VET’S ART MIXES MEMORY WITH DESIRE VIETNAM LIVES ON FOR GOLDEN WEST’S GALLERY DIRECTOR

In the cool, white-walled Fine Arts Gallery of Golden West College in Huntington Beach, the horror of war seems unthinkable.

But the Vietnam War is very definitely a pattern now in the gallery, especially since the appointment this summer of Don McKinney as the exhibit hall’s new director.

Tall and prematurely graying, McKinney, 35, is a Vietnam vet.

He brings to his job, and to his outlook on life and art, a war veteran’s perspective.

Moreover, one of McKinney’s works--which will go on view along with other faculty artworks at the gallery Tuesday 3 through Sept. 17--is heavily laden with symbols of war in a far-off land.

Like many Vietnam veterans, McKinney doesn’t volunteer discussion about his war service. But during a recent interview, as he was readying one of his artworks for display, he acknowledged that the Vietnam War has become deeply etched into his artistic expression.

The piece McKinney is displaying in the faculty art exhibit is, like many of his other works, an acrylic painted on masonite and radically designed wooden “frames.” The artwork is bright, but full of threatening objects, such as barbs, sticks, ropes and metal fences.

“The painting is untitled,” said McKinney. “Actually, it symbolizes barriers, such as ones I saw in Vietnam. There are pungee sticks and barbed wire. Things that create anxiety. Other kinds of barriers (shown in the painting) are ones I saw in the Eastern inner cities, where I was studying.”

McKinney’s plans for the community college’s fine arts gallery include increasing the number of exhibits from six last year to 11 in 1985. The forthcoming faculty exhibition is the first for this academic year. All showings are open to the public.

For the past two years, McKinney has been an art instructor at the community college. By being at Golden West College, said McKinney, he is completing the loop of his educational circle. “I began college here at Golden West--studying fine arts,” he said. “This is where I started when I got out of the Army and came back from Vietnam in 1970.”

Vietnam, he said, is where he acquired an interest in art--and a determination to make it his career. “It was a cultural experience,” he said. “I learned from Vietnam. Also, there were many people in my field (of military work) who had advanced degrees in fine arts.”

McKinney’s “field” in Vietnam was in analyzing aerial photographs of combat areas, trying to locate hidden Viet Cong troops and supplies, among other things. He said he could talk about his work only in general terms “because I’m not sure how much is still classified.”

McKinney enlisted in 1968, fresh out of Wilson High School in Long Beach. His reason for volunteering, he said, with a grin, was “I was onthe verge of being drafted.” His enlistment entailed a commitment of three years, the last two of which were spent in Vietnam.

“I was too young then to have had much political thoughts about the war,” he said. “Those, for me, came later.”

And what are his thoughts now--17 years later?

“I don’t have time to think about it, quite frankly, and it’s not something I did psychologically to myself,” he said. “I did a lot of pondering about the whole Vietnam experience. I was taken back by a lot of things that happened, but I didn’t go through a lot of problems that many Vietnam vets are going through, although I sympathize with them. Still, I haven’t experienced that.

“Looking back on Vietnam, I see it as an unfortunate experience, in terms of our nation. Politically, it was a disaster. And emotionally, for the people involved, it was a disaster. But I hope it was a valuable history lesson: that’s the only way I can really, with all dignity, look at that experience.”

Born in Chicago, McKinney moved to Southern California when he was a toddler. “I grew up in Long Beach and Huntington Beach; I consider myself a native of this area,” he said. He now lives in Huntington Beach.

McKinney received his master’s degree in fine arts from the School of Art at Ohio University.

Last year, McKinney received a first-place award in painting at the 30th annual exhibition of the San Diego Art Institute. In 1982, he received the Pasadena Society of Artists award in the National Aquamedia Exhibition in Glendale.

He has also won best-of-show awards at the Butler Institute of Art, Youngstown, Ohio; the annual exhibition of contemporary American painting in Palm Beach, Fla., and the Ohio State Fair Fine Arts Exhibit in Columbus.

But it was not the halls of ivy so much as the war-torn fields of Vietnam that have deeply influenced much of his style and message.

A Golden West College colleague was in the gallery recently as McKinney was hanging his Vietnam-reminiscent “barriers” work on one of the walls. She studied it, visibly shivered and recoiled. “I can’t look at it very long,” she said.

McKinney, perhaps reflecting as a veteran, responded: “It’s not meant to be easy.”