Coast Guard Art Program

2023 Collection

Presented by the United States Coast Guard and the Salmagundi Club

2022 George Gray Award Recipient 

Inaugural Exhibition: June 26—July 28, 2023

Salmagundi Club, New York City

Debris cleanup in Hawaii

by Debra Keirce

Oil
Commandant (CG-0923)

U.S. Coast Guard

2703 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., S.E.

STOP 7103

Washington, D.C. 20593-7103

(202) 372-4643

MaryAnn.Bader@uscg.mil

The U.S. Coast Guard and its art program thank the New York Council of the Navy League of the 

United States for the invaluable support and interest it has provided for years. The Service is indebted to the League and honored by its assistance.

Cover:

Debris cleanup in Hawaii

Debra Keirce

2022 George Gray Award Recipient for Artistic Excellence

Oil

20 x 16 inches

Broadlands, Va.

Currents in the Pacific Ocean bring derelict fishing nets and gear to Hawaiian waters. These pose safety hazards to ships and cause extensive damage to the ecosystem by snagging on coral reefs and entangling wildlife. Here a crewmember from the Coast Guard Cutter WALNUT recovers fishnet from 

Lisianski Island and the Pearl and Hermes reefs. The WALNUT was joined by personnel from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to remove more than 57,000 pounds of marine debris.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202222

About the artist

Debra Keirce had two passions: science and art. The Detroit born artist, winner of the 2022 George 

Gray Award, received her bachelor’s degree in biochemical engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. While working as a scientist in New England in the 1980s, she was also painting fine 

art. In 2010, she turned her passion for the visual arts into a full time career and now works from her 

Northern Virginia studio. Her work involves three themes: traditional renditions of still life, landscape 

and portraiture; vintage and surreal work embracing aging, broken people and oddities; and vistas of 

America in its land and people. Keirce became a COGAP member in 2021. Since then, eight works of 

her art have been accepted into the permanent collection. Her artwork is held in private, museum 

and corporate collections across the globe, including the U.S., Japan, Belize, France, and England. She 

holds signature memberships in over a dozen major artistic societies. Largely self-taught, the artist is 

both an author and the subject of numerous publications. She plans to continue using her extraordinary talent to depict many other vital missions of the Coast Guard and some that may also be little 

known. “Through my work,” she says, “I hope to aid in enlightening the public on the many contributions of this great Service.”
About the Coast Guard Art Program

The Coast Guard Art Program (COGAP) uses fine art as an outreach tool for educating diverse 

audiences about the Coast Guard. Today, more than ever, the Service addresses an abundance of challenges as it works to maintain the nation’s security at home and abroad and execute its statutory missions. COGAP art provides visual testimony to the unique contribution 

the Service makes to the nation in its multifaceted roles as a military, humanitarian and law 

enforcement organization. Art from the program is exhibited at museums around the country. 

It is displayed in the offices of members of Congress, Cabinet secretaries, senior government 

officials and other military services and Coast Guard leadership and locations nationwide. It 

has also been displayed by the State Department overseas in its Art in Embassies program.

This year marks the 42nd anniversary of the Coast Guard Art Program. Today, the collection 

holds over 2,000 works that capture the myriad missions the active-duty men and women of 

the Coast Guard perform daily, including homeland security, search and rescue, marine environmental protection, drug interdiction, national defense and natural resource management. 

Paintings and drawings bring to life the work performed by the Coast Guard and vividly 

demonstrate the Service’s contributions to the country.

The 2023 collection is comprised of 38 works created by 25 artists. Among missions captured 

in these works are training exercises that help the Coast Guard be Semper Paratus, illegal migrant interdiction operations, protection of the marine environment and living marine resources, work on aids to navigation, canines in service to the Coast Guard and daring search 

and rescue missions including the Service’s response to the devastation wrought by hurricanes. All works are donated by COGAP members, most of whom are professional artists. 

About the Salmagundi Club, COGAP’s partner organization

Since the Coast Guard Art Program’s inception in 1981, the Salmagundi Club has been its sponsor. In the course of its 152-year history, the club has served as a center for artists from New 

York and around the country. Today it has a membership of over 1,000 artists and patrons. It 

offers exhibitions of paintings, sculpture and photography; conducts art classes and painting 

demonstrations and holds auctions of member artists’ work throughout the year. It has a collection of over 1,500 works of art spanning its century and a half history.

