SECOND & COMMERCE: These artworks strike a different tone than most other art exhibits related to the Vietnam War. How did this show come together for you two?
From helicopters and hand grenades to watercolors and canvases, two Tennessee artists and veterans have come together for a one-of-a-kind show highlighting their visual interpretations of Vietnam. David Wright’s sketches and photographs from his tour in 1965 combine with Chuck Creasy’s modern watercolors for the exhibit Vietnam: 2 Soldiers, 2 Artists, 2 Journeys Then & Now.
CHUCK CREASY: We never talked about Vietnam. We both knew we were there, just didn’t discuss it. When I came back, and I know a lot of Vietnam vets feel the same way... it was like I was coming back to the world. That was a different thing over there, I was leaving it all behind. But I always wanted to go back, I talked about that for years. So, when I turned 70 in 2018, my daughter and youngest son said “Dad, we’re taking you back to Vietnam for your birthday.” DAVID WRIGHT: When Chuck and I started talking about this show... it wasn’t the anguish of war that we wanted to project. A big part of it is the people. That's what the exhibit primarily shows, not the combat. I did drawings all throughout my year there, and some more when I came back based on photographs I had taken. That’s what I related to – the people I served with, the people that I knew and met... some we lost. I’ve been to several Vietnam art shows since the 80s, and as I recall, most of them are of anguish and pain. War is not the good side of anything, of course, but hopefully our show projects a different aspect of what we experienced. The impact of the paintings Chuck has done... I don’t know if 'healing' is the right word or not. To go back to somewhere where you experienced so much pain and anguish 50 years earlier, to see what it has become today, to portray that in full color. CC: Like David, I’ve seen a lot of Vietnam shows that were strictly combat-oriented. I saw enough of that in real life, I didn’t need to see that in one dimension on paper. The difference in our show is that the underlying tone of it, I think, is uplifting. It's what happened to a country that was torn completely apart, and had been for years. When I was there, I was out in the bush with an infantry company... it was not pleasant. But underlying what I felt was the beauty of that country and the strength and tenacity of
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