Reworked an older piece with the addition of the golden skeleton. I guess you would call this an assemblage. The idea here is it’s an award for a fallen solder or fighter, kind of a thanks for your service, post - mortem. Thank the universe that I never had to go to war and fight for my country, pick up a gun for transient political beliefs, kill a stranger over land disputes, or property, or as revenge for an assassinated leader, or my favorite, take lives for a difference in religious dogma or over the interpretation of God. An award like this goes to the dead’s survivors, who can only feel it is vastly inadequate, an empty gesture for the children of a dead parent or spouse, and ironic, because the only satisfactory ‘prize’ is never having the burden of duty to fight for an institution, place, way of living, food, and someone else’s cause.

We won the war, but all the winners are dead…… M. Teters, 2022