War Cuts

"For some twenty years after my encounters in Vietnam, I experienced dreams about the war; however, I refrained from speaking openly and publicly of my military service. Since the Vietnam War was so unpopular with so many of the American people, veterans did not reveal their participation in that conflict. When I was returning home from Hawaii through the San Francisco airport in my dress green uniform, some young people approached me and spat upon me in disgust. In their minds I was a 'baby killer' and a 'war monger.' They had no idea who or what I really was or what I stood for. It has now been 40 years since the Vietnam War, and I have found myself ready to make art again about my remembered experiences. This suite of woodcut prints represents the primary substance of these experiences."—Don Schol
The images represented in this suite are based on my personal experiences, while I served in Vietnam as Combat Artist. Some of the images literally depict what I actually witnessed and experienced; however, others symbolize something I felt about a particular experience or collective experiences, events I could not simply and adequately express in a naturalistic (photographic) way. This more expressive approach to creating imagery was characteristic of those artists of the German Expressionist movement and from whom I have inherited my own personal style of imagery, especially through the medium of the woodcut print. Those artists whose work I am particularly attracted to and inspired by, such as Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Max Beckmann, were themselves subjected to the horrors of war during World War I. Consequently, I find a kinship with them and their style of expression.

DON R. SCHOL?received his BA in philosophy at the University of Dallas in 1963 and his MFA in sculpture and drawing at the University of Texas in Austin in June of 1966. That same month he received his draft notice and subsequently enlisted in the Army electing to attend Infantry Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia. Upon being commissioned a second lieutenant in the reserve Army in June of 1967 he initiated his active duty time as a platoon leader in the 2nd Battalion, 41st Infantry, Second Armored Division at Fort Hood, Texas. In August of 1967 he received orders to Viet Nam where he was assigned to the United States Army Viet Nam as an official Army Combat Artist. He returned to the States in the summer of 1968 and served as a company commander at Fort Hood. He was separated from active duty in September of 1969. Currently, Schol is an Emeritus Professor of Art in the College of Visual Arts & Design at the University of North Texas.