Artist finds healing in Lima Company portraits

[Vulture6]

Artist finds healing in Lima Company portraits




By Jon Craig - The Cincinnati Enquirer
Posted : Wednesday May 21, 2008 6:39:26 EDT

COLUMBUS, Ohio — “Let’s go see the boys,” Westerville artist Anita Miller, 47, says as she heads down the unfinished wooden stairs to her studio.

There are “the boys”: Eight life-size oil paintings, images she hopes capture the spirit and personalities of Lima Company Marines killed three years ago on the Iraq war’s deadliest days for Ohio.

It took Miller nearly two years to paint the 6-foot-by-8-foot portraits of the fallen boys-turned-men, six from greater Cincinnati.

The public can experience her artwork when it moves to the Ohio Statehouse this week for an exhibit that opens Saturday.

The idea came to Miller in a dream, a vision she believes is guided by a higher power. Having no ties to the Marines’ families or the military, Miller took a second mortgage to enlarge her studio, a former Army cabin built in 1830.

The art project spawned a healing process that’s just beginning, according to family members, several of whom said they felt the presence of their loved ones within Miller’s studio.

One by one, parents, siblings, wives and friends of the young Marines, who were killed in separate explosions in 2005, have visited Miller’s two-story studio. Relatives from at least seven states plan to pay their respects at the Statehouse on Friday when the Lima Company Memorial, subtitled “A Remembrance of Spirit & Choice,” is dedicated during an invitation-only ceremony.

The exhibit will be on display through Veterans Day, when it will be moved to the Cincinnati Museum Center, then other sites.

The life-size canvases will be arranged in an octagon, as Miller envisioned them in her dream.

Lima Company, the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Reserve unit based at Rickenbacker Air Base, was among the U.S.’s hardest hit during the war. The memorial will include candles and boots recovered after the explosions.

Miller, whose previous work includes landscapes and church paintings, said she read a newspaper article about Lima Company’s fatalities and wished she could do something for the families. A couple of months later, the dream woke her in the night.

“It felt like a download more than anything else,” Miller said.

The artist called Lima Company and Statehouse officials, eventually getting their blessing. She built the studio addition with her own loans in 2006 as she gathered photographs from surviving families. Miller’s expenses total an estimated $100,000, which includes supplies, lost teaching and commission income over 30 months and overhead such as heating the studio in the winter.

A nonprofit organization was founded in January 2007 to defray some of those costs, raise funds and sell commemorative books to finance a traveling exhibit.

Powerful inspiration
Miller chokes up every time she tells visitors about being divinely inspired once she began to paint in early 2007. As she looked at family photographs of the Marines, she experienced specific traits.

For Sgt. David Kreuter, 26, of Miami Township, “When I picked up his picture and put it next to my heart, I felt a wash of dedication and commitment to service. An absolute unwavering dedication. And it just poured over me like a thousand volts. My body was trembling and my eyes were watering. And I thought, ‘I’m not going to get his whole personality. I’m going to get the essence.’“

“I feel like I’m visiting David,” his mother, Pat Murray, said on a recent visit to Miller’s studio. “It’s a way to connect with him. I feel like I’m surrounded by a bunch of friends. ... It gives me great comfort to come up here now. I know where to find David now.”

For Lance Cpl. Michael Cifuentes, 25, of Oxford, Miller felt “a wash of goodness, of pure goodness that I’ve never felt before.” The former Miami University tuba player is holding an iPod in his portrait.

For Lance Cpl. Christopher Dyer, 19, of Evendale, the word was “joy.”

“They are just so completely awesome,” Dyer’s mother, Kathy, said last week as she visited Miller’s studio. “Today is the first day I’ve seen them since they’ve been completed. ... It makes me so happy. It is comforting and it does bring me happiness more than remind me of the sorrow.

“I think Chris in his painting looks like Lee Marvin from ‘The Dirty Dozen,’” Dyer said. “He’s cocky. He’s masculine. He’s got that little 5 o’clock shadow. He’s sort of got some attitude about him. He’s got that Lee Marvin squint.”

‘Red, red, red’
The background in Miller’s first panel is fiery.

“I kept hearing ‘red, red, red,’” she said. “It was as if my head disengaged.” She couldn’t apply the paint fast enough, first with a 3-inch pallet knife and then latex gloves. She had to be helped upstairs afterward.

“I could feel all of the intensity of the terror, the loss, the chaos of that experience. The whole thing exploded in front of my eyes, in full color. I was using my entire body to paint. It wiped me out for two days,” she said. “I literally felt like I carried a little piece of them in my spirit body. I felt like I was the cocoon and all of a sudden they just flew out.”

“And here they are. Bravo,” said Marla Derga, stepmother of Cpl. Dustin A. Derga, the first Lima Company Marine killed in Iraq, on Mother’s Day 2005.

