First Casualty at Bunker Hill

“The First Casualty at Bunker Hill” and “Sam Whittemore Stands Down the British Regulars”, began emerging as Warren painted the finishing touches on “Ether Day, 1846.”  He found himself asking:  What other world changing events have happened in Boston?  To his surprise, he discovered that no one had historically accurately portrayed Bunker Hill or Lexington Alarm – critical battles at the beginning of the Revolutionary War in 1775 – from the everyday citizen’s perspective.  This missed opportunity by previous artists, became a great opportunity for us.  We had been struck from our experience of not only making our ether mural, but also prior to that, our history murals for the Joslin Clinic, that a work of art can focus the spirit, history, and intention of an institution.  We couldn’t help but then ask:  If that was true for an institution, wouldn’t that be true for a city as well, and our city, Boston?

It took many years, but to our grateful surprise, two former clients felt: “It’s important for Boston to have these, and you two are the ones to do it.”  They agreed to temporarily fund these two murals, so we could make them.  We all hoped that in the future, donors would purchase them, and donate them to the residents and visitors alike to experience those chosen moments.”

Warren and I had never made murals apart from institutions, so this was a challenge we leaned into with great excitements.  Just before our photo shoot, which was on the scale of a small movie production both in terms of planning and expense, Mercy Productions asked if they could make a documentary of us making the murals.  Their first day of footage was at our photo shoot for our Bunker Hill Mural, thus their name, “The Making of a Mural”.  The documentary link is an excerpt made for the Vose Gallery Exhibit, where “The First Casualty at Bunker Hill” was officially unveiled.