Vietnam
Series
by Joan Tumpson
|
|
In
September of 2001, I went to Vietnam. I hoped to find an impossible
answer to persisting questions: What was war? Why did men make
it? Also, I wanted to make amends in some still not very well
understood way to the Vietnamese and to our soldiers who fought,
suffered injuries and died there. I found neither answers nor
forgiveness from those who fought there. No one was much interested
in too little too late. The Vietnamese were busy building and
growing; rice fields and intense green growth covered most of
the bases and battlefields: life went on. At the war museum, there
was a small industry selling (what I hope were) copies of US dog
tags and engraved zippo lighters. I bought one. The works inside
are new, but the copy has been aged and looks real outside. It
has a captain's bars and says:
Saigon
68 - 69
WE CAME BECAUSE
WE BELIEVE
WE LEAVE BECAUSE
WE ARE DISALLUSIONED.*
WE COME BACK BECAUSE
WE ARE LOST
WE DIE BECAUSE
WE ARE COMMITTED
*That's
the spelling on the lighter. . .
When
the Twin Towers collapsed, I was asleep in a hotel in Dak To
(we were 12 hours ahead of US time). The next morning was hard
to assimilate; there were more questions, no answers and despite
the surprising kindness of the Vietnamese, I just wanted to
go home. There were no flights. It was unclear when international
flights would be allowed in US airspace. I tried to focus on
what was green and alive, the unrelenting force and intensity
of growth, the songs of birds and the silence between birdcalls,
to avoid panic. When I got back, I started painting-- and am
still painting-- this series. They started more green and hopeful.
With the war in Iraq, things seem darker.
The
painting dedicated to Sidney L. Tumpson is a meditation on my
Dad who died in 1999. He was a bombardier-navigator on a B-17
in the 8th Airforce during the Second World War. He never spoke
of his war experiences. Now this begins to make sense.
The
flag has names of some of the campaigns and battles in Vietnam
and in the first Iraq war written in the red and white stripes,
while the stars began to escape and fly like my songbirds.
|
|
|
|
War
Fruit 1
Pastel on Paper, 12 1/2"
h x 15 3/4" w
|
|
War
Fruit 2
Pastel and mixed media on paper, 10" h x12 1/8"
w
|
|
Dak
To
pastel on paper, 27 1/2"h x 39"w
|
|
Homage
to Sidney L. Tumpson
pastel
on paper, 27 1/2"h x 39"w
|
|
Operation
Nevada Eagle
pastel
on paper, 27 1/2"h x 27 1/2"w
|
|
Cam
Rahn Bay
pastel on paper, 27 1/2"h x 27
1/2"w |
|
Operation
Rolling Thunder
pastel on paper, 27 1/2"h x 39"w
|
|
Flag
pastel
on paper, 27 1/2"h x 39"w |
|
Operation
Attleboro
oil on canvas, 30"h x 40"w |
|
A Shau
Valley
oil
on canvas, 36"h x 72"w diptych |
|
Tet
Offensive (Hue)
oil
on canvas, 30"h x 40"w |
|
La
Drang Valley
oil on canvas, 30"h x 40"w |
|
Bird/Not
Bird
oil on canvas, 30"h x 40"w |
|
Preliminary
Study VN #1
mixed media, 9"h x 12"w |
|
Preliminary
Study VN #2
mixed
media, 9"h x 12"w |
|
Study
No. 1
mixed media, 14"h x 18"w |
|
Study
No. 2
mixed media, 14"h x 18"w
|
|
Study
No. 3
mixed
media, 14"h x 18"w |
|
Operation
Bolo
mixed media, 20"h x 24"w |
|
VN
Series/White Poppies 1
pastel
on paper, 27 1/2"h x 27 1/2"w
|
|
VN
Series/White Poppies 2
pastel
on paper, 27 1/2"h x 27 1/2"w
|
|
VN
Series - Leaf Study (gold)
mixed media, 30"h x 50"w |
|
Floating
World No. 1
18" h x 24" w, watercolor on paper
|
|
Floating
World No. 2
18" h x 24" w, watercolor on paper
|
|
Floating
World No. 3
18" h x 24" w, watercolor on paper
|
|
|
|
|