Photo By Chief Petty Officer Cole Pielop | 171109-N-BR087-054 BREMERTON, Wash. (Nov. 9, 2017) Airman Dylan Eaton, from Tulsa,...... read more read more
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Checking out hazardous materials from the Hazardous Material Issue Control Station (HICS) aboard USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) is a necessary, routine task for nearly every crewmember, but not many Sailors would consider it an entertaining experience. Hazardous materials, or HAZMAT, need to be controlled and stored in a safe and secure space, and as a result, checking it out can be a sluggish, unremarkable event. Lately, however, there is a sense of excitement behind a trip to HICS, driven by the artwork of Airman Dylan Eaton.
The moment Sailors get a peak inside the once lifeless office, a brilliant cluster of “HAZM-Art” catches their eye. Eaton, from Tulsa, Oklahoma, started making his art, made up of paint, cardboard and burlap recycling sacks, during the ship’s first underway following a planned incremental availability.
“It all started on board during our previous underway to San Diego when I found out I was going to be working nights,” said Eaton. “It was a boring night before we left as I was trying to readjust my sleep schedule, and I was sitting in the upstairs area of the HAZMAT mezzanine, surrounded by cardboard scraps and paint buckets that were set to be offloaded the next day, and I just started to have some fun with it.”
Eaton, who studied literature and classical poetry at the University on Tulsa, considers himself more of a writer, but like a true artist he sees everything as a potential piece of art, including the next day’s trash.
“Everything that I make aboard is made from recycling materials that are about to be disposed of, starting with the cardboard from breaking down boxes, to the paint cans and buckets that are about to be off-loaded, to the spray cans that only have enough left for scattered spots of droplets, anything to utilize the materials that are leaving the ship,” said Eaton. “I’m not particular about what the medium is; it mostly amounts to what’s available in front of me at the time and I just try to manipulate it in any way that I choose. There was one day that I had run out of brushes, so I chose to paint with popsicle sticks because I had an idea that I was dying to try out.”
Eaton wasn’t sure how his chain of command would react to his art, but has found they support the work he is doing as long as he is being safe.
“To be completely fair to them, I’m not sure they really knew what to think at first,” said Eaton. “Once they realized that I was only using recycled materials and working after hours, they became very encouraging. The whole idea from the beginning was to show some of our character, because this ship is filled with personalities and stories and ideas, and I knew that art is subjective to the individuals that have to be around it.”
Eaton’s coworkers have supported him thus far, and appreciate what he has done for their workspace.
“It is a great time working with Airman Eaton and enjoying his artwork on a daily basis,” said Machinist’s Mate 1st Class Shane Griffith, from Owosso, Mississippi. “His work really livens up the workspace and gives it a home-like feeling. His creativity never ceases to amaze me, and I’ve even hung one of his shipboard paintings in my house.”
Eaton says he doesn’t approach any piece of work with a specific idea, but instead lets his work develop naturally.
“It actually starts with no real process at all. I just put the paint to the canvas and let it divulge itself organically,” Eaton said. “My first piece came purely from a smearing of white paint at the bottom of a piece of cardboard that resembled a jawline and led up to what I could turn into a hairline. Then the idea came to me so I started to refine it little by little, and once I’d decided on what it was that I was going to pursue everything else just kind of fell into place.”
Eaton took a rather uninteresting space, and used his creativity to bolster his environment piece by piece. The once white, barren walls that occupied his workspace are now littered with imaginative works for all to enjoy and hopefully to be inspired by.
| Date Taken: | 11.12.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 12.20.2017 13:12 |
| Story ID: | 259647 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 95 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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