Army National Guard Soldier showcases artistic abilities, leaves legacy

Photo By Master Sgt. Daniel Palermo | CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait — A mural created by Sgt. 1st Class Lloyd Anderson, with the 35th Infantry Division, Missouri Army National Guard, commemorates the deployment of Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 28th Infantry Division to Kuwait in 2018 as the headquarters element of Task Force Spartan. (U.S. Army illustration by Master Sgt. Daniel Palermo)  

KUWAIT

04.30.2018

Courtesy Story

28th Infantry Division

By 1st Sgt. Robert Smolar
28 ID, Task Force Spartan Public Affairs

CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait — As units deploy to the Middle East, they often memorialize their tours through painted murals. Soldiers with Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion (HHBN), 28th Infantry Division, Pa. Army National Guard will leave their mark at Camp Arifjan thanks to an artist in their ranks who captured the deployment using an improvised palette for mixing paints and a concrete T-wall for a canvas.
Sgt. 1st Class Lloyd Anderson, 35th Infantry Division, Missouri Army National Guard, created the mural which marks HHBN’s deployment.
Maj. Gen. Andrew Schafer and Command Sgt. Maj. John Jones, the 28th division’s commanding general and command sergeant major, respectively, publicly recognized Anderson’s achievement in a formal ceremony on April 30. Anderson is attached to HHBN, Task Force Spartan, having started his deployment to Kuwait with the 35 ID, the 28th’s predecessor.
"It's exciting to be able to leave something that would be a legacy for the 28 ID and myself," Anderson said. "I like to share something I've created and hope other people enjoy it."
Anderson’s deployment mural, dedicated to the 28 ID, was unveiled during the ceremony. The conceptual ideas for the design of the mural were presented to Anderson from both Lt. Col. Erik Smith and Command Sgt. Maj. Jeremy Strathmeyer, HHBN commander and command sergeant major, respectively.
Anderson incorporated the conceptual ideas as well as various images and symbols representative to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ and Philadelphia Eagles’ football logos were placed in the upper left and right corners of this wall painting. Below the Steelers’ logo – which is based on the United States Steel emblem – there is an image of a public lamp post conveying the intersection of Chocolate St. and Cocoa Ave. located in Hershey, Pa. Adjacent to these painted images is a famous portrait of Benjamin Franklin, with his well-known maxim stating, “Energy and persistence conquer all things.”
Immediately below “Old Ben” is the historical note of the 28 ID being the “Oldest Division, March 12, 1879” in the Army. Beneath this footnote is a highly detailed front façade of the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg, home of the 28 ID.
The center of this mural is dominated by the famous 28 ID symbol of a “Red Keystone,” with the battle mottos of “Roll On” and “Iron Division” – each earned in two separate world wars – followed-up by the current “Task Force Spartan Shield 2018” mission.
Anderson relates how he implemented the use of a three-dimensional drop shadow for the 28 ID patch to “visually lift it out” of the mural. Below the teal-colored Philadelphia Eagle head is a very detailed painting of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, which provides a three-dimensional view of the south façade of this famous building and site of the 1787 Constitutional Convention. Placed to the left of Independence Hall is the Nittany Lions’ logo of Pennsylvania State University, or Penn State. Above the blue and white lion, an image of the Liberty Bell is placed and lettered beneath it is reference to the 28 ID’s participation in the battle of the Champagne-Marne, July 15, 1918 in WWI.
Anderson is 56 years old and lives with his wife, Annie, in the area of Springfield, Mo. He has roughly 17 years of military service, to include a past deployment to Camp Arifjan in 2003. He began his military career in 1980 by joining and serving three years with the United States Marine Corps. After Sept. 11, 2001, Anderson joined the Missouri Army National Guard to continue his service to the nation in a time of crisis. His primary military occupational specialty is intelligence analyst, and his secondary MOS is aircraft pneudraulics repairer.
In the years following his service in the Marines Corps, Anderson pursued a personal career to become an accomplished artist. He recalled that his inspiration to become an artist started in the sixth grade. Anderson said that his main interests are to build furniture, create oil paintings and fashion carvings made of wood and Corian.
When it comes to painting and drawing, he speaks of being influenced by the renowned Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino or “Raphael” (1483-1500), an Italian architect and painter of the High Renaissance and known for his work in St. Peter’s Basilica and the Ansidei Madonna. Also, he draws inspiration from the celebrated Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) known for Christ’s Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. He adds that the major influence for sculpturing comes from the renowned Michelangelo, especially citing his works of the statues of David and The Pieta.
During work on the 28 ID mural, Anderson labored more than 300 hours in a hot and sandy environment. Soldiers of the 28 ID erected a screen to protect Anderson from a broiling sun. He constantly battled sand – and at times mud due to rain – to keep the concrete working surface clean and ensure his paint would adhere.
Anderson demonstrated to visitors how he mixed his paints in makeshift water bottle containers and used large amounts of paint thinner to keep his mixed paints from drying out due to the heat.
He recalls on one occasion being physically bothered by a large black scorpion for a couple of hours. And there was the daily nuisance of “sand fleas and those dreaded gnats”.
Visitors saw Anderson using a Frisbee as a rough and ready artist’s palette. He explained how he spent dozens of hours in different positions to paint the smallest details within each image. He improvised a do-it-yourself scaffolding to reach all areas of the working surface, a large cement barrier.
Anderson recounted the continual and tedious eye strain, as he mixed his own colors and wrestled to meticulously capture the features of all of the themes in his wall painting.
According to Anderson, his main challenge was to visually complete a balanced composition between a contrast of light and dark and the “transition of all colors between all his topics.”
Anderson humbly describes his feelings of being very blessed with his artistic talents as a “gift from God” to be shared with others. Within the battalion annex compound, the 28 ID wall painting resides next to an earlier mural Anderson painted – dedicated to the 35 ID.
Another of Anderson’s paintings was hung in the Spurrier Conference Room, in the 35 ID forward-deployed headquarters. The conference room is named in honor of World War II Medal of Honor Recipient Staff Sgt. James Ira “Junior” Spurrier. The painting was subsequently moved to a military museum located at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. The work commemorated the 35 ID’s five brigades – which composed Task Force Spartan – and its 100 years of service.

• Date Taken: 04.30.2018
• Date Posted: 06.12.2018 08:06
• Story ID: 280588
• Location: KW