Happy Memorial Day

Telegram.com: €Fallen Flag, an artwork by Boylston artist Rebecca Fellows in the Worcester Center for Crafts student show, is made from portraits of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Below, the artist talks about her work.

Worcester Telegram: For those who died
Sorrow inspires art to honor fallen troops

Rebecca Fellows knows the numbers exactly. “When I did it, as of April 17, there were 3,682,” the Boylston artist said. “Since then there have been 120 more. There were 3,802 as of the 19th of May.”

It is a grim accounting. The figures refer to American troops who have died in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq so far. Fellows completed a piece of enameled art commemorating those troops on April 17, in time for the opening of a student show running at the Worcester Center for Crafts through Friday.

The piece then will be displayed in the windows of 339 Main St. as part of the “Worcester Windows” program, which places the work of local artists in downtown storefronts and office windows, many of which otherwise would be vacant.

From a distance, Mrs. Fellows’ piece, 43 inches wide and 32 inches high, looks like a beautiful rendering of an American flag waving slightly in the breeze. But take a few steps closer and you see faces looking back at you — soldiers, Marines, men, women, a uniformed father hoisting his baby girl in the air.

They are the faces of 3,682 fallen troops, each one in a tiny portrait, half an inch by half an inch, against a background of red, white and blue.

This very powerful piece is currently hanging in the Worcester Craft Center's student show.