The National Veterans Art Museum is honoring Memorial Day 2012 with the opening of a new mural installation, “War Made A New Me,” by Dominic (Dom) Fredianelli, one of the subjects of Where Soldiers Come From (POV 2011). Dom is in one of the museum galleries all week working on the mural before it is unveiled this Saturday, May 26 along with a film screening and artist’s talk. Check out his progress throughout the week here on the POV Blog.
Day 2.
Got to the museum at 1015am and got right into it. I haven’t really planned the mural at all. My little brother insists that my best work comes when I just wing it so thats the way I have approached this project. Today I sketched and put up 2 subjects on the normal flag. A soldier figure holding a gun with a flower coming out of it and a woman/mother/girlfriend/ex-girlfriend, however you may interpret it. The soldier figure is to represent that even though I was a soldier I still had peaceful and compassionate thoughts throughout my military career and deployment. The flower out of the gun has become an image of peace during hardship. The woman figure is the honor and pride the opposite side must feel when going to war. Even though we went off to war, there must be a certain level of pride woman and family must feel when they wait at home.
The two figures went up really fast, I am pushing to get figures up on the black side flag by the end of the day 2morrow. That will leave me extra time to fill in spots with more graffiti style work and to help it flow a little better. It has been really exciting to work every day.
The journey through the city on the way to the museum is uplifting. I am generally in high spirits and think about home a lot while I am working. Wondering what people are doing. Ready to start again in the morning.
Dom.
