David Keefe is a printmaker, visual artist, and executive director of Combat Paper NJ. The arts organization works with veterans in New Jersey who cut up their uniforms and beat them into pulp to make paper. They then make imagery on the paper related to their military experience. David is a former United States Marine who served in Iraq and is Senior Assistant Dean of Student Veterans’ Initiatives in the General Studies Program at Columbia University.

Make/Time is releasing David's conversation with our host, Stuart Kestenbaum, in anticipation and commemoration of Memorial Day. While Memorial Day honors those who have lost their lives in service to their country, it is also a time in which the country turns its attention to those veterans and service members still with us. In contemporary culture, our service members and their experiences can often seem isolated, far away from mainstream life and outside common understanding. We take this holiday as a chance to share a voice that bridges that divide—between art and combat, between civilian and soldier.

Make/Time shares conversations about craft, inspiration, and the creative process. Listen to leading makers and thinkers talk about where they came from, what they're making, and where they're going next. Make/Time is hosted by Stuart Kestenbaum and is a project of craftschools.us. Major funding is provided by the Windgate Charitable Foundation.

David Chatt grew up in the Pacific Northwest, mostly in Washington State. Recently he has been an artist-in-residence at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, and then he remained at the school as its baker for several years. David sees art and creative process in everything he does: from the small scale work of beading to casting glass, to the large scale enterprise of gutting and restoring a house. Whatever the medium or the finished work, at heart he’s a storyteller. In this episode of Make/Time, he tells Stuart Kestenbaum about how he came to make some of his inimitable art—and why a regular old bedside table encased in beads can move a stranger to tears.

Make/Time shares conversations about craft, inspiration, and the creative process. Listen to leading makers and thinkers talk about where they came from, what they're making, and where they're going next. Make/Time is hosted by Stuart Kestenbaum and is a project of craftschools.us. Major funding is provided by the Windgate Charitable Foundation.