A tribute to those who experienced “the Nam” first hand and brought their experiences home.
This self-portrait is from a photograph taken in the Cascade Mountains approximately ten years after Jack Sours returned from Vietnam — after going to college, getting married, having kids, and getting divorced. In some ways he never really left those mountains and remained tortured all this life, and that’s what brought him to paint his impressions of the Vietnam War starting in 2013.
Jack’s children recorded an audio description, including their father’s thoughts about this painting as well as their impressions of their father during this time. Click here to listen to the audio description.
Artist’s Statement
I have been asked to write a statement about my Vietnam series. The truth is that the intent of it all and result of it on my psyche has evolved since the day I began painting.
My Vietnam experience resides in my memory and as all memories do mine evolve. Because of that my truth is not likely consistent with any other and I would not impose it on any other. When I was in Vietnam in 1968-69 my beliefs and the actions I took were very different than the beliefs I hold and the actions I take today. There was opportunity for death or serious injury all around us. At times it was more intense than at other times. We had been indoctrinated, taught to fear and to think of our enemy as less than human or, at least less human than ourselves. Our ethos was to kill, capture or destroy, body count was the order of the day. The more blooded a man was the more he was held in esteem. Previously held morals were not adhered to. In our jungle area of operation the rule was shoot first, to do less was to give up an edge. Without going into the sordid details I have come to know that serious sins were committed in thought, word, and action. Those sins have burdened me since that time and although I have made valiant efforts to justify those sins I have not been able to shed the burden. My Vietnam series was intended as an attempt to understand the circumstances in which I found myself and the burden which it imposed.
When I returned to “the world” from “the Nam” I told stories to friends and kin. Those stories were met with disbelief and perhaps contempt. The prevailing ethos of my generation was that the war was immoral, which it was and I knew it better than they. As a results I quit telling stories and unsuccessfully made efforts to distance myself from the experience. My quest for images is based on a need for authenticity, some I found in an effort to express an idea and some found me with a need to be expressed.
Now I find myself in poor health and have no strength to tell such a story or suffer criticism in the telling. If this series is presented it will be my daughter that takes responsibility. My responsibility was the painting. I will title each according to my thoughts as they were painted. I will invite the viewer to dispute any assertion I have made and to believe and think as they see fit.
—Jack Sours (circa November 2018)