Jim Riswold is a huge part of W+K history, and tonight, November 2, he’s having a gallery show of his latest works, World War I According to Jim Riswold. Read his Artist Statement below, and show your support for this extraordinary man by visiting the opening of World War I According to Jim Riswold from 5:30 to 7:30 at Augen Gallery at 716 NW Davis.

“I recently spent more than my fair share of days in the ICU at OHSU.

I cheered myself up by reading about the carnage of World War One, The War to End All Wars.

I learned July 1, 1916 was the first day of the Battle of the Somme. That day is the bloodiest day in Britain’s history. The British Army suffered 57,470 casualties, including 19,420 dead. Most of those casualties came in the first hour of the battle. This is what happens when old generals and old tactics send young men charging unprotected into modern weapons, such as entrenched machine guns and relentless artillery fire.

I learned 20,000,000 horses died during World War One. So did a whole bunch of cows, camels, chickens, pigs and sheep. Apparently, animals fare just as bad, if not worse, as young men against machine guns.

I learned about the disillusionment of the common soldier. On March 3, 1916, during the Battle of Verdun, German Expressionist painter Franz Marc wrote, “For days I have seen nothing but the most terrible things that can be painted from a human mind.” The next day he was dead.

We’ve learned to make jokes about the French Army. Here’s one: What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up? The French Army. I learned 1,397,800 French soldiers died and 4,266,000 were wounded in World War One. There is a good reason the French are war-adverse.

I learned about the Christmas Truce of 1914. German and British soldiers along the Western Front put down their weapons, climbed out of their miserable trenches, met in no man’s land and sang Christmas carols, played soccer, exchanged gifts and drank beer. A German wrote, “How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was. The English felt the same way about it. Thus Christmas, the celebration of love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends for a time.”

The next day, the British High Command said anybody doing anything like that again would be shot.

I learned The War to End All Wars Didn’t End All Wars.

So, I did an art show about it.”

World War I According to Jim Riswold debuts tonight, November 2, from 5:30 to 7:30 at Augen Gallery at 716 NW Davis and runs through November 26.