I took my position off to the side where Bob was stationed. He was snapping away even though his pictures were not part of the project. It was helpful though because he was always where Victor and were not. “Where’s Victor?” I asked. “I don’t know , he ran off to the other side. While the troops creeped and crawled along the mocked building I scoured the area for Victor. No sign. Suddenly smoke was popping all over the place and the troops were yelling “Soldier down!” I ran right into the middle of everything to get action shots. “I don’t think you can cut across….” Bob’s words trailed off as I took a choice position right next to two female soldiers. I snapped off a few. “Hmmm,” I thought to myself “That girl was rather pretty”. Just then “BOOOM!! “Fire in the hole!” An explosive had been set off right near me and I jumped, I thought to myself I’d better pay attention or I’m going to get hurt. Then I saw Victor. He was sitting off to the side sketching. Two troopers were gathered around him pointing. “Glory Hog!” I thought to myself. “I’m gonna check out his stuff, maybe I’ll sit and sketch so I can attract attention.”
When I reached Victor he was sketching furiously almost trancelike and his work was great. “Maybe I shouldn’t sketch, cause this guy is a killer sketch artist and I um…well I’m me, and my onsite sketching is not a strength. “. But I did it anyway. And it was kinda fun and it gave me a different kinda feel from taking pictures and some control over the image, especially since it was so hard to see the viewing screen on my camera in the sun.
So I sat and sketched and sketched and no one came over, which was actually better. I wasn’t inhibited so I could be freer with my drawing. Actually some of them were not that bad. After about a half hour the first maneuver was over. The troops fell back to the gravel loading area and regrouped. Bob, Victor and I compared notes , then we moved to where Army Sgt. Miller was addressing the troops. I was truly surprised at the positive criticism. And again it was about saving lives. As I looked over the group I realized they were not all young. Some were at least 40! These were National Guardsmen who volunteered to train and go over to Iraq. I was floored. I thought about my bad knees and shoulder and my allergies and blood pressure meds. Was there any world conditions that could ever exist that would make me sign up?… I was feeling great respect for anybody around my age who wanted to serve in Iraq or places like that. I was thinking about what would motivate me to do such a thing and I had no idea. Except….Nazis… that would do it.
Within a half hour the troops had regroup and I found a new position to take shots for different angles. Victor took positions nearby and Bob was floating around the side of the mock village. The attack commenced with smoke, guns firing and local Hispanic men and women dressed as Arab townspeople and insurgents. It was rather amusing at one point watching two men who looked middle eastern discussing their postioning in Spanish. I clicked off shots and moved into the village itself. While chaos surrounded me I heard a voice from a structure nearby yelling at me. “Dude!…did you get my picture? I look around then up to the second floor of a decrepit building. A Hispanic guy wearing a black cowl and a t-shirt leaned out the window dangling his AK 47. “C’mon take a picture.” I snapped a few. “Got it!” “Thanks, where can I get a copy?” I shrugged my shoulders now surrounded by green smoke. “I dunno…man, I figure out something.” Oh no committed. I was beginning to realize I’d have to make good on these commitments. This one’s for you my Terrorist brother. (see below)
I kept crisscrossing the village square grabbing any action set up I saw. At one point I saw a half dozen men lined up against a building and they starting waving. I waved back. The same group slowly moved farward into a building covering each other. Shooting yelling and smoke ensued. I wasn’t allowed to fo into the building so I couldn’t get a shot. But I got as close as I could. More yelling and smoke erupted from behind me and I whirled around to see two Mexican…I mean two terrorists had been captured. The smoke started to clear and moments later the 2nd maneuver was over. It had been like being in a virtual video game.
I jogged over to the car to get my sketch pad, actually it was Victor’s. He let me use it since the typing paper I took from Minkin’s office had run out. I stationed myself near the roadway where some troops had gathered. I started sketching. I wasn’t sketching them, just images out of my head. This is how it works for me, once it’s embedded in my head I can work from memory. I later took the sketch below back to my studio and refined it.
A few troopers came over and started asking me about what I was doing. I let them know I was there to document their training. “Look at that Phillips…That looks like Estrada!” one of the trropers said. “Man I can’t draw a stick figure!” ‘Does it take long to learn?”
I thought for a moment. I can’t ever remember a time I didn’t draw. “I don’t know…I was born with a pencil in my hand.”
They laughed. “This guy here grew up with a chicken leg in his hand!” “fried Chicken…and I wish I had some right now. “ “Don’t I know it.” His buddy chimed in.
They moved off talking about how they’d draw guns.
The next and last maneuver went down just as the others had, I ran all over the place drawing instead of shooting and my sketching got better as I went along. Between the pictures and the sketches I was really able to go back to the studio and do some damage.
The day ended and we thanked the commanders profusely. My God we had hundreds of models to sketch all day for free…an artist’s paradise!
We packed up and headed back to the hotel for dinner in El Paso.
Diner at El Paso’s finest
We got back to the hotel (Airforce YMCA) and decided to go right out. I went up stairs to leave my gear in the room. Then curiosity got the best of me and I took a peak at my photos. I was pleasantlt surprised. There were really good shots that worked as sketching material and for paintings. “These are really good!” I thought. “I’m impressed with myself…or at the very least I was justifying SILA’s and the Airforce’s confidence in me. OOraH!! (My apologies to the Airforce if I’ve misspelled the word, but you get the idea)
I met up with Bob and Victor in the lobby. “How ‘bout Mexican?” Victor said. We all agreed . So once again we took our positions in the SUV. Victor, the artist driver, Bob our guide and me the artist\ passenger. Bob and Victor
WE got to the restaurant about 5:30 or 6 o’clock. We were all tired and sunburned. I hadn’t realized I could get so burned in 65 degree weather. I had one of those rednecks you get when you work outdoors. It looked good, masculine, rugged and lot better than MY BRIGHT RED NOSE WHICH PUT ME AT THE HEAD OF LINE TO LEAD SANTA’S SLEIGH!!
So we eat and swapped stories and learned about each other and found out how much we had in common. Perhaps if people would just sit down and swap stories over some Guacamole and Tacos the world would be a better place. By 7:30, we were wasted and ready to turn in. At least they were. I wanted to go back and do some work, watch some TV and get some juice from a convenience store to put in my little empty YMCA fridge.
And I did. At around 8 I walked a mile or so in my fatigues and T-shirt to the nearest convenience store in 35 degree weather on a full stomach. I was feeling very macho. By the time I reach the store it hit me. I was freezing and tired, really tired. I picked up Gatorade, chips and two bottles of apple juice…oh and 2 bananas. I was ready and I braved the cold back to my room. It had been a great day.
In conjunction with Tony Luna (
Simone Legno, the L.A.-based illustrator behind Tokidoki brand (who also participated in