Marine wins award for self-portrait
By Victoria Brito
The Brownsville Herald, Texas
Gripping both sides of civilian and military life, that is what John Rothschild said his daughter Sarah Rothschild depicts in her award-winning painting, “What Happens There Doesn’t Stay There.”
On April 26, U.S. Marine Corps veteran Sarah Rothschild received the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s Colonel John W. Thomason Jr. Award. Her award-winning charcoal painting depicts a tearful Rothschild, 27, gripping on to a U.S. Marine Corps uniform and an American flag while staring at 21 bullets lined up on the ground in front of her.
The veteran’s self-portrait is a charcoal painting created as an assignment while attending Oklahoma State University. Rothschild is from Oklahoma but has lived on South Padre Island for about two years.
“I had only been out of the Marine Corps and in Oklahoma four months and just struggling,’ she said of the painting. “I always struggle with all of it.”
During her time in the Marines, Rothschild was stationed for a year in Iraq and seven months in Afghanistan. She was a part of the Female Engagement team, a group that would patrol the villages of Afghanistan’s south Helmand province and connect with the Afghan women.
“This led to a firsthand experience of war, admittedly not specifically combat, but indeed war itself,” she said. “I made many good friends out there, and also lost many good friends and great Marines. All of which incorporates and greatly led to the emotions which were transformed into this drawing.”
The painting shows Rothschild visibly crying.
“I was at home one day sitting on the step of the deck outside, and I was thinking about stuff and crying,” she said. “I went outside to see the makeup, and I don’t know, it’s kind of like when all of it came together.”
By Victoria Brito
The Brownsville Herald, Texas
Gripping both sides of civilian and military life, that is what John Rothschild said his daughter Sarah Rothschild depicts in her award-winning painting, “What Happens There Doesn’t Stay There.”
On April 26, U.S. Marine Corps veteran Sarah Rothschild received the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s Colonel John W. Thomason Jr. Award. Her award-winning charcoal painting depicts a tearful Rothschild, 27, gripping on to a U.S. Marine Corps uniform and an American flag while staring at 21 bullets lined up on the ground in front of her.
The veteran’s self-portrait is a charcoal painting created as an assignment while attending Oklahoma State University. Rothschild is from Oklahoma but has lived on South Padre Island for about two years.
“I had only been out of the Marine Corps and in Oklahoma four months and just struggling,’ she said of the painting. “I always struggle with all of it.”
During her time in the Marines, Rothschild was stationed for a year in Iraq and seven months in Afghanistan. She was a part of the Female Engagement team, a group that would patrol the villages of Afghanistan’s south Helmand province and connect with the Afghan women.
“This led to a firsthand experience of war, admittedly not specifically combat, but indeed war itself,” she said. “I made many good friends out there, and also lost many good friends and great Marines. All of which incorporates and greatly led to the emotions which were transformed into this drawing.”
The painting shows Rothschild visibly crying.
“I was at home one day sitting on the step of the deck outside, and I was thinking about stuff and crying,” she said. “I went outside to see the makeup, and I don’t know, it’s kind of like when all of it came together.”
