The Power of Art to Heal: The War Experience Project
This weekend, from Friday April 15th through Sunday (3:00pm – 8:00pm), The War Experience Project will hold an open house at 906 Broadway in Tacoma. Rick Lawson, an Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran and the founder of The Project, has created an art form using military uniforms to express the experience of veterans while deployed. He is partnered in this endeavor by Valery Tolle, program director for The War Experience Project.
Veterans are encouraged to paint their experiences on a camouflage service uniform. In this way they may be able to deal with challenging memories often difficult to share otherwise. Once the painted uniform is done, it is exhibited with others. The War Experience Project has had exhibitions across the U.S., in British Columbia and London, England.
“The War Experience Project deconstructs the notion of the militarized, mechanized body in war to show us the emotional individual person as the wearer of the uniform,” said Dr. Sarah Maltby, of City University in London, England. “The jacket as something that covers the body is used to reveal the more intimate experience of veterans. The cover is thus used to uncover.”
From the War Experience Project website:
This project was formed out of one veteran’s intense personal struggle attempting to deal with the questions society posed, and their insensitivity and lack of caring for those who have sacrificed much so that the rest of society doesn’t have to know what it means to be in military service. The project is taking negative experiences and emotions and turning them into positive forms of outward expression and an educational experience for society.
For more information on this event, visit this page
Filed under: General
18 comments
R RR Anderson April 14, 2011
think guernica but with predator drones!
B Blue Buckle April 14, 2011
I saw this exhibit a number of months ago… very raw, very real emotions displayed… and there are probably many more pieces now. Go with the intent to be respectful and with enough time to study each piece with the time it deserves. You will be moved.
R RR Anderson April 14, 2011
watched the youtube clip on the site there and got to see some stills of the art… all I can say is if war is hell, then war experience art is art experience hell.
can’t wait to read the Alec Clayton review (online, not in the volcano)
L low bar April 14, 2011
i’m an army vet and with all due respect to others from all branches but the navy and airforce, it was a volunteer army and the mission was not a surprise. suck it up.
R RR Anderson April 14, 2011
hmm. Actually… sucking it up is a bad idea. If this art project helps out America’s Service Personnel keeping plastic bags off the heads of childen down in JBLM (and off the front page of the TNT) then the art project is something we all need to support.
L low bar April 14, 2011
wtf? plastic bags? that person was crazy to begin with. there’s no amount of paint on a pair of bdu/dcu/acu thats going to fix the lives of innocent iraqi’s. put that on your front page. have us vets put together care packages and things to send to the iraqi people. art just doesn’t cut it in this case man. what helps me is sending money every month to doctors without borders. paint? are you serious?
M Mofo from the Hood April 14, 2011
Mr. low bar, thanks for your service to our great nation. As you say, the U.S. Army is an open organization of volunteer soldiers. It is not a secret organization of artists.
V Volcano Boycotting RR Anderson April 14, 2011
bring back the draft… the war effort needs more artists.
L low bar April 14, 2011
draft artists? sounds like you want to go andy. there’s plenty of kbr concrete that need pretty paintings. let’s make it a fancy mission! k, you’re a fucked up vet. here’s what you do, go for a day and talk to a drafted nam soldier or marine. makes your stories not so bad. yeah body parts look the same now as they did then, and losing a buddy leaves you really fucked up, but those drafted guys didn’t know what was waiting for them in the jungle. so you’re a fucked up vet. go to american lake and talk to the nam guys. one marine there said it best when he said vets need to just let it go, chalk it up to something that just happened, like a car accident. its in the past, and projecting the past onto others who were never there is a no go. you can’t hold others to the same standards you were held to. you can’t expect the world to be dress right dress when you get home, because you are sharing the world with people who can’t be expected to live up to those standards. and so, you let it go. thing of the past. done. but if you need to make pretty paintings to feel better, awesome. go for it.
