AO Legacy Museum

Agent Orange Legacy
Children of Vietnam Veterans

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AO Legacy Museum

Agent Orange Legacy is looking for original work created by victims of agent orange.

We will accept any body of work that expresses feelings, symbolizes certain emotions, and that show something that would be impossible to express otherwise.
Creativity is something that can not be explained. We don't understand it but we can not resist it. It can also be a consequence of having suffered & survived a traumatic event or series of events. Art promotes healing, whether you create it or admire it, no doubt about it.

Contact Agent Orange Legacy by email
EMAIL

Featured Artists
Heather Bowser
Megan Wommack
We will be adding contact information for those interested in their work.

PAINTINGS

'self portrait'
'self portrait' painted by Heather Bowser

GRIEF...."In this painting grief for my exposure to AO and how it consumed me and made me different." Heather Bowser

'self portriat' is a self-portrait of the artist, Heather Bowser.

Heather is the child of an American Vietnam veteran & agent orange victim.

"I just finished the painting in the background. This was very in the moment for me."

The artist (Heather) feels vulnerable, shame, spent, and deep sadness. Grief, very deep grief.

Another painting by Heather Bowser
Child of an
American
Vietnam Veteran

'THE ELEVENTH HOUR'
'The Eleventh Hour' painted by Heather Bowser

"This vet who is dying of cancer is the same soldier you see walking through the jungle in the first painting." Heather Bowser
'The Eleventh Hour' depicts the lonely, senseless loss of Vietnam vets who proudly served their country.

Heather painted this 5 years before she lost her father to agent orange at the age of 50.

"My father

gave
everything...

I miss him."

Heather Bowser

DOLLCRAFT

'Queen Many Scars'
'Queen Many Scars' is a dollie designed & sewn by Megan Wommack

'Queen Many Scars' represents the many mournful aspects of this disease...
"but my heart? my throne? it has wings, no mistake."
megan wommack

"i'm sewn together, mended, worn...my seems are fraying"...megan wommack
'Queen Many Scars'
is a self-portrait of the artist Megan Wommack.

Megan suffers from Multiple Sclerosis & hypertension. Megan is the child of an American Vietnam veteran & agent orange victim.

Sculpted from 'paper clay'..bright red flip-flops, ridiculous--shoes being one of the most mournful aspects, for me, of this disease.

'Many's throne is what i envision as the ideal in the wheelchair department...wings instead of wheels!!

The twiggy sprays are nerves, the tattered skirt symbolic of living life on bad days from the inside out, the inability to hide, from friends, family, strangers...a failing body.

PAINTINGS

'THE WARRIOR'

'The Warrior' painted by our
Founder, Sharon L. Perry

Sharon said "this painting captures the insanity of PTSD."

The warrior,
strangely enough, looks like my husband. It kind of took on a life of it's own.

"His pain was
our pain; we all suffered."

"Our lives became uncertain; volatile
just as 'the warrior'
in this painting."
Sharon L. Perry

SELF PORTRAIT

Self portrait of Founder
Sharon L. Perry

Sharon painted this picture of herself after her husband died due to exposure to agent orange & his service in Vietnam.

"I painted my layers of pain, suffering, heart-break, hardship endured over the years. Living with the aftermath of the Vietnam war, ptsd, agent orange & caring for a sick child afflicted with mysterious symptoms that were extremely debilitating, was torture for us all." Sharon L. Perry

POETRY

Danielle Perry is the daughter of Sharon L. Perry & co-founder of Agent Orange Legacy.

Danielle is a Board Member, daughter of a Vietnam veteran. She lost her dad to agent orange in 2005.

Danielle has been sick all of her life with debilitating illnesses. She has a daughter, Carole.

'MISSING'

Lost but not found

forgotten yet never remembered

I will not be broken

said the soul as it shivered.

By Danielle Perry
copyright 2008

Another poem by Danielle Perry
Poem by
Sherri Wise

FLASHBACKS
I see that faraway thousand mile stare in your eyes
the intensity
the craziness
that lies within
I want to run
I want to hide
I'm scared for my life
in the blink of an eye
the person I know is gone
filled with rage
you scream
you cry
you get angry
and at the moment I don't know why
I don't understand
I cannot comprehend
the tormented hell that you have been in
for I am only a child
"WHERE ARE MY GUNS!!" you scream
you cannot find them
I try not to blink an eye
so you will not suspect
I took them
to protect us all
to save your life
the relentless search continues
then you realize
I took them
you turn to me filled with this rage
that is now directed at me
the interrogation begins
to no avail
I will not give in
you've not broken me
I am already broken
I shut down
terrified
I want to cry
at moments I wish I would die
I can not endure another moment
in this hell
this horror that I was born into
this is my existence
this is my hell
By Danielle Perry
copyright 2008

AGENT ORANGE
is an original poem by Sherri Wise. Sherri is the child of an American Vietnam Veteran. An agent orange victim, Sherri also is a board member.

AGENT ORANGE

Intense in it's journey throughout the weakened body it travels.

Radiating through the being causing thought to slowly unravel.

No relief can be found from it's constant persistence.

There is no cure not even the body's natural resistence.

The source internal, disturbing body and mind.

The answer lost somewhere that we have yet to find.

By Sherri Wise
copyright 2009

Poem by Kelly L. Derricks

Coming Soon....

Digital
Poetry

Kelly L. Derricks is the child of a Vietnam veteran.

Kelly lost her father to agent orange when she was only 7 years old.

Kelly suffers from Crohn's disease and is in the fourth (4th) stage of renal failure (there are only 5 stages).

Kelly has been discouraged from applying for a kidney transplant because of crohn's disease

This is just a sample of the work that
'The Museum' will have to offer.

We are currently creating the online museum.
Check back for more information & a link to our new museum..