“Reflections,” an art exhibit comprised of works created by veterans and their families, opened Tuesday evening and is currently on display on the second floor of the Health, Counseling and Testing Center.@@http://calendar.uoregon.edu/EventList.aspx?fromdate=2/28/2012&todate=2/28/2012&display=Day&type=public&eventidn=1084&view=EventDetails&information_id=6500@@
The Veterans and Family Student Association@@http://pages.uoregon.edu/vfsa/@@ and the University Health, Counseling and Testing Center organized the exhibit, which features photography, poetry and other arts and crafts.
VFSA Coordinator Kristen Ware@@http://calendar.uoregon.edu/EventList.aspx?fromdate=2/1/2012&todate=2/29/2012&display=Month&type=public&eventidn=1084&view=EventDetails&information_id=6500&print=print@@ created the exhibit in hopes of spotlighting current veteran students, alumni and community members.
“People are very narrow-minded in their perspective of veterans,” she said. “From my standpoint, it is not doing justice at all to expand the perspective on what a veteran is if you’re not setting a precedent on educating the student body and extending out towards the veterans.”
At the forefront of the exhibit is Debby Bennett’s @@can’t find Debby, but her husband is here http://pages.uoregon.edu/vfsa/@@fractured-panel sunflower quilt made by cutting the same piece of fabric in different ways and then stitching the fabric back together. Bennett, a wife and mother to veterans, contributes to the national nonprofit “Quilts of Valor,” which gives quilts to veterans.
“The quilt in the art show is representative of the process of piecing back together fractured lives when soldiers go to war and come back,” said Sam Bennett, Debby’s husband and director of VFSA.
Like Debby Bennett’s quilt, a common theme of the art show is dealing with the issues in veteran’s lives when coming home after war.
“As a veteran myself, maybe other veterans can see how their own feelings may be expressed in some of these pieces. Hopefully it helps foster a healing process as well,” Sam Bennett said.
Next to Debby Bennett’s quilt is “Timeline Like,” a poem by Kelly Hickman@@might be http://www.facebook.com/kelly.hickman1@@ that deals with Hickman’s postwar healing process. The poem begins with the lines, “Was it all a dream? Some recollection of a previous life?”
In addition to featuring veteran art, the exhibit also showcases a piece of history in the form of a burnt Iraqi flag, which was salvaged by Austin Brandt after the U.S. military took control of the Mosul airport during the 2003 invasion.
Another notable entry in the exhibit is Don F. Teal’s poem, “Understanding Our Own War,” which addresses the significance of war to veterans and citizens alike.
“War is not something that can be ‘understood,’” the poem read. “We can only hope to understand ourselves and our individual reaction to combat. That is what is most important … That is our only hope for inner peace.”