Sabin Howard Is Sculpting America’s Past to Preserve Its Future
As the sun dips below the horizon, its last rays illuminate the figure of a solemn, uniformed soldier as he kneels at the feet of his young daughter.
She hands him his helmet and they say their goodbyes for what could be the last time.
It’s a familiar but heart-wrenching scene for the thousands of Americans who have sent their loved ones off to war, unsure if they will ever return. On Sept. 13 in Washington, a similar scene will be depicted with the unveiling of the National World War I Memorial, nearly a decade after its conceptualization.
The monument will be unveiled at 7:19 p.m. as the sun sets during a candlelight vigil.
The relief sculpture, dubbed “A Soldier’s Journey,” follows the story of one American soldier as he leaves his family to join his brothers in arms on the front lines of “the war to end all wars” in Europe.
Resolute, the soldier leads the charge into battle, only to come face to face with the soul-crushing realities of war. Transformed, he returns home to his daughter and hands her his helmet once more, from which she divines the inevitability of another world war.
Master sculptor Sabin Howard, the artist behind the project, said he hopes the sculpture will bring people together in a time when public monuments have become a source of political tension and division.
“I wanted to make an art form that would be understandable by all, no matter what their socioeconomic level or education or beliefs,” he told The Epoch Times. “It’s a piece that really hearkens back to what the Renaissance art did, which is, it speaks about our potential, about what we can be, and in so doing, I think it’s a great unifier.”
