With Sketchpads and Guns, Semper Fi

With our first post in our new basics of art series having gone up today, I thought this article in the NYT was apropos. Did you know that since Pearl Harbor all of the armed services have maintained combat art programs? The Marine Corps is the most serious and dedicated to the mission of its art program and is the only branch of the military to cover most of our recent conflicts. At the peak of the program during WWII, 70 men served in this capacity, but now there is just one. He is both a full-fledged Marine and an artist, and his job is to capture the experience of combat in art and to forever  immortalize the brave men who fought for their country.

Read the whole article, “With Sketchpads and Guns, Semper Fi.”

And check out the slide show for a sampling of the artists and their art.