WW1 is one of the most interesting conflicts in all of human history. It was one of the most impactful wars of all time, yet there is so much ignorance regarding its many facets. Although, that is understandable. Its incredible complexity can turn people away from its many interesting stories. The grandeur of The Second World War and the controversy of The Vietnam War draw more people in due to the knowledge being more accessible.
I always wanted to do a painting about a war. I know it sounds odd, but I wanted to combine two subjects that I held interest in. History and Art. With that, the idea for this piece was born. Unfortunately, wars have remained an ever prevalent feature to the human condition. It’s a sad reality but it is true. I elected to use the idea of war in this painting. Especially one that remains one of the most impactful in all of human history, and is still casted aside due to its complexity, and the almost pointlessness of it.
The scene you see is relatively simple. Two British soldiers guarding a designated area. I wanted to demonstrate how mundane life was on the front, yet with the ever lurking prospect of death remaining a constant. That being represented by the Grim Reaper and Mustard Gas that appears behind him. The two soldiers represent the sort of orders they held. To put up with the horrid conditions of the trenches. To fight till the last man. To die for king and country. To think these men. Those 60,000,000 soldiers had the courage and capacity to do this, is truly heroic in its own right. The soldiers standing in the face of death shows this idea. Look death in the eye, and never turn around. Even in poison gas, or machine gun fire, or artillery. The Grim Reaper shows the idea of all the dangers of the front. The Grim Reaper show in this light was actually from an album cover. The idea for its shape was. that it was the view through a peephole, and the Grim Reaper was ringing the doorbell. By placing it in front of the two soldiers, it conveyed that death was on the horizon for the two. The mustards gas, I’ll admit, actually came from laziness, but now I full subscribe to the notion that a lazy person is better to hire than a hard worker because the lazy person will try to do his job by finding an easier way to do it or a smarter way to do it. That sort of mentality lended to the creative idea of using one of the defining features of WW1, mustard gas, as the background. Originally it was just an idea, but I came to realize the meaning of it. It acted as the physical embodiment of the Grim Reaper. His choice to cause death to these soldiers.
This piece offers a depressing reality to what WW1 was like. It was truly mundane for the millions who took part in it, yet at the same time, it was held an underlying notion of death. That it was a month of quiet, then an hour of never ending artillery, then another month of quiet. WW1 as different as it was, was the birth of modern warfare, and showed humanity, that natural diplomatic pathways, should cycle to war as rarely as possible, as to prevent the same brutality from ever occurring again.
Unfortunately, this idea failed, and just 20 years later, humanity withstood the horror, of another World War.