Cory Bilicko
Managing Editor
Navy veteran Hope Garcia believes that art-making is one of the most beneficial ways for vets to cope with issues resulting from their service.
Garcia was one of the participants in the Long Beach Veterans Administration’s (VA) Veterans Creative Arts Festival and Competition on Jan. 29, and she placed first in the Fine Arts—Monochromatic Drawing categorywith her interpretation of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Virgin and Child with St. Anne.”
“St. Anne is said to be Mary mother and the child is baby Jesus, but when we look at the different translations, one is Freud’s idea of the two mothers or in this sense possibly the Angel or guardian watching over,” Garcia said. “So this where I looked for my inspiriation, as I love all of Da Vinci’s work. My interpretation was to show my two sons and myself in the front as their mother, but the realization [that] when I was active duty I was still their protection, looking out for them as their angel, their guardian— in a sense, two mothers.”
Garcia said she “started drawing again” in 2013 after leaving the military. She currently attends Cerritos College where she studies art.
“I hope that people will remember that, as military veterans, we spent a lot of time away from our families and missed the comfort of the warm embrace of holding our children and caring for them,” she said. “But I’m grateful for what I have and to see them grow and be able to have them in my arms. I also want those veterans who have lost their lives or are still out fighting to understand they too are the guardians to their families back home, and I hope this painting embraces that idea.”
The VA Long Beach Creative Arts Festival and Competition celebrates the progress and recovery made through the expression of art, as well as the creative achievements of veterans after disease, disability or life crisis, according to the VA.
A local committee selected first-, second- and third-place winners for each category. Categories included visual arts, creative writing, dance, drama and music. Those who placed first will advance to the national competition — the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival and Competition.
From Long Beach, in addition to Garcia, those winners are: Salvador Herrera, Fine Arts—Oil Painting; Jesus Garza, Applied Arts—Jewelry Not Beads; Lonnie Scott, Fine Arts—Color Photography; and Steve Grove, Fine Arts—Black-and-White Photography.
Grove took the photo with which he placed first in his category on Dec. 5 of last year near Battambang, Cambodia at the Killing Caves of Phnom Sampeau.
“There is a temple on the hill,” Grove said. “I was walking around and saw this monk when I turned a corner. had one quick moment to take this photograph. The Khmer Rouge threw many Cambodians to their death from a hole at the top of the cave.”
Grove said he knows nothing about the monk. “When I took the picture, I knew it would be a powerful image and it would have to be a black-and-white. The photo is significant because the Killing Caves were so sobering, and then to see this monk and to see how his image represents enduring suffering and humility.”
Grove featured more of his photos from his recent trip to Cambodia during a PowerPoint presentation at the Brain Rehabilitation and Injury Network—Cypress Chapter’s headquarters Wednesday night.
In 2010, while visiting his mother in Illinois, Grove was hit from behind by a car— an accident that resulted in a cracked skull, a traumatic brain injury, broken bones and an injured hip. He was in a coma for several days.
“I was at the VA Hospital when I came out of the coma,” Grove said. “Unfortunately, while I was there, my mom passed away! I couldn’t even process that at the time, and I couldn’t go to the funeral.”
He said the hospital in Urbana kept him until he was well enough to return to California, although the length of time he was there and his return date aren’t quite clear to him. He estimates he was in Illinois a couple of months, and then he continued treatment and recovery at the Long Beach VA. Part of that rehabilitation was the digital-photography program there, which Grove refers to repeatedly as “a safe haven.”
The veterans photography program is open to any veteran enrolled in the Long Beach VA Healthcare System. To enroll, visit vetzone101.com . For more information, email Robin Breit at robinleebreit@yahoo.com . The VA is located at 5901 E. 7th St.
“Veterans work [through] their problems and conflicts naturally when practicing creative arts,” said Liz Greco, recreation therapist at the Long Beach VA. “Self- expression is a powerful healing mechanism— for the body, mind and spirit.”