B Brian Peterstone April 15, 2011
Low bar, your comments are in line with someone who may have served due to a draft, which would explain your misunderstanding of modern day vets. Those who volunteer to serve have a very different experience than those who were drafted; not better or worse but possibly even more disallusioned than those who were drafted. Draftees knew it would suck. Volunteers joined up believing the best of their country – - many had that perception utterly smashed and are now dealing with a very differnt type of anger than ‘Nam vets. Please stop minimizing what you don’t understand. What these vets are doing with art or via any other means of expression (getting their stunned feelings of betrayal out of their shocked heads), is exactly what they should be doing. You have your own experience but you clearly don’t know theirs. Show some respect for fellow service memembers who have different issues and different solutions for coping than you.
S SFC Hodges April 15, 2011
@LOWBAR: I was drafted during the Vietnam war, so I know a bit about that. I also served long enough to retire two years ago with the “volunteer” Army (to be more precise, with an Army Guard infantry unit.) I’ve been deployed. Obviously you are speaking from your (bitter?) perspective as a Nam vet maybe? There are PLENTY of them that are effed up as a result of that war…and there are those who are effed up by this war. So until u hump in their combat boots, ur really out of order (and yes, u can spew your negativity. Go for it, that might help u deal w/ your residual anger — part of which I think is jealousy that u/we didn’t get welcomed back to the states like the vets are today.)
This generation is different than yours, just as the WWII vets were (who, btw, had it much more difficult if u consider that, unlike Nam vets or those today, served for THE ENTIRE DURATION OF THE WAR not 1 yr tours! So every generation has had it worst, perhaps, than the preceding one. I’m sure the vets from Valley Forge can tell us a thing or two about what it was like back then (much less counting on getting paid on time, having shoes and enough food to eat among other niceties.)
So, suck it up, Lowbar and try and set a HIGHER bar for yourself. Respect what these vets did, and if I wasn’t so far away in Wash., DC, I’d like to see their War Project myself.
I met a young combat medic in DC @ the Coaltion of Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America who is behind this project. I was impressed by the young man and what he’s done with his situation and am proud of what he’s done with this project. Carry on, Soldier. You’ve done your duty for Country.
Thank you ALL who have served — before and after me. Regardless what others might think, the MAJORITY of us support you…your sacrifice…your service…and welcome you HOME! That includes WWII, Korea, Nam, Desert Storm, Bosnia and other vets that I talk to on a regular basis.
- SFC (Ret) Howard Hodges (Transition Assistance Advisor, Maryland)
V Volcano Boycotting RR Anderson April 15, 2011
Thanks everyone for your service.
Hang in here!L low bar April 15, 2011
i was a combat medic in OEF. i lost friends in afghanistan and don’t give a fuck what any of you think. thanks.
V Volcano Boycotting RR Anderson April 15, 2011
Let it out lowbar… don’t give in to the dark side
E Elizabeth Burris April 15, 2011
Low Bar, Thank you for your service. Hope you can get some help, the Vet Centers are great.
Their number is 253-565-7038.
The vet center virtually saved my life.
Peace,
Liz Gulf War Vet
L low bar April 15, 2011
look if you want to mess around with paint and stuff, great. i signed up combat arms and knew exactly why my hand was up in the air at meps. went to training. went on some missions. no surprises. like mofo says, there’s no secret. if you weren’t ready to do your job as a soldier and deal with what you knew was coming, then you shouldn’t have volunteered. my point is the nam guys i met at american lake didn’t have a choice. i feel worse for them. if you were some pogue who didn’t think they were going to get hit over there, and are now all boohooing about it, thats just too bad. in the army i served we all knew the stakes. we were all prepared and we got the job done. when i boarded the charter in fort campbell i knew why i was carrying a 9mm and an m4 rifle. when they hand you a shotgun down range its not for clay pigeons. its because you are going to make a few house calls. when the first iraqi dies looking at you and you know you were the last person they saw, you feel worse for them. i’m not knocking the pretty paintings. just letting you know the score. and the score is there are people i left behind over there who still don’t have running water and electricity. they still don’t know what happen to family members who disappear. we have it so good in the US. i don’t need help. i live in a fucking pink elephant parade compared to the villages i rolled through. thanks.
V Volcano Boycotting RR Anderson April 15, 2011
low bar does not need to express himself with finger paint. His finger paint is exit 133 comments and they’re awesome.
E Elizabeth Burris April 20, 2011
The whole project was moving.. It was nice to show my work to my husband and son… blessings to Rick and Val