Editor’s Note: Our “Art That Counts” columnist has melted all away, or at least her hard-drive did in yesterday’s swelter, so while she attempts to revive it with the flutter of her handkerchief, we present a classic installment of her column on the power of paper, which unlike its digital inheritors can at least be used to fan away the punishing heat. Try doing that with your iPhone.
The Combat Paper Project invites military veterans to learn how to make paper using their old uniforms. During the multi-day workshops, veterans cut up their uniforms and turn those scraps into pulp and then handmade paper. Participants also have the opportunity to learn a variety of techniques for using the paper, including screenprinting and bookbinding, and the resulting artwork and journals have been exhibited across the country and internationally; selections from the project were exhibited at UMBC last year and were reviewed in Baltimore City Paper. The goal of the project is to “assist veterans in reconciling and sharing their personal experiences as well as broadening the traditional narrative surrounding service and the military culture.”
A collaboration between book artist Drew Matott and soldier-turned-artist Drew Cameron, the project was founded in 2007 and held 26 workshops with veterans across the country last year. Cameron currently serves as director, while Matott has gone on to found a similar project with even broader appeal. The Peace Paper Project uses a format similar to the Combat Paper Project to engage a variety of communities―at schools and universities, in hospitals, with police officers and first responders, in domestic violence shelters―and turns participants’ clothing and cathartic writing into handmade paper. The Peace Paper Project also has an on-staff arts therapist and has run workshops for art therapy programs and conferences.
The impact of both projects is fuzzy on the numbers side; neither web site provides details about the number of participants and, as is true of all traveling workshops, the organizers aren’t in the community to track or see long-term effects. However, it’s hard for me to find fault with these projects that expose participants to crafty skills such as papermaking and printmaking and provide outlets for them to parse, express and share their experiences of violence and grief. For further insight into the benefits of these workshops, I recommend the PBS NewsHour feature on the Combat Paper Project, which includes interviews with local leaders and participants.
