TORONTO —
As Remembrance Day approaches, a Nova Scotia artist has created a charity piece designed to spark remembrance of a more moderen loss among the many Canadian Armed Forces.
Yearly, True Patriot Love Basis auctions off helmets which have been painted or in any other case reworked by artists to boost cash for the charity.
This yr marks steel artist Al Hattie’s second yr contributing to the trigger and he selected as his focus to tribute the six members of the Canadian Armed Forces who died when a Cyclone helicopter plunged into the Ionian Sea in April 2020.
“This yr’s piece I created to honour the lives misplaced from the Cyclone tragedy final yr,” he instructed CTV Information Atlantic.
He stated the explanation he selected that crash as his inspiration for this yr’s piece was “to honour all Nova Scotians and the tragedies that we endured final yr.”
Capt. Brenden Ian MacDonald, Capt. Kevin Hagen, Capt. Maxime Miron-Morin, Sub-Lt. Matthew Pyke, Grasp Cpl. Matthew Cousins and Sub.-Lt. Abbigail Cowbrough all died within the crash. Three of them — MacDonald, Pyke and Cowbrough — have been initially from Nova Scotia.
Hattie is an “upcycled steel artist,” which signifies that his sculptures are created from recycled scrap steel.
His artwork piece this yr transforms the fundamental army helmet right into a miniature helicopter, full with a steel tail, touchdown gear, steel rods outlining the place home windows could be, and transferring rotors on the highest.
The tail of the helicopter is made out of “an previous sander” that Hattie had sitting on a shelf for years.
“I used to be actually making an attempt to hit a number of of the primary particulars in order that when folks have a look at it, they’d know that it’s a Cyclone helicopter,” he stated.
He intentionally added solely six home windows to the helmet helicopter to pay tribute to these six victims.
“The entire time I’m creating it, all I can do is to consider the six souls that have been on that helicopter,” he stated.
Hattie’s artwork piece joins different helmets reworked into canvases being auctioned off to boost cash in help of the veterans’ charity.
“It is my approach of making an attempt to present again,” he stated.
