Opposites

This is a drawing that my father made in 1945 after he came back from WWII. He was about 19 when he drew it (he joined the navy when he was 17).
I have always been amazed that he remembered the scene in such detail and was able to draw it from memory almost two years later.
When I decided to make it into a painting, I asked him what he remembered about the circumstances of the scene he had drawn. He wrote three pages of his memories of that time.

He was stationed in French Morocco, North Africa, and was in charge of disarming unexploded shells, as well as maintaining the aircraft machine guns, torpedoes and depth charges. He liked to spend some free time in a cafe where he could get real scrambled eggs, bacon and good coffee. There he made the acquaintence of a young Frenchman who had deserted from the army in Algiers soon after the Vichy government was established. He was a proud Frenchman who was deeply hurt by the loss of his country and the establishment of the German controlled Vichy.
My father is at the table on the left and young French deserter on the right. The two French soldiers are from the security detachment at the French side of the U.S. airbase. Most soldiers like them were without real guidance or orders from the Vichy regime so they were fortunate to find a group that could use them (and house and feed them).
The hotel Atlas was in Agadir, on the coast. The building in the distance is a former Portugese fort that was being used as a tuberculosis hospital.
At the end of my father's written narrative he says, "The sad end to my story is that on Feb. 29, 1960 an earthquake, tidal waves and ensuing fire destroyed most of the city of Agadir and killed 12,000 people."
Some months ago my mother suggested that I create a painting from this drawing, and so I have.


acrylic paint on a 9 by 12 inch board (click image to enlarge)