In process: et al # 6

 

Below is the journal for my newest et al painting project. This painting is being created with the help of the Montagnard community in Greensboro, NC.

Sunday, January 9, 2005

"I love the Montagnard people," said the child as he drew the same sentence. I had given him and his Sunday school classmates at the United Montagnard Christian Church the opportunity to draw anything they wanted. "Anything?" they had asked. "Yes, anything." I had responded. With glee they drew Anima characters, alien mother ships, scenes of fighting the Vietnam War-Montagnard soldiers firing on VC, while Helicopters with "US WAR" written on them fired rockets from above. Others drew villages filled with pet birds, pet cows, chickens, and pigs with houses standing on tall legs. Later that afternoon I meet with a youth group of about thirty Montagnards. I think it was supposed to be a high School youth group but it was filled with children from the age 10 to high schoolers intent on flirting with each other, to old, toothless men sitting and smiling. Y Hen Nie (Y denotes Mr.) their leader in the jungle during the years of exile and their social worker and pastor today introduced me to the group and translated into Rade, their native tongue, my explanation of what I wanted to do with them. Before long 30 or more Montagnards were drawing pictures, mostly of life in Vietnam, some of their life in the US. A few young boys drew battle scenes from the War. When I asked them if they had seen these battles, they responded enthusiastically saying, "YES! I was in the Vietnam war!" This from 10 year olds. I laughed in recognition of the power imagination has over shaping memory. While they drew I spent my time video taping , allowing those who wanted to explain their pictures to speak. What emerged in picture after picture was a love for their old life, a love for the environment, the land and the work they did upon it, the animals they tended, the rain, rivers, and waterfalls. Some wrote explanations about their experiences and memories.

" I don't remember much like what our ancestors do but I remember what my grandma and family does. I can't describe it in pictures but I can tell you about it. I love Vietnam because it is so beautiful and no matter if we don't have much money but we work together as a village and also having fun while we work. I go with my parents to the farm, I can't stand the sun so I stand or sit under the shade of the tree to watch my parents. While I watch them I eat and drink. Ants bit me so I decided to go and help. After that we have to cross the bamboo bridge to get home. I'm really afraid to because I thought I might fall in the river. Eventually, we got home and swim in the lakes or take a bath from the well. " -H Jak Nie, Age 15

After an hour of drawing, I was handed picture after picture carefully signed, some with letters and labels. I was bold over at the talent displayed across the entire group. It was an art teachers' dream come true; motivated students without a hint of self deprecation. Y Hen said a prayer to close our time together. "Thank you God for Todd, thank you for bringing a miracle to us." After the prayer I told Y Hen I thought they were the miracle. Back home I have spread out the drawings in my studio to begin the process. I am overwhelmed at each drawing's completeness. Memories of my time with them that sunny afternoon blend with the experiences I have had since 1986 working with this community as a resettlement sponsor. Together these memories well up an unspeakable emotion in me and bring tears to my eyes. I cannot paint yet. How can I do justice to them and their beautiful and tragic story? I look at each work and realize these are like visual memories of a time and place lost while others predict a future. A future of driving themselves to the Mall, of hot-rod cars, or living as gangster-posing young men, complete with baggy pants and tattoos.

I feel as if I am witnessing evidence of a beautiful yet tragic migration. It reminds me of a Montagnard creation story that explains how their people came into being in this world. In the Old World hunters came upon a hole into a new land, a place full of plentiful game, lush forests and fertile fields. They rushed back to tell the others about the hole and together they returned and entered. The beautiful and vain ones stayed behind to primp for the trip and were left behind when the hole closed before they could enter. Besides explaining, in their words "why we have no beautiful women" this creation story reminds me of their current travels. Communist reprisals for their support of the US during the Vietnam War and current persecution for their Christian faith have driven many through a new hole into a new land. Into what kind of future they are entering I am not sure. They have left behind many things; communal living and a closer relationship to nature among the most important.

To put this all on canvas will be tough, but I begin soon to attempt it- because I love the Montagnard people.

As I create this work I am thinking about the effects of the Communist and Western Culture are having on the Montagnards. To me the dark heavy vines represent this pressure. The blue strips are reminding me a water. The vertical lines started out as the legs of their homes, we will see what happens to them.

This painting still has a long way to go.

Thursday, January 20, 2005

From despair to satisfaction in three hours! I've learned that it's darkest just before the dawn; today, after sitting and looking at this work and being unhappy with its progress I finally just began painting. One color led to another, one image told me what to add next. No, I do not hear voices, but I am consumed in an internal dialogue that has as its guide intuition.

It's 2:00 PM and time for coffee. Three hours is enough fun for today. I will go back and work into this piece, refining sections, but like a baby, I see its grown-up face already. I'll explain some of the imagery soon. And post some of the donated doodles from the Montagnards.

Thursday, Februrary 10, 2005

Although I am pleased with the overall composition, I have been painting on this work for the past month to create the rich surface texture and paint modeling that I like in my work. You cannot tell it from this small image but a lot of the surface of this painting was simply a thin wash. This is not very exciting to look at close up. I think a great painting works at any distance; close up, mid-range, and from a distance. Shrinking the image to put it on the internet gives one the perspective of looking at this almost 6 foot tall painting from a distance.

I think this current version is very close to being finished. This weekend I am headed to Cherokee, North Carolina to collect doodles from employees of the Harrah's Casino. These will form the basis for a new painting. I am also waiting for one last doodle/drawing from a soldier in Iraq. I should then be able to start a painting that uses two intertwined families, one Iraqi and the other from the US whose children have served in the Iraq War-working closely together in the Green Zone.

Here is the current state of the Montagnard painting: