Echoes from the Past are Always Present

A newspaper article about the unwanted and despised children born to Vietnamese mothers and American soldiers was the inspiration for this mixed-media series. I grounded the images in the “reality” of photo-documented faces and then extrapolated them in an expressionist language. Like the title these works take us from this specific tragedy to the larger reminder that our past sins live on in us and the lives we have touched.

 

Echoes from the Past are Always Present #1, mixed media and collage on paper, 17 x 23 inches, 1980

 
 
 

Abandoned #1, mixed media and collage on paper, 18½ x 24½ inches, 1980, private collection, USA

 
 

Echoes from the Past are Always Present #2, mixed media and collage on paper, 20 x 48 inches, 1980

 

Echoes from the Past are Always Present #3, mixed media and collage on paper, 26 x 48 inches, 1980

 

Echoes from the Past are Always Present #4, mixed media and collage on paper, 26 x 48 inches, 1980

 
 

Echoes from the Past are Always Present #5, mixed media and collage on paper, 25½ x 32 inches, 1980

 
 
 

Echoes from the Past are Always Present #6, mixed media and collage on paper, 37½ x 36 inches, 1980

 
 
 

Abandoned #2, mixed media and collage on paper, 18½ x 24½ inches, 1980, private collection, USA