After 72,000 hours, Sabin Howard, a professional artist and self-proclaimed troublemaker, finished the recently unveiled National World War I Memorial, “A Soldier’s Journey.”
The Hillsdale College President’s Office hosted Howard for a lecture Oct. 3 at 4 p.m. in the Heritage Room, where he spoke of his own journey sculpting the piece for the memorial.
“In a way, it is a birth,” Howard said.“We started in 2015, finished it and put it in Washington, D.C., 150 yards from the White House in September. It’s a 60 foot long bronze wall with 38 figures that weighs 25 tons.”
The memorial was officially unveiled Sept. 19, at 7:19 p.m. — right at sunset — because it was dedicated to the millions of Americans who served and died in the conflict, according to Howard.
He said the project began in 2015 when Howard applied and was selected to be the mastermind behind the sculpture, despite some financial setbacks.
“We had no money, this is a national memorial, and it goes 150 yards from the White House. This is how our country looks at culture and art,” Howard said. “Our country has made a very clear decision that art and culture is not important and so the project became politicized.”
Howard said he wanted to portray a resonating humanity in his piece. The sculpture tells a story of a soldier, beginning with leaving his family, experiencing the battlefield, and finally returning home to his child.
“The central figure is the shell-shocked soldier in the middle of the piece. He’s flanked by nurses on each side. This is to show the humanity of the piece,” Howard said. “The final scene is the dad returning home and handing his daughter his helmet, she is the next generation, and that helmet is World War II.”
The sculpture depicts the atrocities of war.
“The war to end all wars became the war that would never end,” Howard said.
According to Howard, the project took four and a half years, with each figure of the piece taking approximately 650 hours modeling from life to clay.
“It is a very traditional way of working, no computers, no photographs, but just directly from life,” Howard said.
Howard reflected that sculpture represented more than just the memorial for him. It became a mission that he felt he needed to do in service for the United States.
“Honestly, the sculpture is for you. I’m in service to you because I’m not making art in my studio for myself anymore,” he said. “I’m making it for my country and Americans, so this is rightfully your piece of art.”
Howard said his wife, Traci, was a constant support throughout the process of creating the sculpture and has been helping him to tell this story to others.
“I reached out to Hillsdale because it is a place we both knew of that values traditional Western art,” Traci said.
Senior Hannah Arends, who attended the lecture, said the talk beautifully connected the classical education of Hillsdale with the art world.
“There is beauty and history in art to be found and it is cool to see people are making new art,” Arends said. “It goes to show the labor of love for the veterans and for us, it was cool that it was also such a healing piece.”
Howard concluded that his purpose as an artist had become clear through this project, it has become time to change American culture’s idea of art and bring it back to something more traditional.
“I started this conversation today with you because art and culture are just not important in this country and that needs to be changed,” Howard said. “That is the critical moment we are facing right now because modern art has really fallen apart in a big way. So I have another job to do now.”
Julio Suarez, the chair of the art department said that Howard’s lecture was helpful for the Art students to hear about the dedication it takes to make a career out of art.
“To achieve a commission like that, but mostly just to make it as a professional artist, is how insanely committed you have to be,” Suarez said. “Hopefully that will inspire and push students who are serious about making a career of art.”
See more behind the scenes | Courtesy | Sabin Howard Studio