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When I was in high school, there was a local western artist incorporating ghost figures in his paintings.  I liked his concept but never wished to use it in my work.  Years later, I came across another artist, Charles Peterson from Door County Michigan, using a ghost concept in his nostalgia work.  His technique and compositions were exceptional.  He didn’t use the ghost figures as a representation of a spirit world but as a statement of history; what life activities occured in the same location so many years ago.  One of his paintings showed an old barn behind a colonial style home and in it he placed ghost figures of an old fire truck and fire fighters milling around.  It sparked my idea for a painting of a fallen fire fighter memorial.
 

As my concept developed over several years, I hesitated actually doing the work for fear such a painting would evoke too many emotions.   Unable to shake the idea, I finally set out to paint it.  After visiting some of the Fallen Fire Fighter Memorials across the United States, I chose the International Association of Fire Fighters Memorial in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  It was the largest and most artistically pleasing I’d found.  After doing the necessary field work for the composition, I put everything away for another four years; I couldn’t get past my concern for how the public would respond to the work.
 

With encouragement from my wife, many friends and acquaintances I finally proceeded with the painting.  In the Line of Duty depicts a variety of people visiting the memorial; reflecting on the loss that forever changed their lives.  Unbeknownst to them, their loved ones are there too.
 

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