Welcome Home, installation, A.I.R. Gallery
2009
"Welcome Home" is a self-initiated artist residency, with the Brooklyn Veterans' Center, inspired by my frustration with the Iraq war and foreign policy folly. Thinking about veterans/civilians and relationship between trauma and healing effects of connecting with animals - as well as reflecting on my own experiences with animals - resulted in my idea of setting up a dog adoption service for local veterans. I googled and cold-called the Brooklyn Veterans Center and, fortuitously, ended up talking to Kevin O'Brian at the other end of the line, who asked, "When can you come in?"

I arrived the next day with my two rescue dogs, Alice & Alvin, one a barker, the other not housebroken - both loving and immediately welcomed to the community at the Brooklyn Veterans Center in Dumbo, Brooklyn.

The title of the project refers to the sign that greets people entering the Vet Center. Here I have placed my own letters on top of the sign, along with information about my upcoming project outside the center.

Article on veterans, post-traumatic stress disorder and pets:

Wall installation, Brooklyn Vet Center
2010
I asked people inside and outside the Brooklyn Veterans Center, "What do you want to find when you come home?" and scanned their answers, then made prints.
participatory installation, Figment, Governors Island, NY
2009
For my post-battle reenactment, people signed up for one-to-one conversations and I re-enacted a counselor at Brooklyn Vet Center offering services to homeless vets and myself as the instigator of Vets & Pets (introducing homeless dogs to veterans for adoption purposes.)