Airman's passion for art leaves mark on unit

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Betty R. Chevalier
  • 355th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  Senior Airman Patrick Corcoran, a 755th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron propulsion technician, is a passionate artist who is leaving his mark in the squadron's hangar.

Corcoran has always had an interest for art. He draws and does watercolors, but his favorite medium is airbrushing. Growing up, a neighbor who worked as an auto body painter gave him some guidance.

"One day, he pulled out a truck and it had a checkered flag all the way down the side," Corcoran said. "I asked him about it and he gave me a book on airbrushing and custom automotive painting."

Along with the book, Corcoran's neighbor offered him one piece of advice that really stuck. His neighbor wished he had gone to art school first and then learned how to do auto paint instead of the other way around.

In 2007, Corcoran received a bachelor's degree in fine art from the American Academy of Art in Chicago, and tried for two and half years to make his artwork a career.

"It was hard to live off the money," he said. "One week you might make $2000 and then not get another job for over three weeks."

When his wife became pregnant, priorities changed. Corcoran decided to join the Air Force.

"I joined for stability," Corcoran said. "If I were to get sick, it would be okay. What were to happen if my son got sick? He wouldn't have insurance. I needed to look out for him."

For two years he put his artwork aside to focus on the Air Force mission.

"I knew how to airbrush," he said. "What I needed to focus on was aircraft engines. I needed to be able to study and know what I was doing, and do it well. If I didn't know what I was doing for my job, I would have got kicked out and had to start over again."

Once Corcoran was settled in and comfortable with his knowledge and experience of engines, he made his way back into the world of art.

"No one in the shop knew I drew," he said. "They knew I had a degree, but they didn't know in what. I never drew at work or did anything artistic."

When Corcoran began airbrushing again, he started displaying his work and received a lot of positive feedback. He was even asked to airbrush communication sets for some of his co-workers.

Earlier this year, he talked with his leadership and was approved to airbrush murals in the squadron.

"He is a go-to technician and is very passionate about what he does," said Master Sgt. Donald Gerhart, 755th AMXS section chief. "He stepped up and asked if he could do some artwork in the hangar. His first task was the painting of the squadron patch and next the EC-130H."

The mural of the EC-130H Compass Call took him approximately 36 hours over a six week time span to complete.

"I would work on the pieces whenever I had down time," he said. "Some days I would get two hours in, while other days I would maybe get 20 minutes."

The squadron is working with Corcoran to paint three more murals, however, as much as he loves to airbrush, Corcoran does get burnt out.

"I go through spurts," he said. "I don't just do it two hours here and there. When I'm in it, I'm in it for a couple weeks straight, and then I got to take a step back and relax."