Confronting the Past: D-Day 1944-2004

Materials:	Acrylic on canvas
Size:	16" x 20"
Creation Date:	October-November 2004
Disposition:	Private collection
Comments:	In June of 2004, the world watched the commemoration of D-Day, the invasion of Europe by the Allied Forces. Canada, too, had her role to play, and Canadian Veterans travelled to Normandy, many for the last time, to confront their pasts. The painting is conceived in four planes: 1) the anonymous Vet stands on the beach on 06 June 2004 and remembers the day 60 years previously; 2) the beach, and to an even greater extent, the water are the beach/water of the past and the present, stylized because memory is never picture-perfect; 3) the memory of a soldier--is this the Vet himself? a friend or brother who was killed/wounded/survived?--we don't know, and it doesn't really matter; 4) the text-- title and names of representative units--which balances the colour of the memory and adds both context and abstraction. The work was created for Capt Steven E. Dieter , CD, Associate Air Force Historian.