Henri J. Doner-Hedrick

Aces & Eights (After Wild Bill)
oils on canvas with collage
48 x 36 in.

This work was inspired after 911. This is only one of a series that involves the war on terror. My mother was a military wife, an artist/inventor, and a political activist. She was born in 1915 and has lived through WWI, WWII, the Korean War, Vietnam, Desert Storm, and now 911. This painting was inspired by the end (of what we thought was the end) of the Iraq war. It also references the story of Wild Bill (he was shot in the back of the head while playing a game of poker. As the story goes, the cards he held in his hand were two black aces, two black eights, and one card down – the “hand of death.”) In the painting, anyone could approach the table and take the pistol and shoot her, the game of war is not being played fairly. Mom is wearing her deceased husbands (Army – Chief Warrant Officer ) ‘Bronze Star’ medal from WWII and her recently deceased son’s (Air Force Vietnam Veteran) dog tags. All she wants now is “peace.”

© Henri J. Doner-Hedrick