These two painting "Waiting" and "Were not stupid just poor" are part of a series of works I produced in the 60's during the Vietnam War. Australia at the time was very much divided between the pro and anti factions, generally in such situations the arm chair people were all for it ,while the young boys for the most part were against conscription and were burning their draft cards. After all it was their lives they were being asked to forfut. Most did not really know what the war was all about. All most people knew was the horrendous TV images they saw nightly on their screens this was the first TV war.
In theory the war for Vietnamese independence had been settled with the Paris agreement in the early 1950's, Unfortunately fate interfered and the north and south factions distrusted each other. You need to remember the world had very recently emerged from the second world war with it's frighting loss of life, then the Korean War quickly followed. I spent many emotional evenings with a friend who had been an ambulance bearer in Korea, many of his stories were hidious.Most people who gave any thought to such matters realised we all face annihilation through nuclear war. It was with these feelings that I undertook this painting project, I had already lost both father and uncle, plus my grandfather had died shortly after the cessation of hostilities.
Because of all the demonstrations against the war I had great difficulty finding a gallery to exhibit the work for fear of public reaction, not that in hind sight they were all that graphic. Most were based on media picture all ready published in the dailies with modification.
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