911 Commemoration to all who lost
lives on September 11, 2001
Local artist honors Sept. 11 victims
By GIDGET FUENTES Staff
Writer
CAMP PENDLETON ---- For artist Todd
Krasovetz of Oceanside, the cathartic process
of putting the emotions of the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks onto a canvas has inspired him to
do more work about U.S. military forces. Krasovetz's
latest paintings, displayed at Camp Pendleton
Marine Corps Base this weekend, feature New
York City's Twin Towers and the Pentagon,
two targets struck that day by terrorists
who hijacked four commercial airplanes. Like
many Americans, Krasovetz felt anger and shock
at the attacks. As an artist, the challenge
was turning those emotions into art to honor
the victims, even though video and photographs
of the attacks were constants on television
and in printed media.
 |
Bill
Wechter/Staff Photographer
Todd Krasovetz, an Oceanside
artist, signs postcards of his 9/11-inspired
work called Freedom's Flame at the Marine
Corps Association bookstore Saturday |
"At first, I didn't want to do it,"
he said Saturday at the Marine Corps Association
bookstore, where he signed his lithographs.
"I had been bombarded with so much imagery."
"To combine it into one piece was extremely
difficult because there were so many emotions
in there," he said.
Although he hasn't visited New York City,
Krasovetz got suggestions from his father
and used photos to help in the design.
The results are two paintings, "Freedom's
Flame (daytime) and "Liberty's Flame
at Night," that feature the Statue of
Liberty's flame, the U.S. flag, the Twin Towers
in Lower Manhattan, the Pentagon and an eagle.
The night painting shows the twin towers of
light rising from the World Trade Center site
as it did as a temporary memorial for the
3,000 people killed in the attacks.
The viewer's perspective is a "bird's
eye view" from the Statue of Liberty
across New York Bay to the Twin Towers, Krasovetz
said. "You are at eye level with the
flame." His latest work follows a commissioned
painting depicting a Navy corpsmen aiding
a fallen Marine on a battlefield. The original
"Wings of Hope" painting hangs in
Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital's quarter-deck
and is shown on his Web site, www.toddkrasovetz.com.
The corpsman in the painting is his brother,
Scott E. Krasovetz, a hospital corpsman assigned
to the naval hospital. He and fellow corpsman,
Petty Officer Mike Murphy, donned their combat
equipment to role-play the scene depicted
in the painting."It's a great tribute
to how Marines and corpsmen relate to each
other," Scott Krasovetz said. Todd Krasovetz's
next work is a painting, tentatively called
"Victory at Kandahar," of a Navy
corpsman, Force Reconnaissance Marine and
Special Forces soldier on the battlefield
in Afghanistan. "That one's coming along
very well," he said. "I'm pretty
excited about it."
The work has made him more interested in
art about military service members. "That
is kind of my path, in terms of being an artist
and pursuing the military genre," said
Krasovetz, who's studying fine arts at New
Mexico State University.
"It's interesting that it takes a negative
to make a positive," he said. "Obviously,
Sept. 11 told people this is how important
these people are." Contact staff writer
Gidget Fuentes at (760) 901-4072 or gfuentes@nctimes.com.
editor@nctimes.com
