Ehren Tool

Ehren Tool

It amazes me an artiste’s eye. How so many artistes can capture a certain feeling or meaning by the most simple design. Ehren Tool designs many pieces depicting images of war and anti war. The military images themselves are motifs continued throughout his pieces. In an article called “Ehren Tool: A Marine’s Journey” Richard Whittaker the author, comments on his own experience meeting Ehren Tool. He was shocked by Ehrens descriptive pieces featuring different horrific images; soldiers, bombs, guns and military effects. He didn’t realize the actual impact the pieces would have on him until Mr. Tool, gave him cups. Whittaker could not drink out of them; the reason being he felt as if he was a part of the killings. And Ehren’s response was, “But you are anyway, you know.” There is a double meaning by what he is saying. He means you are supporting everything which comes with war mainly death.
His pieces are not meant to portray antiwar, or to dissuade anyone from joining the military. I believe his main reason for his pieces is to make a person aware of everything in war. A paraphrased quote from an article called “From jarhead to bowl maker: Grad student Ehren Tool’s art of war” by Bonnie Powell, describes what I am saying above, “his purpose is to make people think about war… Tool struggles to explain how his work is not antiwar- he sees that term as disrespecting his brothers- but about raising awareness of war.”
I personally enjoyed looking at his pieces on the web. I can see how the pieces speak awareness of war, the images make you think about everyone who has been lost to war; and how we’re all a part of the deaths in some way.
Powell, Bonnie. From jarhead to bowl maker: Grad student Ehren Tool’s art of war
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/10/images/tool_top.jpg&imgrefurl=http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/10/27_tool.shtml&usg=__kZTdx1_yhfaipbPkn4F_u-UzU1Q=&h=250&w=499&sz=31&hl=en&start=12&tbnid=7kQVAPO8t9C-KM:&tbnh=65&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dehren%2Btool%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

Whittaker, Powell. Ehren Tool: A Marine’s Journey.
http://www.conversations.org/story.php?sid=66