Lorenzo Ghiglieri

Born 25 November 1931 in Los Angeles, California, as the second son of a stone carver/marble cutter and artist/musician, Lorenzo E. Ghiglieri graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in 1949. He attended the Los Angeles Technical Institute and the Frank Wiggins Photographic Trade School on scholarship before serving in the military. Too tall for the U.S. Marine Corps, Lorenzo Ghiglieri enlisted in the U.S. Navy when the Korean War broke out. Recruit Ghiglieri completed Boot Camp in San Diego before assignment to the WWII-era USS Lowry (DD-770) as an Ordinary Seaman. While the vessel was in the Norfolk Naval Yard drydock for overhaul after its recommissioning, Seaman Ghiglieri attended Gunnery School at nearby Dam Neck, Virginia.1

Slated for duty with the Pacific Fleet serving off Korea, the Lowry began training exercises in the Caribbean in August 1951 from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Seaman Ghiglieri proved to be a crack marksman with the .50 caliber machinegun and was assigned as gunner, starboard bridge station, next to twin 20 mm anti-aircraft cannon. During the Caribbean cruise Ghiglieri won the ship’s logo contest with his sketch of a tiger “jaw-locked” on a torpedo. Lieutenant Commander Arthur C. Jackson, agreed with his chief petty officer that Seaman Ghiglieri’s talent could be put to better use as a combat illustrator rather than as a U.S. Navy machine gunner off Korea.”2

Assigned to the Command Center, Atlantic Fleet in Norfolk, Seaman Ghiglieri “drew all the time” from a painting of Vice President Richard M. Nixon presented “to the next President of the United States” to designing the flag for SACLANT (Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic) and the U.S. Navy gift to Queen Elizabeth II at her coronation (a painting of the heavy cruiser, USS Baltimore). During his two and half years of service with Atlantic Command as a staff illustrator and naval painter, the young seaman attended art classes at The College of William & Mary, and was sent to Project Transition at the U.S. Naval School of Architecture & Design in Oxnard, CA.3

After his wartime service in the Navy, twenty-two year old Lorenzo Ghiglieri started as a commercial illustrator for an international advertising agency. For twenty years commercial art dominated his life. “Working for Revell, the largest replica plastic model company in America, was a pleasure because they capitalized on my naval illustration experience. I’d served aboard a destroyer and was familiar with sea conditions. I could give ‘life’ to my ship paintings,” said Ghiglieri. “I did so many Sunkist citrus fruit ads, it’s a wonder I can still eat oranges. Then, at lunch one day, when I admitted being bored with illustration, a friend suggested that I try sculpture. He told me, ‘You have a great eye and good imagination.’”4

That encouragement prompted Lorenzo Ghiglieri to expand his artistic talent to the three-dimensional realm. Formal training was followed by long periods in the Alaskan wilderness to immerse himself in the land, observing and documenting wild animals in natural surroundings to produce paintings and sculptures that exuded life and realism. Presentations of art as commercial enterprise evolved into personal passions to inspire and evoke pleasure and appreciation for the strengths demonstrated everyday in nature.5

Today, the wildlife artwork of Lorenzo Ghiglieri graces the White House, the Vatican, the Kremlin, and Spain’s Royal Palace in Madrid as well as the homes of Luciano Pavarotti, Tiger Woods, and General Norman Schwartzkopf. It was a Veteran and Artist, but most importantly, an American Patriot, who sculpted the “Rising Eagle” that serves as guardian of the USASOC Memorial Wall which honors Our Fallen Special Operations Soldiers at Fort Bragg, NC. Thank you, Lorenzo E. Ghiglieri, for generously sharing your great talent with the U.S. Army Special Operations soldiers, families, and community.