oil on canvas 30" x 36"

The Vietnam Memorial elicits a myriad of emotional and heartfelt responses from the throngs of friends, relatives, and fellow veterans of war who visit the wall every day of every year.  From the mother who lost her only son, to the wife who had been married but a few months, each visitor comes to grieve, mourn and most importantly, remember the life of a loved one who did not make it through the Vietnam experience. Truly unique is the experience of a little girl who only knows her daddy from the recollections of a mother who has to endure the hardship of losing her most beloved husband.  This is the story told by “Daddy’s Girl”. Two different worlds exist in “Daddy’s Girl”.  One consists of a mother who has tried to pass on to her daughter the strength and outlook that she has developed through the loss that both share.  She has tried to keep alive the spirit of her husband by passing along her memories and experiences to her child.  Her little girl traces onto a piece of paper the name of a man, her father, who she does not know but only knows of.  This world is depicted in a setting of bright sunshine, symbolizing the outlook, optimism, and remembrance which the mother has tried to instill in her child. The reflection in the wall shows a darker, more sinister reality, the reality of war.  A fire burns in the background, sending plumes of black smoke into a red-tinged sky.  A lone soldier reaches out into another time and place.  He longs to offer his reassuring touch to the wife he has left behind, and the daughter he will never know, “Daddy’s Girl”.