Michael Fay, Combat Artist

It was nice to see the article in this Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, page B1, by author Michael Phillips, himself the author of The Gift of Valor: A War Story, about Michael Fay, USMC combat artist, recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq.  Combat art is a long tradition that goes back hundreds of years in the military, and some of the best American artists have participated -- names we all know.  Michael Fay's work, which is stunning, can be viewed on his blog, and also at the Navy Museum in Washington, D.C., currently.  (Fay's work will also be featured at the James A. Michener Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvana.)  It'd be interesting to know from Warrant Officer Fay how therapeutic for him doing art in a combat zone was, or is; it definitely sounds from what he's written that his presence there, with the troops as one of them, doing art about what they were jointly going through, was somewhat therapeutic for others to experience.  There are some incredible pictures on his blog (the Marine Corps owns his work, not Fay himself) of faces of some current warriors, which provide a great window into the stress and exhaustion of combat for the participants.  Be sure to give Fay's work a look -- there's nothing quite like it. (For a look at the combat art from previous generations, be sure to check out this link.)