Artist uses children's toys for serious message

CHINATOWN, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- An artist known years ago for his work on the "Rugrats" cartoons is now focused on a very different and serious topic: the effects of war on soldiers.

Charles Swenson is expressing his ideas through a simple childhood toy -- but his message is hardly child's play. He uses toy soldiers. Tiny tin figurines from war long ago are the inspiration for the paintings and sculpture in his exhibition, "Soldiers in Our Midst."

When Swenson photographed the toy soldiers and greatly enlarged their images, he saw the chipped paint, dents, and cracks. He saw the real life impact of war in the soldiers'faces. He says it is not an anti-war message as much as it's a message to remember veterans of war.

"For me, this is about the use and abuse that anyone in battle suffers," Swenson said. "With these little guys, the paint is chipped off, a leg might get broken. But when you blow it up to this scale, you see the psychological damage underneath."

Swenson is still working on the project in his downtown studio, still focused on the damaged and missing parts of toys played with, then put away. That's the metaphor he creates in his work; remembering veterans who come home and are then forgotten, like old toys.

Swenson says he's not picking sides or making a political statement about a particular conflict. He's just asking the viewer to look at the faces of the toy soldiers, and see something very real and alive there.

You can visit the "Soldiers in Our Midst" exhibit at the Red Pipe Gallery in the Chinatown Arts District Thursday through Saturday, noon - 5 p.m., and by appointment through Oct. 11. For more information, go to the gallery's website at www.redpipegallery.com.