Jim Pollock Question and Answer Main Page
JIM POLLOCK INTERVIEW (copyright) Jim Pollock
5/11/99
Interview questions Student (Junior), Mount Olive HS, Mount Olive, Illinois, project/paper for History II class
Questions revolve around the subjects of Vietnam Combat Art experience, Army Art Collection location, other related questions.
Q: WHAT IS LIFE LIKE FOR YOU TODAY? (I.E. WORK? FAMILY?HOBBIES?)
POLLOCK: Life has been pretty good to me. After my duty as an army soldier artist I returned to South Dakota. The Associated press distributed a story that SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION did about my experiences in Vietnam. The article was widely published in South Dakota newspapers. After a brief trip to Mexico and California the manager of a magazine and book publishing firm (NORTH PLAINS PRESS) that had read the newspaper article contacted me and offered me a job using my artist skills. I went to work for that firm for several years as staff artist. Following this job, I tried working as a free lance photographer. I did this for less than a year and it really didn't work out very well financially. Eventually I took another job as an artist with the STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA. I worked at this job for several years. During this period I developed a line of reproductions of some of my art which I marketed through direct mail and to tourist areas in South Dakota. This worked out better than the my stint as a photographer. I quit my job for the STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA and applied my efforts to selling my prints and doing other free lance art work related to the publications. Currently I continue working for myself as a free lance artist and I have grown with the times, I use modern computer based equipment for most of the jobs I now do.
For hobbies I like to read, spend a lot of time exercising. I swim 3 days a week, run on a treadmill 2 days and shoot basket (basketball) as warm up and cool down for my swimming and treadmill exercises. I also enjoy the outdoors. I like to collect things, my wife says I have too much '"'junk'"' around. I probably do, but I have a hard time throwing anything away. What other people view as '"'junk'"' I think is a piece of history.
Q: IN WHAT WAYS IF ANY DO YOU THINK YOUR EXPERIENCES AS A COMBAT ARTIST STRENGTHENED AND/OR WEAKENED YOU AS AN ARTIST?
POLLOCK: Most definitely it has helped me. As a soldier artist I was in my early 20's, twenty-two or twenty-three. Very young in the world of art and I had not defined myself as an artist. This Vietnam experience, in addition to allowing me to contribute something to history, gave me confidence to continue with my art career.
When I was discharged from my duties as a Vietnam Combat Artist, all of the work I did as a soldier belonged to the U.S. Army and is included in the U.S. Army's Center of Military History art collection in Washington, D.C. It is true the subject matter of my art since my days as a soldier have nothing to do with war. There was no conscious effort on my part to forget events in Vietnam, I did my job as a soldier artist and when I left the service I turned to other things, but the experience as a soldier artist was a definite catalyst and influence on my life.
Q: DO YOU STILL KEEP IN TOUCH WITH THE FORMER MEMBERS OF YOUR TEAM?
POLLOCK: Yes, I keep in touch with some of the members of our team. Sam Alexander was a very close friend and we have kept in touch over the years. has visited me and I have visited him. He currently lives in Tennessee. Usually I get and receive a Christmas card from Burdell Moody. Burdell taught art in at Phoenix high school for many years. Am not sure what he is doing now. Ron Wilson I have had contact with, but not recently. Last I heard from Ron he was working as a commercial artist in California. Dan Lopez I have never been able to locate. With my web site and the wonders of the internet I have made contact with several members of other teams. This has been sort of hobby of mine trying to track down other artists that served in a similar manner as I did. I have tracked down most of the names of the artists from other teams, but finding where they currently live and what they are doing is more difficult.
Q: DO YOU FEEL THAT THE ROLE YOU (AND OTHERS LIKE YOURSELF) PLAYED IN THE WAR WAS MUCH EASIER OR MORE DIFFICULT THEN THAT OF OTHER SOLDIERS?
POLLOCK: Being in Vietnam and away from home was difficult no matter what your duties were. As I saw my job as a soldier artist, it was to interpret what I experienced through my art. We did a lot of traveling and visited all types of units. Normally while visiting a unit we would stay from 1-4 days and do whatever they were doing. If they were tramping through rice paddies and jungle, that is what we did. I have estimated that we had visited 52 units and traveled 3600 mile. That is a lot of traveling in a small country like Vietnam. My intent was to leave an account, through my art, of my experience as honestly as I could. I cannot speak for other artists, but I had no social agenda and the military did not interfere in any way with how the artists chosen fulfilled their jobs. The Vietnam War was basically a guerrilla war, for the most part there were no specific lines and '"'battle fields'"'. One condition common for soldiers to endure in Vietnam was the constant presence of danger no matter where one was located. Soldiers would go days and weeks on patrols with no incidents, but the stress and fear of knowing anything could happen at anytime was always with them. I think you would have to say the art teams had it easier in that we could leave a situation anytime we wished. The time we would actually spend in Vietnam was also limited by the nature of the Vietnam Combat Art Program. As one art team would finish and rotate out of Vietnam, another would come in. Normally, most soldiers in Vietnam would spend a minimum of a one year tour of duty in country. I think all of the members of my team were stationed in Vietnam before they were selected to be soldier artist except me. I was stationed in Korea and after serving my tour as an artist in Vietnam I rotated back to Korea.
Q: IF YOU HAD IT TO DO ALL OVER AGAIN WOULD YOU DO IT?
POLLOCK: Yes, although sometimes when I look back I consider myself very fortunate that nothing happened to me.
Q: IF A SITUATION AROSE AND THIS TYPE OF PROGRAM WAS REINSTATED WOULD YOU ENCOURAGE SOLDIERS TO ATTEMPT TO GET INTO IT? WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO SOMEONE WHO IN THIS SITUATION WAS ACCEPTED INTO IT?
POLLOCK: I would not advise anyone on a matter such as this. This would have to be a personal decision. My motivation for doing this was related to my college days. I graduated from South Dakota State University (SDSU) with an art major in 1965. Another South Dakota State University graduate had been a war artist during WW I. Having studied his work as a war artist and seen many of his originals that are housed at SDSU I immediately grasped the significance of the Vietnam Combat Art Program. I also was inquisitive as to what was going on in Vietnam. The Vietnam Combat Art Program offered the opportunity for me to go to Vietnam as an artist, so I made my application following guidelines outlined in Circular No. 28-30 which was distributed by the U.S. Army Crafts Program in Army Command special Services Office in South Korea. My advice to anyone else would be to portray things honestly and to the best of their ability. In addition to keeping a sketchbook, keep a detailed written journal of the experience.BR>
The army does have a continuing program of soldier artists. I do not know all of the details, but it is run somewhat differently than the Vietnam program.
Q: (FINALLY) WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN THE YEARS TO COME?
POLLOCK: I try to just take one day at a time.
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