Bridging ‘the gap of grief’
Lima Company Master Sgt. Stephen Walter, who retired from the Marine Corps in January 2006, notified several families when their sons were killed in Iraq. Walter said Miller’s project will have a lasting healing effect.

“Anita Miller’s artwork, I would argue, has bridged the gap of grief for the families ... of the fallen in a way that the best engineers in America could not,” Walter said. “She has touched their heartstrings by making their loved ones part of their lives again in a way that few others could.”

But most veterans of Lima Company have been unable to visit Miller’s studio because their pain is overwhelming. One family member said those Marines will likely view the Statehouse Memorial alone this summer, when they can view it anonymously.

“It’s the parents’ pain that I experience,” Miller said. “Some days are worse than others. ... Just as powerfully as this thing gripped me, it let me go. There’s healing here.”

[cincymarsdad]

Some other news items:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_fremgMtBg&feature=related
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[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Dato=20080518&Kategori=VIDEO&Lopenr=805190 02&Ref=AR[/font]
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[FONT='Arial','sans-serif'] [/font]
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']http://www.local12.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=97832a32-f6f5-47ba-8198-518b22ee2cf2&rss=30[/font]
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif'] [/font]
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif'] [/font]
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/05/gns_marine_art_052008/[/font]
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif'] [/font]
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PunPx5OAkFo&feature=related[/font]
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[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']I'm headed up to Columbus Friday for th dedication. I have not yet seen the real paintings.[/font]

[Vulture6]

Thanks John. Travel safe.

[cincymarsdad]

That was pretty neat overall. They the families and Lima Marines in that morning to see the paintings, and then the were covered with linen. That afternoon, the dedication ceremony was held on the lawn with about 1200 people attending. John Glenn spoke, among others, but the highlight was Carole Hoffman, mother of Justin Hoffman, Chris' squad leader. She was amazing. I asked for a transcript of here words, but they wouldn't match the delivery.

The families then went inside to the rotunda for the unveiling and candle lighting which was televised outside to those remaining. The ceremony was also on Armed Forces TV. There was a fly over by 4 F-16s. It was very well done.

On Saturday, "we" had lunch at the Hoffman's house. Being with the other GS Parents is always a healing time for us.

[AngelBear]

Very touching... God Bless them and Anita Miller for her wonderful work.

[cincymarsdad]

This web site shows photos from the dedication of a memorial in the Statehouse rotunda currently - 8 large (8' x 4') paintings of 22 Marines and 1 Navy Corpsman from Lima Company 3/25 killed in Iraq in 2005. Lima Company is based near Rickenbacker Airport south of Columbus. Eleven of these men were lost 3 years ago today when the AAV in which they were riding was destroyed by a large IED.

http://www.mca-marines.org/leatherneck/lima_slideshow.asp

http://www.leatherneckmagazine-digital.com/leatherneckmagazine-share/200808/?pg=40&pm=2&u1=friend

[ClutterbusterNY]

Thanks for sharing these links John.
We know that the pain will never go away, but then neither
will the pride. Today as we remember their sacrifice, we share both of these emotions with you.
God bless Chris and his fellow Marines of Lima Co. 3/25.

[cincymarsdad]

[Note: I sent this out to friends and copied it to post here. If I made any errors in the technical part, please let me know. I'm still learning of course.]

There was an unexpectedly large crowd down at the museum center Saturday morning for the unveiling of the paintings of the 23 fallen from Lima Company 3/25. They had to hustle to put out more seats. I don’t know what I was expecting. Humans seem to have an urge for memorials, perhaps because we ourselves don’t want to be forgotten. I don’t know. Ultimately, it has put me in touch with the other families, and I think collectively that is a good thing for us. Whether you are remembered in history or just by a few doesn’t matter in the end. John Prayzinksi was there and came up to me. I was thinking all this is hard on him as his son, Taylor, from Fairfield, was lost in Iraq earlier and of course doesn’t have media attention and paintings and all that. Taylor is just down the line from Chris at Arlington in Section 60.



Chris’ mom attended. The night before we had a dinner for just families at the Museum Center, about 35 of us total, which was indeed very nice, quiet, reflective. Carole Hoffman and her husband Chuck sat with us. Carole’s son was Justin, the sergeant and squad leader of Chris’ squad. She is an amazing woman. She told me latter that she really liked Catherine and I should keep her. Anita Miller (the artist) and he family also sat at the same table. I learned some things I hadn’t known.



Kathy – with the “K” – as I said was present and further brought along a Marine sergeant now in the IRR (out) named Michael Marshall. None of us knew anything about his existence. He was from an Engineering Company based in Virginia that had been activated and augmented Lima Company. He told me he ‘always’ rode in the same track with Hoffman and his squad, along with Captain Toland, the company commander. He said Chris liked to hang out with them. They were housed on a different deck at the dam and Chris would come up to see them. He told me that the “night before” he slept right next to Chris outside in a house somewhere near Barwannah, on the roof basically, where houses often had “decks”. When they mounted up the next day he said there was some confusion and he ended up in the vehicle 2 behind the one that was hit. He said 2nd platoon was supposed to lead but when the Iraqi vehicles kept getting stuck in the sand, 1st platoon took the lead and Captain Toland decided to use the road into the town. He said the blast was very bad and everyone thought their own track had been hit. The AAVs in which they ride are really lightly armored and will float on water, but still weigh 28 tons empty.