Originally formed as the New York Sketch Club in 1871, the club adopted its present name 

over 100 years ago from Washington Irving’s Salmagundi Papers, a satirical and urbane periodical he co-authored.

Through the years, the club has been the gathering place for important artists such as Childe 

Hassam, William Merritt Chase, Howard Pyle, N. C. Wyeth, Charles Dana Gibson, Ogden Pleissner and many others. Honorary members have included Sir Winston Churchill, Buckminster 

Fuller, Paul Cadmus, Al Hirschfeld, Thomas Hoving and Schuyler Chapin.

The Salmagundi Club is located at 47 Fifth Avenue, between 11th and 12th Streets. To learn 

more about the club, please visit its website at www.salmagundi.org.

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The George Gray Award

Named for the co-founder of the Coast Guard Art Program, the George 

Gray Award each year recognizes one Coast Guard artist for outstanding 

artistic achievement. George Gray worked as an artist for more than 

seven decades. A muralist and illustrator, he specialized in historical 

and military themes. Love of country compelled him to enlist in the 

Coast Guard during World War II. During the Vietnam War, he spent six 

weeks sketching Marines in action for the U.S. Navy’s fine arts program. 

He co-founded COGAP in the early 1980s and served as its chairman and 

champion for over 20 years. Born in 1907 in Harrisburg, Penn., he is a 

direct descendent of Capt. Robert Gray, who, in 1788, became the first 

American to carry the nation’s flag around the world. He died in 2004 at 

the age of 96.

George Gray

by James Dyekman

Jurors for the George Gray Award

Admiral Linda L. Fagan is the 27th Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, overseeing all global Coast 

Guard operations. Just prior, she was the 32nd Vice Commandant. Previous Flag assignments include 

Commander, Pacific Area, and Commander, Coast Guard Defense Force West; Deputy Commandant for 

Operations, Policy, and Capability; Commander, First Coast Guard District; and a joint assignment as 

Deputy Director of Operations for Headquarters, U.S. Northern Command. Her operational tours include Commander, Sector New York; more than 15 years as a Marine Inspector; and sea duty on Coast 

Guard Cutter POLAR STAR. The Admiral has also held numerous senior staff assignments. She has 

worked with both the International Maritime Organization and International Labor Organization on 

flag, state and port state issues. Admiral Fagan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Science 

from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, a Master of Science degree in Marine Affairs from the University 

of Washington, and a Master’s degree in National Resource Strategy from the Industrial College of the 

Armed Forces. The recipient of numerous awards, she is the longest serving active-duty Marine Safety 

Officer and holds the distinction of being the Coast Guard’s first-ever Gold Ancient Trident.

Bob Mueller is a graphic designer, artist and curator emeritus of the Salmagundi Club. His company, 

Bob Mueller Graphics, Inc., develops visual materials for clients. As a fine artist, he is a proponent of 

traditional realism, reflecting this aesthetic in his painting and printmaking, which have earned numerous awards. From 2007 to 2016, he was the Salmagundi Club’s chief curator and sought to advance 

scholarship of American art through research and exhibitions. The artist believes strongly that the Salmagundi Club has helped develop a national art identity through its early exhibitions and by encouraging a collaborative environment for the exchange of creative ideas. The artist also served as president 

of the board of the Cornish Colony Museum in Windsor, Vermont, where he helped organize exhibitions and wrote extensively.

Vijay Kumar studied art at Triveni Kala Sangam in New Delhi and printmaking at Pratt Graphics Center 

in Manhattan. The artist is a founding member of Manhattan Graphics Center, where he teaches etching. He has also taught printmaking at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey in Summit and at the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Connecticut. His etchings, drawings, and paintings have won numerous awards, and he has exhibited widely throughout the U.S. and abroad. His work is in many permanent and premier collections including The New York Public Library; The Museum of Modern Art; 

the New-York Historical Society; the Brooklyn Museum of Art; the Library of Congress in Washington, 

D.C.; the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England; and the National Gallery of Modern Art and the Alkazi Collection, both in New Delhi.

