BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 Under a large American flag in downtown Bakersfield, visitors can step into a memorial unlike most others, the Portrait of a Warrior Gallery, a growing collection of hand-painted portraits honoring local service members who made the ultimate sacrifice after 9\/11.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not human if you can\u2019t … if you can go through here for the first time anyway and not come out with a few tears,\u201d said Lili Marsh, the gallery\u2019s founder.<\/p>\n
Marsh\u2019s vision became reality on Monday, Sept. 10, 2018, when the gallery opened as a small room. Today, it has expanded into a tribute featuring nearly 30 paintings and continues to grow. It is only the second gallery of its kind in the nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously look at the portraits that say so much about each individual and we get to know them. The public gets to know them. That would never happen if it weren\u2019t for this,\u201d Marsh said.<\/p>\n
Each portrait is surrounded by details that reflect the service member\u2019s life beyond the uniform, Marsh said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell if you can see behind me each portrait has like many portraits around them and that will tell you something about that service member without even knowing them. This one right here, you know he liked to play lacrosse. This one over here, he was polo and so on and so forth,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
While the gallery serves as a memorial, it is also designed to educate. Students often visit, and Marsh said she has seen young people moved by what they learn.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can remember our first few Friday events that we did and we\u2019d have a lot of young people come in here and I\u2019d be thinking they don\u2019t care about this and they\u2019d walk through and they\u2019d be up there reading a bio and tears coming down their face and that moves somebody I think that\u2019s the reward and that you\u2019re changing someone by their experience here,\u201d Marsh said.<\/p>\n
Admission to the gallery is always free, and volunteers are available to help guide visitors through the exhibits and the stories behind the portraits.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe families know by having these portraits hung here it\u2019s a memorial that everyone is going to see. Everyone is going to know their child. And that\u2019s amazing,\u201d Marsh said.<\/p>\n
The Portrait of a Warrior Gallery is looking for volunteers. Those interested can call 661-479-5095.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 Under a large American flag in downtown Bakersfield, visitors can step into a memorial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-419526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}