The Artist as Vietnam Veteran

Oils on canvas
20 x 16"
1991

This is a self-portrait. I used for reference a photo taken of me after a particularly wearisome overnight battle where many of my fellow Marines were killed or wounded. I was not wounded. I used my entrenching tool when we were first ambushed to build a little hill of dirt for protection. The Christ figure was from a photo I took at the Catholic chapel at a VA hospital. The sculpture was gray--the skin tones are my own.

What does it say on the parchment? See it here: [link]

What does it mean? I took the NRI out of Christ's parchment on the cross, keeping only the "I". My intention was to show that we Vietnam Veterans were sacrificed by the wrong choices made at that time by our government's intellectual advisors. That we were in effect forced to dig our own graves. I kept the "I" from the original "I" in Latin which is IESVS NAZARENVS REX IVDAEORVM, which translates in English to: "Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews". I did that to emphasize that it was the "I", the self, the individual, that was sacrificed. It's barely visible my name "Tracy" and my service number on the parchment.

There was a draft in those days. I didn't want the government to own my life, so I enlisted in the Marine Corps.

Today's generation of warriors don't have the draft. And so they all volunteer. I salute them. They are very good.

I urge you to write to the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum in Chicago [link] and tell them to show my painting. They have the original, and can show it better than I can with my poor slide of this painting.