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Fallen warrior left a secret: MESMERIZING ART
Photo courtesy of Amy Newsome
Josh Harris didn’t title most of his work, but in paintings, his wit shines.
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Published: September 20, 2009
Josh Harris decided to become a SEAL in his late 20s, an ancient age to join the Navy's most elite and physically demanding force. But he soon earned the respect of his fellow SEALs -- most of whom never knew he was a serious artist until they joined hundreds of others in Lexington for his funeral.
Harris, a decorated veteran of numerous missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, drowned in a river in Afghanistan just over a year ago. He was 36.
His fellow SEALs knew as little about his life as an artist as the family he loved knew about his life as a warrior. He lived in the moment, committing his passion first to the canvas, then to dangerous, covert missions.
In one of his paintings on display at Davidson County Community College, a bare-chested man stares, his left eyebrow raised, throwing whatever question you have back at you. The man could be Harris. He was a quiet, humble man who could speak loudly and proudly through his work. His art -- by turns as passionate, courageous, grim and funny as the artist -- offers a peek into a fascinating life.
"He totally set an example of you can't judge a book by its cover, because you never know what the chapters are," said his twin sister, Kiki Harris.
Josh Harris was one of three children of Sam and Evelyn Harris. He was ruggedly handsome, a bruising linebacker at Lexington High School who acted with his mother in community theater and was a voracious reader. He studied art at Davidson College and in Europe, lived as a painter in New York City and showed his work at the Lincoln Center.
He came back to North Carolina to study architecture at UNC Charlotte. He'd almost completed his degree in 2000 when he joined the Navy to become a SEAL. "He wasn't set up for being in a cubicle," said Harris' older brother, Ranchor, of Winston-Salem.
Josh Harris stood out for his strength and smarts in a military unit known for its brawn and brains.
Her son gave up his art when he joined the Navy, Evelyn Harris said. She thinks he did so because he wanted to put all his energy and dedication toward being a SEAL.
His works graced the walls of his family home. After his death, his family found more of his art --much more than they ever realized he produced -- in a loft at the barn on their farm. They pulled it together for the exhibit at DCCC.
About 125 works are in the Mendenhall Building, juxtaposed with scenes of Harris playing high-school football, then progressing as a SEAL.
The exhibit includes early works such as a watercolor of a farm house, proceeds through sketches of his grandfathers and moves on to his work in abstracts in acrylics and oil and a bit of sculpture. He took on subjects ranging from birdcages to chairs, but hit his stride with studies of the human body and faces.
Masks cover many of the faces. "It's like, ‘This is the way you think I am, but I'm not,' " Kiki Harris said.
In one sketch that Evelyn Harris thinks is a self-portrait, tears flow down the face of a square-jawed man. There's also a crying clown. There's a wit about other works, such as one that depicts a cocky bird in a superman outfit and another of a woman with her mount gaping open, bug-eyed in surprise.
Those, as well as somber images, jump out at you. In one, the words "… and death" are scrawled in front of three human figures.
"Unlike a lot of people who fear dying, he did not," Ranchor Harris said of his brother. "He recognized that it was inevitable … that it was a part of his life, just a recognition of his own mortality." That recognition was part of his brother's progression toward becoming a SEAL, he said. "It was never a factor for him to be scared. ... He had friends who were killed in action before him, and that's what he recognized, that you have to live in the moment and do honor to the creed that the SEALs live for," he said.
Petty Officer First Class Joshua Thomas Harris drowned after being swept away during a nighttime river crossing in Afghanistan on Aug. 30, 2008. One of his fellow SEALs said that he was always the first to volunteer. "That's one of the reasons it happened to him that night. He was … very selfless," the man said.
Josh Harris was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Shortly before he left office, President Bush expressed his condolences to the Harris family at the White House.
Evelyn Harris said her son did not discuss politics. He was fighting for his country and the people he loved and doing exactly what he wanted to do, she said, and he believed in it.
She said Josh always said that none of his works were ever complete. Perhaps he would have returned to his art if he had lived, creating works to help us understand Afghanistan and the war there.
The many works he left behind are a searing reminder that life is more rich, complex and confounding than we often acknowledge. And more fleeting.
("The Art of a Hero, A One-Man Show of Works by Joshua Thomas Harris," will be at the Mendenhall Building at Davidson County Community College through Dec. 11. The building is open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 8 to 5 on Fridays. The Special Operations Fund has established a scholarship in Harris' name at DCCC.)
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