Combat Paper Project

It's Veterans Day today and while there is a vast body of history painting of battlefields I wanted to look at artwork created by Veterans themselves. Though these works on handmade paper veterans working with the Combat Paper Project transform their own uniforms into paper expressions reflecting their experience of war.

got one piece of art done... when i was 6, all i wanted for christmas was my daddy to come home from war... 

he came home on christmas eve:) i printed the pic on some paper i made at my workshop 
with the combat papermakers. ~ Jessica Lynn Hartle

The Combat Paper Project utilizes artmaking workshops to assist veterans in reconciling and sharing their personal experiences as well as broadening the traditional narrative surrounding service and the military culture.

Through papermaking workshops veterans use their uniforms worn in combat to create cathartic works of art. The uniforms are cut up, beaten into a pulp and formed into sheets of paper. Veterans use the transformative process of papermaking to reclaim their uniform as art and begin to embrace their experiences in the military.  
~ From the Combat Paper Project website

We Are All Free Now, Drew Cameron, Iraq Currency on Combat Paper with abaca, 2008