MARY WHYTE: HOME OF THE BRAVE
Mary Whyte’s impressive series of watercolors honors armed service members after they return from battle.
By Erin E. Rand
It took seven years and trips to all 50 states for Mary Whyte to complete her newest watercolor series. “The last project I did was called Working South, and it depicted blue-collar workers in vanishing industries. As that was coming to a close, I knew I wanted to follow it up with something even bigger and grander in scope,” Whyte says.
She knew she wanted to encompass every state— create a portrait of America that showcased the diversity of the country—but wasn’t sure how to go about choosing those Americans. “That’s when it came to me,”
she says. “That, to me, what makes somebody the most American is someone who’s willing to lay down their life for their country. So it became a project about veterans.”
The result, titled We The People, features citizens of all ages, all heritages and from all five branches of the military, and is the subject of an exhibition opening in Charleston, South Carolina, in October.
Finding veteran subjects wasn’t as easy as Whyte had thought it might be. “I knew I wanted to paint everyone from astronauts to homeless veterans and everything in between,” she says. “I made a list of which states I was most likely to find a dairy farmer or a coal
miner or a tattoo artist and started with that.”
But veterans make up less than 10 percent of the United States’ population. “There were a lot of phone calls and a lot of research,” Whyte admits. Local chapters of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and small-town chambers of commerce, who were proud of their local heroes, turned out to be invaluable resources.
And then, she traveled. In California, she met a homeless veteran named Dennis—the subject of Bunker. “I knew I had to include at least one homeless person in the series because on any given night we have 40,000 homeless veterans,” she says. She had to be led into the forested encampment by another homeless veteran for safety, and says, “Once I met him, I was struck by the fact that this was a man who had lived very honorably, and encountered a string of misfortunes that led him to this situation.”
In South Dakota, Whyte painted a Native American woman in traditional dancing regalia who impressed her with her patriotism. As Whyte took photographs and made sketches, the veteran told her how she’d pawned her engagement ring so she could afford to get the regalia made. The beadwork in the elaborate costume features several American flags and bald eagles.
One of the oldest veterans featured in the series is an African American woman who served in World War II, manning the post offices for the Tuskegee Airmen. They shared a powerful experience together. “I went to visit her in Savannah and she was wearing a red jacket and an American flag pin,” Whyte describes. “She very proudly said the pledge of allegiance for me.”
Whyte’s goal was to portray these service members not in the heat of battle but as they are now. These teachers, taxi drivers, ferry boat captains and junk dealers are the hidden heroes within each and every community across the United States.
“Through this project, I discovered what an extraordinarily beautiful country this is, and I was also continuously impressed by the people I met,” she says. Aside from their history of service, one connecting thread that united every subject was their sense of honor. She describes, “They may not be in the military anymore, but they are living out their lives as honorable community members and family members.”
Working from life, photos, imagination and memory,
Whyte created portraits that provide insight into the lives of service members on a large scale—particularly for watercolors. The largest, which features an astronaut, is 10 by 10 feet.
The sheer space that the paintings take up proved to be a challenge in itself. They don’t all fit in the venue where Whyte held her last show, so We The People: Portraits of Veterans in America will launch October 25 at City Gallery in Charleston, South Carolina. Together, the 50 works serve as a reminder of the sacrifices made by service members, as well as the dignity they carry with them off the battlefield and into their communities.
Though the watercolors alone are an impressive feat, We The People spans beyond the paintings to become a multimedia experience. A book is being produced by the University of South Carolina to be released when the exhibition
opens, and a documentary is in the works.
“We’re actually about to leave for a drive along the East Coast, and we’ll be revealing portraits to four veterans and getting their reactions and their family’s reactions,” Whyte says. “We are starting in South Carolina and will end up in Maine.”
During the first two nights of the exhibition’s opening weekend, there will be a unique experience with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, which combines the visuals of Whyte’s paintings with a performance of classical and contemporary American tunes. The second night several of the paintings’ subjects will be in attendance, and they’ll be honored the next day with a brunch on the USS Yorktown, a World War II-era aircraft carrier anchored in Charleston Harbor.
The seven-year project spurred Whyte to create the Patriot Art Foundation, which has worked to raise money to bring each of the veterans painted to the opening celebration as well as find a permanent home for the exhibition so that the American public can continue to appreciate the subjects and their sacrifice for many years to come.
Additionally, the foundation will also raise funds for an outreach program so veterans can find a way to express themselves through art, helping to soothe common mental health issues like PTSD. “We are partnering with The Citadel, which is the military academy here in Charleston, to do just that,” Whyte explains. “We want to have initiatives that reach out to veterans both locally and nationally.”
We The People will remain on view through December 22, and from there it will travel to several venues throughout the United States.