For many years the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles had a Sheriff’s Art Program headed by Leo Monahan (3-time SILA Past President and Life Member – and a member of LA Sheriff’s Department). Our members could go on ride-alongs and sketch. Those sketches would become part of a calendar that was available for distribution.

A couple of weeks ago the SILA office received an email from William “Moon” Mullen, Retired Sergeant from the LA Sheriff’s Dept. West Hollywood office showing an illustration:

which was thought to be based on a photo:

He wanted to see if we had any information on the history of these images. I contacted Leo Monahan as well as other of our “long-time members” but was not able to get in info for him. Sergeant Mullen had also contacted Leo and others in the LASD and was kind enough to keep us in the loop. Here is the update that was out to their 3600 members of lasdretired.org  …. the photo and the painting / litho are actually two different circumstances ….

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Well the best investigator or investigative reporter should always wait until all of the facts are in before publishing a story.  Lesson learned

First of all, thanks to all of you who responded with information about the below picture.  A big thanks to Retired Lieutenant Nick Berkuta who provided the missing link to all of this.

The photograph below, which later became a painting and a lithograph, was part of the Documentary Art Program back in the 70’s.  However the photo and the subsequent painting/lithograph are related to each other but not exactly the same.  I will explain below.

The Deputy in the original photo has been identified as Ray Arnold from Lennox Station.  The Photographer was also a Deputy, Deputy Bill Root also a Lennox Deputy, later working at SIB.  The little girl with her head of Deputy Arnold’s shoulder was the daughter of Deputy Root.

Sadly, both Deputy Ray Arnold and Deputy Bill Root have both passed away.  Ray passed away in 2011 from Alzheimer’s.  Bill passed away in 2014 from Cancer.

So now for the rest of the story (thanks Paul Harvey) that concerns the painting/lithograph that came from all of this.  This information was provided by Nick Berkuta:

Moon

In 1973, while assigned to the Information Bureau, I was given the task of assisting Mr. Ken Ottinger.  He was at that time a member of the Society of Illustrators whose group task was to capture the spirit of the Department in visual art.

After a few attempts, Ken came across the Arnold/Root photo and wanted to recreate it as an illustration.

After discussing his idea, he asked if I would pose in uniform with his neighbor’s daughter, Tiffany, for photos, which he used to create his acrylic rendering.  The artist signed his work ‘Ottinger’ on the girl’s shirt under her arm.

Ken Ottinger is a well known artist for his art depicting native American Indians.

His studio is in Arizona.

Attached, is a short write-up I drafted for Dep. Chris Miller about 10 years ago:

During the early 1970’s, the Society of Illustrators attracted the attention of then Sheriff Pitchess as a possible means to depict the various activities of the Department.  Having recently completed a pictorial project for the United States Air Force, this volunteer group accepted the challenge of capturing the essence of the Sheriff’s Department in art form.  Relying on a wide variety of the experiences, this group of artists chose a wide variety of subjects, which depicted the spirit of the Department.

Former Reserve Deputy Kenneth A. Ottinger, a well-known illustrator and sculptor who portrays the American Indian culture in bronze, accepted the challenge to capture the spirit and soul of the Sheriff’s Department in art form.  The most familiar of Kenneth Ottinger’s contributions to the Department was the illustration of an uniformed deputy comforting a distraught young girl superimposed over the badge of the Sheriff of Los Angeles County.   The written quotation below the portrait by Marcus Cato reads, “I prefer to strive in bravery with the bravest; rather than in wealth with the richest or in greed with the greediest….”

In designing this inspirational illustration, Mr. Ottinger wished to capture the strength and compassion that exemplifies the spirit of the Deputy Sheriff.    Assisting him with this now familiar work of art, the artist selected as models a seven-year-old neighbor named Tiffany and Deputy Nicholas Berkuta in 1973.

Nick