On My Drawing Board: Back to Work

Monday, August 1, 2011

Back to Work

This post title would seem to imply that I haven't been working, which certainly isn't the case! What I'm really getting at is that recently I've been posting previously completed works that relate to 1861, as 2011 is the 150th anniversary for that year. Now I think it's time to get back to my original primary intention for this blog: posting newly-completed works and work-in-progress.

In keeping with my Civil War 150 Project, and to have an image to submit to an upcoming exhibition at the Clara Barton National Historic Site entitled "The Art of Clara Burton", I completed the above image in colored pencil on Canson Mi Teintes paper (color: Sand), Study of Clara Barton. I'm still learning about Ms. Barton and I'm sure will do more works that feature her in the years to come, since she played such an enormous role in the Civil War. This piece was an effort to study her facial features and see what I might learn from them by working closely with two of her Civil War era portrait photographs. Ms. Barton's first involvement with Civil War nursing was the result of her witnessing the wounded and dying soldiers brought back to Washington (where she worked at the Patent Office) after the First Battle of Manassas, something which would have been occurring approximately 150 years ago.

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What is the "Civil War Chronology Project"?

(formerly called The Civil War 150 Project)

The commemoration of John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), which was held in October of 2009, is widely considered to mark the beginning of the Sesquicentennial -- or 150th -- anniversary of the Civil War era. Over the next five years, many states and local communities will be marking the 150th anniversary of battles and important events that occurred in their areas during that era, and state and local commissions are being established to bring attention to those events.

Since I first began developing my series of images inspired by Civil War-era America and its people, my goal has always been to provide a complement to the images of battle scenes and famous generals focused on by most other Civil War artists. My approach has been to get to know these people in their pre-war identities and culture, and try to move through the War era in a chronological fashion, hoping to gain some sense of what they experienced as the War unfolded and engulfed them. My work can essentially be described as homage to life in the midst of war, but it carries a contemporary sensibility in hopes of encouraging viewers to see parallels between their lives and the lives of Americans gone before us.

The Civil War Chronology Project is the title I have given to the ongoing project I have developed for myself, to chronicle the lesser-known people and events of the Civil War era beginning with the publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852 and continuing through the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in April of 1865. I currently have created more than twenty pieces which were inspired by the incidents and people in the years leading up to, and then including, the First Battle of Manassas (also known as First Bull Run). To view the works created prior to 2010, please visit my website, http://www.civilwarfineart.com/, and specifically, my Beyond the Battlefield gallery page. Since helping viewers establish a more personal connection with the people of the Civil War era is a primary goal of mine, I welcome feedback from my audience. Thank you for viewing! ~~Amy V. Lindenberger