[0:00] - This is Normandale Lake. [0:02] Normandale Lake is my favorite lake. [0:04] I've had a lifetime of art. [0:06] This is my hallway of memories, [0:08] yes, you might call it, I go by Les Fordahl. [0:11] I've been an artist in sketching [0:13] since I was eight years old. [0:14] The arts document real time [0:16] as you're seeing, as it's happening. [0:19] This was me when I was younger. [0:21] They asked for a volunteer to go to Vietnam. [0:23] They went there as a draftsman, I was sketching to relax. [0:27] The colonel come up and he said, [0:29] they need a fourth man on the combat art team [0:31] on the two 21st combat art division [0:34] to document the history of the war. [0:36] Would you like to be on that team? [0:38] I said, sure, I'd love to do what I love to do. [0:39] There were 46 of us that were documented [0:42] as a legitimate artists documenting the history of the war. [0:46] Part of my history is they called me Last Minute Les. [0:49] In Vietnam there's two weeks [0:50] before the Bob Hope USO show [0:53] was to come to Long Bend in 1970. [0:56] They didn't have any advertising out. [0:57] He said, we need an advertisement for the Bob Hope Show. [1:00] Can you do something? [1:02] We need it today. [1:03] These pictures here are all in the Library [1:05] of Congress archives. [1:07] I left five paintings and sketches with the combat art team [1:11] and apparently they got back [1:12] 'cause the Library of Congress has a record of all of them. [1:15] 15 years later, Paul Cameron wrote a letter [1:20] and said, do you have any sketches? [1:21] They aren't teaching about the Vietnam War. [1:23] So they asked if they could have anything to teach with, [1:27] both art and history. [1:29] So I took the drawings out [1:30] and I went to coffee shops, sitting in my home studio [1:34] and I just started finishing details. [1:36] That's how I ended up in a textbook. [1:38] A self-taught artist, who would know? [1:41] (person laughing) [1:42] We're working on the Bloomington Remembers Veterans. [1:44] Bloomington is one of the only cities [1:46] that doesn't have a memorial for veterans. [1:49] And having been through a war, the sacrifices you make, [1:52] you risk the fact that you may not come home. [1:55] I don't want it forgotten. [1:56] Art therapy is being used for all kinds of PTSD. [2:01] I am one of the more fortunate ones to come back [2:04] physically in whole body. [2:06] I volunteered at the VA Adult Daycare Center [2:09] at 66 in Cedar and for five years I taught crafts [2:14] and arts to veterans who had brain injuries or whatever. [2:19] I spent 38 years walking the mail, enjoyed being outside [2:22] 'cause everything was able to distract me from any PTSD. [2:28] My wife and I dug the hole and built this house. [2:30] We designed it and built it ourselves. [2:32] As an artist, I wanna promote the arts [2:34] and I want students to know there's so many areas [2:36] of the arts you can go into. [2:38] I've had a purpose because of my art [2:40] to help others, to instruct, to educate [2:43] and just relate with people. [2:45] (upbeat music) [2:49] (pencil whirring)