Military & Concept Art

Memorials

I make because of waving flags and hands over hearts. Because of waving hands and flags over caskets. Because I met my best friend, and lost another just as easily. Because craft is where I have found a sense of place in the midst of displacement – and allows me to feel comfort in both. And so it my new mission to find a way to communicate. To serve my penance for surviving. To make work; a community; progress. To make a connection. To make.

Battlefield Cross. Fallen soldiers Memorial remembering soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Laboriously written on the Kevlar helmet, and hand-carved weapon, boots, sandbags, and wood box are the names of the more than 6,900 soldiers who have b
Battlefield Cross. Fallen soldiers Memorial remembering soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Laboriously written on the Kevlar helmet, and hand-carved weapon, boots, sandbags, and wood box are the names of the more than 6,900 soldiers who have b
Battlefield Cross. Fallen soldiers Memorial remembering soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Laboriously written on the Kevlar helmet, and hand-carved weapon, boots, sandbags, and wood box are the names of the more than 6,900 soldiers who have b
Battlefield Cross. Fallen soldiers Memorial remembering soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Laboriously written on the Kevlar helmet, and hand-carved weapon, boots, sandbags, and wood box are the names of the more than 6,900 soldiers who have b
Battlefield Cross. Fallen soldiers Memorial remembering soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Laboriously written on the Kevlar helmet, and hand-carved weapon, boots, sandbags, and wood box are the names of the more than 6,900 soldiers who have b
Battlefield Cross. Fallen soldiers Memorial remembering soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Laboriously written on the Kevlar helmet, and hand-carved weapon, boots, sandbags, and wood box are the names of the more than 6,900 soldiers who have b
Battlefield Cross. Fallen soldiers Memorial remembering soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Laboriously written on the Kevlar helmet, and hand-carved weapon, boots, sandbags, and wood box are the names of the more than 6,900 soldiers who have b
Battlefield Cross. Fallen soldiers Memorial remembering soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Laboriously written on the Kevlar helmet, and hand-carved weapon, boots, sandbags, and wood box are the names of the more than 6,900 soldiers who have b
Battlefield Cross. Fallen soldiers Memorial remembering soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Laboriously written on the Kevlar helmet, and hand-carved weapon, boots, sandbags, and wood box are the names of the more than 6,900 soldiers who have b
Battlefield Cross. Fallen soldiers Memorial remembering soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Laboriously written on the Kevlar helmet, and hand-carved weapon, boots, sandbags, and wood box are the names of the more than 6,900 soldiers who have b

2014 (updated whenever another soldier is killed)
Basswood, Sapele, Cypress, Poplar, kevlar, fabric, ink
24" x 26" x 62"

photo credit:  Jeremy Zietz

Please contact me if you are interested in viewing or displaying this piece

Fallen Soldiers

This piece is in honor of each of 7,015 of my brothers and sisters in arms have fought and died in Iraq and Afghanistan since October, 2001.

Their names are laboriously written on the Kevlar helmet, and hand-carved weapon, boots, sandbags, and wood box. The title changes from day to day as more names are added to this piece.  It is a tribute to the soldiers that I knew and to the rest who I now feel a little more connected to after writing each one of their names.

Not only was it a penance for me, but was also a way to explore loss, healing, and homage.

It is the beginning of a journey to expose the visible and invisible wounds of veterans and to explore my own thoughts about what war does to soldiers’ bodies, to their minds, and to their humanity.

Battle Beyond the Battlefield Suicide Memorial Quilt. With each uniform comes a story. The patchwork flag is a way to have conversations with people as they donate uniforms. Concealment on the battlefield is a survival skill. Concealment off the batt
Battle Beyond the Battlefield Suicide Memorial Quilt. With each uniform comes a story. The patchwork flag is a way to have conversations with people as they donate uniforms. Concealment on the battlefield is a survival skill. Concealment off the batt
Battle Beyond the Battlefield Suicide Memorial Quilt. With each uniform comes a story. The patchwork flag is a way to have conversations with people as they donate uniforms. Concealment on the battlefield is a survival skill. Concealment off the batt
Battle Beyond the Battlefield Suicide Memorial Quilt. With each uniform comes a story. The patchwork flag is a way to have conversations with people as they donate uniforms. Concealment on the battlefield is a survival skill. Concealment off the batt
Alicia-Dietz-Studios-Battle-Beyond-Battlefield-Military-Flag-Richmond-VA-7.jpg
Battle Beyond the Battlefield Suicide Memorial Quilt. With each uniform comes a story. The patchwork flag is a way to have conversations with people as they donate uniforms. Concealment on the battlefield is a survival skill. Concealment off the batt
Battle Beyond the Battlefield Suicide Memorial Quilt. With each uniform comes a story. The patchwork flag is a way to have conversations with people as they donate uniforms. Concealment on the battlefield is a survival skill. Concealment off the batt

2015
Military uniforms, civilian clothing, draped quilt, wood, suspension line
30" x 82" x 18"

photo credit:  Alicia Dietz

Please contact me if you are interested in viewing or displaying this piece

Battle Beyond the Battlefield

For many veterans, the fight does not end once we come home.

