Connections

Hi VSA Texas friends! This is April, and I have been working hard on our veterans program lately. We have an exciting event planned for June 15th from 6-8 pm at Art979 Gallery, 210 W 26th Street in Bryan, TX.

Invitation for the 2017 Distinguished Artist Veterans Showcase that includes a painting of a gecko by Mary Ishler and a poem called The Desert by Judy Smith.

This will be our 8th annual Distinguished Artist Veterans art exhibit and we have something different planned. This year it is all about connections! We expanded our program in 2015 to include The Re-Integration Project writing classes. Our second publication of writings by veterans is out at the printer now and it is filled with 100 pages of poems, short stories and screenplays.

Cover of The Re-Integration Project publication including an abstract marker drawing by Valerie Short called Everyone’s Dream.

How is this about connections, you ask? Well, we have connected our veteran writers with veteran artists and songwriters by asking the artists and musicians to choose a piece of writing from the book and create a response. The art has been coming in all week to my office and every artist who drops off artwork is excited to tell the story of how their work was inspired by the veteran writers. Denise Knebel was here this morning from San Antonio. She created a painting in response to a short story “Terminal” by Thomas Orlando. In this story a junior officer butts heads with a colonel, but by the end of the story, their relationship becomes one of mutual respect. The connection that the officer makes with the colonel in the beginning of the story comes back around to him in the end. We find a similar storyline in Perry Jefferies “Club-Footed Frankenstein.” As Denise explained it, so much of what happens in the military is about connections between people. She portrayed that in her acrylic on canvas, “Connections…for us all.”

An acrylic painting with many layers including images of figures and planes overlaid by square patterns of purple bars, dripping veins of green and yellow, and circles of gold.

Beyond the art, we are also working with veteran songwriters. As they turn in their songs, I am finding a theme to the music. Most of the songs are soul- or country-influenced and all of them are about love. With titles such as “Tornado of Love” by Glenn Towery or “People Just Need Love” by Rick Milisci, the songs bring about a feeling of love and the connection each of us has with everyone else.

I am telling you, this is going to be a great event! If you can’t make it to Bryan on June 15th, I urge you to take a trip to view the show while it is on display until July 15th. Or visit our website, because I will be posting the writings, songs, and art there soon.

Finally, I want to say, this project would not be possible without funding support from the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. In the spirit of connections, I want to share with you a fantastic blog by one of the Peer & Family Support Program mentors that was published on the Reeve Foundation's blog recently. The blog, written by Julie Rodes, describes her journey from being a patient with a new spinal cord injury to her recent acceptance into medical school.

Stay connected!