after the party
is the after party
endless columns
l.o.s.s.
battlefield
gail
supine dome
drowning, same as you
paintings of posters
toga party
disaster ball
sweet jesus saves
precious and few
snail
war between the states
thank you blanket
key to death
and how
Endless Columns (2008)
A couple of temporary monuments to the casualties of war
Endless Column, 2007, cups, house and craft paints, telescoping extension pole
We Will Bury You (Hollow Monument) 2007, plastic bottles, string, wire polyurethane foam, PVC, bamboo, house and craft paints
New Era, 2007, Essay by Gail James Yoakum; originally published January 28, 1973 and again June 17, 2007 with Gail's obituary.
In 2007, when my aunt died, the newspaper republished an editorial she wrote when the Paris Peace Accords were signed. Seven months after her husband was killed in Vietnam Gail wrote about how she viewed the end of the war: it's responsibilities, the relationship between the personal and shared loss, private and political sacrifice. This text was invaluable in my mourning, and I made a several paintings of excerpts from the text. Eventually I found the orginal version at the library and made these cards to be given out at as part of my MFA exhibition.
The full text, and more information about Gail is available at: http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/lifestories/187949