From war, art

By Julia LeDoux

Published: August 30, 2009

Can art come out of war?
Absolutely, say Chief Warrant Officer 2 Michael Fay and Sgt. Kristopher Battles, Marine Corps combat artists assigned to the National Museum of the Marine Corps.
And they’ve got the artwork to prove it.
Paintings and sculptures of Marines at war - some complete, others a work in progress — line the walls of their studio at Quantico Marine Corps base. The art is destined to become a part of the Marine Corps Art Collection.
“Go to war, do art,” said Fay. “That’s our charge. We’re very particular. We’re not illustrators. We’re there to do art.”
Fay has been to Iraq and Afghanistan twice . Battles has also been to Iraq twice and recently returned from Afghanistan. While deployed, the men take photographs and do sketches of Marines who have their boots on the ground. From those sketches and photographs come the paintings and sculptures that will become a part of the Marine Corps’ art collection.
According to the museum’s Web site, the Corpsī informal association with art began in World War I when Col. John W. Thomason, Jr., produced a powerful series of battlefield sketches. That foundation continues to define what is expected from a Marine combat artist, said both Fay and Battles. Marine combat artists must see what they paint.
In 1942, the official Marine Corps Combat Art Program began under the guidance of Brig. Gen. Robert Denig. His mission was to keep Americans informed about the Marinesī actions overseas. The Combat Art Program was disestablished after Word War II, enjoyed a short rebirth during the Korean War, and was permanently established under the guidance of Col. Raymond Henri in 1966. Henri identified and deployed dozens of Marine and civilian artists to Southeast Asia.
Since the Vietnam War, the Marine Corps Art Collection has grown to include over 350 artists and nearly 8,000 works of fine art. Marine Corps combat artists have documented Marine experiences around the globe.
Fay is currently working on a sculptor that stands roughly 23 inches high that depicts a Marine rifleman with his helmet off. Fay said the piece is loosely based on a series of photos he took of a lance corporal who was resting against a pillar between assaults in Husaybah, Iraq during Operation Steel Curtain.
Battles, 41, joined the Marine Corps in 1986 as a reservist and went to work as a computer operator for the 24th Marine Regiment in Kansas City, Mo. He eventually became a combat correspondent for the public affairs office there before leaving the Corps in 1996. Along the way he graduated with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from Northeast Missouri State University in 1991.
What did Battles do from 1996 to 2006, when he re-entered the Marine Corps?
“I was a starving artist,” he laughed. “I worked various jobs, but always did art.”
Battles was online one day when he saw Fay’s blog. Battles sent Fay a link to his own blog and was soon back in the Corps as a combat artist.
Battles is currently painting a Marine patrol in Afghanistan.
A native of Allentown, Pa., Fay studied briefly at the Philadelphia College of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He earned an undergraduate degree in Art Education from Penn State University.
Both Battles and Fay’s work is currently on display at the Peninsula Fine Arts Center in Newport News. The center is currently hosting an exhibit titled “In the Line of Duty: The Art of America’s Armed Forces,” which features approximately 60 works from the Marine Corps Combat Art collection.

Ellie