Veterans share artwork at Vet Center open house
RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent A moment of silence is observed prior to an open house at the Williamsport Vet Center in Williamsport on Thursday. The event was held to raise community awareness of the services offered by the Vet Center who's goal is to provide connection, camaraderie and community according to their flyer.
RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent A moment of silence is observed prior to an open house at the Williamsport Vet Center in Williamsport on Thursday. The event was held to raise community awareness of the services offered by the Vet Center who's goal is to provide connection, camaraderie and community according to their flyer.
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The artwork on the walls and shelves along the hallway at the Vet Center represent not only artistic endeavors, but are expressions of what the artists -- in this case veterans -- have experienced in their life's journey.
The masks are particularly riveting in their designs.
For Patty Bailey, her mask, decorated with intricate beading, represents the beauty she did not always feel.
"I was very, very overweight. I never felt good about myself and how I looked to other people. I really beat myself up over it," Bailey said.
"So, what I decided is, I'm going to be beautiful," she added.
In fashioning her mask, Bailey placed a beaded peacock on the one side, which she said represents her desire to be proud. She loves butterflies, so she had to make one on her mask.
She pointed to a scar she drew on the mask and then a tear.
"Because of so much pain and everything. But it's see-through, it's all kind of gone and now it looks gorgeous, but there was a lot of pain, a lot, a lot, of pain," she explained.
Bailey hung a tiny cross from the mouth on her mask to show that she wants to "only talk about the Lord."
"I don't want anything to be negative or nasty," she said.
The veterans were encouraged to decorate the inside of their masks also.
"There's a bunch of stuff inside, but I keep that private," Bailey said.
Bailey, who was in the Navy from 1985 to 1988, was stationed on the USS Yellowstone at Norfolk. She said that she feels safe in the group because they've all gone through the same things.
"They understand exactly what's going on," she said.
The art classes at the Vet Center are conducted by George Stefanski, who also runs classes for children and senior citizens.
"It's just turning people on to offering themselves practice, daily practice of drawing," Stefanski said.
"This is one activity that nobody else gets in your way. You are yourself in this matter. I love that I can create a space or invite people into offering that to themselves in their own life," he said.
On one level, creating art offers the veterans a way to relax and take a break from their daily routines.
"The most that can happen is that in going within and drawing, one can really re-represent things to themselves," Stefanski said.
Some of the veterans who have been in combat, have expressed their trauma through decorating their masks.
"The process of doing that changes things for them primarily on a nonverbal level. This is not rational, it's a very deep kind of thing that can happen," he said.
According to Christopher Hockman, of Muncy, attending the art group gives him a chance to spend time with the soldiers he served with, but it also is therapeutic.
"You kind of get a break from everything and you don't think about much. You draw, lose your thoughts. It's peaceful," Hockman said.
The mask he created was striking in its detail.
"My mask is hear no evil, speak no evil. So everything is being covered. But the one side you've got the hand opened up where you're peeking through to move on and break out of that," he explained.
The inside of Hockman's mask was intentionally blank, it said, with just one tear drop drawn on it.
Not all the veterans made masks. Some drew landscapes, some self-portraits.
"Some approach it directly and some don't want to do that, but they will make landscapes. Beautiful peaceful scenes that will give their mind a break. It eases their mind," Stefanski said.
"I have them do self-portraits as well. It's a powerful experience of looking at first the surface area of oneself but that leads to looking deep then, after that," he said.