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Ivanicki Alley Marauder
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Ivanicki Alley Marauder Hi Michael, I am enclosing a larger image that should be ok for your site, if not, let me know. I'm also including the photo of the original B-26 and a close-up section of the name - though I can't really make it out. Also, the original photo of the airman who is pictured below the plane in the alley and a close-up of the painted version of him. He is not meant to be actually there - he is in black and white, like the original - but is really meant to represent the airmen of the day as a ghostly figure. So his expression is as it was in the original - maybe more 'serious' than the original. When I paint the buildings and the planes together - though this was my first so the idea was just being formulated - they are all meant to be on different 'planes' of reality - which is more evident in the later paintings where you can see the ground far below. Collision is never possible as they already exist in a kind of afterlife as separate entities; the buildings and the planes both being destroyed on Earth but still existing somewhere in our memories. Because of the extremity of the emotion (courage, fear, etc) created at the time - like that extreme moment, whether on the ground at point of impact with bombings, or for the crews at the time before the airplanes themselves went down, is so strong, I believe they just can't cease to exist, but that in some way they continue to fly up there somewhere, forever connected to the buildings that were part of the arena of the war. They will go on in our memories forever, as they will in history - even after those of us involved have gone on. I guess they are paintings that say 'we will not forget you - we see you when we look up'. At least it is that way for me, and I can't tell you why. My dad was a mechanic in the air force, in Canada, and my uncle flew a Lancaster from England, on many flights, and made it home. My dad went on to work for Air Canada, so I was around hangars, occasionally, and flew more than kids my age and in my neighborhood, but that doesn't explain the extreme connection I feel to pilots and crews in WWII. I have absolutely no desire to paint Zero's or German planes, beautiful as they are! So if you believe in reincarnation, I would say that's the only explanation I can think of. Air raid sirens have always caused me to slightly hyperventilate! Weird, eh? Here is the info I saved from wherever I got the picture of the B26 (I had borrowed several really old war books from a friend and it might have come from there) : "387th Bomb Group at Station 162, Chipping Ongar, in June 1943, Willingale, which was the actual location for the airfield. B-26 Marauder of Ninth Air Force. " Also, with my first paintings of WWII planes, I was more in love with the planes themselves and not really concerned with what they were - I just loved the way they looked and the feeling they invoked in me, and the B-26 is a really beautiful plane. So at the time I painted this one, could you believe it, I didn't even know the significance of the D-Day stripes! The funny thing is, I was painting this painting in the late spring of '04. The painting was nearing completion. I always like to let it sit for a few days at the last and then go in and see it with fresh eyes, to put on the final touches, finish it, and sign it. I decided to go in to do that on a Sunday. That day, I listened to the radio and heard that it was D-Day, June 6th, and that it was the 60th anniversary of D-Day. Days later, I learned the significance of the stripes on the plane. I had no idea I was painting a D-Day plane, finishing and signing it on D-Day's 60th. I hope this is the info you need - feel free to ask any more questions. All my best, Virginia |
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Alley Marauder - 30" x 40" - $2900 CDN http://www.ivanicki.com/gallery_aviation.htm
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