Some battles are physical, some are mental, and others are emotional. These conflicts emerge in dealing with the difficulties of transitioning between military and civilian life, in the form of PTSD, or through depression, homelessness, and solitude.

If you know anyone who is struggling, please pass along this number.  No one is immune.

Please call 1 (800) 273-8255 for the Veterans Crisis Line or visit: https://www.veteranscrisisline.net/

Installations

It’s not always easy to step into someone else’s shoes. With my installation pieces, I invite the viewer to look at the world through my lens. Whether it’s sitting in a chair to hear domestic noises transition to those of the battlefield or walking among the hundred of stories collected from veterans and their families, these pieces require the viewer to step into an often unfamiliar world, and come out with perhaps a new perspective.

Collective Cadence Project Veteran Storytelling. A collection of stories from veterans and their family members. A record of moments that accumulate to tell the story of the individual within the collective. Experiences that span generations and wars
Collective Cadence Project Veteran Storytelling. A collection of stories from veterans and their family members. A record of moments that accumulate to tell the story of the individual within the collective. Experiences that span generations and wars
Collective Cadence Project Veteran Storytelling. A collection of stories from veterans and their family members. A record of moments that accumulate to tell the story of the individual within the collective. Experiences that span generations and wars
Collective Cadence Project Veteran Storytelling. A collection of stories from veterans and their family members. A record of moments that accumulate to tell the story of the individual within the collective. Experiences that span generations and wars
Collective Cadence Project Veteran Storytelling. A collection of stories from veterans and their family members. A record of moments that accumulate to tell the story of the individual within the collective. Experiences that span generations and wars
Collective Cadence Project Veteran Storytelling. A collection of stories from veterans and their family members. A record of moments that accumulate to tell the story of the individual within the collective. Experiences that span generations and wars
Collective Cadence Project Veteran Storytelling. A collection of stories from veterans and their family members. A record of moments that accumulate to tell the story of the individual within the collective. Experiences that span generations and wars
Collective Cadence Project Veteran Storytelling. A collection of stories from veterans and their family members. A record of moments that accumulate to tell the story of the individual within the collective. Experiences that span generations and wars
Collective Cadence Project Veteran Storytelling. A collection of stories from veterans and their family members. A record of moments that accumulate to tell the story of the individual within the collective. Experiences that span generations and wars
Alicia-Dietz-Studios-Collective-Cadence-Military-Storytelling-Richmond-VA-14.jpg

2016
Birch, hickory, maple, walnut, image transfers on aluminum, glass
installation spanning 14' wide x 24' deep x 8' tall

photo credit:  Madeline Pofahl, 
cargocollective.com/pofahl

Please contact me if you are interested in viewing or displaying this piece

Collective Cadence

Stories that start at birth,
end with death,
and include everything in-between.

A Medal of Honor recipient,
A mistake.                                 

Morning coffee;
a late night call.
Whispered first names;
an off-key chorus;
deafening explosions;
silence.

One child playing;
another lifeless.

On the battlefield,
concealment is a survival skill.

Off that battlefield,
transparency enables survival.

Stories that shape the fabric of our experience
The threads that bind us  

Through the telling of each
We are united as on.
In the telling of the collective,
We find our own.
These are our stories.
This is our story.

Reintegration / Conveyance. Walking across this floor, there is a sense of being at home, while somewhere far away. It echoes the unstable transition from military to civilian life for many veterans. Trying to find a place in the world, a new mission
Reintegration / Conveyance. Walking across this floor, there is a sense of being at home, while somewhere far away. It echoes the unstable transition from military to civilian life for many veterans. Trying to find a place in the world, a new mission
Reintegration / Conveyance. Walking across this floor, there is a sense of being at home, while somewhere far away. It echoes the unstable transition from military to civilian life for many veterans. Trying to find a place in the world, a new mission
Reintegration / Conveyance. Walking across this floor, there is a sense of being at home, while somewhere far away. It echoes the unstable transition from military to civilian life for many veterans. Trying to find a place in the world, a new mission
Reintegration / Conveyance. Walking across this floor, there is a sense of being at home, while somewhere far away. It echoes the unstable transition from military to civilian life for many veterans. Trying to find a place in the world, a new mission
Reintegration / Conveyance. Walking across this floor, there is a sense of being at home, while somewhere far away. It echoes the unstable transition from military to civilian life for many veterans. Trying to find a place in the world, a new mission
Reintegration / Conveyance. Walking across this floor, there is a sense of being at home, while somewhere far away. It echoes the unstable transition from military to civilian life for many veterans. Trying to find a place in the world, a new mission
Reintegration / Conveyance. Walking across this floor, there is a sense of being at home, while somewhere far away. It echoes the unstable transition from military to civilian life for many veterans. Trying to find a place in the world, a new mission
Reintegration / Conveyance. Walking across this floor, there is a sense of being at home, while somewhere far away. It echoes the unstable transition from military to civilian life for many veterans. Trying to find a place in the world, a new mission

