On a scale unimaginable to General George Washington when he established the Purple Heart badge in a nearby New York town on August 7, 1782 during the Revolutionary War, Cragsmoor's own Roger Baker, the internationally-acclaimed field artist, has created an 850,000-square foot work of art depicting the modern Purple Heart medal. Baker "mowed" the medal's likeness into an Orange County, New York field to honor the 75th anniversary of the medal that commends service members killed or wounded in action.

Measuring over 1,000 feet long, the field art was unveiled Sunday, August 5 at 11:00 a.m. at the Thomas Bull Memorial Park in Hamptonburgh, New York for public viewing as spectators walked the ground and flew through the air.

According to Baker, the project moved from conception to completion in less than 90 days after a chance meeting with Bill Bacon, membership director of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, who was passing through Ellenville near Baker's studio. A quick series of local meetings with officials of The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor and the Orange County Commission of Parks, Recreation and Conservation resulted in a letter of agreement signed by Edward A. Diana, county executive, on July 26.

Baker immediately transferred his sketchbook design onto the field and with the assistance of county park workers and two longtime volunteers from other field projects, completed the field canvas in less than 10 days. For his template, Baker used a photo of a Purple Heart medal awarded to Art Livesey, a Middletown, New York WWII veteran, a Marine with the 4th Division that landed on the beach of Iwo Jima.

In less than a decade, Baker has produced several large scale field projects. Born and raised in New Jersey and since 1995 a resident of Cragsmoor, New York, he honed his craft as a painter, working in various media in the United States and abroad, before specializing in field art. His field portraits have been featured on CNN and NBC's Today Show and in The New York Times.

Never small, Baker's field art ranges in size from 500,000 to over one million square feet and includes depictions of the Statue of Liberty (2001), Elvis Presley (2002), Albert Einstein (2003), Jimi Hendrix (2004) and the late motorcycle legend, Indian Larry (2005), the last featured in a documentary that premiered at the Shadowland Theatre in Ellenville.

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The New Windsor Cantonment, in what is now Orange County, was the final encampment of the Revolutionary Army. To honor the service of select troops, General George Washington presented a small purple cloth Badge of Merit, the precursor to the Purple Heart medal.

In 1932, the Purple Heart was awarded to 150 veterans of World War I. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor opened in New Windsor in 2006.

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