Artist Matt Mitchell Decade of 100 Veterans' Project

In artist’s project, veterans’ words complete their portraits 
Stars and Stripes
By Heath Druzin
Published: March 22, 2015

At times, it was a struggle for Mitchell, now 45, to make ends meet as the project became a full-time job. He was helped by a few grants and most of all by his wife, Rebecca Guay, a fellow artist whom he says made tremendous sacrifices to help him.

As bombs fell on Baghdad and Kabul, Matt Mitchell went about his normal routine, an unaffected spectator while troops died overseas. “I found I could just live my life as if nothing was happening, and it got under my skin,” he said.

So the artist sought understanding through a familiar medium: portraiture.

That was in 2005, and nine years later he finally completed “100 Faces of War Experience” and put it on display for the first time at the National Veterans Art Museum in Chicago. 

Mitchell reflected the range of experiences of returning troops by creating 100 oil-on-canvas paintings, spending 40 to 80 hours on each life-size head-and-shoulders portrait.

Many times, the veterans would tell him their experiences, often painful ones, as he painted. Their stories were often emotionally draining, he said, but ultimately were “uplifting” and educational for him and viewers of the project.

“Sure, you talk about heavy things, and the project is pretty heavy, but you realize that every single [veteran] out there fills in part of the picture,” he said. read more here