Born: Ohio
Served in Iraq (Global War on Terror)
U.S. Air Force
2002-2008

From the Artist:

About "An Unfit Effect"

This work conflates the religion-based mentality behind the controversial issues
of homosexuals serving under Don't Ask, Don't Tell, women in combat, and behind the historical conflicts in the Middle East.

About the Artist:

Erica Slone was born and raised in a conservative, rural town in Southeastern, Ohio. Disenchanted with her hometown environment, in 2002, she joined the U.S. Air Force. Serving six years, Slone deployed multiple times in support of the Global War on Terror. After the completion of her enlistment in 2008, she separated from the military to study art at The Ohio State University. Through her own difficulties reconciling her experiences and readjusting into civilian life, Slone became concerned with the lack of support for returning veterans and her community's few, generalized understandings surrounding service and our nation's wars. She became involved in OSU's newly developed Veterans Learning Community, in which veterans transform their experiences into relevant research. In January 2010, Slone received a grant through OSU's Urban Arts Space to co-curate the Visualizing the Experiences of War (ViEW) exhibition. ViEW aimed to broaden the narrative of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by having original artworks expressing personal stories of war created through veteran and artist collaborations. She has conducted several art-making workshops in conjunction with the ViEW exhibition in effort to further develop the dialog between returning veterans and the civilian community of Columbus, Ohio. In addition to curating Overlooked / Looked Over, Slone is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in sculpture at Ohio State University.