♪ >> Hello I'm Beryl Dakers.

Welcome to Palmetto Scene.

Just in time for Veterans Day a new exhibit opened at the City Gallery in Charleston.

It's entitled "We The People: Portraits of Veterans in America."

Acclaimed watercolor artist Mary Whyte has spent nearly eight years crafting this series of fifty large scale paintings which depict military veterans, one from every state in the nation who have come home to their communities after service to their country.

♪ ♪ Richard> Tonight we are at the City Galler and we're revealing Mary Whyte's amazing portrait of America with the veterans of this past summer.

She goes "Richard, the project's about done."

We want to bring the painting to your house and I think like a little painting and then this enormous thing shows up in o and she revealed it.

My wife and I were just in tears just seeing what she did here.

To be part of that is such an honor.

<talking crowd> >> The show is phenomenal.

The turnout is quite inspirational.

It's enormous.

It's enormous, And I am so impressed and so happy for Mary.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Winston> I can't describe the feelings because there's such an awesome emotion.

I am so honored to have been asked to come out and participate in this event.

The painting is amazing, the way Mary Whyte has captured it.

♪ >> I thank you so much for your service.

I think this is such a wonderful thing that Mary did for all of us.

>> When the public comes out and they support us like this it's just, it really humbled me, you know.

I just did what my heart told me to do.

You know?

'Cause that's what I was always going to do during the military.

<talking crowd> >> Thank you for your service and that is the most unbelievable painting.

That is beautiful.

>> To see it in person and to see how big it is, is just awesome.

It's just very emotional for me.

It's so beautiful.

It's like, ooh, that's me!

Oh my God!

♪ Dan> I'm honored I really am happy that I am where I'm at now you know.

It's just a surprise.

It's way beyond what we came home to.

It was a totally different world then.

And now I'm seventy and here I'm being honored with my own painting and a book.

It's incr >> How did Mary find you?

Joanie> I was in a shelter at the time.

It's a positive impact, overall.

Anything is possible.

If you decide to do it, you will get it.

Mary> And you did.

Joanie> Yes.

Thank you ♪ Beryl> Every veteran story is special.

We accompanied Mary Whyte to North Carolina as she gave one of her subjects a first look at his painting.

♪ >> I had sixteen good years in the military and one really bad day.

November 15th of 2004, I had my platoon.

It was a mechanized infantry platoon with Bradley Fighting Vehicles and some of the baddest men you'd probably ever meet.

It was right before dinner time.

It was a routine patrol We were just looking for bad guys.

We were out for a few hours and we were on our way back not too far from the base.

We were ambushed.

They initiated the ambush by hitting my vehicle with two rocket propelled grenades, RPGs.

One of those RPGs penetrated the hull and when it did it took off my left leg, it took off my gunners right leg and the fight started.

♪ The good news was we were looking for them.

The good news was they gave their position away.

The better news is we won the fight.

♪ A good news story is neither my gun nor I died.

We were the only two injuries on our side.

♪ When I first saw the painting, I just remember feeling like I've misused the word awesome.

I was just full of awe in seeing it.

Just from left to right, just the detail looking like a photograph, it it's just, just a beautiful, beautiful piece and I'd say it if it wasn't me in it, it's beautiful.

I certainly feel special but I don't know that, that conveys everything I'm feeling.

What an honor.

Fascinated both by you know the painting and then learning more about some of the other veterans included.

All the military really is at this point, it's a bunch of those patriots who decided to give their lives to something bigger, so I'm inspired by it.

♪ Beryl> That inspiration is intentional.

We visited the artist, Mary Whyte in her Charleston studio and sat down to talk with her not just about this current project but about her art in general and what she hopes it accomplishes.

♪ ♪ Mary let's talk a little bit about your chosen medium.

Why water color?

>> Well it is a difficult medium and I know a lot of artists will often say it's one of the most difficult ones but I started painting in watercolor really when I was in I think seventh grade and just loved it.

