The Brownstone School of Attitude Adjustment

CLIENT: California Military Academy OCS, Camp San Luis Obispo, California in 1991.

THE STORY: This Illustrative Render was created for the California Army National Guard command staff of their (Our) California Military Academy US Army accredited Officer Candidate School located in San Luis Obispo, California. In 1991 I was participating as a selected candidate. The mostly quill-applied India inks were used on paper usually intended for printing certificates and which creates a bit of a "Parchment" effect.

The Commandant, who was a Colonel in the California Army National Guard, Colonel Steve Keneally, commissioned this certificate of award, from me, on the toe of the command staff's boot. Payment was afforded with an extra dose of punishment exercises because they said I drew too slow and farmed out the calligraphy to my grandmother, a trained life-long calligrapher and artist, to improve the "Authenticity" and the "Affect" of "Ceremony." COL Keneally also said he was mad because he thought the California State Brown Bear looked too much like him, personally!

Army officer candidate school training cadre are called TAC Officers, with the TAC standing for Teach, Advise, and Counsel.

When any training platoon of officer candidates failed a training mission or screwed up in training sufficiently, they were awakened at 0230 in the morning and called for Muster in their underwear. They (We) were then were afforded the opportunity to atone for their (Our) sins and misdeeds in a dirt pit where they (We) sweated out a series of high speed and thoroughly dirty-izing punishment calisthenics routines until muscle failure and near dehydration was achieved.

During graduation, these extra certificates became a new, framed, standard of award. When I moved out of California in 2001, I lost track of my old classmates and our command staff.