Music Credit: “Renewal” written and performed by Doug and Judy Smith

Sgt. Juan Munoz: Tell the world: the world knows the army has an army band, the world should know the Army has an Army art program

Jo Reed: That is Sergeant 1^st class Juan Munoz, the army artist in residence and this is Art Works, the weekly podcast produced at the National Endowment for the Arts, I’m Josephine Reed.

If you didn’t realize that the army has an artist in residence or that the Army has an art program—you’re not alone. But it’s actually celebrating its 100 birthday. The program was begun during World War I when the Army sent 8 artists to France to document the activities of the American Expeditionary Force. Now, the Army Arts Program is housed at the Museum Support Center at a state-of the art facility at Fort Belvoir. That cavernous building contains some 16,000 pieces of art— as well as smaller artifacts—like uniforms, medals, and canteens. And all of this is in the service of telling soldiers’ stories as they served in the US Army.

The Museum Support Center itself is primarily used for preservation—curators and conservationists are inspecting, cataloguing, cleaning and researching art and artifacts alike. But the Army Arts Program is not just a preservation program. Tucked away is a spacious well-lit artist’s studio—home to the army’s current and only artist-in-residence…Sergeant 1st class Juan Munoz. Sargent Munoz is a career soldier who during his tenure as Artist in Residence documents the day to day life of soldiers at home and abroad as they go about their duties.

Sgt. Juan Munoz: Basically, I go anywhere around the world, and I go and document and tell the Army’s story through art. I deploy worldwide, so I must be worldwide deployable at any given time. And I’ll go out there, just like any other soldier: I have to be physically fit, you have to be able to deploy your weapon if needed. And you constantly observing and trying to see what stories as an artist from your perspective you can tell and bring back about what’s going on, and what is our Army doing in that location?

Jo Reed: What guidance did the army give you?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: So it's very broad. It's opposite of what the Army tends to be for the most part. The Army tends to be, you know, very specific about what you need to do, how to move from point A to point B. In the art program, and I'm stealing this from the Marines, so if the Marines hear this, yes, I'm stealing this from you.

Jo Reed: <laughs>

Sgt. Juan Munoz: But this is the guidance the Marines get as well and it is, "Go to war and do art." And although it wasn't said to me in those words, it was basically the same thing. You just go out there and you observe and you create from your perspective what you feel is the story of the Army at the time. So it's, it actually creates more weight on you because now all of a sudden you're in charge of telling, you know, that story. You've got to capture as best as you can, what happened between, you know, between 2016 and 2018. And it's a tough thing but as you go along you start learning. You start observing the different things and you're seeing the Army from a different perspective as well because where I came from, I was in a unit and I only focused on my specific unit duties. Now you're looking at what is the Army doing as a whole and what is important for the Army as a whole? So it's interesting because you learn a lot and you get to see a lot of different things with different soldiers, which is really cool, because the things that soldiers are doing worldwide is amazing right now.

Jo Reed: This has nothing to do with propaganda purposes, this is really about documenting the lives of soldiers.

Sgt. Juan Munoz: Correct, correct. When I first got here, that was the first thing that I was told is even though we don't have a lot of rules for the artists, when I came in here it was, "You are not creating propaganda for the Army in any kind of way. You are telling the soldiers' stories to connect current soldiers or veterans and our American citizens." So, so we're just trying to tell the stories of things that you just might not know that soldiers are experiencing as we go and serve in different locations around the world.

Jo Reed: So, you're basically showing the history from the soldier's point of view, not from the point of view of the people who are making decisions somewhere else?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: Correct. Correct. And then that's one of the very kind of unique things about having a soldier serve as the artist is that the soldier is seeing it from that point of view. He or she has lived it in some type of way and he or she understands. Perfect example is every soldier, at least in my generation, knows what "hurry up and wait" is. We do a lot of that in the military, whether it is waiting to get on a plane, whether it is waiting for a range to start. When you develop a piece of art about that you can clearly connect with the solider directly.

Jo Reed: Now let me ask you, photography really could give a pretty accurate example of what was going on. Why did the Army think it important to send people who were artists?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: So that's a great question. It's a common question that I get a lot of the time, especially in the Army that is trying to save resources. And when I speak about art I also want to be clear, I speak about manual fine arts, because photography is an art in itself, videography is an art in itself, all these different things are art. But when I speak about art, it's manual arts. One thing that the program has been able to teach and the program itself has been able to teach is the power of the art and the power of how developing art has been able to humanize our military. There has been a lot of things that art has captured that photography was not able to get access to or a photographer was just not able to document in any kind of way, so artists throughout the history of the program have been able to document daily operations of what a soldier does, just things such as a game of cards, standing up and waiting for to get chow, and even more raw and gruesome combat scenes where we're showing through art the realities of war. So, art has kind of this realm where it's able to do so where photography is just not allowed due to either regulations or accessibility.

