Collateral damage was first conceived as a live model portrait study done in one of the painting groups that I have been attending for the last thirteen years. The young man just sat down in front of a flag that someone had put up and the result was the small painting, theirs not to reason why. Everyone thought that it represented a young innocent being dragged off to war. They I saw a photo of a politician in a magazine and made the tiny portrait red white and blure. I wanted to develop them into a bigger painting and I thought of having the politician shielding the eyes and mind of the young man. I had two of my friends stand and pose like this, one with her hand in front of but not touching the eyes of the other. I don't know what any guns look like, so I had to look at the Internet for that, since the soldier is an victim in this picture, I wanted more victims and the models for them were supplied by pictures that my son had emailed me of my adorable grandchildren. The mother figure, I just put in and I feel the she is the weakest link. I may take here out. That is possible, you know, even after years have passed. I wanted to symbolize the USA with the flag, so by this time, it was an easy leap from amber waves of grain to hills of the stars and stripes.
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