Afghanistan vet uses art to show a warrior’s life

GIG HARBOR, Wash. – Former Army Sgt. Stephen Ewens paints what he can’t say about the war in Afghanistan. A sniper lining up a shot on a dark night. A shadowy angel clutching a rifle.

And then there’s the American flag with bleeding red stripes.

“Everyone who’s sacrificed anything for this country knows what I mean” about the bloody flag, Ewens said.

The 26-year-old – who lost a brother in Afghanistan five years ago – wants to share those images, and more, with veterans.

He’s determined to put on a show with 10 new paintings. He plans to call it “The Afghanistan Project.”

“I know there are thousands and thousands of better artists than me, but that’s not the point,” Ewens said. “The point is that we both were there,” he added, referring to war veterans. “We both know what it was like, and we want to show that.”

Ewens comes from a Gig Harbor family that sent its four sons to Afghanistan with the Army. He joined in 2006 out of sense of duty to his brother Lt. Forrest Ewens, who was killed with another soldier by an improvised explosive in Afghanistan’s Pech River Valley.

Three of the Ewens brothers were on the battlefield with different units last year.

“I feel that this is now our family’s war,” Stephen Ewens told the News Tribune two years ago as he prepared to go to war with Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. “All four of us will finally be back together sharing the same fight.”

He had a lot of time to think on that Stryker deployment. He was a sniper in the 4th Battalion, 23 Infantry Regiment who would hide with a three-man team for days at a time watching for signs of insurgents planting bombs to kill American soldiers.

He frequently thought of Forrest and knew he would not find retribution for his brother’s death. Forrest’s killer was arrested and jailed, Ewens said.

“That was frustrating, knowing I’m never going to run into him on one of these hills,” he said.

His deployment started slowly, with a few relatively quiet months in eastern Afghanistan’s Zabul province. He went into the thick of fighting toward the end of 2009 when he joined an Army and Marine offensive against Taliban insurgents in southern Helmand province.

It was the war’s main battleground following President Barack Obama’s decision to build up a “surge” of American forces to tip the war’s scales.

“That’s where the reins were loosened for us to do our jobs,” Ewens said. “They were loosened for the enemy, too.”

His assignment left him conflicted. At times, he felt his orders were too restrictive, such as when he was told to hold his fire as a man walked with an AK-47 toward a group of American soldiers.

He recognized, however, that the restraint the Army showed was part of what distinguishes American soldiers from those of other nations that have sent their militaries to Afghanistan.

“We’re the only country that takes that extra step to make sure we’re doing the right thing,” he said.

Ewens knew he was finished with the Army when the 5th Brigade returned to Lewis-McChord last year. He felt he had done his part, and he didn’t want another tour under the same conditions.

But he did not find a clean break. He had trouble sleeping, and would not talk much about what he saw. A therapist suggested he try expressing himself through art. At first, he painted abstract images of stars and mountains. He later focused on images that revealed his military experiences.

They made him feel better, and he found that other veterans appreciated them. Soldiers from his former brigade have contacted him and commissioned paintings that reflect their own lives in Afghanistan.

“It’s been a good, creative outlet for him to express a lot of stuff he’s kept hidden,” said his mother, Carol Pinkerton-Ewens. “He doesn’t talk a lot about his experiences over there.”

Ewens’ life has changed in many other ways since he left the military. His older brother, Capt. Oaken Ewens, continues to serve in the Army. Another brother, Eli, has ended his military service.

Stephen Ewens has married and had his first son since he came home. He named his boy Forrest James Ewens, after his fallen brother.

Going to Afghanistan didn’t make it any easier for Ewens to accept his brother’s death.

“It’s never fulfilled,” he said.

Forrest will be a character in “The Afghanistan Project.” Ewens has a vision for a painting that would show him holding his son while his brother stands in the background.