WWII Wedding (2001) Painting by Charles Riley

My parents married after having survived WWII. They met in New Orleans before being shipped overseas at the time of the Normandy invasion. My mother was attached to a physical therapy unit in Cirencester near London. She put together broken soldiers. My father was attached to the 9th Armored Infantry (Known as the Phantom 9) as a field hospital doctor. He saw service in The Battle of the Bulge, Bastogne, Remagen Bridge, Germany, and finally Czechoslovakia. He had 5 jeeps blown out from under him and only got mad when they blew up the one with his medical journals. I won't mention all he went through, but it was amazing he was able to hitch his way from Czechoslovakia on transport planes to Cirencester, England to marry his wife, who could have just as well been killed in bombing raids. They had 11 children of which I am one. It's also an interesting intersection of life in that my uncle, Ken Gorman, who was a Mustang fighter pilot, who defended my father's position in Bastogne at the very end of the siege of Bastogne by the Germans. Little did he know in serendipitous arrangement, he would marry my father's sister. This might be looked at as a gesture by the universe for helping my father out in Bastogne. My uncle was shot down sometime after Bastogne in Luxembourg and was taken prisoner. Not too many years ago my uncle was honored in Luxembourg City for his service and he received the key to the city. My father was able to see this painting just before he passed away in 2001. My mother passed away a short time later. Uncle Ken passed away shortly before my father.

As I see it, there was a serendipitous string of events that the universe played to connect survivors and affirm life over destruction. My paintings reflect on personal lives in a manner that's not only tied to a tradition such as Expressionism or Tribal Art, but they find there a resonance and responsiveness that is spontaneous. In many of the works, a collage of the life of the painting and painterly ideas evolve in surprising ways, having worked over the paintings numerous times in response to the medium, other artworks, and life in general. Sometimes as in traditional Eastern painting, the first version of my artwork is expressive and lives on its own without prompting me to work with it some more. However, unlike Eastern painting, I don't throw out a work that doesn't work after the first encounter. I return to the medium, as another part of nature to respond to, just as I might respond to the life of a city or someone I know. In reflection on the history and resultant artwork, which reflects the central life affirming event, I wrote a poem that deepens the reflection and I hope the same for the viewer. This painting is best viewed with the print I made from a photo of this painting. I repeated the photo in columns and rows in a manner similar to some pop art, but then I superimposed the poem. I believe layers of different styles of older media act as a balance for newer media. The poem follows:

World War II Wedding

There was for her a church in Cirencester,
An edifice of subdued red,
A color best forgotten by the newlywed.
Juxtaposed in age with surrounds,
Is the sanguine sake of bonds without bounds.

There-then-before, a rough image it wore.
In need of solace, the damage was interlaced
With rough rose in hand and military dress which created
In animist hedge a cross for those no longer with us.
Blue shade was coursed through with white, free, pure, and capacious.

Silver sanctioned subtle charm of couple.
The marriage procession of progression
Springs from devastation.
A surgical patch was pasted here and there,
Over and under, and all around in each their layer.

Through strata vexatious, emerged the unpretentious,
Always discernible despite twists and turns,
Abrasions, shattered bones, and bomb inflicted burns.
Accepted strokes and slashes interweaved a fearless fractal.
They designed a map beyond decipher in accepted factual.

The record was fulfilled with marks, blurs, and disfigurement
It distilled quiescent dignity in callouses, ridges, and pits.
The perceptions of issue intertwined in discovered orbits.
They weaved parallactic views to reveal past source.
The portal was in a picture to which impotent war lost force.

With bold chiaroscuros, heart rending rose,
Salient ribbons, intersecting hedges,
And tremulous red of church pledges.
A simple wedding hence urged
To what beauty compelled beyond focus and the measured.

Related themes

Human ConditionFamilyMarriageWarMemory