Ashes to Dust
Jd had always wanted to do a painting honoring those Native Americans who served during the Viet Nam War. When he had this painting mostly completed, he kept having difficulty completing the face.
He just couldn’t get it quite right, and it really bothered him. He was using a model that he had often used before, but it just wasn’t coming out looking like him.
Finally, Jd gave up on the model and said: “Well, let’s see who you are, then.” So he finished the portrait without letting himself get in the way.
This painting was being dedicated at the Viet Nam Memorial in Angel Fire, New Mexico (the first Viet Nam Memorial in the United States, made by the father of a fallen soldier). On this day, Jd was standing on the podium with the officials from the Memorial and some of the tribal Elders from Taos Pueblo, when Jd was shocked to see a man at the back of the crowd who looked very familiar.
Jd excused himself and went to talk to this stranger. When he met him, sure enough, he was the spitting image of the man whose portrait he had painted.
It turns out the man was from one of the Northern Pueblos and had served as a Huey helicopter door gunner during the war, which was just what Jd had painted.