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This morning on our show we talked to Phil Taylor, an artist who feels called to paint the portraits of every Texas soldier killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. To that end he has established the Texas Fallen Soldier Project. With the number of fallen Texas soldiers over 400 and climbing it is a sometimes daunting mission.
Through letters, photos and personal items from the soldier's family, he begins to distill the essence of each man. Phil spends as much as forty hours on a single portrait hoping to capture as much of the spirit of the individual as one can with brush and canvas. Once the portraits are completed he gifts them to the families. The artist's process brings him to an intimate, sometimes painful , but always rewarding connection to these fallen heroes and their families. It is one of the most noble things I've ever encountered.