Portraits of Compassion

[Steven Sweeney]

"I would have so loved not to have painted him."

That was said by a Utah portrait artist who is spearheading a project to paint -- free of charge -- the portraits of military personnel lost in the current wars. "To have painted him" means, of course, that he would not be a husband or have children that he could enjoy until he was 80.

A local news team just won an Emmy for a brief story about the woman, Kaziah Hancock. This link to the text of the piece may not be "live" for very long, but it does lead to the URL for the Project Compassion website.

There are a number of artists who work on the portraits, with a variety of styles. Given the subjects, I find that I quite like Hancock's style, exemplified in the attached image. A full gallery (hundreds of portraits) is viewable at the Project Compassion website.

(I realize that this is not a new project, but the Emmy award has brought it back into the news, and I thought I'd pass it on. A search of the Forum didn't disclose earlier threads about this.)

[Patricia Joyce]

Hi Steven,
I had seen the news release awhile ago and enjoyed reading about her again. It is an amazing story. Tried the video but couldn't get it to work, though I believe it is still available and "up". Just my computer beng stubborn.

Her style is dynamic and fresh. The family members must love them. Thanks for bringing this up on the forum for others to enjoy.