on a cement block wall!
We bought paint at a local paint store and there is where we learned about the base coat and which paints to use. Actually a few of the colors I, for some reason, already had in my "stash" of various paints.
For the top of the painting I had to use a little step ladder, climbed to the top step and support myself with my left hand on the dried section of wall while I painted with my right hand. That worked until my hand began to perspire and slip! So just dried my hand on my paint smock, and began again. As I said it was an interesting job.
Next the same fellow had me paint what a section of the park would look like with the four stones that were to go in a section between the original area with names of veterans from our county who died in wars, and the pavilion where the flag painting is located.
These stones were to have the names of any veteran from our county who wanted their own or their family member to be remembered in that way. There was a cost to have a name engraved on one of the stone. The painting was traded for my husband's name being added.
That painting was not hard. It was used in the local paper.
Also the same person asked me last year about three weeks before Memorial Day, if I'd repaint the details on a life sized silhouette of the raising of the flag on Iwo Jema, so it could be placed in the park and seen at the Memorial Day service that was already planned.
This was quite a job.
The original paint was so faded that I couldn't really tell what it had looked like, and the picture provided of it when it was first done by the original artist (I would give credit but I'm afraid I don't know his name) wasn't especially helpful either. I did a Google search and also looked thru my own photos from a recent trip we'd made to DC and printed out several images to use.
Although the images were more detailed it turned out to only add to my problems as each one was from a slightly different view point!
So....then another person, our friend and neighbor, had been asked and was prepared to put a clear coat over the whole silhouette right after I finished painting. He told me, I had to use auto paint for this sealer to work and he had to do the clear coat no more than 6 hours after the paint was applied or it would all just peal off!
..........I stood with my mouth open for awhile....then he said, and if you use a brush, you will have to have this thinner (which he gave me in a small container) or it will just get all gummed up, and won't work.......I wondered how did I get myself into this mess! And then he said, I don't know how you are going to brush that on, no one ever does that, they usually use a sprayer.....of course I had never used a sprayer for any artwork, ever!
I closed my mouth and bit my lip, brushed my hair out of my face, rolled up my sleeves and determined to keep my word, began getting things ready to paint.
I shooed him and my husband out of my garage/studio so I could think and work.
I started.
It was terrible!
The old almost-worn-out big brushes, were the only ones that worked, plus I had to use the thinner frequently. I did some work. After about 45 minutes I stopped for a 10 minute break and to look it all over. That was my last break.
The thinner melted the plastic handle of my brushes a little so they kept sticking together. Every brush I used or got paint on had to be thrown away afterwards.
Five hours from the time I started, after shooing the two men out twice more, and having to bite my lip to keep from screaming when they only went outside the door and kept talking. And after totally rubbing a section or two out with the thinner and starting again, I finished. I gave it a quick look and hoped it looked alright.
I stuck my head out the door and yelled to the men. They seemed scared to come inside but they did. And I said, "I'm done. It looks like it looks. Don't say anything to me."
And I hurried into the house, and I'm afraid I slammed the door.
Our friend-neighbor-clearcoater, and my husband loaded the thing in the truck and took it up to the friend's house where he has an auto painting booth set up and he got the sealer on before the 6 hour dead line.
A picture of the silhouette is included below. It was set and seen at the Memorial Day services.
The poor man who asked me to do these paintings, I think, is nearly afraid to speak to me anymore!
The pictures I've posted include one of my husband with the bugle. He and the man with him in that shot are both members of the local Honor Guard. There are about 18 to 20 veterans in the Honor Guard, and they conduct a beautiful service at the funerals of any veteran in our county who requests it ahead of time or whose family requests it.
That white post between them has an honor bell mounted on it. My husband and I inherited the bell from one of our moves in Arizona. My husband designed the post, made it portable with wheels, and added tassels etc. He is quite creative.
For the Memorial Park he also did some electrical work to make the lights work in the pavilion for evening events, found cages to put over the light bulbs so they are harder for transient folks to break them out, and dug and placed the electrical lines and wired lights to illuminate stones here and there in the park.
The last picture is of a tiny little cardinal.
You may have heard that "Cardinals are a Sign from Loved Ones". Well, maybe!
A cardinal watched me paint that flag, and I told him, I'd paint him in the picture. The last day I had finished and was cleaning my brushes when he flew up and took his customary seat on a picnic table in the pavilion and looked at me! I'd forgotten and he reminded me, so I got everything out again and painted him in.
My husband and I are not from this county or this state originally, but we have made it home and I think we have become quite invested in it. There is something special in picking a place as your home.
I hope you enjoy my "tales of woe" or "adventures in painting different stuff", whatever you'd like to call this post! Now you know, the rest of the story!
Love, honor and great respect to all our Veterans
who fought for our rights in these great United States of America.
Janet Toney
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