It's fast, it's fluid and especially for painting people, it really can make those translucent skin tones that I love.

Beryl> But isn't that also the very objection that most people have, that it's fast?

<Yes> And it dries quickly and you have that issue of control to deal with.

Mary> It's, it's the only medium that relies strictly on timing.

The only one.

So if I want a soft edge, I have to paint two areas together very quickly.

If I want a hard edge, one of those has to be dry.

I like what John Singer Sargent said.

He described water color as making the best of an emergency, which at times it is.

Beryl> So you enjoy the challenge,then?

Mary> Yes, I enjoy the challenge and I love how it can take over and you have to ride with.

Beryl> Interestingly you evoke the name of John Singer Sargent and I know that Martha Severance who is yo sometimes co-conspirator and documenter of your works often compares what you do some of the old masters Rembrandt, Renoir and the more modern masters like Wyeth.

How does it feel to be in that kind of esteemed company and do you think of yourself that way?

Mary> No, I don't think of myself that way.

I think of myself as an artist like any other, always striving to get better and certainly those are artists that I gre and artists that I've studied and still study.

As I'm painting.

Often when I'm painting, I will take out a book of Homer or Wyeth o and just open it so that I have that level of expectation.

Beryl> Before we talk about some of your specific works I'd like to talk about the style of painting that somehow manages to be at once muted and translucent and maybe indistinct with background and yet so finely honed on the, the subjects themselves.

How do you manage that seeming contradiction?

There're several reasons behind that.

One is that that's how I think we see, that if I hold up my hand and you focus on my face, the hand goes out of focus and then if you focus on my hand, the face goes out of focus.

So part of that, I do that because I believe that's how we see, but I also do that so I can direct the vie so that by painting some areas in, in very I can get the, the, the viewer to linger there and then other areas that are soft there are more swiftly glanced over that way.

Beryl> Are you conscious of trying to create almost a photographic clarity in your images?

Mary> I wouldn't say photographic clarity.

I would say the result of life, that that's really what I'm going for.

It's not, you know sometimes people say Mary your work looks like a photograph and I understand the compliment they're giving to me but really what I want is I want my paintings to be more like life as it really is.

Beryl> And what's the distinction there?

Mary> Well in the photograph, the camera doesn't have an opinion.

The camera puts in everything that doesn't need to be there so that when I paint, I do have an opinion.

I do paint where I think there's a story t and I do gloss over what I think isn't so interesting and focus on what I think is important.

Beryl> Are you suggesting then that your works are also some sort of social commentary?

Mary> I don't think as artist we can avoid that really because we choose what we paint and we choose how we paint it.

So if it's not a social commentary what we're doing is we're welcoming the viewer into our world and it's, we don't really go into the viewers world.

We're saying come see what I see.

Come feel what I feel.

Beryl> Is it necessary to know your subject in order to do that?

Mary> You know that's an interesting quest because I've done a lot of portraits over my career and I don't believe you have to know your subject really that well at all.

What I think is necessary is that you recognize the emotion, because that's what people recognize.

So, no you don't have to know the person for a long time to get to their essence as long as you can recognize that emotion.

Beryl> I want to talk a little bit about your latest project and that is of course the documentation of veterans from every, all fifty states.

What is the topic?

Mary> It's called "We The People: Portraits of Veterans in America.

Beryl> You have chosen what seems to me to be a really difficult way to express this and in a novel way at the same time because immediately when we think of veterans, you conjure up this image of someone in uniform, and yet you've chosen, I don't think any of them are actually portrayed in uniform but beyond that one person from all fifty states opens you up to such a broad possibility of subjects.

How did you determine whom you would paint?

Mary> Well let me start with this, that I an all encompassing portrait of America to show its diversity, not as we want it to be, but as it truly is.

So I, in knowing that our veterans all come from very diverse backgrounds, they're all different ages, they all have different jobs and live in different parts of the country, I wanted to include that.

