Lecture: COMBAT PAPER

​Combat Paper, led by Drew Cameron, transforms military uniforms into handmade paper. Cameron believes in the simple, yet enduring premise that plant fiber in rags can be transformed; a uniform worn through military servicecarries with it stories and experiences that are in the woven threads. Creating paper and artwork from these fibers carries these same qualities. Cameron has found that everyone is connected to the military – when these connections are discovered and shared, it can open understanding between people and expand collective beliefs about military service and war.

​Drew Cameron, a papermaker, former soldier, and war veteran, has exhibited nationally and internationally, with books and print editions in numerous public collections and libraries throughout the country, including the Library of Congress. Cameron maintains his paper studio and resides in Iowa City, Iowa, and conducts papermaking workshops across the country.

​This lecture is a component of ESPM 150: San Joaquín: Fluvial Reckonnections where students will traverse the San Joaquin River from headwaters to the San Francisco Bay, engaging the river as part of a complex watershed and the interdependencies that shape it. The course uses papermaking* as both a material process and a research method to think with river currents, archives, ecologies, and possible futures.