Thank you, for your service?
“Thank You, For Your Service?” explores memory culminating in frustration, anger, and violence, which led to emotional withdrawal and physical stress from my military service experiences. I work with the 4x6 photographs taken on deployments during my four years in the Marines, utilizing collage techniques to express the fragmentation resulting from these memories. These recollections are a view into goals never achieved, training for a war I never saw, the transitional phase of being thrown back into civilian life, and the haunting regret and self-doubt while seeking new potential and purpose.
The collages are constructed with fragments from the textures and scenes soldiers are surrounded by -- weapons, fatigues, helmets, and the desert. I create small and sometimes miniature-scale works. It is an emphasis of not only a contrast in the lack of control I felt while serving, but also the shame I feel in not being able to see what is considered the pinnacle of a soldier's duty: experiencing combat. This creates a sense of preciousness and materiality, reminding me that I served honorably. Second, the labor used in making these works serves as a therapeutic way to address and critique the hidden desires I wanted to experience, such as protecting my country through combat. I use these objects or photographs to create a sense of acceptance of those themes. The glorification of killing another human being and acting as a destructive force of nature is falsely praised.