FIRST TO FIGHT STUDENT GALLERY ACTIVITIES Every day we take in and analyze an enormous amount of visual information. This kind of looking is automatic and unaccompanied by serious reflection. Artworks ask us to slow down our visual inventory-taking and carefully and thoughtfully consider what we see. Only then do we begin to respond to many visual cues on a deeper level. Examine something closely. Be curious. EXAMINATION AND DELIBERATION ACTIVITY 1 Choose any work that interests you and take a few moments to look at it carefully. Make an inventory list of what you see, if that helps: are there human subjects? Natural objects and/or elements? Does there seem to be something on which the artist is focusing? Now, make a sketch of the work. Remember, a sketch is not a finished artwork or something only an artist can do—sketching is a way of helping our eyes look more carefully at something. It can help bring to light a detail you might have missed or give you a different perspective on a piece, and it helps to create a memory of an image. It doesn’t have to be “good,” or accurate, or painstakingly executed—5 to 10 minutes is the most time it should take. ACTIVITY 2 Consider the following statements from two Vietnam Veterans when looking at the artwork: “Once I was with the company, my reason for being in Vietnam changed. I still cared about the South Vietnamese people, but they seemed very far away. Our immediate problem was the survival of one another: these scruffy-looking characters with eyes that seemed to look through you. The only thing that mattered at all was the ground I was standing on and those standing there with me. It was basic and tribal, a primitive state of mind.” —Ray Blackman, Army, 2d Battalion. “On Operation Prairie we were fighting for a long time with very little sleep, low on ammo and with no food for three days. One marine found a c-rat[ion] can of date pudding while searching for ammo on the dead. He could have eaten it himself—no one knew he had it. But he crawled from foxhole to foxhole, cutting off paper-thin little bits of cake, until everyone he could reach had a few crumbs. The holiest of communions. … I can only think of the days spent in that company as the great privilege of my life.” —Ned Broderick, Marine, 3d Battalion. People who serve in the military and face death together often form a bond with each other few civilians will ever feel or know. Do you feel you are witnessing a display of depth of emotion in the artwork that you yourself have never experienced, such as despair, life-threatening fear, anger, sadness, relief, euphoria? Do you feel you have a better understanding of the Marine’s and soldier’s experience after seeing the artwork? ACTIVITY 3 While you are in the gallery, focus on one or a few artworks that attract your attention and examine them closely. Take note of the piece(s). Why do you suppose this piece grabbed your attention over the other pieces around? What was your immediate/gut reaction to this piece? Can you enjoy and/or appreciate an artwork that evokes a strong, negative feeling, such as anger or disgust? Are you able to relate to the artist’s or subject’s feelings? FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS Focus on the title of the artwork. Is there information in the title that you don’t understand? Why do you think the artist gave the work this title? If you were the artist, what might you have named this piece? Why? EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY A photograph happens very quickly. Sometimes photographers arrange their subjects in a certain way to create a desired effect and sometimes they capture a specific moment. Either way, what we see is a frozen moment in time—one moment in a string of many. ACTIVITY 1 Carefully examine a photograph from the Marine exhibit. Now, imagine and write a short story for this photograph. Can you tell what’s going on in the picture? Take stock of the visual elements of the picture: who are the people in the picture? Where might the moment in the picture be taking place? What are they feeling? If there aren’t any people, only objects, imagine to whom the objects might belong and what purpose they may serve. ACTIVITY 2 Choose another photograph from the Marine exhibit. Why do you think the photographer took this picture? How might the photograph be different if the photographer had waited a few seconds longer? FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS Do you think photographs are more honest or truthful than drawings? In your opinion, are paintings, sculptures, drawings and photography equally adept and suited for expressing emotion or the truth and objectivity? Explain your stance.		TEACHER PACKET CONTENTS United States Marine Corps (USMC) History Useful Terms and Information The Marines in Vietnam: A Timeline Student Gallery Activities Bibliography and Sources