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"COMBAT PAPER PROJECT" TURNS UNIFORMS INTO PAPER

-- "We want to help people find a space so they can create. Using

artwork and poetry, we hope people can understand what war

does to people. It's important that we recognize these things."

Breaking Rank by Drew Cameron and Drew Matott, 2007
Pulp printing on Combat Paper

Combat Paper Project website is here...
http://www.combatpaper.org/

Story here... http://www.burlingtonfreep
ress.com/article/20081201/NEWS02/81130009

Story below:

Your comments accepted at bottom of page.

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Project turns uniforms into paper

By Lauren Ober
Free Press Staff Writer

Drew Cameron and Jon Turner spent the past month criss-crossing the country “liberating rag,” and with that rag, scores of soldiers, sailors and Marines.

The men are papermakers by trade and the artists behind the Combat Paper Project. But through the course of their work, they have become counselors and confessors as well, helping servicemen and women come to terms with their time in the military.

The Combat Paper Project, which is based at Green Door Studio in Burlington’s South End, began a year and a half ago when Cameron liberated the rag, or raw material, of his first military uniform.

Cameron, an Iraq War veteran, had had trouble making art about the war since he left the service. At the behest of fellow papermaker Drew Matott, Cameron shredded his uniform and cooked it in a mixture of soda ash and sodium carbonate to make paper.

The rag sat in the mixture before it was put through a beater until the fiber turned to pulp. The pulp was then mixed with water and drained through a screen. Cameron pressed the remaining fibers and dried them to form a sheet of paper that was to become the inspiration for the project.

The impact of creating art from something as symbolic as a military uniform cannot be overstated. It is a way for Cameron and other veterans to make sense out of the war and their tenure of service, while changing physical vestiges of their service into functional works of art.

“It’s a literal as well as psychological release,” said Cameron, who is the director of Green Door Studio. Turner calls the process “lifesaving.”

“We would be lost without this type of outlet. It’s a way to express ourselves,” Turner said.

Once Cameron refined the concept of making paper from military uniforms, he enlisted other veterans to participate. The project has sparked interest nationwide and Cameron and Turner, along with Matott and fellow veteran Eli Wright, have toured the country, giving workshops and lectures and inviting veterans to tell their stories through papermaking.

Since the idea took shape, they have hosted 19 workshops, have had 16 exhibits and their work is now in more than 20 special collections, including collections at the Bavarian State Library in Munich, Princeton University Library and the Library of Congress. More than 60 veterans have taken part in the project.

The psychological effect of the uniform deconstruction is palpable in the veterans, Turner says.

“You can totally see the looks on their faces change. They’re a little nervous or excited, depending on the person,” Turner said. “There are smiles and tears. It’s a pretty intense feeling watching people cope with pain.”

The project serves many functions for its creators. It allows veterans to connect and create a community around art; it promotes dialogue with people who haven’t experienced war and it encourages healing through the creation of art. Participants can channel dormant emotions into the process of making the paper.

Once veterans deconstruct their uniforms and make paper, they can print photos on the paper or turn the paper into journals. Cameron said one veteran plans to write his memoirs from the Iraq War in the journals made from his uniforms.

Both Cameron and Turner believe that Iraq War veterans are not getting the treatment they need for serious issues like post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries, both common in Iraq veterans. In a way, this project fills a gap in care, they say.

“In this war, it’s recognized in society that war is traumatic. PTSD and TBI are recognized as a part of war. It’s recognized that people need healing,” Cameron said. “The response from the military has been superficial at best.”

Soldiers are not encouraged to address their issues, they say.

“Being traumatized is still thought of as a weakness in the military,” Turner said.

In some small way, the act of making art from their uniforms is therapeutic for the veterans. And it’s not just Iraq War vets who are participating. Cameron and crew have worked with veterans of every war since World War II.

Turner, also an Iraq War veteran, has made paper using the uniforms of his brother, father and grandfather as well as his own. He’s in the process of making them into journals to give to the men.

Both Cameron and Turner enlisted in the military right after high school. Both quickly became disillusioned with the military, but fulfilled their obligations. What the military took from them though — their youth, their feeling of safety and security, their sense of normalcy — it has given back in the form of art.

They intend to expand the project so that more veterans have an opportunity to make paper and experience the release that comes with the process.

“We want to help people find a space so they can create,” Turner said. “Using artwork and poetry, we hope people can understand what war does to people. It’s important that we recognize these things.”

Contact Lauren Ober at 660-1868 or lober@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com

Additional Facts
Combat Paper Project

The Combat Paper Project is the creation of Drew Cameron and Jon Turner, Iraq War veterans and artists. The project is based at Green Door Studio in Burlington. To learn more, visit www.combatpaper.org  or go to Green Door Studio at 18 Howard St. or call 316-1124.

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posted by Larry Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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