Thursday, October 21, 2010

National Veterans Creative Arts Festival

This week, the Tomah Veterans Administration Center in Wisconsin is hosting the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival.

The site says: "Now in its 29th year, the Festival showcases more than 120 Veterans selected from VA medical facilities across the Nation. With more than 3,000 Veterans vying for a spot in this exclusive event, only the finest performers and artists will display their talents at the annual week-long program."

I like that the festival is so wide-ranging. They say that the "competition includes 53 categories in the visual arts division this year that range from oil painting to leatherwork to paint-by-number kits. In addition, there are 123 categories in the performing arts pertaining to all aspects of music, dance, drama and creative writing." That's a lot of categories! I'm glad they offer so many opportunities for self-expression. Each of the pieces below won for its category.

We're All Connected (jewelry)
by George Willis
VA (Veterans Administration) San Diego

Two-Piece Carved Asian Vessel (pottery)
by Teresa Deible
VA Bedford, Mass.


St. George and His Courageous Horse
(metalwork)
by Bill Seymour
Southern Arizona VA

Green Faces/Purple Heart (Military Combat Experience: Best of Show)
by James Lykins
West Virginia VA

Red Beard Katscina (digital art)
by Filmer Kewanyama
Northern Arizona VA

Mission Complete (color photography)
Quentin Miles
Washington, D.C. VA


Links:
* The National Veterans Art Museum and an article about it. (Grab a tissue) Here's another article from 2007. You can even request a travelling exhibit.
* The Vet Art Project USA
* Veterans art program article
* The Combat Paper Project: From uniform to pulp/Battlefield to workshop/Warrior to artist
* The Odysseus Project
* The War Experience Project
* An upcoming veterans' art show in New Mexico
* Another Post article -- this one discusses how art therapists were cut from veteran and military hospitals.
* Historical war-art links

2 comments:

M Pax said...

Beautiful pieces. Not only that but I found them all very moving - packed with emotion. Very fine arts indeed.

Pit Stop said...

I, too, love the diversity of the pieces. Very striking, all of them.

I particularly like "Red Beard Katscina" and "St. George and His Courageous Horse" (especially love the title of this one :-).