Erica Slone joined the military when she was 20 and served nine months in southern Iraq, seven months in Mosul, Iraq, and seven months in Qatar. She was a staff sergeant before separating from the military to pursue an art degree at Ohio State.

But the military never left her, and her experiences led her to create the Visualizing the Experiences of War project, which will be shown in the OSU Urban Arts Space until Oct. 23.  

The ViEW project features artists paired with military veterans using various art styles to show experiences of war that the public does not see in the media.

“Every story is unique, and only a few viewpoints are covered in the media,” Slone said.

Slone is a second-year in sculpture. She submitted the idea to associate professor Carmel Buckley, who then took the proposed project to the annual Idea Lab, which awarded her a grant to make the project a reality.

After the ViEW project was chosen, Buckley introduced Slone to fellow OSU student and military veteran Ash Woolson for help with the project. Slone and Woolson both participated as artists, provided military experiences and provided the ground work for the project.

Buckley and Susan Hanson, the coordinator for the veterans learning community, served as advisers for the project.

“The project covered a lot of genres and representations of experiences, but what is meaningful is the opportunities for vets, (Slone) had great courage to capitalize on the opportunity,” Hanson said.    

Buckley said Slone was devoted to the project.

“It was really a labor of love on Erica’s part. She really took the ball and ran with it, she is a remarkable woman,” Buckley said. “I did not know it would be such a powerful project.”

OSU senior artist and actor Paul Moon was chosen to be part of the ViEW project. Moon was paired with military veteran Joe Shearer.  

The piece Moon and Shearer contributed to the ViEW project is the project’s only acting piece. In the piece, Moon performs a monologue as Shearer.

“This piece explains the uncertainty in a soldier’s mind when they find out they have (post-traumatic stress disorder),” Moon said.

The monologue is called “Visualizing PTSD,” and can be found on uas.osu.edu. Moon said veterans cried during the performance.  

Moon and Shearer have been using art to show military experiences since March, where Moon acted out a performance at Upper Arlington High School based on one of Shearer’s experiences. In the piece, Moon writes a letter to the Department of Veterans Affairs saying he could not go back to war because of post-traumatic stress disorder, but the Department denies him any benefits.  

Moon also shared what he has learned from veterans, that killing people (in war) is not as bad as the guilt soldiers carry over the loss of their friends.  

“Post-traumatic stress disorder comes on due to guilt, and what makes it worse these days is many times a soldier cannot even fight back when getting attacked because a lot of it is bombings,” he said.

Multiple military veterans said it is almost funny when symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder appear, Moon said. He said that Shearer woke up on his lawn one day, fully dressed in his U.S. Marine uniform.

One piece of the ViEW project that stood out to Moon was 200 Rounds, by artist Jeff Aldridge, where he took a piece of wood and shot 200 bullets into it using a machine gun.  

Slone said the ViEW project is only at the OSU Urban Arts Space now, but might travel elsewhere. There are a couple of possible venues, including The Ohio Union, however nothing has been confirmed at this time.

“I would love to see more,” Buckley said. “It’s a great opportunity for the veterans.”