War and Peace

The flag on the left in "War and Peace" is a black and white image of the IR Flag that every American soldier wears throughout combat. After enduring a one year deployment to Iraq, I saw the IR Flag as a symbol of history. This is emphasized through the use of black and white colors. As soldiers return home from combat, the right flag represents the cost of war upon their lives (PTSD: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). The America they knew is no more. What once was white is now black. The rest of their lives is defined by the history and cost of war.

In the book Reflections of Generosity, I describe my initial return from war to peace as follows:

As I stepped off the plane at Fort Drum to greet my family, the emotions of seeing them again were comparable to the joys of becoming a father. I felt the way I did the first time I met my wife. There were shared smiles and many tears of relief and contentment, and the phrase it is finished repeated in my mind. The realization set in that these happy "mission complete" moments are pauses within the cycle of ongoing deployments. Although thinking already of leaving again spurs difficult, painful thoughts and emotions, I stand ready for what is to come. This is the kind of experience that feeds inspiration and increases hunger for creativity . . .

For the year I served in Iraq's galleries of beauty and sacrifice, I discovered my own resurrection moment and spiritual shift. It became clear to me through the inspiration of these moments that the qualities and themes of each untitled work are priceless and need to be shared.

In the lasting memory of our heroes whose daily generosity gives us the hope and beauty we need for restoration and peace, I humbly offer the words of this essay as a sacrifice to their broken and, in the end, resurrected beauty. May the generosity of their lives live on through the charity of our own personal sacrifices.

Ron Kelsey, Sgt., Military Liaison for the Arts, joined the U.S. Army Reserve in 1999 and continued to study art and religion at Wabash College. After transferring to active duty in 2006, Ron studied at Liberty University to become a military chaplain. His artwork has been shown in Canada and throughout the United States.

Ron received a nonprofit military commission in 2009 for a lithograph to benefit thirty soldiers coming home from Iraq and became International Arts Movement's Military Liaison for the Arts. After returning from Iraq in May of 2009, Ron organized IAM's first military art exhibit, called Reflections of Generosity, at Fort Drum, New York, later published in book form.

Reflections of Generosity includes wartime epistles, many written during Sgt. Kelsey's tour in Iraq, and color images of original artwork from a traveling exhibition dedicated to the military community. The Reflections of Generosity exhibit then traveled from New York to Illesheim, Germany, to be installed in a military base. Future exhibitions are being developed.

Ron is currently working on a nonprofit military artwork commission to support soldiers of Illesheim, who will return from Iraq in September of 2010. The themes of this new exhibition will explore The Art of War and Peace. Reflections of Generosity features artwork by artists from around the world, including Makoto Fujimura, Jay Walker, Charles A. Westfall, Sandra Ceas, Alison Stigora, Gerda Liebmann, Joyce Y. Lee, and others. Ron presented and released Reflections of Generosity at International Arts Movements Encounter 10 in New York City, March 4-6, 2010.

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