[11] Just after America entered World War I he was arrested for posting signs which urged young men not to register for the military draft, but to claim exemptions as conscientious objectors.
Due to his temporary illness the couple decided to settle permanently in the San Francisco Bay Area, where during the next two decades over forty major exhibitions of his work were enthusiastically received.
[15] His subject matter was sometimes decorative, but he also focused on controversial social and religious issues; on one occasion a sexually explicit scene of Sloan making love to his wife was restricted to his "private portfolio."
[7] At first he and Ralph Chesse produced classic works by Shakespeare and Eugene O'Neill, but in April 1929 Sloan decided to push the boundaries of censorship and staged Heavenly Discourse by Charles Erskine Scott Wood with anatomically correct nude puppets.
That same year he and his wife established Carmel's first international film festival and screened The Light of Asia, the story of Buddha's life with an all-Indian cast, and Hollywood Extra – 9413, a "very modern" psychological drama produced by the abstract Yugoslav painter Slavco Vorkapic.