Article and Artwork of Shaun Blue Published on Christian Science Monitor

My artwork of 1st Lt Shaun Blue is on the
Christian Science Monitor website -

The article was written by Shaun Blue's good friend Luke Larson, and I did the portrait at the request of another good friend of Shaun's - Jeffrey Buck.

Luke and Jeffrey delivered the artwork to Shaun's parents in a frame that Jeffrey Buck custom-made to hold the Bronze Star on one side and the artwork on the other.

The size of the original artwork is 8"x8" and I was honored to be able to create this custom portrait for Shaun Blue's family. When you read the article, be sure to have some tissues handy...it is a very moving tribute from a good friend and I know you are probably very busy today, but make some time to read it.

Special thanks to Christian Science Monitor's Opinion Editor, Joshua Burek. Josh was one of the nicest people I have had the pleasure to communicate with in a long time.

Send letters of Thanksgiving to the Troops

Want to send a letter of thanksgiving to our troops? Please read below - also please do NOT send the letters to me, but follow the directions in the letter below if you would like to participate. Thanks! Darla

The Bert Show's Big Thank You

Each letter should be heartfelt, handwritten, original, and free of any political statements. The purpose of the letter is to express thanks to the military personnel serving the United States. We reserve the right to eliminate those messages that are political in nature and that do not reflect a positive message in the spirit of Thanksgiving. Those letters will be destroyed.

All letters must be on 8.5 X 11 paper or smaller. Do not use glue, tape, staples, cardboard, glitter or otherwise attach anything to the paper. Decorate using crayons, pencil, etc. Use both side if you like, but use one page per letter only. Do not send cards or photographs. Feel free to include your mailing and email address, if you like and you may get a response. Do not put letters in individual envelopes.

Do not send anything except letters. We cannot accept donations of any kind, and they should not be included or attached to letters.

Please review the guidelines below to submit your letters:

Every individual letter is important, but for organizational purposes, please try to submit letters in bulk whenever possible. Work with your school, church, sorority/fraternity, office, neighborhood, etc. and send all letters bundled as directed below.

Letters should be bundled in groups of 50, 100, or 250 and held together in with two rubber bands, one wrapped lengthwise and the other widthwise. This will help tremendously with sorting. The top page in the bundle should indicate clearly how many letters are included. Do not bundle letters unless they are in groups of 50, 100, or 250.

If you have a partial bundle of less than 50 letters, fasten them together with a paperclip. The top page in the group should clearly indicate how many letters are included.

If you are submitting 10 or fewer letters, the letters can be folded to fit into a standard business-size envelope.

Starting on Wednesday, October 17, letters can be dropped off at any Atlanta-area Taco Mac loaction. These locations can be found by clicking here: http://www.taco-mac.com/georgia.htm

If you prefer to mail in your letters, send them here:

The Bert Show's Big Thank You
3070 Windward Plaza
Suite F 350
Alpharetta, GA 30005

Our deadline is Friday October 26. All letters MUST be received by this day. Letters received after that deadline may not be sent to the military and will not be returned.

Soldier Portraits

SoldierPortraits.Blogspot.com is a group of artists I have gotten together to create a free portrait for each family that has lost a loved one in Iraq/Afghanistan, this article on Associated Content explains it all pretty well, the only slight error is that it makes it sound like I'm retired, which is far from the case!

The article tells how we got started doing this project. LINK

Now I'm looking for donations to cover the costs of shipping for the artists, when they ship artwork to the families. $5-$7 generally pays shipping for one portrait. Any amount is welcome, even a dollar. When you make a donation of $50 or more you, will receive a free Memorial Eagle Art Print. More information on donations: LINK

Darla

Soldier Portraits.org Compassionate Portraits

Portrait artists offering no charge original portraits of military who gave their lives in Operation Iraqi Freedom

at http://www.SoldierPortraits.Blogspot.com

Portrait requests should be made by an immediate family member (father, mother, sibling, child)

Request what type of portrait you would like (ie: pencil portrait, painting, pastel, other) and we will do our best to match your request with an artist who can fulfill your request.

We offer the skills of caring artists in the areas of graphite pencil portraits, pastel, charcoal, sculpture, and computer graphics.

Each request will be verified so we can be sure our skills are being used where they are most needed.