EC honors veteran military painter

Published March 28, 2013
By Lt. Col. Laurie A. Arellano
U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center

JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. -- Everyone in John Witt's art has a name, and every piece of art has a story. In fact, John Witt himself has a story, though he's reluctant to talk much about the man behind the latest contributions to Air Force Art Program's collection at the U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center, March 15, 2013, here.

Officials unveiled eight works of art by three artists, including five by Witt, a military artist since 1963. Two of Witt's paintings will be permanently installed at the EC following Air Force CORONA, where all of the paintings will be turned over to the Air Force after being displayed for Air Force leadership.

"These are opportunities to educate," said Witt. "Seeing these pieces enables people to construct a larger picture of the Air Force story."

Witt's most recent works focused on the EC's training mission. He spent an initial visit at the EC sketching the people who represent many of the missions trained there, and then followed it up by traveling to Afghanistan to sketch people in those same missions doing their jobs in the theater.

"There's a historical significance," Witt said. "History is art."

Witt takes his contributions to history seriously. He's witnessed events that have steered his career as an artist from his 1963 enlistment in the Army and two Vietnam tours as a civilian commissioned by the Marines, to his recent tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and in Thailand during the Asian tsunami.

"The experience does something to you," Witt said.

In Vietnam, Witt sometimes had to resort to ink and spit sketches, and he carried a wood block in his map case to, he said, hopefully to protect him from shrapnel. He eventually carved it for one of his works.

"I wanted to record every aspect of what they did there," Witt said.

During the unveiling ceremony, Greg Hannon, EC chief registrar and unit historian, said the ceremony is an important reminder that military service is noble and worth remembering and art sustains our culture and contributes to our heritage.

"Paintings that were commissioned half-a-millennia ago still inspire to this very day," Hannon said. "Look at museums all over the world and people flock to see art, captured by the human hand and inspired by the human soul."

Hannon expressed the Air Force's gratitude to all of the artists who give their talents and time on a completely volunteer basis to help tell the Air Force story.

"There is something timeless and enduring about taking a piece of canvas, and through the God-given inspiration of the subject and the talent of the artist, something synergistic can be produced that speaks to the dignity of human beings and the human spirit," Hannon said.

During his 50 years and hundreds of paintings with the military art program, Witt has focused on the people not only of the Air Force, but also of the countries in which the Air Force is operating.

"My feeling is this is history," said Witt. "The country needs to see what the people of the military are doing in these countries.

Witt's paintings begin with a sketch. Something tells him to draw, and from there, a piece of art begins to take shape.

"The important thing is the concept," Witt explained. "What do I want to say with this piece?"

Every one of his thousands of sketches contains the names of the people he sketched and they're all signed by the person he sketched. Witt said he sketches people because they help tell the Air Force story.

"Sometimes a lot is written on the face," he said.

Even foreign civilians help educate people about what the Air Force is doing abroad. He wants people to get a feeling of the country the Air Force is operating in.

Sometimes he sees an opportunity to make a bigger statement or convey a message through the people he sketches and the environment he visits. Good art lets people bring in their own emotion and experiences and draw their own conclusions, Witt explained.

The Military Art Program began in the 18th century in the U.S. and continues today via the heritage programs of the five services. The artists deploy into a country, and with no instructions and no restrictions, create works that, unlike a photo taken in the moment and reliant completely on the time and place it is taken, are composites of their experiences and the statement they hope to make.

Maj. Gen. William Bender, EC commander, said at the unveiling ceremony all of the artists in the military art program are patriots, and that he was grateful for the paintings of Airmen they donated as a result of their time at the EC.

"The focus is on the people," Bender said, "where it should be."