"The Art of War"

Watch or read a news story about the Iraq War, and you'll likely hear about the big picture: strategies, casualties, troop movement.

"In the media today we see the large picture of the war," says Ash Woolson, an Iraq war veteran and Ohio State grad student in art. "But we're not really seeing what the soldiers personally experience."

Woolson and Erica Slone, a fellow veteran and a first-year art student, want to see more veterans' personal stories shared.

They recently teamed up to produce an exhibition--"Visualizing the Experience of War"--that's currently on display at Ohio State's Urban Arts Space. They received a $1,500 Idea Lab grant from the Urban Arts Space to pursue the project.

"I think that veterans want to be able to share their stories," Woolson says. "The civilians don't know how to approach the veterans and the veterans don't know how to approach the civilians. So this project is kind of a medium between the two."

For the show, Slone and Woolson connected Iraq War veterans with artists, primarily Ohio State art students.

Slone, who is a member of Ohio State's Veterans Learning Community, sees the mission of the project as threefold: to offer veterans an opportunity to tell their stories, art students a chance to tell a stranger's story, and the public a way to see a different perspective on war.

See the exhibition at the Urban Arts Space through Oct. 23.