These paintings are inspired by the Field Messages (carbons) sent by my grandfather when he was fighting in the Second Battle of the Marne. Messages were torn from a small booklet and handed to a runner who then made his way through the mustard gas and gunfire. The field messages themselves are remarkable to read, but already so powerful I found no way to integrate them into paintings. So I used the image of the trenches as a place that came home with the soldiers and colored of these soldiers forever---and the lives of their wives and children, who had never set foot on a battlefield.