The new meaningful art project by Darren Jones is now complete.
Return Soldier – a wooden statue made out of an old poplar – is paying tribute to all men and women dedicating their lives to serving the country and defending others. The project was started in the fall of 2020 at the yard of Estevan’s Lester Hinzman.
During his latest visit to the Energy City, Jones, the chainsaw master, was able to transform what was a draft into a unique statue filled with life and strong emotions.
"It's a real success whenever you get to achieve different sculptures. I never sculpted a prosthetic leg before. And then all of a sudden, I got some beautiful drapery, which of course every artist is really happy about, and then it starts coming together. The separation between the child and the soldier is freaking brilliant. I really like that separation because it makes them two individuals. And the flow. It's not in proportion. It's not. But it all fits together really well and it does tell the story. It is a story," Jones said.
He added that making the project work was a real challenge due to the tree's particular qualities. It was bent, so the artist had to incorporate the curve into the composition. But Jones said keeping in mind the passion of Hinzman – the man behind the idea of the Return Soldier, as well as the Soldiers' Tree and Forever in the Clouds monuments – about attracting attention to problems of contemporary vets gave him a lot of inspiration.
"I just had to remember Lester's way of how he talks, how passionate he is about our veterans and our returning soldiers and try to put that energy into it," Jones said.
The project is meant to bring light to the contemporary soldiers coming back from missions and getting back to life without war, often carrying emptiness and trauma inside, and too often becoming invisible, merging with the colourless routine just as the older veteran at the base of the monument.
"The gratitude is given to our soldiers from the children that they help. But it's also that they are coming back and readjusting to normal life," Jones pointed out talking about the message the monument carries.
"I never put any stain or paint on the homeless soldier on the bench because a lot of times they fade into the background, everyday life, they blend, so that's why I left it. But I also put a bench here so you could sit with him," Jones said.
Hinzman said earlier that to him this monument is about love as soldiers today fight for others and the Canadian values in peacekeeping missions, and they need help returning to normal life after they come back. But often they can't ask for it, struggling with it in the silence of their own lives. That black hole inside shines through the impression on the young soldier's face, telling the stories of thousands of others who returned from war.
"He's the tough guy. That's the way they got to be, they want to serve and protect. There's a song that says they taught me how to put the uniform on but they haven't shown me how to take it off. Because you just don't quit. You had this comradeship … and all of a sudden, you're standing there and one of us isn't coming home and we got him blown up all over us. That stays with you, and you're supposed to be the tough guy, you don't talk about it," Hinzman said, explaining the idea behind the project.
"If you help one person come to terms that he's not alone. And that's the thing is that we got to show them that they're not alone. Because sometimes the worst thing is if you feel so lost and so alone, and you don't see a way out."
Hinzman wanted to do something to tell stories of veterans, as he saw what it takes for a man to come back from war first hand. His thoughts are reflected in a poem depicted on the monument.
"The scars run deep, not all you see,
But like a root it's still a part of the tree.
The pain is there, it's part of life,
It's our duty to help with the strife."
"The pain's inside, you don't see the pain of a person. You might think, oh, they're happy, but they might be just dying inside. And that's our job to help these guys," Hinzman added.
The bright blue tear in the eye of the homeless veteran at the root of the tree symbolizes the pain many soldiers carry inside upon returning from missions. And the red poppy in his hands carries the memory of previous military generations fighting for the country.
Hinzman said he was happy with the way the project turned out and with the message it is sending.
"Darren did a fantastic job as usual," Hinzman said.
The monument will stay at Hinzman's yard, next to the Forever in the Clouds, previously completed by Jones, and the Second World War era training Avro Anson plane carcass. Many people have already taken an opportunity to check out the historic open-air museum.
