Documented War Graffiti Tells Story Of Soldiers

Planes, walls and tanks bursting with colorful images are not typically what one may expect to find in the middle of a war zone.

But Andrea Sandoval, an NMSU student and former U.S. Army Soldier says graffiti is therapeutic for those overseas.

Sandoval is one among a team now documenting the artwork of soldiers.

The first book is called, ?The Graffiti of War Project.? The images inside are fascinating to look at, but Sandoval says the message behind it is much deeper for the artists.

“Some of them are sad, some of them are very prideful and some of them are just very artistic,” Sandoval said. “It’s what they are feeling at the moment.”

Sandoval says she is trying to preserve these moments in time, by documenting graffiti created in the middle of a war zone.

“The graffiti is them, it talks. That graffiti is a permanent reminder of whoever walks onto that base – this is my unit. I was here and this is my pride,? Sandoval said.

Sandoval served her first tour of duty in Iraq in 2003. She says the artwork is an outlet from stress and trauma.

“We were out there in the middle of nowhere, we were being bombarded everyday and it was pretty austere,” Sandoval said.

Now she is getting ready to return, this time as a storyteller.

?What we’re trying to find out is what they are feeling, what they see, and what they document in their graffiti,? Sandoval said. ?It may not be ideal, maybe as a professional would have, but it is some form of them releasing and our goal is they continue this process.”

Sandoval is heading to Iraq June 1st and will be there until August gathering material for a new book.

She says she wanted to make it back before all the troops leave, so the message behind the graffiti can be shared before it is destroyed and forgotten.