Success!
Our Fourth of July weekend workshop was awesome! Military vets and community members brought items of sentimental value in to make paper!
Jeanne, a local web designer, brought one of her husband's favorite T-shirts in. He just lost his job and this T-shirt represents a job he held for many years that brought him joy. During the workshop, Jeanne pulped the shirt, made paper, bound it into a book and wrote inspirational messages throughout the pages for her husband. She called it a prayer book and hopes it will bring him inspiration during his search for a job that brought him as much joy as the one the T-shirt represents.
Jennifer, a newly engaged graphic designer, brought a box of receipts that she'd accumulated during her college years. Her dad had warned her of identity theft, and she simply tossed everything into the box. She now shreds her bills (or gets them electronically) and doesn't keep them. So she pulped the receipts and made some amazingly beautiful art pieces that she plans to frame. She she it was awesome releasing the stress she toted around for so many years in a box!
John, a Vietnam veteran, brought in his last uniform shirt. He took photos throughout the process and said he was amazed at how much he had still pent up inside him. He shared some stories but the joy on his face told more. John silk-screened photos of himself in his uniform onto the paper he created from the Vietnam era shirt. It was gorgeous! John said he wants to make more paper.
Clarissa and Andris, WWII holocaust survivors, brought many of us to tears with their gentle approach and creativity. They created some amazing artwork using personal pieces. Their stories were beautiful!
Molly and Avery joined us as well. In their mid 70's, both had so many personal experiences with conflict and found the workshop "beautiful." Mostly, they thought it was amazing that people from so many different walks of life, political perspectives and economic circles were working together and individually on something so personal.
Lauren, a veterans' advocate, created a silk-screen from a photo she took while protesting in Washington, DC, against the war in Iraq. She was arrested that day, and believes she was profounding impacted by the event.
And I, with the help of many who participated in the workshop, created a large piece of paper (6' x 8') from my military camouflage uniform, a 1200-thread-count sheet I slept on in Djibouti, and a bit of pulp from an Air Force friend. I've already impressed the footprints from my combat boots in one corner and will then "paint" a peace sign onto the paper using black ink on the soles of my boots. When it is done, it will be my own personal message about the cost of peace.
We had a great extended weekend. We had so much fun that the days sped by too quickly. But beyond the fun we had, we witnessed the beautiful results of unintended therapy for those who suffer from PTSD or who simply have memories with which they know not what to do.
We hope you'll invite us to come to your town to make paper. We promise fun, lots of energy and most importantly cathartic healing!
Make paper not war!
Donna
Workshop Tidbits
Wow! How exciting for us. Forty-three participants shared their weekend with us March 27 - 28. We cut and shred military uniforms, loved ones' clothing, and other sentimental items. One lady pulped a pair of jeans she'd worn when she was about 10 sizes larger! She said it was invigorating. She's using the paper to make a scrapbook of photos to help her savor the "new" body she's wearing these days.
Several participants recently lost their mothers and siblings. They found it therapeutic to transform something their loved one wore into something upon which they can create art.
"I can't express how good I felt doing this," Ann of Cleveland exclaimed. She's been struggling with the loss of her mother March 30, 2009. "I am sold on the beautiful effects of this whole process."
Laura lost her brother recently. Her parents weren't willing to give up his uniforms just yet, so Laura pulped a cool blue t-shirt he'd worn often. "I'm confused about his death and the war overall, but doing this with his shirt just made me feel like he was with me. I miss him. This is such a wonderful project."
Al, a Vietnam veteran, said he had a great time. He didn't pulp his uniform, but he did pulp an old shirt he'd worn many years ago. "I loved the whole process, especially talking with other people who experienced similar things. I didn't feel the need for a beer the whole weekend."
My fellow Marine friend, Susan, pulped her camouflage uniform. Susan is recently retired and told me, "this did so much for me, more than you'll ever know. I couldn't stop talking about the process. It felt good from the moment I started cutting up my uniform to watching it transformed to pulp to creating the paper to discussing it with Amie (another Marine) on the drive home."
Paper Bridges will sponsor another mini workshop July 3, 4 and 5 at the Morgan Conservatory. If you or someone you know and love could benefit from the therapeutic advantages of transforming a sentimental fabric item to paper/art, contact us and plan to attend.
Papermakers Rock!!
Donna
Getting Involved and Staying Involved
As an artist and activist I have always felt strongly about issues of war. This may be my upbringing as one of my biggest inspirations throughout my entire life has been and is my father. He will attest to the fact that it was his Catholicism that taught him that the war in Viet Nam was unjust. My convictions were also formed by the society I was raised in. My high school and college years coincided with the Bush Administration and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. When I became old enough to vote my friends became old enough to enlist. They didn't come back the same - some didn't know why they went at all - I feel an obligation to them.
Why Make Paper?
People are asking, "why paper?"
After serving just over two decades as a US Marine, I can honestly tell you that I've witnessed some strange, beautiful, sad, compelling, and traumatic events that have contributed significantly to the way my mind works. I've found myself getting passionate about things that some time before, I'd never thought about twice. I found that memories and images often collided and sometimes it contributed to my inability to focus on even the simplest of things. Fortunately, I was a correspondent/photographer for much of my Marine Corps "career," and I discovered the creativity involved with that often helped me relax and focus on the task at hand.
Heading down the trail!
Welcome to Paper Bridges. How exciting to finally be underway. Everywhere I go, when the opportunity arises, I talk about making paper and the wonderful tranquility people experience during the process. Personally, I'm fairly new to the art of papermaking, but I had such an amazing experience when I participated in a Combat Paper project that I knew it had to evolve to engage the general public.