Jo Reed: Do you choose where you're going? Do you say, "Hey, this deployment is happening in Iraq, I think I should be there?" Or does the army say to you, "Sgt. Munoz, you really should go to Iraq right now?"

Sgt. Juan Munoz: So it's a little bit of both. My experience has been a little bit of both where I have seen, for example, when I went to Southeast Asia with the Special Forces, I had studied the collection a little bit by then. I had just gotten here, but I was able to see it, and I said, "You know what? We have not documented our Special Forces a lot. This is a great opportunity and I have a point of contact that I could go and see if I can tag along with that team and document that." The DOD Warrior Games was another opportunity where I had some input in saying, "You know, our wounded warriors and these amazing people deserve their story to be told through art." So I had a kind of sort of a say. There had been other circumstances, for example, when Operation Inherent Resolve took place and, you know, we started going directly against ISIS--

Jo Reed: And this is in Iraq?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: Yes. This is in Iraq and I was told, "Hey, we want you to go here" and I was placed there, so there's been different circumstances. The hurricanes that I've covered, it was a little bit of both. I was like, "Hey, I need to be out there." And I think I noted this before but the Army only has one artist and this covers not only the active duty but he also covers the Reserves and the National Guard. So you've really got to be paying attention to everything that anybody that wears the U.S. Army name tag is doing at the time. And you want to kind of be able to capture the things that are happening.

Jo Reed: So how long are you typically in the field?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: For the most part it's short periods compared to what a normal soldier goes through.

Jo Reed: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sgt. Juan Munoz: So a normal soldier, you know, goes from 6 to 9 to 12 months plus sometimes. My deployments have been no longer than 30 days. There's some cons and pros for that, but for the most part, as long as you're able to capture what you're seeing and really bring and tell those stories, then we capitalize on the time in the studio to develop the art.

Jo Reed: Now let me just ask you this and I-- It feels like an unfair question, but I'm also curious. So you're there as an artist but you're also a soldier. So do you just, do you-- I don't mean just, but do you stand back and observe or are you part of that squad and doing the work but also observing? Or does it depend, like sometimes you just need to pick up a gun?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: So, so it would really be dependent. For the most part, you would embed with a unit to be as invisible as possible, so you really don't want to be an additional nuisance to that unit. You want the mission always to be first. So they have a mission, a specific set of orders that they must carry out and you being there must not be something that adds additional weight to them. So when I went to Southeast Asia I was out there with them, pulled guard, pulled equipment out and did different things, carried my weight. And, whatever they needed to be done to get that mission done in addition to documenting -- And you're living that, so in addition to that, you know what being tired is like, so you know what that soldier feels at that day. You know what that heat of Southeast Asia feels like and that humidity, so those are part of the experiences that you're able to bring back when you develop the art.

Jo Reed: When you're embedded with troops, how do they relate to you? Do they appreciate what you're doing? Are they glad their story is being told?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: So it's really exciting. A lot of times, you know, they don't believe that the Army has an artist. I will even admit that I tell them that at one point I didn't know the Army has an artist. So -- it's already a teaching opportunity to kind of tell people and soldiers, "Yes, the Army does have an artist and you know, I'm out here to document you to develop art." Then the excitement comes because they obviously want to be part of the history and they're seeing you as you're sketching and they're seeing you as you're documenting and they're seeing you as you're doing all of this stuff. And then when the pieces start coming, then you can see the excitement of the different soldiers. So morale is one of the biggest things that we kind of want to raise with the art as well because art has that power. Art has that power of kind of managing and kind of controlling emotions of how people see things and seeing themselves as they're doing their daily jobs. And they're not doing anything extra when I show up, they just continue to carry on with their jobs

I had one recent piece that I did when I went to Puerto Rico of a nurse, 1st Lt. Amberson, [ph?] and through social media, she was able to find that I did that piece of her. So you can, even on social media, as, you know, she's sharing it and then doing all of this stuff, you can see the excitement. And they're not doing anything extra when I show up, they just continue to carry on with their jobs. But when they see that, that the Army does care for what's being done, it kind of excites everybody around you, so it's really, really cool.

