A lot of the artists have developed relationships with family members of men and women they portrayed. Artists are an intelligent group of people who often don't have a public voice. This has given them an opportunity to speak up through their artwork. |
It's a tragedy, and you can feel the spirit looking at the portraits. For each portrait, there's a whole community of lives that will never be the same - spouses, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and friends. |
We're going to ask artists in each state where the exhibit travels to paint portraits of all the servicemen and women from their state who have been killed. The portraits would stay on permanent display at the museum in that state. |