Every two weeks, My Edmonds News will publish a portrait made by Edmonds artist Michael Reagan, through his Fallen Heroes project, to honor a fallen U.S. solider and the loved ones they have left behind. This week’s portrait is of Benjamin Chisholm, and it has a special story behind it — written by Reagan — that we would like to share:

“Every portrait I do is important to me. Each one is supposed to tell a story, both to the family receiving it and at the same time to those seeing that portrait. I always hope that people, when they see the art or one of the Posters, go to the web site, look up that portrait and learn more about that fallen hero. I’ve been asked many times how I choose the photo I’m going to use for a portrait. My answer, once I learn about the fallen hero, I search the collection of photos I’ve been sent (if I’ve received a collection of photos) and draw the one that talks to me. What I am doing is, trying to put together the story that’s to travel home with the portrait. The one the family will now be a part of forever, one their loved one gets to again be a part of. Then some times another story needs to be told told. This is one of those.

“I received a request from a very nice widow Amber Chisholm, for a portrait of her husband Benjamin. She sent me the perfect photo of her husband for that portrait. But when I looked at the other photos she sent other photos told me that this needed to be one of those bigger stories. As Eric and I talked I learned that Amber was pregnant with Lily when Benjamin died. So what I needed to do was complete that story for them, that included all three of them. This is the portrait Amber and Lily received.’

You can make a donation to support Reagan’s work (he receives no payment for these portraits and covers materials and shipping costs himself) here.