Cathy Miller’s People of the Week are two artists who don’t want you to forget.

On November 11, Warren County ARTS hosted the opening for its annual Veteran’s Art and Photography Exhibit, featuring an artist meet-and-greet. With over 50 pieces from nine contributors, viewers found not only a broad collection of war-time mementos, but fine art drawings, paintings, and photography by retired military. The art exhibit runs through December 1 at the Oxford Township Municipal Building. Funding for this exhibit was made possible in part by the Warren County Cultural and Heritage Commission.

WCARTS recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, with around 30 members from northern NJ and environs. They hold one Board Meeting and one program per month. Over the course of a year, they hang 8 or 9 exhibits, representing many styles and techniques. Membership is not mandatory to be considered for an exhibit. For more information, visit www.WCARTS.org.

Brian Daum, pictured on left, from Harmony, is Warren County ARTS exhibit chairperson and in this exhibit he shared several pieces from his family’s archives. His father, Howard Daum, joined the Navy at 18 years old, on November 23, 1944. He was a Ship’s Serviceman B 3rd Class, and was stationed in the Pacific, near Okinawa, in 1945. On display was a Notice of Separation listing Daum’s accomplishments, medals, and the ship on which he served, along with a Certificate of Honorable Discharge from the Navy dated July 12, 1946. In the image above, Daum is holding a handwritten page from his father’s notebook detailing “Check Mass for Individual Firing.” The old photograph depicts a group of Okinawan villagers in 1945, with Daum in the background on the left.

Carl Ohlson, from Sparta, served in Vietnam in 1969 for 6 months. He was a Lieutenant in the Army, and a platoon leader in the infantry. Most of the works by Ohlson were giclée prints from his original watercolors, all portraying his unit in Vietnam. Some were based on news organizations’ photographs, some were from memory.

On the right, Ohlson poses by his painting entitled “Delta Blues,” which clearly exemplifies the code of “GIs helping GIs.” The painting’s title was inspired by the Delta where the soldiers found themselves day-in and day-out trudging through murky, brown water, and, not unexpectedly, feeling downbeat and in a blue funk. Every step teemed with danger from booby traps to red ants, leeches, and snakes. “Delta Blues” was just as Ohlson experienced it. He himself was towards the rear of that single file line, behind everyone, hence the viewer sees no identifiable faces in the painting.

Cathy Miller, an award-winning photographer who’s been capturing the faces of Warren County for many years, has had her work appear in numerous publications, local, statewide, and beyond