The Veteran is a portrait of a homeless man I interviewed as part of the Homeless exhibition. This bust captures a man whose only request was for basic respect; he asked not to be looked down upon, reminding me that throughout his hardship, he had never stolen from or hurt anyone.

In a deliberate subversion of classical tradition, his likeness is carved in marble, a material usually reserved for the "great" figures of history. While the bust itself follows the tradition of ancient Roman Caesars, it does not sit on a grand pedestal. Instead, it rests on a base of marble carved to look like a discarded cardboard box.

This work explores the contrast between the "heroic" bust and the "invisible" citizen. By placing a veteran—a person who served his country—in the same aesthetic space as a Caesar, the sculpture asks why we immortalize the powerful in stone while allowing the vulnerable to be treated as disposable.