The Art Of War

	The pounding of shells, the mines, the death traps, the massive, blind destruction, the acrid stench of rotting flesh, the communal graves, the charred bodies, and the fear. These are the images of war. War has changed over the centuries from battles of legions of ironclad soldiers enveloped in glimmering armor fighting for what they believe to senseless acts of guerrilla warfare against those too coward to be draft-dodgers. Those who were there, who experienced the terror first hand were deeply effected and changed forever. In their retinas, images of blood and gore are burned for the rest of their life.

	It has been said that there is no point in the "pretty, flowery, pastel" art that makes a person feel good. It doesn’t have any use, for the artist or the observer. Art is supposed to deal with emotion. It is one thing that helps people heal, not only by seeing, but also by doing. Art is able to take all the bad emotions, all the hurts and pains and lets you express them. It is no wonder that many that have seen the destruction of war have turned to art. You don’t see any "pretty pictures" of war. I’d like you to find one pretty aspect of war. There is none, so therefore, war, as a subject for art, is hardly ever pretty. The stories that they write, the paintings that they paint, the pictures that they take, are usually horrific scenes. Only rarely do we see pictures of triumph (i.e. raising the flag at Iwo Jima) but those scenes take place only after the aftermath. 	

	It is also no wonder that many war artists actually use their talent only during and after war. They use their art as a place for catharsis. Only after they are done healing the torment of the war, they can be done with art. One artist in World War One, Braque, fought in 1914, a year later he was wounded. During his convalescence, he painted. A year later he returned to his home. He left not a single drawing or canvas alluding to what he had been through and no representation of the war is present in his work. He made himself a fresh start, like others did. Many painted and drew what they saw and lived through. From the sketchbooks of pencil drawings done at the warfront to the canvases painted on returning home, theirs is an intense and accurate testimony.