If the tattoos that cover Iowa City resident Jesse Albrecht’s arms could each tell a story, they would speak of an intricate fusing of love and hate, peace and turmoil.

Art has always been a way for Albrecht, a sculptor and drawing artist, to reconcile memories that cause heartache, including those that have arisen from a one-year-long deployment to Iraq as a medic in 2003.

Though Albrecht says he has often felt isolated since his return to the United States, learning to live with the memories of war has been aided, at least to some degree, by participating in a “Combat Paper Project” workshop that came to the University of Iowa last April.

Co-created by Iowa City native and Iraq veteran Drew Cameron and friend Drew Matott in 2007, the Vermont-based art initiative facilitates workshops that allow soldiers to transform their uniforms into handmade paper that they can use to create art about their experiences.

Twenty pieces of this “combat art” will begin to be showcased in a temporary exhibit at the Johnson County Historical Society Museum on Friday and are scheduled to remain there until November 30.

“The Combat Paper workshops and exhibits are a very safe and honest place for veterans,” Cameron said. “People can share their stories about the military — it’s sobering and it’s honest.”

The process of transforming military uniforms into paper is a relatively simple process. Workshop participants first cut or shred their uniforms into small strips. The strips are then placed into a large beater that turns them into a pulp which can be pressed into sheets of paper.

“When you’re a soldier, there’s a lot of emphasis on respecting and wearing the uniform properly,” Albrecht said. “But at the point I was at [mentally], I was long past believing that it was anything more than cloth.”

Most of the art pieces to be showcased at the Museum were made by local veterans last April. A majority of the art was made by veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but the Vietnam war is also represented.

“The pieces will range from a book that was created, to pieces that use photographs, printing, painting and some 3-D objects as well,” Johnson County Historical Society Education and Outreach Coordinator, Meagan McCollum said.

Several “Combat Paper Project” pieces that Albrecht has made will be on display, including prints on pieces on pulp paper and sculptural objects made from molds of a M16 rifle, helmet and flag he was given as a “welcome home” gift.

Albrecht believes that making the pieces was one way to pay homage to memories that he knows that he cannot forget, but must learn to live with.

“I can’t pretend that what happened in Iraq didn’t,” Albrecht said.

The path towards accepting the past has not been an easy one for Albrecht, who says that he struggled with destructive behaviors and lashed out at friends and family after for several years after he returned from Iraq.

Although Albrecht was able push himself to receive his Master of Fine Arts Degree in ceramics and painting from the University of Iowa in 2006, he says that the “wake up call” needed to change did not occur until 2007 when he met a Vietnam veteran at a ceramic conference in Arizona.

“He told me that if I didn’t get help, I was going to end up homeless,” Albrecht said. “He saw himself in me.”

With opened eyes, Albrecht began to go to therapy, rekindled relationships, found yoga to be a useful stress releasing tool and later began to teach introductory ceramics at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids in order to improve his life.

Now at a more comfortable stage in his life, Albrecht is looking forward to moving to Australia to work in an art studio and also traveling to the places where family members had served in the military during World War Two and Vietnam.

“Going to New Guinea, Vietnam and France will be another step towards closure for me,” Albrecht said. “War is an intimate, powerful experience, and reclaiming ownership over something that you really had no control over can help for the better.”

The grand opening of the Iowa Paper Combat Project will take place at the Johnson County Historical Society Museum, located at 860 Quarry Road, Coralville, at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 30.  Admission is free and light refreshments will be served. At least one artist in the exhibition is expected to be in attendance.

After Thursday’s grand opening, the exhibit will be open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 12-5 p.m. on Sundays through November 30 . Admission is $5 and includes entry into all of the Historical Society Museum’s exhibits.