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Pile driving in Portsmouth

Kristin Hosbein

Oil

20 x 16 inches

St. Joseph, Mich.

Crew of the Coast Guard Cutter KENNEBEC 

demonstrate pile driving aboard the cutter 

docked in Portsmouth, Va., its homeport. Pile 

driving is a construction method used to embed vertical columns or structures in place. At 

the same time, an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter 

seen in the distance arrives to perform a 

search and rescue demonstration on the Elizabeth River. Normally the two events do not 

occur in tandem but were staged here for participants in an educational seminar on the 

Coast Guard and homeland security.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202317

Unmoored

Don Hatcher

Gouache

12 x 9 inches

Newport, Wash.

When a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather buoy became loose from its 

mooring, the Coast Guard was called to help. 

Crew dispatched from Coast Guard Station Grays 

Harbor in Westport, Wash., intercepted the 

weather buoy on its wayward voyage and safely 

towed it inland.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202311

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One Service: many missions
Ice diving in the Antarctic

Stephen Roberson

Oil

16 x 20 inches

Arlington, Va.

A crewmember of the Coast Guard 

Cutter POLAR STAR executes a scuba 

dive in the frigid waters off McMurdo 

Station in Antarctica. He was joined 

by divers from the U.S. Army and the 

Canadian Navy in determining if the 

aging cutter, a heavy icebreaker, required repairs. At 399-feet long, it is 

among the largest cutters operated 

by the Coast Guard and designed for 

open-water icebreaking. The cutter 

and crew were working in support of 

Operation Deep Freeze—the military’s contribution to the National 

Science Foundation-managed polar 

research program.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202329

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Joint defense operations

MK1 Jasen Newman

Charcoal, chalk and pastel

18 x 12 inches

Kodiak, Alaska

Two members of the Maritime Security Response Team West await extraction from the 

flight deck of the Coast Guard Cutter ALEX HALEY by a U.S. Air Force Combat rescue helicopter. The event took place during joint defense 

operations aimed at protecting the Nation 

from threats at sea and in air. As part of the 

Coast Guard’s national defense mission, the 

Service has command responsibility for the 

Maritime Defense Zone. The helicopter here 

depicted, a Jolly Green HH-60W, recalls a 

smaller version used during the Vietnam War 

for search and rescue operations.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202326
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Fishing patrol in the Pacific

Leendert van der Pool

Oil

18 x 24 inches

Brooklyn, N.Y.

Crew of the Coast Guard Cutter 

FREDERICK HATCH, homeported in 

Santa Rita, Guam, conducts fishing 

patrols off the island nation of Palau in the Pacific. The crew is looking for illegal, underreported and 

unregulated fishing activities. To 

ensure compliance with U.S. laws, 

crew will board vessels suspected 

of illegal activities. These patrols 

and boardings also strengthen relations with U.S. allies and partners 

in the region.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202335

Mississippi River patrol

Karen Loew

Oil

24 x 20 inches

New York, N.Y.

Crew of the Coast Guard Cutter SAWFISH patrol the waters of the Mississippi 

River. The 87-foot patrol cutter is 

homeported in Gulfport, Miss. Such 

patrols ensure a safe, secure, and environmentally sound waterways system. 

The SAWFISH’S many missions include

search and rescue, law enforcement, 

fishery patrols, drug interdiction, illegal 

migrant interdiction, and homeland security.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202324

On patrol
Rescuing the entangled

Don Hatcher

Gouache

14 x 11 inches

Newport, Wash.

Crew from Coast Guard Station South Padre 

Island, Texas, free a dolphin ensnared in an 

illegal fishing net. Such rescues bare proof 

of the dire consequences illegal fishing gear 

has on marine life and ecosystems. The 

Service’s mission to protect living marine 

resources is critical to saving endangered 

marine life.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202309

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Protecting living marine resources and the environment 

Protecting the endangered

Debra Keirce

Oil

16 x 20 inches

Broadlands, Va. 

