David Keefe: Teaching the Art of Transformation

David Keefe directing Combat Paper class

David Keefe served in the United States Marine Corps in Iraq as a riverine infantry scout from 2006-2007. When he came home from combat duty, he mobilized his leadership skills as a Marine sergeant and his talent as an artist to helping fellow veterans cope with the transition to civilian life through art.

Dave Keefe is the director of the Combat Paper NJ Program at the Printmaking Center of New Jersey, co-founder of Frontline Arts and senior assistant dean for student veteran initiatives at Columbia University. With a master of fine arts degree from Montclair State University and a bachelor of fine arts degree in painting from the University of Delaware, he teaches a course on Combat Papermaking for veterans at Montclair State University.

"Art is one of the best ways to express what exactly is going on in your head and in your heart. It can just be a way to tell stories. And stories can be a catalyst for anything after that, whether it's change or transformation,” he told a writer for the USO-Metropolitan Washington-Baltimore website. The USO sponsors Combat Paper workshops in the Washington, DC area. “We're transforming a certain element here that's a uniform that's the fibers. We're changing from a uniform into paper. That transformative act is a great process of art making."

Thanks to Dave Keefe’s vision, the creative process in these workshops, as many participants can attest, helps provide creative ideas for life transformations.

Selections of David Keefe’s art and work by many of his student-veterans at Montclair State will appear in “Combat Paper & Beyond,” an art exhibition running June 18 through July 9 at the Puffin Cultural Forum, 20 Puffin Way, Teaneck, NJ. The art show grand opening is Saturday, June 18 at 4 pm.

The exhibit explores the vision of the Combat Paper Project through innovative artwork created by veterans and non-veterans. Multi-media work by Eli Wright is featured with additional works by award-winning artists Jim Fallon, Rachel Heberling, Elisabeth Smolarz, Nate Lewis, Frank Wagner, Ron Erikson, Sarah Mess and others.