Vietnam, Part 1

I have wanted to join Elke ever since I saw her theme at Art Journal Journey.  However, similar to how I didn't understand Jo's challenge from two months ago, I'm not quite sure what Elke means by Landscapes of the Soul.  One of the things that tears at my soul is when I hear about the war in Vietnam.

A couple of my no-name, no-photos-allowed friends brought up the 10 episode Ken Burns film relating to the Vietnam War.  Sadly, I had not seen it, so had trouble joining in the conversation. 

I admit I knew very little about the Vietnam War.   My grandparents (who raised me from birth) didn't allow a tv in our home while I was growing up.  So I missed out on a lot of the news that I'm sure most kids saw and absorbed. 

In my small town, we didn't talk about it, and I don't ever remember anyone going off to war or being drafted.  That doesn't mean it didn't happen.  It just means I wasn't aware of it.  The first time I knew anything about it was when a few of my school friends and I started following the Watergate scandal after it became public.  Before that, I knew nothing about our government.  I don't even remember high school civics or U.S. history teachers talking about politics.

I remember I had so many mixed feelings back then, and I do to this day.  The more I learn about this war, the more ashamed I am to call myself an American.

This is how it all started.  The Vietnamese wanted the French gone, and got the Americans in their place.  The South Vietnamese traded (or were handed) one dictator for another and one persecutor for another.   As an aside, the OSS was the predecessor to the CIA.

Materials used for this side include my handmade shimmering mists, a time line of our first involvement in the war taken from various internet sources, computer generated text, and a picture from a travel magazine.

For side two, I decided to stick with something I knew about.

I admit I knew nothing about the Mekong Delta, but I remember some of my friends saying their older brothers said they couldn't get away from the war when they were in Vietnam.  They said even the songs were about the war.

They also said the most beautiful places they had ever seen were soon turned to rubble.  What was not bombed was burned or cut down with machine guns and hand grenades.   I simply can't imagine growing up in a place like that, where people who looked like me might be my enemy.

I've often said I was born at least a decade too late, because these are the songs I love.  Yes, I am a huge classic rock fan.

For this side, I used more of my shimmering mists and masked off two hearts, but covered one with the focal image.  These are the songs I remember that dealt with the war, or that dealt with our conflicting feelings about the war.  I sewed two computer generated texts to two pieces of shimmering misted card stock.  I hand wrote the sentiments on both sides using a red metallic gellyroll pen.

I will obviously continue making more and more of these spreads for the Asia section of my 7 Continents altered book as I learn more and more about the war.  I also plan to talk to a few people who my no-name friends suggested I speak with in order to learn more about this war that tore my country (the U.S.A.) and Vietnam apart in the 1970s.

Please join me at Art Journal Journey as I try to make art that revolves around Landscapes of the Soul.  And thanks for joining me here today, too.