Hundreds of thousands of marine 

mammals and sea turtles die yearly 

from entanglement on fishing nets and 

gear. Spotted by crew from the Coast 

Guard Cutter MOHAWK the sea turtle 

here is rescued from a fishing net and 

then freed into the Atlantic Ocean. The 

Service’s mission of protecting living 

marine resources is critical to saving 

endangered marine life. The MOHAWK 

was on deployment in the U.S. Naval 

Forces Africa area of operations employed by U.S. Sixth Fleet to defend 

maritime interests of the U.S. and its 

allies and partners.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202320
Cutter WILLOW breaks ice

Robert Blevins

Watercolor

13 x 20 inches

Elizabethton, Tenn.

The Coast Guard Cutter WILLOW, a 225-

foot seagoing buoy tender, is homeported in Charleston, S.C. While the cutter’s 

primary mission is servicing aids to navigation, other duties include maritime 

law enforcement, maritime environmental protection, and search and rescue. The WILLOW, also an icebreaker, 

has participated with other nations in 

the Arctic environment as here depicted, and patrolled the region.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202301

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Checking for environmental hazards

Amy DiGi

Oil

16 x 20 inches

Yorktown Heights, N.Y.

Coast Guard Pacific Strike Team, members of the 

National Strike Force (NSF), assess vessels damaged 

by Hurricane Ian after it slammed into southwest 

Florida in 2022. The two members worked closely 

with interagency partners to identify and mitigate 

environmental hazards after the brutal storm. The 

NSF is a national asset comprised of highly trained 

Coast Guard professionals, who rapidly deploy with 

specialized equipment and incident management 

skills any time to any place for any hazard.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202304

Ice-breaking to assist maritime traffic

Cutter CAPSTAN on the Delaware River

Charles Fawcett

Oil

14 x 18 inches

Bellevue, Wash.

The Coast Guard Cutter CAPSTAN, a 65-foot 

harbor tug homeported in Philadelphia, 

Penn., breaks ice on the Delaware River. Its 

other duties include search and rescue, marine environmental protection, maritime law 

enforcement, aids to navigation and commercial fishing vessel safety.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202305
Suited up for cold water

J.C. “Jim” Smith

Watercolor

18 x 14.5 inches

McMinnville, Ore.

An Aviation Survival Technician (AST)—better 

known as a rescue swimmer—stands suited in full 

cold weather gear on the tarmac of Coast Guard Air 

Station Cape Cod, Mass. Rescue swimmers undergo rigorous and highly demanding training before 

they qualify to be ASTs. They are also certified as 

emergency medical technicians. Additionally, they 

must learn and be proficient in helicopter operations and maintenance and rescue equipment.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202333

Search and rescue training in 

Kodiak 

Don Hatcher

Gouache

11 x 14 inches

Newport, Wash.

Air Station Kodiak crewmembers 

conduct search and rescue training 

exercises off the coast of Kodiak. 

In order to be prepared for all 

emergencies crewmembers routinely complicate training exercises 

by performing them in extremely 

harsh conditions. Here a Jayhawk 

helicopter flies low over unforgiving terrain as the flight mechanic 

aids the rescue swimmer in his 

descent.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202313

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Saving lives: Coast Guard to the rescue
Rescue off Kitty Hawk

John Ward

Acrylic

21 x 15.5 inches

Saranac Lake, N.Y.

To a victim being rescued, the rescue basket 

with its cable are lifelines. Here an injured 

boater is being recovered to an MH-60 Dolphin helicopter deployed from Coast Guard 

Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C. The injured 

sailor will be taken to a nearby hospital for 

treatment. A rescue at sea is a highly 

orchestrated ballet requiring sophisticated 

flying and precisely synchronized communication among crewmembers.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202336

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Fist bump

Don Hatcher

Gouache

11 x 14 inches

Newport, Wash.

Crewmembers of a Coast Guard Air Station 

Miami search and rescue team display the 

strong bond that such teams often develop 

as they work together on challenging and 

seemingly impossible rescue cases. Here a 

flight mechanic in the Dolphin helicopter’s 

cabin touches hands with the rescue swimmer as the swimmer is about to descend to 

aid an injured mariner.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202310
Rescue in California

Don Hatcher

Gouache

9 x 12 inches

Newport, Wash.