Jo Reed: So then when you're in the field you make sketches and you take notes.

Sgt. Juan Munoz: Yes.

Jo Reed: And then you come back to the studio and what do you do here?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: So, so yeah, so I go and I sketch. I write a lot of things, what's happening, who are the soldiers that I'm capturing, what units are, you know, all of these different things. What are they doing? And I also use photography, so I use the photography as reference as well when I go out there and I found that it's a great tool at times where time is of the essence, what's happening in that location does not allow me the time to even sketch. Because now one of the biggest things is safety, you know, I'm not going to supremely safe areas. I'm going to some austere environments where, you know, just capture it and come back and figure out what you want to tell.

So once I come back to the studio, I'll go through the sketches, through the notes, through the imagery that I've captured and kind of go through a phase of kind of gaining inspiration of what stories I want to tell. And, and then I kind of sort of pick the stories that kind of capture my attention and then I start developing studies and then I'll start developing the pieces. Sometimes I think this is going to look great in a watercolor and I completely fail and then I'll go and do it in a different medium and maybe be a little bit better. So it's a whole process. Very unorthodox because I don't have a specific set or order of how I do it, it just kind of sort of comes out.

Jo Reed: Can you describe your art stylistically?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: I tell people for the most part I'm actually trained as a graphic designer. I went to school for graphic design. Manual arts has sort of been a little bit of self-teaching, some of the stuff that I learned in college. And I don't quite have a style per se. And I don't put myself on any category. I almost want to say that I'm a combat artist. It’s itself is a category in itself because we develop art differently. We develop art with the task of telling that story and through artistic voice. So that's kind of sort of the category I put myself in. I'm a combat artist.

Jo Reed: And you use different medium. What do you typically use?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: So the kind of top two mediums that I use are watercolors and acrylics. I've also played around with inks. I played with charcoals. That's another thing about the program is that we're not dictated what medium even to use. We have even artists that have created sculptures before. So once again, because the military tends to be so rigid and so specific about how you should do things and what you should do, that's what makes this program very unique-- you come in here and you know, if you are a watercolor artist and that's where you, you know, thrive, you can create just watercolors. If you are an oil painter, you can create oil paintings. And you know, doing one or the other doesn't take away, as long as you're telling those stories. So I haven't been necessarily dictated ever. And sometimes we need you to create X amount of oil paintings, nothing at all.

Jo Reed: You did an incredible illustration called "A Quick Call Home."

Sgt. Juan Munoz: Yes.

Jo Reed: Can you describe that? And that's pencil on paper.

Sgt. Juan Munoz: Yes. So I was in the Florida Keys right after Hurricane Irma and I went to document the Florida National Guard. And we went down to one of the points where they were distributing food and water and ice, and it was fairly hot by then, I think. We're talking about the Florida Keys, outside. And these soldiers, I mean, they were super motivated and they were working. And as I talked to some of them, they had told me that they were already there for about 12 hours and they still weren't sure whether they were going to get picked up in 2 hours, 3 hours or so forth. So at one point, things slowed down a little bit. The people that were coming in to get their ice and everything kind of stopped coming. And one of the team sergeants there, he just kind of stood on the side of the road. And luckily, signal had just gotten through the Keys again. They had gotten signal. So he was able to Facetime home. And I saw that and you know, at first I asked him if he was okay, because he was kind of having a private time with his family, but he said he was fine. So I started kind of documenting it and once I came back and I ran into another piece that we had, and I forget the title at this time, but it's from a soldier from Korea who after a long road march, mail call came and they gave him a letter from home and he sat down on the side of the road as well and opened that letter and the facial expression from that soldier in Korea and the facial expression of Sgt. Souza in Florida is almost identical and it's because that connection to home was happening. The technologies change, but the emotion was exactly the same. And that's what motivated me at the time to develop it. Because I said, "Oh, my God. Look at this, the difference in eras right now and how us as soldiers still are so connected to our families and to our home." So, so yeah, that was a great piece. And it was sort of a fun piece to create just because you get really motivated behind it.

Jo Reed: Do you look through the archives yourself as you're doing work?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: So, yeah, luckily, we have the local collection here, so I'm able to go every once in a while and pull out a shelf and get inspired. I've also studied some of the different pieces of art that have been done throughout the times. You can see as, for example, during Vietnam, you can clearly see how some of the art reflects the era in itself. So, so yeah, I try to study as much of that as I can, I have free inspiration here at a hand's reach, so I'm constantly-- I'm constantly learning, I'm constantly going out there and trying to find out, how did Gudger Blum, for example, from Vietnam, do his great watercolors? And I'll go in there and I'll look at it up close and see those brushstrokes and I always get inspired by it, so.