So I started by making a list of the types of people I want, the types of Americans because you know when I started this I thought well how do I choose an America?

How do I choose this one person?

And I believe that our veterans are really our truest Americans.

I mean they're the ones who chosen to raise their hand for our country and to offer up themselves and their service to our country.

So I made a list of all the different kinds of Americans, you know, everything from an astronaut, taxi driver, school teacher, tattoo artist, dairy farmer all the way down to a homeless man and decided that's why I want to make this overall portrait of veterans, portrait of America, portrait of all of us.

Beryl> But then there is that broad proble of how you select this one from this day, this place because you could have gotten perhaps almost all of those images in any one stay.

Mary> That's true, that's true but I did have to go to all fifty states and find that one person and some of them I found through you know a lot of phone calls like to get a, a window washer I called a lot of window washing companies and asked do you have a veteran and finally found you know the the veteran who's doing the windows and to find the truck driver I called a lot of different trucking companies and was able to finally find not only a veteran but a woman veteran, a Marine who'd been driving trucks her entire career.

Often, they surprised me.

You know we have these images in our minds what a veteran looks like or what a, what particular type of person with a particular job looks like and I was very often surprised and delight Beryl> The women, you, you, you spoke of the female truck driver.

Most of the women that you utilize are portrayed in nontraditional roles.

Is that a conscious thing on your part?

Mary> Yes.

yes I I'd put them in non-traditional roles because I didn't want to appear to be stereotyping any of our, our women or any of our veterans and we have so many very accomplished women that are veterans that I wanted to be sure to include them.

Beryl> We look at this project as though you just whipped out these fifty paintings, yet it's taking you what, nearly a decade to bring it to fruition?

Mary> That's right.

This was a, a project, I mean like most projects takes longer than you ever thought it would.

I did this project.

It took me seven years just to do the paintings.

I did them largely in secret.

It was all completely self funded everything; Getting to the veterans, all aspects of this and, and then of course after that it was you had to put the book together and then the foundation.

So it, yes, a decade in the works.

Beryl> How do you work?

Do you go out and take a portrait and then come back, or take a picture or something and then come back and try to create this imagery or recreate it in your mind?

What, what's your process?

Mary> I work from four sources.

I work from life as much as I can.

That's the ideal situation.

I work from photographs.

Beryl> Is that plein air painting when you say you work from life?

Mary> Yes, plein air, on location.

I mean if, if I had my sketchbook I could be sitting here and drawing you and then I worked from memory a lot; remembering something I saw or felt and then we work a lot from imagination too because nothing I ever paint is exactly what I saw.

I change everything to, to come closer and closer as much as I can to how I felt.

So I will go to, I would go to the veterans or any, anyone that I might be painting, do sketches on location, take photographs on location all different ideas so that later when I g my, my studio that's where the real work begins and the next step would be thumbnail sketc I might do one.

I might do 25 and their little they're small little sketches They're really the first fire of an idea.

It's, it's so what do I need?

What is essential to get this feeling across about this particular person?

And so that the thumbnail sketch comes first and then the painting.

The paintings, you know some of them are quite large in this collection.

The largest one is ten feet across of the astronaut.

Others are... Beryl> That's pretty large.

Mary> That's pretty large and for water color yes it is too because most water colors don't work that big, but because this will tour to several museums, and museums have big walls that I like the challenge of working big and I like the idea of the impact from, from far off.

Beryl> I'm smiling because I have this image of you scrambling across the ten feet to finish something.

Mary> I did.

That was a lot of crab crawling.

That's right.

Most of the time I work upright though.

I'm working on an easel in my studio but to get the big washers I have to lay it down like to do the wing of the archangel.

I had to lay that down and puddle that, those washes in and at one point I just lifted up the board and let it just drip off that way.

Beryl> Wow!

I'm, I'm struck by that but I'm also struck by the fact that you said it's, each painting is in and of itself an invention.