An MH-65 Dolphin helicopter 

crew from Coast Guard Air 

Station San Francisco Forward 

Operating Base Point Mugu 

medevacs a distressed sailor 

from a commercial cargo ship 

located some 50 miles west of 

San Luis Obispo. The maritime 

response mission program—of 

which search and rescue is 

part—mitigates the consequences of marine casualties 

and disastrous events. The 

Coast Guard is the Nation’s 

premier maritime first responder.

Coast Guard Art Collection 

202307

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Training for rescues

David Ray

Oil

18 x 24 inches

Wilmette, Ill.

A crewmember from Coast Guard Station Sturgeon Bay, Wis., throws a life ring in Lake Michigan while aboard a 

45-foot response boat. The life ring was used as part of search and rescue training. The training ensures that 

members are ready for emergencies occurring at any time and which often involve split second decision making. The Coast Guard is recognized as the world leader in search and rescue. Daily, the Service conducts 42 

search and rescue cases, saving 12 lives and over $114,000 in property.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202327
Against all odds: Stricken Oregon

vessel in sketches

Kirk Larsen

Three watercolor sketches

6 x 8 inches each

Hicksville, N.Y.

Panels from left to right depict the onslaught of a massive wave which capsized 

the commercial vessel and ejected the distressed mariner into the sea. Coast Guard motor lifeboats were unable 

to rescue either. The sailor, however, was saved by a Coast Guard rescue swimmer dispatched to the scene 

aboard a helicopter.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202323

Against all odds: Oregon rescue

Kirk Larsen

Oil 

10 x 20 inches

Hicksville, N.Y.

Students of the Advanced Helicopter Rescue School (AHRS) in Astoria, Ore., and crew in training from the National Motor Lifeboat School (NMLS) at Station Cape Disappointment in Washington respond to a nearly impossible rescue. While dangerous weather and high seas prevented NMLS crew from a boat-to-boat rescue, 

the AHRS team in an MH-60 helicopter flew above the site where the mariner and vessel struggled in the violent sea. A rescue swimmer, lowered by cable from the helicopter, reached the water just as a massive wave 

submerged the mariner and boat. Yet the Coast Guard swimmer continued, ultimately reaching and saving 

the sailor while the boat itself was swallowed by the sea. Both Coast Guard rescue swimmer and mariner 

were hoisted to safety aboard the helicopter. This was the first time ever the rescue swimmer saved a life. 

Three hours later, he and his classmates graduated from the AHRS.

Here two Coast Guard motor lifeboats—one on the left and the other on the right—are shown when they 

were deployed to rescue the distressed mariner and vessel pictured in the middle of the painting. The 

attempt was made at the treacherous mouth of the Columbia River, known as “The Graveyard of the Pacific.”

Coast Guard Art Collection 202322

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A rescue against all odds
13

Canine explosive detection team

Frank Gaffney

Oil

16 x 20 inches

Mountlake Terrace, Wash.

A Coast Guard canine assigned to the Canine Explosive Detection Team in Seattle, is 

lowered using roping techniques from a 

moving ferry to a waiting Coast Guard response boat. Canines and their handlers 

undergo extensive and continuous training. 

The Coast Guard employs 16 canine explosive detection teams located across the 

country at Maritime Safety and Security 

Teams and Maritime Security Response 

Teams. The canine teams often work 

alongside local law enforcement agencies 

during many national security events.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202306

A canine trains to be “Semper paratus”

Debra Keirce

Oil

16 x 20 inches

Broadlands, Va. 

Coast Guard canine Kelly and her handler, a Maritime Enforcement Specialist, practice hoist evolution training 

from an MH-65D Dolphin helicopter at Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco. Both are attached to the Coast 

Canines in the Service

Guard Maritime Safety and Security Team in Los Angeles/Long 

Beach. This training helps dog 

and handler to be proficient 

working in and around air assets, 

a skill critical in law enforcement 

missions.

Coast Guard Art Collection 

202319
All that’s left

Kathleen Denis

Acrylic

18 x 18 inches

Palm Beach Shores, Fla.

