This image started with a snapshot from my mother's old World War II album. My father was born in Brooklyn, joined the army during World War II, and in 1943 was stationed in Pueblo, Colorado, where he met and married my mother, who went to the USO dances. Soon after they married, my father was sent overseas. While he was away, my mother kept an album that included pictures of events at home in Pueblo, but also the photos that my dad sent in his letters. A lot of what I know about my dad's military service comes from this album. (I hope to know more and recently sent off for his military records.) On the back of this snapshot, someone wrote "Zig in shelter in St. Paul's", probably written by the friend who took the picture. Zig (short for Zagon) was my dad's nickname in the army. From other photos in the album, I know my dad was stationed in England for part of the time, and there are several pictures of him in London, sightseeing with some army friends. (If you want to see related images of my Dad seeing St. Paul's, see my posts for August 28, 2006 and June 20, 2010.) Anyway, the shelter was just part of his visit to St. Paul's during a bit of time off, still it is a reminder that World War II was not just in the background, but was the reason my father had left home, left his brand new wife, and had gone overseas. Today I cleaned up the original photo and cropped it to get this composition. Then I used Painter to add color, using color overlay, posterizing, and woodcut effect.
