Veterans express themselves through art at Thursday show
Army veteran Cheryl Schaefer expresses herself through pen and paper, using humor as a way to deal with whatever life throws at her.
“It’s one of those things, you have to learn to laugh at yourself,” she said.
Her short stories and other works of art were on display Thursday, Sept. 14, at the annual Veterans Creative Arts Competition and Festival, hosted through the VA Butler Healthcare.
According to Karen Dunn, program manager, the event has grown significantly in the past three years, with 85 submissions in various mediums on display in American Legion Post 778 in Butler.
Dunn said the show is a testament to how art allows veterans to express themselves in new ways.
“It shows how arts can help veterans therapeutically with PTSD, depression, anxiety,” she said. “It’s better than saying, ‘Here’s another pill.’”
The show is a steppingstone for the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival, she said, with selected works moving on to the larger competition. Mediums such as photography, quilting, painting, creative writing and music were all represented at the show.
Schaefer’s three short stories, a painting and a clock she made in a wood turning class will be moving on to the national level.
“All of my stories are always true, as embarrassing as it is to say,” she said.
Schaefer served in the Army from the 1970s to the 1990s, and said she’s been a stage four cancer patient since 2008. One of her stories detailed a funny experience upon her becoming a mastectomy patient.
Another, was a story from her father’s experience in the Army Air Corps during World War II.
“He’d never talked about it at all until I came back from the service,” she said. “Back then, they didn’t say PTSD.”
Schaefer won a national-level award last year for one of her writing pieces. She said she liked trying her artist’s hand as well, taking classes in Bob Ross paintings and wood turning.
John Shannon, a wood turning teacher who also had pieces in the show, said he began teaching for the VA after he developed the hobby at the start of the pandemic.
“It’s one of those things you see on YouTube and think it looks cool,” he said.
Aside from a bowl he crafted and put on display, Shannon said he tried his hand at photography for the first time during a class at the VA.
“It’s pretty neat showing everyone else what you can do,” he said.
Shannon said he served in the Air Force from 2001 to 2005. To him, art is a way to escape.
“When you make something, you’re so focused one what you’re doing, the problems aren’t there,” he said. “Until you come across a challenge in what you’re working on.”
Sharon Coyle, medical center director for the VA, said the interest in art classes spans all generations of veterans.
“A lot of them are finding (art is) an outlet for them,” she said. “A lot of them are finding something new.”
“We’re so proud of our veterans,” Dunn said. “We got some really good entries this year.”
Pieces that are awarded at the local level will be displayed and voted on at the national competition in 2024 in Denver.
