STATEMENT:
Black-and-white thinking not only boxes in our ability to be creative, to empathize, and to see the complexities of the world, but also limits the number and quality of options in the future. The Bush administration’s language and actions in initiating and conducting the war in Iraq are only one example—but a very costly one.

Against the blood-red background, I sought to personalize the numbers of dead in this war. Using an ongoing chronological list of US soldiers who have been killed in the Iraq war (http://www.icasualties.org/oif/US_NAMES.aspx), I printed their first names in the area surrounding the outline of Iraq. Inside Iraq I wrote the first names of a small portion of the tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians who have been killed (from a list at http://www.iraqbodycount.org/names.php).

The act of lettering each name on the painting became a meditation or prayer for the real person it signifies. I grieve for all of those who have lost their lives during this misadventure.

(note: sadly, this painting could hold only the names of US soldiers killed through 6/1/2007;
this work may expand to two pieces or be framed differently to hold more names.)

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Financial Cost of the War in Iraq

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