Courtesy of the artist
Mark Williams, A Memory in Stones, 2012. Crayon on paper.
The dying of soldiers and civilians goes on largely unnoticed by us in this city. Who besides their families and friends thinks often of Raymond G. Estelle, II, killed in Afghanistan last year, and Andre Craig Jr. killed in Baghdad 5 years ago, who both lived in New Haven? The best of art demands that we remember something important, as this small picture does.
The picture was commissioned as part of a year-long New Haven Independent virtual gallery of works by local artists.
There is something chilling and right that this last piece in the series should be of a memorial to the dead of the ongoing wars being waged by this country. (In the interests of full disclosure, I should note that I have been one of the group involved in establishing this monument, though that did not determine the artist’s choice of it.) Following is the artist’s statement:
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This is a drawing of the pile of stones next to the Civil War Monument at the Broadway Triangle in New Haven. Each stone represents one month and written on them are the number of reported deaths of the U.S. military and the civilians of Iraq and Afghanistan during that month. There is a stone for each month since the wars started. The drawing was done for the one-year anniversary of U.S. troops leaving Iraq. Originally I was going to draw every war monument in New Haven. Then I decided to focus on just one, one that is easily overlooked as it is not on a pedestal and is not made of bronze or carved stone depicting soldiers. The monument is simple and understated and I wanted those same qualities in my drawing. All wars are wars against children, and this is why the baby blue color was chosen.
Mark Williams
For more of this artist’s work, go to
Support the troops. Bring them home. Give them jobs and education. Offer civilian jobs to all the youth who choose to enlist mainly because they are desperate for food, shelter, healthcare, a living wage.