Coast Guard Shallow Water Response Team crew and 

members of the North Carolina National Guard rescue a 

dog and its owners from high flood waters caused by Hurricane Florence when the hurricane struck North Carolina in 

2018. Coast Guard search and rescue operations supported state and local emergency centers.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202303

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Rescue in Honduras

J.C. “Jim” Smith

Watercolor

14.5 x 18 inches

McMinnville, Ore.

A Coast Guard Helicopter Interdiction Tactical 

Squadron (HITRON) MH-65 Dolphin aircrew deployed aboard the Coast Guard Cutter SENECA 

medevacs a Honduran citizen near Puerto Lempira, Honduras. The Service was working to assist 

in distributing relief aid in areas in the country 

affected by Hurricane Eta. The deadly hurricane, 

which struck in 2020, devastated regions 

throughout Central America.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202331

Coast Guard responds to natural disasters

Hoist training with canine

Tom Hedderich

Watercolor

12 x 18 inches

Westtown, N.Y.

Canine Feco and his handler, both members 

of the Maritime Safety and Security Team in 

San Francisco, prepare to train. They await 

a hoist line to be dropped from a Dolphin 

helicopter. The training will allow the canine and his handler to acclimate working in 

and around air assets and in marine environments. The handler and his canine partner form a tight bond as normally the two 

will work in tandem for the duration of the 

canine’s career and live together.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202314
Survival technician responds to Hurricane Ian

Maria Bennett Hock

Oil

16 x 12 inches

Cary, N.C.

An Aviation Survival Technician—better known 

as a rescue swimmer—searches for survivors 

in Fort Myers, Fla., after the state was hammered by Hurricane Ian in 2022. It was the 

third costliest weather disaster on record and 

the deadliest hurricane to strike Florida in 

nearly 90 years. The devasting storm caused 

damage across western Cuba and the southeast United States.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202316

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Rescuing all in need

J.C. “Jim” Smith

Watercolor

14.5 x 18 inches

McMinnville, Ore.

Coast Guard Shallow Water Response 

Team members rescued beagles and their 

stranded owners when Hurricane Florence 

hit parts of North Carolina in 2018. The 

powerful hurricane caused an estimated 

$24.23 billion in catastrophic damage and 

flooding. The deadly storm, affecting primarily the Carolinas, resulted in some 54 

deaths. Since Hurricane Katrina slammed 

into New Orleans in 2005, the Coast Guard 

has been active in rescuing beloved pets 

as well as their owners from natural disasters.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202332
Haitian migrant rescued

Don Hatcher

Gouache

11 x 14 inches

Newport, Wash.

A crewmember aboard the Coast Guard 

Cutter JOSEPH DOYLE reaches out to rescue 

a Haitian man from the water at Isla Monito, 

Puerto Rico. The man was among 26 other 

Haitians who were rescued after being left 

stranded, following an illegal voyage in the 

Mona Passage, a shipping route connecting 

the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea. 

The cutter, homeported in San Juan, also 

aids in illegal drug interdiction operations. 

Coast Guard Art Collection 202312

Act of compassion

Maria Bennett Hock

Oil

14 x 11 inches

Cary, N.C.

A Coast Guard crewmember of the Cutter CAMPBELL cradles a small child in her arms after the child was rescued 

in the Windward Passage off the Haitian coast. Some 209 

Haitian migrants were rescued and then repatriated to 

Haiti.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202315

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Illegal migrant interdiction

Desperation

MST2 Thomas Unger

Coffee

14 x 20.5 inches

Key West, Fla.

A crewmember deployed on the Coast Guard 

Cutter CHARLES SEXTON distributes personal 

floatation devices to Cuban migrants on an unseaworthy vessel during an illegal migrant interdiction. The Coast Guard is tasked with enforcing immigration law at sea. Between October 

2021 and the following year, the Coast Guard 

interdicted over 10,000 Cuban migrants at sea. 

Coast Guard Art Collection 202334
never-ending. Here 

select crewmembers on 

the Coast Guard Cutter 

IDA LEWIS, homeported 

in Newport, R.I., undergo training with the 

Coast Guard Buoy Deck 

Training Team deployed 

from Yorktown, Va.

Coast Guard Art

Collection 202338

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Hard aground

Daniel Coolbrith Jones

Oil

20 x 24 inches

Arroyo Grande, Calif.