Reintegration (floor installation), 2015
Floor:  Oak flooring, LED lights, epoxy resin
192" x 240" x 26"

 Conveyance (chair), 2015
Oak pallets, fabric, ACU (Army Combat Uniform), audio
26" x 28" x 26"

photo credit:  Jeremy Zietz

Reintegration / Conveyance

CON·VEY·ANCE

 kənˈvāəns/
noun

1.  the action or process of transporting someone or something from one place to another

A pallet in the process of becoming a chair, a soldier in the process of becoming a civilian.

My transition from military to civilian life has been unstable, unpredictable, and in search of a new sense of purpose.  In this installation, I ask you to sit, to touch, to look, and to listen...

Domestic noises transition to military sounds of the past. A woodpecker transitions into machine gun fire. The sounds, which are heard when sitting in the chair, integrate memories into daily life. Seemingly meaningless moments can trigger a past even.

Flag Projects

“This flag, which we honor and under which we serve, is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought and purpose as a nation. It has no other character than that which we give it from generation to generation. The choices are ours. It floats in majestic silence above the hosts that execute those choices, whether in peace or in war. And yet, though silent, it speaks to us — speaks to us of the past, or the men and women who went before us, and of the records they wrote upon it.”

– President Woodrow Wilson

U.S. Military Patchwork Flag celebrating those serving in the Army, Navy, Marines, & Air Force. American Flag Projects - Military Veteran Uniforms transformed into art With each uniform comes a story. The patchwork flag is a way to have conversations
U.S. Military Patchwork Flag celebrating those serving in the Army, Navy, Marines, & Air Force. American Flag Projects - Military Veteran Uniforms transformed into art With each uniform comes a story. The patchwork flag is a way to have conversations
Alicia-Dietz-Studios-Military-US-Flag-Patchwork-Quilt-Frame-Richmond-VA-4.JPG
U.S. Military Patchwork Flag celebrating those serving in the Army, Navy, Marines, & Air Force. American Flag Projects - Military Veteran Uniforms transformed into art With each uniform comes a story. The patchwork flag is a way to have conversations
U.S. Military Patchwork Flag celebrating those serving in the Army, Navy, Marines, & Air Force. American Flag Projects - Military Veteran Uniforms transformed into art With each uniform comes a story. The patchwork flag is a way to have conversations
U.S. Military Patchwork Flag celebrating those serving in the Army, Navy, Marines, & Air Force. American Flag Projects - Military Veteran Uniforms transformed into art With each uniform comes a story. The patchwork flag is a way to have conversations
U.S. Military Patchwork Flag celebrating those serving in the Army, Navy, Marines, & Air Force. American Flag Projects - Military Veteran Uniforms transformed into art With each uniform comes a story. The patchwork flag is a way to have conversations

Starting at $2,800

Dimensions can be customized
As shown is: 68" x 42" x 6"
military uniforms, civilian clothing, walnut, poly-x oil, wax

photo credit: Alicia Dietz

Contact me if you are interested in having a flag made

Military Patchwork Flag

A patchwork flag made of donated military uniforms, this installation celebrates though who have served, both in and out of uniform.

            Uniforms tell the story of where we’ve been –
            of jungles and deserts;
            arctic tundra and barren landscapes;
            of high skies and high seas.

           They show our awards
           and hide our scars.

           They’ve been soiled with blood; 
           with sweat;
           with tears. 
           They’ve come out clean on the other side.

           Stories that shape the fabric of our experience,
           theirs are the threads that bind us. 
           Through the telling of each, 
           we are united as one.

           In the telling of the collective, 
           We find our own.

           These are our stories.
           This is our story.

           With deepest thanks to those who donated their uniforms,
           and shared their stories. 
           For all those who have worn the uniform. . . . . .

Creating these pieces fuels my soul.

If you would like to know more, please contact me or schedule a studio visit.