Garcia will present My War, My Art to UT class

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Friendly fire.

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On Tuesday, February 19, Ovidio Garcia, author and Vietnam veteran, will make a presentation about his book My War, My Art and his war experiences to a class at the University of Texas at Austin.

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Thomas G Palaima, Ph.D., Robert M. Armstrong Centennial Professor invited Garcia to come in and discuss his images, words, and experiences and the process of painting and writing his book with students in Palaima’s Plan II Honors Program junior seminar TC 358 Myths of War and Violence.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][trx_quote]How would you talk about, explain, remember or forget violence or killing that you had witnessed, experienced, or done? How did ancient Greek culture and late-19th and 20th-into-21st century British and American cultures deal with the concepts and realities of violence and warfare? How do we now approach the realities of war in an age of email, YouTube and other forms of rapid communication?[/trx_quote][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”1593″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]”I am very honored to have been asked to share my experiences with this class,” Garcia, who did two tours in Vietnam as an airborne infantryman, said.

Upon his return to the States from the war zone, doctors diagnosed Garcia with post-traumatic stress disorder. His mind, however, preserved the images that the stress of incidents in combat inflicted on him. He used his talents as a naive artist to capture many of his experiences. Naive art is a form of visual art produced by a person who does not have the formal training that professional artists acquire through classical education.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]

In the evening of Feb. 19, Garcia will participate in a performance by the Austin Warrior Chorus, a group of veterans who served from pre-Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan and who use stories, songs, poems, physical movements, sounds and artistic creations to communicate their experiences of military service.

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Warrior Chorus is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Aquila Theatre at New York University, the Department of Classics UT Austin, and the Armstrong Centennial Professorship.

See  http://www.warriorchorus.org/partners-1/and  http://lifeandletters.la.utexas.edu/2016/11/the-untold-stories-of-modern-warriors/ and http://lifeandletters.la.utexas.edu/2018/11/beyond-the-battlefield-the-war-rages-on-but-this-time-its-personal/ .

[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]My War, My Art includes twenty-seven pieces of art in either ink or watercolors. A short narrative describing the experience Garcia underwent accompanies each piece of art. They range from the dangerous, as when…[/vc_column_text][vc_text_separator title=”” color=”white” border_width=”10″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”1636″ img_size=”Full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”1636″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]he came face to face with the enemy and his rifle failed;[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”1637″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]the practical such as when his unit spent the night in a tree avoiding giant leeches;[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”1638″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]and the humorous such as a failed attempt to cook chicharrones in their helmet.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row content_placement=”middle”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”1600″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”http://mcmbooks.com/shop/my-war-my-art/”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

Garcia’s book, published by MCM Books is available from mcmbooks.com.

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