Civil War Panels

These are two panels I am most proud of having created. George Manupelli of Bethlehem, an eclectic artist and movie maker, as well as a long time friend, was instrumental in having me chosen to design these panels with him, and to create them in my studio in 2010 and 2011. They represent African American soldiers from Jackson who served with the Union Army in the Civil War. Their names and fates are unknown, but for me, their faces are imprinted in my mind. I have always wondered what happened to these young men - did they survive, were they injured, what were their lives after the war like. I scoured archives online looking for photos of African American soldiers, and selected the photos shown in the panels, then persuaded Rayzist Photomask in CA to make the resists I needed to sandblast the photos. There are two men whose names I do know - Christian Fleetwood shown standing in the photo in the right column of the right panel, and Nicholas Biddle, shown near the bottom of the right column of the left panel. Mr. Biddle was the first person wounded in the Civil War. Unfortunately, far too many are unnamed. From what I have learned, they are currently in the Ella Sharpe Museum in Jackson, MI. Commissioned by Robert Lazebnik of Jackson, MI.