Jo Reed: Now when did you join the Army?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: So I joined the Army, I walked into a recruiter's office right after September 11 in 2001. I went to basic training in 2002 and from there, I went to my advanced individual training that same year where I became a multimedia illustrator.

Jo Reed: So you became an artist in the Army. Had you been an artist before?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: So all my life, I kind of considered myself an artist. You know, I was, when I was young, my uncles were graphic designers and I would always sit right next to them as they were doing letter transfers. This is how way back they used to do it, and hand-made logo designs. And I would just observe and on the side I would do my own little sketches and drawings. So all of my life I've been drawing in some sort of capacity. But in the army is where I became a multimedia illustrator which you are trained a little bit on manual arts but you're also trained on graphic arts and computer arts. So you've kind of got to be a master of a lot of trades when you serve as a multimedia illustrator in the military.

Jo Reed: Yeah, I would think. Now when did you hear about the Artist-in-Residence program?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: We have it's kind of sort of kind of like a branch manager. This is the person that is in charge of kind of managing our career as we progress in the military. And it was brought up to my attention that a position existed. At the time, I didn't even quite pay attention to it. I was just like, "Oh, okay, that sounds kind of fun," but I didn't-- I was, I kind of had other goals in the military. And it wasn't until the Center of Military History itself sent me a kind of ultimatum sort of email saying, "Sgt. Munoz, we heard you have the abilities to serve as an artist, but we would like to see your portfolio. You have 48 hours to submit your portfolio." Of course, we're in the military, so we've got to put a strict timeline. And luckily for me, when I went to art school, you know, one of the things that my instructors and my professors always harped on was maintaining a portfolio. So luckily for me, I was able to have a decent portfolio, you know, polish it up a little bit better and send it up to the Center of Military History. And I believe within about 48 hours I was given the notice that I was accepted into the program and here I am, so.

Jo Reed: Wow.

Sgt. Juan Munoz: Yes.

Jo Reed: No hurry up and wait there.

Sgt. Juan Munoz: No.

Jo Reed: Hurry up and hurry up. <laughs>

Sgt. Juan Munoz: Yes. It was, "Pack up and come down here. We need you to do some art.”

Jo Reed: How long is the residency?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: So just like any duty in the military, any tour of duty, it can be from three years to four years. So right now I'm on my third year going into my fourth year and basically by next year, I'll be changing over for the next guy or gal.

Jo Reed: When a work is finished, who sees it? What happens? Is there an editorial process?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: So, so there's a little bit of critique, and I tend to, you know, call on some people to kind of look at it and give me some, like, raw feedback, like, a lot of times, you know, as an artist you think, you know, this is the best piece I've made, and you've been looking at that piece forever and you get drawn into it and then you miss something. So I do have some individuals that will come in every once in a while to kind of give me some real sometimes tough feedback. But once that we go through all of that, that phase and the piece is complete, it will go through an accessions process and then it will be put into the permanent collection for the Army and then-- and this includes everything from your finished pieces to even your preliminary sketches and—

Jo Reed: Oh, so the whole process.

Sgt. Juan Munoz: And even your sketchbook will eventually go as part of that individual's history. So it's cool, you know, in a way that you, yourself, are being, you know, curated and your own stuff is going to be part of that history. But, you know, those sketches sometimes -- or I, personally, get shy about. Because sometimes it's just a whole bunch of scribbles. Sometimes it's not the greatest drawing that I put together, it's just enough to get me information that I can bring back to the studio. But, I quickly realized it’s part of showing how we came about. And maybe if the final piece is something that people like, they can they can see where it stemmed from. And to me, that kind of background can really inspire others. You never know. But yea. All of this stuff will become part of the collection with the end goal of eventually being exhibited in one of the many museums or publications we have, with the end goal of eventually being exhibited in one of the many museums or publications that we had.

Jo Reed: How many pieces of art does the program have?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: So right now, overall there are about 36,000 pieces of art spread around the world. So whether it's exhibited or whether it's in our collection here being preserved.

