McCook Daily Gazette: Local News: Portraits honor soldier killed in Iraq (10/08/09)

Randy Matheny, from a self-portrait he took in Iraq.

Artist Dick Budig of Lincoln, formerly of McCook, has completed two portraits of Sgt. Randy J. Matheny, 20, of McCook, who was killed Feb. 4, 2007 near Baghdad when an IED -- improvised explosive device -- detonated next to the armored security vehicle in which he served as a gunner.

Matheny was station at Al Taqaddum, Iraqm with the Sidney, Neb.-based 1074th Transportation Co.

Budig is attempting to paint portraits of each service man and woman from Nebraska who is killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. The paintings are done free of charge for the mothers of these Nebraska war casualties.

Randy Matheny, a more formal portrait.
[Click to enlarge]
Budig said he does not contact the family for fear of offending them or making them wary of his motives, but relies on families hearing of his project and contacting him. This is his 20th portrait, including the ones he's have done from out of state -- Kansas, New Jersey, Missouri, Oklahoma, California, plus four more that were completed for the Faces Of The Fallen Project in Washington D.C.

Budig said that "in working with families (mother's usually,) I learn things of the heart, mostly ... things the heart struggles to understand ... the depth of loss felt by the family, for example. Somehow, as my paintings progress, I feel as though I begin to know these young men and women, and in the process, I share the family's grief."

Budig does the portraits using photographs, sometimes doing a "montage" kind of painting, but with these, he chose to do separate paintings. The smaller one at 12 by 16, oil on panel, is based on a a candid shot Randy took of himself in Iraq.

The formal one is 16 by 20, oil on canvas.