History, emotion, and experience are the major factors driving my work.With so many people never knowing a veteran or the war in Iraq, I have become aware that not enough is being said about the war (Iraq) by those who fight it.My art has become a means to inform and open a dialogue about the experience of combat and how it forever changes those involved.The service and experience of WWI, WWII, Vietnam, and Iraq has left a lasting impression on the veterans’ of my family--on me. I need to speak (through art) about my experience—what I saw, did, smelled, tasted, felt and thought—while in Iraq and now while I process such an overwhelming sensory and emotional experience my art serves as the physical through which I am processing that experience.I can not contain war inside—there is just too much emotion, history, memory, and experience.When it is on the outside it serves a purpose as object, information and education.Heavy on my mind are those still fighting and those who will never return.A year in a kill or be killed mindset shattered my personal understanding of good and evil.I hope to create objects and displays from which a positive can be taken away from the viewer—through aesthetics, information or emotion.
Operation Iraqi Freedom: April 2003-2004--Attatched to HHC Div 101st Airborne (AirAsssault)Division, Mosul, Iraq