Michael had been meaning to get in touch with us for a long time now but “couldn’t” and has obvious “survivor’s guilt”. He seemed slowly to come out of “it” a bit around us and spent a good bit of time with me. He had a lot of stories and filled in some blanks on some questions I had about some of their missions. He confirmed that for reasons no one quite understood Lima was the go to company in the whole province. Kilo company 3/25 basically guarded Al Assad air base and did little else. India company also did minimal patrolling. Both lived in far more luxurious conditions than did Lima. He said the few times they were near the firm base at Al Assad, they would stop off for chow, which was far, far better than what they had at the dam. He confirmed also that they were rarely back at the dam, and then only for 1-2 days to get rested and squared away for the next mission. He said 3/2 did some clearing with them up near the Syrian border. He expanded on what I knew about the Obeidi story, “Matador”. One thing I’d like to understand perhaps someday is why this one reserve company was so heavily used and other companies in the area were pulling guard the whole time. With so much exposure, it’s no wonder they were hit so hard. They had 59 injured out of 184 deployed, not good odds, and of course 23 of those were KIA. The same unit had fewer casualties on the month long assault on Iwo Jima.



After the dinner Friday night, Kathy wanted to go somewhere, so we, including Michael, went to the Celestial bar, which was nice. Michael was in his dress blues, which are not very comfortable, but certainly are eye catching. A number of folks at the Celestial came up and bought him drinks etc. The average age there is, well, more advanced than my own, but it’s neat. He is applying today for a job with Homeland Security to get some law enforcement experience, possibly with the Border Patrol, and then wants to get into the Secret Service. He has a young wife Natalie from Venezuela since February.



So, the paintings are in the basement of the Museum Center, which initially I didn’t like, but the room is completely black and it does tend to focus one’s attention. It’s a different experience from the Statehouse rotunda, which is very open and airy. You hafta pay to park and to get into the museum, which is a bit of a bite perhaps. One other little thing about Chris’ painting. In it, he is depicted reaching into something, which looks exactly like he is getting some dip. Bob and I both had lectured him early on about the evils of dip. He emailed me back that he would quit when he got home but needed it to stay alert, and while he knew it could kill him with cancer, he had seen what a 155 mm artillery shell could do to one of their tracks. Ironically, it is believed that his own track was destroyed by an IED composed of 2-3 155 mm shells. I was buying tins of dip to send him in his care packages each week. Nasty stuff, but under the circumstances …



At any rate, I commented on this to Anita Miller, the artist, and it turned out she didn’t know he used dip or even what dip was. She also told me that she got a different vibe when she was painting each figure, and with Chris she got the urge to put on some music, which she never did when she was painting. She was amazed when I told her he played viola and liked rap music a lot. Her story really is amazing, unbelievable really, and they have a continuous loop at the exhibit of her interview on CNN and another one on a Columbus channel explaining it all.





*Lima Company itself had about 160 men, all infantry, or 0311s. They were filled out with some men from 4th Recon based in Montana and as I know now, some engineers from Virginia. The engineers are used for mine detection and disposal and for blowing up things as needed. So, they deployed with 184, which is oversized for a Marine rifle company. There are three such companies designated India, Kilo, and Lima, in the 3rd battalion, 25th Marine regiment. 1st battalion would have companies designated alpha, bravo, and Charlie, and so on. Each battalion also has a HQ company and a Heavy Weapons company. Three battalions make up a regiment, in this case 25th Marines. Three regiments would make up a division. In this case, there was no division and they were assigned to 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) which had about 25,000 men, including air support and personnel and supply and intel and armor and all that. Lima company would not have any transport, so they used an AAV company which provided the “tracks” they used for getting around. An AAV can carry about 20 Marines with their gear. It is armored against machine gun fire, but is not as heavily armored as the Army’s M2 Bradley, which can carry only 6. AAV stands for “Armored Amphibious Vehicle”, reflecting the Marine’s amphib nature, but of course were being used in the desert far from an ocean because it’s what they had. Michael said they were always breaking down. He said their first trip to the dam, they had half of them broken down and the other half towing that half. I’m pretty sure Chris’ group helo’d into the dam. Michael told me about the helo mission about which Chris had alluded and said he would tell me more when he got back that rated “zero on my fun meter”. They were dropped in the desert outside a town on overwatch and nothing happened for four days, and they had no resupply with 130+°F days and not enough water. He said nobody every got anywhere near “clean” and everything was amazingly nasty, stinky, filthy … I can’t imagine.