5-day hand papermaking workshop: May 14-18, 2012, Mon – Fri, 10am – 4pm

Location: George Mason University, School of Art, Fairfax, VA

Leaders: Drew Mattot, artist/founder, Peace Paper; Gretchen Miller, MA, ATR-BC, art therapist, Art Therapy without Borders

Open to: current duty service members, veterans, and military families; as well as art therapy practitioners, art therapy students, and other health care professionals working specifically with military communities

Workshop Description: This workshop will provide participants an understanding of how the papermaking process can be beneficial to combat veterans and other populations for trauma intervention and recovery. Through the use of hands-on demonstrations, experiential activities, group discussions and presentations, this workshop will explore how the papermaking process can be used with returning troops, veterans, their families and communities, in a variety of settings.

Limited to 35 participants Register

Workshop Synopsis

How can the papermaking process—rich with metaphors of transformation, incorporation, memory, and history—be beneficial and transformative for military veterans and other populations for trauma intervention and recovery? This workshop is an artist and art-therapist led exploration of papermaking as a vehicle of transformation, to address the trauma of war, recovery, and reconciliation. Art therapists will learn how to use papermaking as treatment for trauma. Military community members will discover the beautiful and therapeutic value of the centuries-old process of making paper by hand. Participants will work in an open studio environment.

Introductory Lecture, Monday, May 14 (optional for military community participants)

The first day of this workshop will consist of presentations and discussions led by Gretchen Miller. Largely intended for participants who are art therapy practitioners, art therapy students, and other health care professionals who are now working, or hope to work, within military communities, this session provides an introduction to art therapy and papermaking, the history of papermaking, and discussion about hand papermaking/art therapy interventions for veteran populations and others who have experienced trauma.

Studio Time, Tuesday-Friday, May 15 – 18 (for all attending the workshop)

Participants are encouraged to bring in their old military uniforms or articles of clothing that will be torn, cut up, pulped, and transformed into handmade paper artwork. Participants will be able to experiment with a variety of techniques and approaches, such as printmaking, painting, dyeing, bookmaking, and sculpting and use images, writing, and drawing, to tell personal stories that embody expression and healing.

Workshop leaders: Drew Mattot, Peace Paper and Gretchen Miller, Art Therapy without Borders, are seasoned practitioners in advancing the use of art therapy techniques to alleviate suffering, empower, and connect communities that have experienced loss and trauma. Using hands-on demonstrations, experiential activities, group discussions, and presentations this workshop will use and explore papermaking as a vehicle for healing and expression.

Workshop hosts: Helen Frederick, Professor of Art at George Mason University, is an internationally known artist who works in print media, book arts, mixed-media installation, and handmade paper, and director emeritus of Pyramid Atlantic in Silver Spring, MD; and artist/printmaker Patrick Sargent (Air Force), BFA, 2012, George Mason University, one of the founding members of the AMH project team.

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Limited to 35 participants Register

above images: Participants at a Combat Paper Project art therapy workshop, Seton Hill University, Greenburg, Penn., 2009.
Drew Mattot and Drew Cameron, co-founders of Combat Paper, pulping uniforms in a Hollander beater to create Combat Paper, Columbia College, Chicago, 2011.