News
Page 4
Street Roots • April 3-9,2015
IM A G E CO URTESY O F D R E W C A M E R O N
The fabric of war
Veterans use their military uniforms to create artwork, heal hidden wounds
BY EM ILY GREEN
STAFF WRITER
P HO TO BY JOE GLODE
Above: Ryan
Stroud, who has
worked to train
performers on The
Moth Radio Hour,
is working with
veterans to tell their
stories fo r “Veterans
Voices,” coming to
Portland this
month.
A group of Portland-area veterans is
/ \ preparing to dismantle the uniforms
X A its members wore while serving in
the military -first, by shredding the fabric
with scissors and box cutters, and then by
beating the strips of cloth into an
unrecognizable pulp.
But they aren’t trying to desecrate their
uniforms.
They’re reclaiming them.
Coping with the brutal violence and
hardship of war can take many forms, but as
the United States loses between 18 and 22
veterans a day to suicide and many more to '
substance abuse, finding healthy ways to
cope continues to be crucial.
Across the country, veterans are finding
that through art and storytelling, they can
embark on their journey toward recovery.
They are coming together to publically
share their experiences, and in some cases,
they’re completely transforming their
uniforms in a beautifully symbolic exercise
of reclamation.
It began in 2007 when Drew Cameron, an
Iraq war veteran, and Drew Matott, a paper
artist, co-founded the Combat Paper Project
in San Francisco. Since then, the
organization has conducted workshops
worldwide, helping to heal veterans through
the process of turning their military
uniforms into paper. The paper then serves
as a base for screen prints, sculpture,
bookmaking and poetry.
For veterans, the act of cutting up the
cloth that clung to their bodies as they
fought, sweated and struggled through
military service, is a way of releasing
emotions tied to that part of their past.
Turning that cloth into their own artistic
expression is a way of reclaiming the
uniform and, for some, reclaiming a part of
themselves.
Cameron says the underlying premise of
Combat Paper is to bring together the
veteran and nonveteran communities, and
he’s made the project his life’s work. For
the past eight years he says he’s traveled
the country, visiting prisons, military bases,
museums and universities, teaching
thousands of veterans how to transform
their uniforms.
In April, Combat Paper Project will take
part in a series of free events in Portland,
including an art talk, exhibits, a storytelling
event with local veterans and an interactive
art project where spectators can watch
Cameron and other veterans create paper
from the fibers of uniforms.
Six student veterans and active service
members at Portland State University will
participate in the Combat Paper process
with Cameron during his Portland visit. The
exercise is part of a series of storytelling
workshops that will culminate with a free,
storytelling performance on April 22 at 7
p.m. in the Smith Memorial Student
Ballroom at PSU. Their transformed
uniforms will be on display at the event,
“Veterans’ Voices.”
. Performance organizer Ryan Stroud has
taught several of the top performers on the
widely acclaimed radio program, The Moth
Radio Hour, and he says “Veterans’ Voices”
will be of the same caliber.
“It will be punchy, apt and personal,” says
Stroud. “The audience will gasp and they
will sigh. It will be an emotional
experience.”
See FABRIC, page 5
A t top: A piece was
created by Combat
Paper Project
co-founder and Iraq
war veteran Drew
Cameron. It was
part o f series o f
prints appearing in
the multimedia
project, “Beyond
Zero: 1914-1918.”