A Wartime Log

by Art Beltrone

With watercolors extracted from food can labels and paint brushes made from their own hair, downed WWII American flyers recreated their recollections of combat and experiences as prisoners of war in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0943231906
• ISBN13: 9780943231907
• Release Date: May 1995
• Publisher: Howell Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.6" x 9.8"

Customer Reviews

Touching testament of the human will.

"A Wartime Log" is a collection of photos of World War II aviators' artwork created while held prisoner in Germany. During the war, the YMCA distributed logbooks to prisoners through the Red Cross. Bored and fatigued through hunger, the prisoners expressed their yearnings for freedom, the girl back home, a good meal, and other things through drawings, sketches, and cartoons in these books. The POWs created paint thorugh colored Red Cross parcel labels and brushes from their own hair. The results are beautiful sketches that depict the frustration of sitting out the war in captivity, the wistfulness of missing your loved ones, and the simple joy of dreaming about the meals you'll eat when you're finally free. The pictures range from humorous drawings of daily camp life to the hauntingly stark sketches of a lonely Christmas in captivity. Many of the prisoners were artists before the war, or discovered latent talent while serving as POWs. The work inlcuded here rivals the best efforts of professional artists. More than anything, these drawings serve as a testament to the will, ingenuity, and faith of these great men.Along with the pictures, the book includes a text which explains the stories behind the sketches, and provides background information on POW life. While informative, the text doesn't try to overshadow the book's real purpose, which is to display these wonderful pictures.