Kevin Dobson was a Vietnam veteran and actor in Knots Landing, one of the longest-running prime-time series in television history. Before he died, he was honored with the gift of a Vietnam Veterans Memorial Statue poster created by Bohemia artist Elaine Faith Thompson.
Thompson designed the official poster in 1984 at the request of President Ronald Reagan. “The President reviewed four of my drawings for the poster and chose the one with the American flag,” said Thompson, who is famed for her paintings of Long Island scenes and presidential portraits, including a recent work depicting Donald Trump.
In preparation for creating the Vietnam poster, Thomson supervised a 13-hour shoot with photographer Dan Rosenheck at the foundry in Plainview where the statue was created. “It was very important to have the American flag in the design, which I laid out so that only five stars were visible, symbolizing the branches of military service,” Thompson explained. The lettering was the same style as on the Vietnam wall in Washington. Of the four names on the bottom of the poster, Thompson is the only one who is still alive. Rosenheck was killed when his plane crashed in 1987.
The artist has many relatives with military backgrounds, including Presidents Ulysses S. Grant, John F. Kennedy, and those who fought in the American Revolution. Her late husband, U.S. Marine Richard Polizzi, was shot three times in the Korean War and passed away from war-related injuries at the age of 35. Her late brother Frank Ryder was also in the Korean War. Richard Ryder, her other late brother, was in the Coast Guard. More recently, Thompson’s granddaughter, Madison Polizzi, is in the Navy, and her grandson, Jamie Mas, is a former Marine and Army Ranger who served in Kuwait.
Thompson is also known for paintings of the United States Golf Association and PGA championships, canvases of the Statue of Liberty, the Pope, Elvis, pets, houses, lighthouses, and the Big Duck in Flanders, and portraits of Presidents George Washington, John F. Kennedy, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.
Both Thompson and Dobson, her first husband’s cousin, are devoted to helping military veterans. She has donated copies of her work to local veterans groups. The statue in her poster was erected to commemorate the surviving Vietnam veterans and was paid for by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.
Thompson’s prints and originals are available for purchase. Contact the artist at her gallery in Bohemia at 516-380-7715 or email etcreation@optonline.net. For more, visit: www.thompsonart.us