Jo Reed: And where would they be exhibited?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: So a lot of the art is exhibited in the different museums spread across the Army. So we have about 43 museums. The larger military bases for the most part have a museum of sorts. The larger Army divisions have their own museum as well, and what's really up and coming right now is the National Museum of the U.S. Army which is kind of going to be like the pride and joy of the U.S. Army and that's where a lot of the art will also go. In addition to that, the art also serves as for educational purposes. It has been used for different publications that have been developed for the Army.

Jo Reed: When you’re doing your art, is your audience the soldiers or is it the general public?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: So to me, when I develop the art, I have the soldier in mind first. So to me, the number one audience is the soldier, and our veterans, and then our American public.

Jo Reed: The Army Arts Program also has a really cool Instagram account.

Sgt. Juan Munoz: Correct, correct. So there we try to share kind of a behind the scenes of the things that happened behind our studio. So, there's been times that we've shared time lapses of how a piece was developed. There's been even times that I've taken the plunge of going live, which is supremely tough because you've kind of got to overcome the masses over your shoulder looking over as you're developing this art. And you’re putting a little pressure on yourself, but it’s kind of fun.

Jo Reed: That's brave.

Sgt. Juan Munoz: <laughs>

Jo Reed: That's like, what was the name of that painter on television who would paint, "Let's make a happy little cloud here."

Sgt. Juan Munoz: Bob Ross. Bob Ross, yes.

Sgt. Juan Munoz: Yes. Yes. And then that's one, you know, one of the people we get referred to as the most when we were doing these things is, "Oh, you're Bob Ross-ing it out here," so, yes. <laughs>

Jo Reed: What have you learned about the Army since you started this job that really has kind of surprised you?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: I guess, you know, we know the Army is deployed worldwide. We know the Army is doing amazing things all over the place. But, you know, we almost think of it as this big machine, this big, large machine that is doing, you know, fighting in Iraq, fighting in Afghanistan, soldiers in Korea, soldiers in Africa, all over the world, right. But we forget the most basic thing is we're all individuals serving our country and going through different things as we serve. So even though I go and they say, "You're going to go to Iraq and you're going to go tell the story of what's happening in Operation Inherent Resolve," it's more about, you know, Specialist Perez in a guard post and, you know, he's got to sit there for eight hours just looking into the empty streets of Baghdad or the busy streets of Baghdad at times and just paying close attention to what's happening for hours on end, you know. And those kind of things, those are the gears of the Army, of this big old machine is those individuals. You know, that soldier there for those hours pulling guard on that tower is what makes us. So, so for me, what surprised me was just kind of coming to that realization that, you know, even though we are a big machine, we really rely on those individual talents and then we really rely on the passion that the soldiers have for their jobs. Because there is amazing things that I've seen of soldiers just out there working day in and day out and just putting all their passion into their jobs. So, yeah, it's that's kind of like my best experience thus far.

Jo Reed: Now let me ask you. Next year will be the end of your artist-in-residency. For you, what does success in this program look like?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: To me, right now, one of the biggest things that I came in here, aside from creating art, was to make sure the program continues. And that was one of the biggest tasks that I gave myself. And the second thing is that the pieces of art that I created are able to connect with other soldiers and be able to tell the individual stories that I capture. You know, even though I documented Specialist Perez in Baghdad, there's another specialist that has pulled the same exact guard duty that can connect to that piece and that can remember what it's like to sit at that post for hours on end just observing what's happening in a busy city or in a busy highway. To me, that's one of the most important things is connecting that art to those individuals. So, connection is a big thing for me.

Jo Reed: And finally, what can we do to support this program and give it the attention it deserves?

Sgt. Juan Munoz: I believe, continue to support the arts. Bringing awareness, telling people that there is an art program. We have the social media page, @usarmyart on Instagram where you can see a lot of these things.

Jo Reed: Oh, it has hundreds of images.

Sgt. Juan Munoz: Yes. And, just tell the world. The world knows the Army has an Army band. The world should know the Army has an Army Art Program, because it's a great program and it's doing great things for the Army.

Jo Reed: And I agree. Sgt. Munoz, thank you. Thank you for your work and thank you for giving me your time.

Sgt. Juan Munoz: Thank you. Thank you for this opportunity.

Jo Reed: Not at all. Thanks.

That is Sergeant 1st class Juan Munoz the army’s artist in residence

You’ve been listening to Art Works produced at the National Endowment for the Arts. You can subscribe to Art Works where ever you get your podcasts—so please do and leave us a rating on Apple—it will help people to find us. For the National Endowment for the Arts, I'm Josephine Reed. Thanks for listening.

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