Photo By Master Sgt. Mark Bell | The reflection of Sgt. Ashley Gallagher painting a cement barrier can be seen in the...... read more read more
by Sgt. 1st Class Mark Bell
210th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
LSA ANACONDA, Iraq – From Canonsburg, Penn., to central Iraq, one 20-year-old reservist has kept her passion for the arts alive, even while in a combat zone.
Sgt. Ashley Gallagher, an administration specialist with the 864th Replacement Company spends her free time here painting, but her medium is a far stretch from the weekends working at her grandmother's ceramic center while growing up.
These days, Gallagher uses industrial paints, plastic spoons for mixing, plates to serve as her palette to mix the colors, and large cement protective barriers as her canvas.
You might see Gallagher painting 'T-walls,' around Anaconda, which she volunteers to do.
Gallagher, who joined the Army Reserves in 2003, said her early influences were not of famous painters or the local art galleries, but simply her mother and grandmother's passion for taking something simple and making it into something special for someone else.
"I have learned a lot from the two of them," said the 2004 Canon McMillan High School graduate. "My grandmother owned a ceramic's center, and they were the people that got me into painting. My whole family paints, and when I say my whole family I mean my whole family."
Growing up, Gallagher spent her Sundays at the center where her grandmother taught classes. Slowly she fine-tuned her painting skills and also learned the importance of family.
"My cousins, my sisters, my mother, and I would go there to make ceramics objects and paint," she said. "It was always fun to have my family around while painting, which was one of the things we all had in common as children."
Like mother like daughter; Gallagher wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps.
"I got into painting because when I was younger I wanted to do what she was doing," she said. "She had her own pottery wheel and kiln and would always paint and make beautiful pieces."
Since Gallagher wasn't old enough to use the pottery wheel or kiln, she did the next practical step to help her mother—paint.
"She would let me make objects out of clay," she said of her hand-made figurines that didn't require the extra touch of the pottery wheel. "Once they were dry I would paint them."
From her first simple color by numbers, to the massive cement barriers of Anaconda, painting has always be a source for relaxation and fun.
"It always has been," she said about the memorable times with her family. "I don't remember the first thing that I painted with my mother, but I do remember the first thing she painted for me. It was a ceramic Care Bare."
Gallagher still has her small ceramic animals and more importantly, the memories of past times with her family. To her, the most cherished thing she has painted is a ceramic dog.
"My grandmother helped me paint the eyes, but it was the first one that I painted well," she said. "I actually ended up giving that to my mother."
What inspires Gallagher to paint here?
"I just want to help people," said the nursing student. "I have a big heart. I honestly believe that you can take something good away from anyone. I try to do what I can to help anyone."
Gallagher said her painting is a way of trying to motivate other Soldiers to get involved.
"It's a unit morale thing," she said. She uses the unit members' imagination to help with ideas for her paintings.
"We will gather ideas and after that is done, we go to work on painting," she said.
Whether it's painting unit crests on cement, or helping administer the hundreds of Soldiers who come and leave Anaconda each day, Gallagher said she is happy she joined the Army.
She joined the Army Reserves because she knew that she always wanted to serve in the armed forces since she was young.
"I just feel that is my obligation to my family and friends," she said. "It is important because I can give something back to my family that no one else can."
Gallagher said it feels right for her to serve. "I do vote, but that is not enough," she said.
| Date Taken: | 10.20.2006 |
| Date Posted: | 10.20.2006 11:07 |
| Story ID: | 8088 |
| Location: | BALAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 131 |
| Downloads: | 41 |
This work, Improving morale one wall at a time, by MSG Mark Bell, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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