Healing the Wounds of Vietnam War With Art

For artist Leslie Freeland, the effects of the Vietnam War didn’t fully kick in until long after it ended--in the early ‘80s. But now thoughts of Vietnam and the troubled healing process of those who served in the war are constantly with her. For the curator of a traveling art show of works by more than 60 Vietnam veterans, the issue is hard to forget.

Surrounded by unhung art pieces and crates ready to be unpacked, Freeman took a break from arranging the “Healing the Wounds” exhibit that opens tomorrow at ArtSpace Gallery in Woodland Hills, picked up a phone and discussed her involvement in a show about a war in which she didn’t fight.

“After the war was over, I think those of us who did not serve, or did not have close contact with those who did, had no idea of the war’s aftermath,” she said. “The civilian point of view was, ‘I’m glad that’s over with; let’s get on with our lives.’ Out of ignorance and, I think, weariness, we just didn’t want to deal with it. We didn’t have to deal with it because we weren’t there. Then in the early ‘80s, I met this man, a Vietnam veteran, who still had a lot to deal with.”

His problems forced her to come to terms firsthand with the lingering effects of the war.

“The reasons so many people ignored this stuff have a lot to do with the fact that my generation was very, very young,” Freeland said. “I don’t think we were emotionally equipped to deal with it. We didn’t know how to communicate with each other. It was too horrendous.

“I remember I was 23 years old when a friend who was in the Marines came back. It was 1967 and my life was pretty secure. He came to my house wearing his uniform and I asked him something superficial like, ‘So, what do you do over there?’ I never did find out. We just made small talk, and then I said, ‘Hey, why don’t we go to the beach?’ That’s where you’re at when you’re that age.”

Several years later, when she was in a relationship with a Vietnam veteran, Freeland didn’t brush off the deep-rooted traumas of the war with small talk. She couldn’t. Instead, she tried to figure out a way to speed the healing process.

“As an artist, I know the healing power of art,” she said. “I had a hunch that there would be a lot of work out there that dealt with the issues a lot of veterans tried to cope with.”

Freeland, who lives in Cambria, went to the Vietnam Vet Center in Santa Barbara with the idea of organizing an art show of veterans’ work. “The director there was instrumental in helping me contact veterans,” she said. Announcements were sent, ads were placed, and, mostly through word of mouth, Freeland was inundated with art. Two years ago, she mounted the first exhibit in a 20-by-20-foot classroom in San Luis Obispo.

Since then, Freeland has taken the growing show to private galleries, colleges and veteran centers all over the state. She estimates that at least 12,000 people have seen it.

“The artists come from all over California--from Humboldt to San Diego and everyplace in between,” Freeland said. “I wasn’t just looking for artists who felt that the war was a mistake. This isn’t a show about the political rightness or wrongness of the war. All points of view have been honored. It’s not nonpolitical--it couldn’t be. It’s more apolitical. I think if there’s a message it’s: ‘If you want to know what it was like to be in Vietnam, here are several individuals who were there’ and their artwork shows what they think. ‘Get out of it what you can.’

“But if I had to name one theme, it would be the theme of loss: of innocence, of life, of personal identity, a loss of values. The show is very thoughtful, but I don’t see it as depressing. A lot of humor comes through in ironic sense. And there are pieces that are very hopeful.”

More than 100 artworks, including poetry displayed alongside paintings, will be on exhibit at the show. At a reception tomorrow evening, a nine-minute film of music and visual images along with another artist’s multimedia presentation can be seen.

“This isn’t like AIDS or the homeless--it isn’t this year’s hot issue. But it is still a national issue,” Freeland said. “It’s more important than people realize. And this exhibit is one really healthy way of dealing with it.”

“Healing the Wounds” opens tomorrow at ArtSpace Gallery, 21800 Oxnard Blvd., Woodland Hills, and runs through Dec. 15. Gallery hours are noon to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. A reception attended by several of the exhibit’s artists will be tomorrow night from 7 to 9 at the gallery. For information, call (818) 716-2786.