The Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center at Middle Tennessee State University hosts a 60-piece art exhibit titled Vietnam: 2 Soldiers, 2 Artists, 2 Journeys Then and Now.
The exhibit’s opening coincided with Veterans Day and MTSU’s 40th Salute to Veterans and Armed Forces football game on Nov. 12, and it remains on display through the end of the fall semester, Dec. 8, in the second-floor lobby of Keathley University Center on the MTSU campus. Viewing is free and open to the public.
The artwork displayed tells the story of two brave soldiers—David Wright and Chuck Creasy, both from Gallatin, Tennessee—who battled their way into the world of art, trading the tools of war for the tools of the trade.
Whether it’s Wright and his historically researched paintings of classic American history or Creasy’s watercolor works of subjects from the jungles of Honduras to the hidden backroads of rural Tennessee, this memorable exhibit features highlights of both artists’ best work.
A partial sampling of watercolor artwork by Chuck Creasy of Gallatin, Tenn. His work and that of David Wright of Gallatin will be on display in the MTSU Keathley University Center second-floor lobby until the end of the semester. (MTSU photo by Chris Rochelle)
The two artists are lifelong friends who both served in Vietnam.
This artwork in the exhibit includes Wright’s sketches and drawings done in Vietnam during his deployment and work from Creasy following a much-anticipated trip back to Vietnam, 50 years older and a lifetime wiser.
The late country music legend Charlie Daniels, whose name is part of the MTSU’s veterans center along with his wife, Hazel Daniels, wrote the forward to Wright and Creasy’s art book Vietnam: 2 Soldiers, 2 Artists, 2 Journeys Then and Now.
The exhibit arrived at MTSU after a showing at the Virginia War Memorial Museum in Richmond and an appearance at the Customs House in Clarksville, Tennessee.
