Art After War

Featured on truth-out.org

The arts are moving center stage as providers brace for the coming tidal wave of war-related post-traumatic stress disorders in troops and veterans, especially those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. For some who've seen war, the arts - including music, creative writing, dance, drama and painting - offer relief from depression and anxiety where traditional treatments, such as talk therapy and medication, may not have succeeded. Art therapy is based on the idea that the creative process of art making is healing and life enhancing, and is a form of nonverbal communication of thoughts and feelings, according to the American Art Therapy Association. 

When used in conjunction with counseling and prescriptions, which address the mental and physical aspects of trauma, art therapy is a powerful form of complementary care that can induce a liminal state. The gateway to healing the metaphysical dimension of trauma lies in the in-between. Trauma, particularly combat trauma, is tri-partite, damaging the body, mind and spirit, as indigenous cultures have long recognized. Any attempt to heal it will be incomplete without incorporating methodologies that offer salve and salvation for the spirit.

"Art heals the soul," said Sean Davis, an Iraq War veteran and Purple Heart recipient. Davis earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing from Pacific University on the G.I Bill, and published his first book, The Wax Bullet War, earlier this year.

"After I was critically injured in an ambush in Taji, I was sent home bone-broke and soul-wrecked. The combat I lived through is an echo that never goes away, and when I first came home, that echo was so loud I could barely hear anything else. Art is what helped me through it. Once the war is inside of you, it never leaves, and many veterans have low times because of it. When those hard times happen, many of us tend to isolate. Art is a way back from that self-imposed isolation."

Davis, along with Tiziana DellaRovere, recently coordinated several group painting sessions for veterans and their families at Portland's Six Days Art Gallery.

"Art bypasses the linear mind. It's a safe, self-paced way to unlock the psyche and reveal a hidden part of the self," said DellaRovere.

"I really hope that the arts are going to be seen as a powerful tool for healing the soul and restoring the heart."

DellaRovere's father was an Italian World War I veteran, suffering what was then called, "Soldier's Heart." She channeled the pain of her childhood into the storyline and Libretto for an original, contemporary opera premiering in Portland, Oregon, in September. "The Canticle of the Black Madonna" depicts a soldier's journey from the desolation of war to the healing embrace of love, and his wife's courageous struggle to stand by him.

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