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thedrifter
09-02-07, 06:25 AM
Artist welcomed at USO reception

KELLEY CHAMBERS
September 2, 2007 - 12:07AM
DAILY NEWS STAFF

JOHN LETOSTAK’S career came full circle at the USO of North Carolina on Saturday.A public reception for the military artist linked his self-portrait that hangs there to a lost drawing that paid homage to his artistic inspiration.“It’s really been a special day,” said Letostak, 53. “One man said he remembered telling me years ago I didn’t have to worry, that I was going places.


He drove 45 minutes to tell me that; that alone was neat.”As the Marine Corps’ official artist in the mid-1970s, Letostak turned over scores of paintings of officials and military scenes while molding his colorful, true-to-life form inspired by American great Norman Rockwell. As a Marine in 1976, Letostak was given permission to enter a Saturday Evening Post-sponsored cover-painting contest.


The result was the self-portrait “They Gave Their Lives,” which depicts a young, pensive Marine sitting on a window sill, gear and rifle by his side.Although the painting earned sec-ond place in the contest, it never ap-peared on the cover of the magazine but still garnered him much attention.The painting ended up at the World Art Gallery then located in the Jacksonville Mall where it was purchased by Dr. Takey Crist, who donated it to the USO in 1990. The paint-ing made a tremendous impression on him since he first saw it, Crist said.“It just struck me, it’s a hell of a thing,” Crist said.


“I see a young kid wondering about his future. I think this portrait is supposed to be in here.”Letostak was reunited Saturday with George and Zyzla Smith, own-ers of the World Art Gallery and early supporters of Letostak’s work. At the reception, the couple returned a pen-cil drawing a then 19-year-old Letostak had drawn of Rockwell signed by the artist two years before he died.


Letostak had been missing it for more than 30 years and had never re-ally expected to see it again. Seeing it in mint condition and in conservation framing brought Letostak back to his true artistic roots, Letostak said.“That piece was the most impor-tant piece I have ever done,” Letostak said.

“I was so young at the time and had so much inspiration. I wanted to continue where (Rockwell) left off.”And “They Gave Their Lives,” Leto-stak said, was the painting that gave him the opportunity to do so several years later.“We recognize good art, and that kid had more talent than anyone I’ve ever
met,” said George Smith. “I nev-er thought he’d ever come down or we’d ever get up there to see him; thanks to the power of the computer.

”Although Walter Stull had retired from the Marine Corps before Letostak enlisted, he too felt a personal tie to the painting because of its realistic aspects.“It’s one of the more natural than anything I’ve seen in a long time,” said Stull, 86. “It tells a lot. (When you were young) you never knew which way to go, you were always waiting for somebody to give you orders.”Judy Pitchford, president of the USO of North Carolina, was thrilled to have been able to bring so many people together through a single piece of art-work and said Letostak the per-son was just as beautiful as the images he created.“It’s not just about the pain-ing but it’s also about him as the artist and what he’s done for the Marine Corps,” Pitchford said.


Contact Kelley Chambers at kchambers@freedomenc.com or 353-1171, ext. 8462. To comment on this story

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