9/11: Just Under the Surface

Just Under the Surface

Watercolor, pencil, mixed media.

For so many, that bright, severe clear Tuesday 21 years ago is just under the surface.
It will always be just under the surface.

The clear blue of the skies of this painting, known as “severe clear”, an aviation term used by pilots to describe unlimited visibility, both above and below the horizon line, are constructed from the portraits of the nearly 3,000 people who were killed at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Firefighters and paramedics killed: 343
Number of NYPD officers: 23
Number of Port Authority police officers: 37
Number of WTC companies in the towers that lost people: 128
Number of employees who died in the North Tower: 1,462
Number of employees who died in Tower Two: 630
Number of people killed at the Pentagon: 125
Number of people killed on planes on 9/11: 246
Number of employees lost at Cantor Fitzgerald: 658
Number of nations whose citizens were killed in attacks: 115
Days fires continued to burn after the attack: 99
Number of people who lost a spouse or partner in the attacks: 1,609
Estimated number of children who lost a parent: 3,051
Estimated injuries on 9/11: 6000
Percentage of Americans who knew someone hurt or killed in the attacks: 20%

It’s impossible to know how many lives have been lost in the years since the 9/11 attacks due to suicide, war, and medical complications. 21 years later, those numbers now dwarf the original death toll of that Tuesday in September 2001.

No day shall erase you from the memory of time. -Virgil

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