Without looking at the name, the Blue Mountain Community College Veterans Resource Center would look like a lot of study spaces at the college’s Pendleton campus.
The room includes some desktop computers, a pair of couches, a mini-fridge, and a couple of offices. But a key signifier of the veterans center’s intent is represented by a picture hung on the wall, a painting made by Jacob Gunnels, a BMCC alum and a veteran.
BMCC officials unveiled the painting as a part of the center’s grand opening Tuesday, an event that featured speakers from BMCC and various veterans organizations.
Between the suits and business casual dress that defined the administrators and the uniformed personnel from the Oregon National Guard, Gunnels’ black sleeveless shirt that read “Tatooed Veteran” and his streak of green hair stood out.
His painting was similarly eye-catching: a man in a red mask and an Army jacket holding a large gun, comforted by a woman in a white mask.
In a caption that accompanies the painting, Gunnels said he’s the man in the red mask, which represents “blood,” “anger,” and “pain.”
“She wears a white one representing purity and light in the darkness,” the caption reads. “I am facing the darkness, but she is there to pull me back, the light, the strength. But in the end she leaves, the burden is too much. All the weight falls back on me.”
The title of the painting is “22 is 22 Too Many,” a reference to U.S. Department of
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