Mary> It is.

A painting's an invention.

What an amazing thing because if not, I mean what's the point?

Beryl> It's not a duplication.

Mary> That's right.

<Or a replication.> It's, I tell my students to be a poet, not ♪ That it's a creation.

It's an invention.

That's what we do as artist.

Beryl> Which brings me to the other basic question.

How do you choose your subjects?

♪ Mary> How do I choose my subjects?

You know I... Often the subjects really surprise me.

You know, when I when I knowing that I'm going to meet a person, a fire fighter, teacher, a nurse, I have this image in my mind of what I think they're gonna look like.

I mean almost always I'm surprised.

What I'm looking for is this overall universal humanity to it, this overall feeling.

that maybe a little bit of vulnerability that makes us human.

That's what I look for in it and if it's too polished, I don't use it.

I don't do it.

If it's if it's something that's not honorable, I stay away from that, too.

For instance, the painting of the homeless man.

I did that over three times.

The first two paintings were of this sort of nice older gentleman with his dog and I realized I didn't get it.

I didn't get that nugget that you're talking about, that essence of what is it like for, for someone who served and is now homeless and does have PTSD and has a lot of challenges.

So that's, that's when I had to redo it and kept coming closer and closer and closer to what I felt was essential to the painting.

Beryl> Speaking of what's essential, there is a painting of a woman who is a Native American and it is so detailed in terms of her costume and the beading and things of that sort.

Would not the challenge there be not to get hung up on these extras and the detail which is certainly a vital part of the picture, But, it would just seem that it would be so hard to capture that, that maybe you lose that essence that you're looking for.

You did that.

Mary> You know that, that is a, that is a potential pothole for artists, that we see these beautiful little details and we go in for those firsts and you lose the overall feeling and what is essential to this painting, so it's really details.

When I paint, the details are last.

I have to get that big stuff in first.

The details are just dessert.

Beryl> I can't imagine how you did the detail on that one.

Mary> That was, that was quite, that was o that took me the longest because each bead is, a sphere and it's it has a light side, middle side, dark side and a little shadow so each little tiny bead light middle tone, dark, light middle tone I listened to a lot of radio when I was painting that one to get me through.

Beryl> I asked you earlier about social commentary and most of these veterans are shown in some sort of work situation, so it has to do with their reintegration into society once their terms of service have been completed.

Is that more an overarching statement about how they've had to finagle to get th because you have people with PTSD?

Mary> You know so much of it is unseen abo We don't see the PTSD and our veterans that are around us are in all these different kinds of jobs.

Someone said to me, Mary when you look at these paintings how do you know that it's a veteran?

I mean they're not in uniform.

They're not wearing some kind of a badge that says that I'm a veteran, and I say, that's the point.

That our veterans are all around us.

They are still working and serving and are back into their communities and have families and have all these different kinds of ways of making the rest of their life after the Beryl> So what do you hope these portraits will accomplish?

Mary> I hope several things to accomplish with these paintings.

I hope that every veteran who comes and sees these paintings will look at one of these paintings and say, I mattered.

I want the public to see these paintings and realize the great contributions that our veterans make in service but still after service.

That they are still in our communities and in our families and I think the third thing I'd like to accomplish with this is I would like I think particularly women to know that one individual can make a difference.

That one person can go out and do something of significance and service to our country and so I'm, I'm hoping that this may inspire others to think, that "Aw, I don't think I can make a difference.

", but I want them to know that they can.

Beryl> USC Press has captured, "We The People: A Portrait of America" in a recently published book of the same name.

For more on Mary Whyte and this exhibit, as well as other stories of South Carolina please visit our website at Palmetto Scene.org and of course don't forget to follow us on social media, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

We hope you join us again next time for another edition of Palmetto Scene.

For ETV and Palmetto Scene, I'm Beryl Dakers.

Thanks for watching.

♪ ♪