Nearly 220 Haitian men, women and 

children sought safety in the water as 

their severely overloaded and crowded wooden vessel ran aground near 

the coast of Key Largo, Fla. Multiple 

agencies responded to the emergency 

and Coast Guard small boats assisted 

in transferring the Haitian migrants to 

a waiting cutter. Despite a few injuries, most migrants were repatriated 

to Haiti.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202318

Maintaining aids to navigation

Elizabeth Whelan

Oil

12 x 16 inches

Edgartown, Mass.

The hazardous, demanding and essential work of maintaining buoys and other navigational aids is 

Aids to navigation: a vital mission
The welder

Susanne Corbelletta

Oil

16 x 24 inches

Southport, N.C.

A crewmember of the Coast Guard Cutter KATHERINE WALKER, a 175-foot buoy tender homeported in Bayonne, 

N.J., uses a torch to cut the chain during a buoy maintenance procedure as the cutter transits New York Harbor.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202302

Wet work

Stephen Roberson

Acrylic

16 x 20 inches

Arlington, Va.

A crewmember aboard the 

Coast Guard Cutter HENRY 

BLAKE performs the grueling, 

physically demanding and often 

unheralded work necessary in 

maintaining aids to navigation. 

The cutter, homeported in Everett, Wash., is responsible for 

some 235 aids to navigation 

along the coast of Washington 

and in the Puget Sound area.

Coast Guard Art Collection 

202328

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Looking FORWARD

Leon Wescoat, III

Oil

16 x 20 inches

Absecon, N.J.

Coast Guard Cutter FORWARD, while in drydock in 

Norfolk, Va., undergoes maintenance. The cutter, 

homeported in Portsmouth, Va., will be equipped 

with new propellers and repainted among other 

needed maintenance work. The cutter's primary 

missions are defense operations, law enforcement 

and search and rescue.

Night watch

Regular maintenance ensures safety

Night watch

CDR Ken Sauerbrunn

Acrylic

18 x 24 inches

Kodiak, Alaska

The quartermaster of the watch—the officer in 

charge of watch-to-watch navigation and related 

duties—plots the Coast Guard Cutter ALEX HALEY’S 

position in the Bering Sea. Red lights preserve 

night vision, allowing watch standers to better analyze operational tasks, weather and vessel traffic. 

The Coast Guard’s continuous presence in the Bering Sea provides search and rescue coverage for 

Alaska’s commercial fishing fleets and helps deter 

illegal fishing. It also enforces U.S. sovereignty in 

the strategically critical region.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202330

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Unhooked

Debra Keirce

Oil

12 x 16 inches

Broadlands, Va. 

Crewmembers aboard the Cutter JAMES RANKIN 

unhook a buoy from chains of the cutter’s crane. 

The cutter is homeported at Coast Guard Yard in 

Curtis Bay, Md. Its crew exchanged summer buoys 

for seasonal winter buoys in the Chesapeake Bay 

area. The work of servicing aids to navigation such 

as buoys is part of the Marine Transportation System. On an average day, the Coast Guard services 

45 buoys and fixed aids to navigation.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202321
Visiting Larsen Bay

Priscilla Messner-Patterson

Transparent watercolor

9 x 12 inches

Post Falls, Idaho

Since the mid-1970s when a Coast Guard pilot realized that children in the remote villages of Kodiak Island had 

very limited opportunities to experience Santa and receive gifts, the annual Santa to the Villages has become

Morale booster

Culinary specialist on the MUNRO

Don Hatcher

Gouache

11 x 14 inches

Newport, Wash.

A Culinary Specialist prepares lunch 

and soup for the crew aboard the 

Coast Guard Cutter MUNRO. These 

petty officers are integral to the morale of the crew as meals are often a 

highlight of the day during long, routine deployments.

Coast Guard Art Collection 202308

a major event for the residents. 

The program, a week of festivities, is supported by the Spouses’ 

Association of Kodiak, whose 

members raise funds and facilitate this outreach program. Santa and elves travel by helicopter 

to many locations on the island, 

bringing goodwill and gifts to 

children and families.

Coast Guard Art Collection 

202325

Giving to the Community

20