Airforce

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.
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