 Through her paintings, artist Kaziah Hancock seeks to ease the terrible loss a family feels when a loved one dies in the military. It is her way of honoring America’s fallen heroes, of never letting their lives be forgotten. It’s what she can give, and does so willingly.
Hancock, who lives on a 15-acre ranch nestled in the Sanpete Valley of Central Utah, tends her chickens and goats and paints portraits of U.S. military men and women who have lost their lives as a result of serving their nation. She then gives the portraits to the families of the fallen warriors.
An artist for more than 26 years, Hancock was inspired to use her talents to help ease the pain and suffering of mourning family members by a radio program about a soldier who had been killed in Iraq. As she listened to family and friends talking about the soldier and the person the soldier had been to them, she realized how close the war was to her.
“It brought the war home,” Hancock said. “It wasn’t some unknown person who died somewhere far away. It was a person with a family, a name — someone who should have raised a family and grown old.”
Hancock’s idea was to paint a portrait of each military man and woman killed since the terrorist attacks of 2001 and give it, free of charge, to the grieving spouse or parents of the dead military person. It would be her way of saying thank you to the servicemember and letting the loved ones know their son or daughter, husband or wife, mother or father, or brother or sister would not be forgotten.
Well-known and honored for her portraits and landscapes, which can sell for thousands of dollars in galleries, the award-winning artist set to work. She figured she could finish as many as 15 portraits a year.
That was several television features, newspaper, magazine and Internet articles ago. Since founding the Project Compassion Soldier Fund in 2002, Hancock has welcomed the help of other artists. So far, more than 600 portraits have been presented to next of kin. Today, she and four other artists with the nonprofit project are still creating these gallery-quality portraits.
When the DAV learned of what Hancock was doing to honor deceased military men and women, the organization decided to honor her for her compassionate efforts. At the Opening Session of the National Convention in New Orleans, National Commander Bradley S. Barton presented her with a DAV Special Appreciation Award in recognition of her moving work honoring deceased American servicemen and women.
Accepting the award, Hancock tearfully thanked the organization and told the audience she paints the portraits to let the families of American military heroes know that “somebody gives a damn.”
“These soldiers and their families are our buddies,” she said. “They are our family as Americans, and we love them.”
“I have never found a greater kinship than what I have found in my family and friends in the military,” Hancock said. “They are responsible, reliable men and women of integrity, the kind of Americans we need to have come home and lead this nation.”
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