Five military veterans from the Long Beach Veteran Affairs Medical Center won first place awards at the National Veterans Creative Arts Competition on April 28.
The competition is for veterans in the VA healthcare system and covers a wide variety of artistic mediums in five major divisions: art, dance, creative writing, music and drama. Veterans from across the country submitted just under 3,000 pieces of art, according to a statement from the Tibor Rubin VA Medical Center in Long Beach.
The five veterans all attend art therapy classes at the VA Medical Center in Long Beach which are aimed at helping veterans in recovery. Classes can be found online through The Bulldog health education class catalog.
“Trauma changes things sometimes, including our life path. We find ourselves having to redefine ourselves to determine where we go from ‘here’ following recovery and life changes,” Linda Hicks, one of the winners of the competition, said in her video submission.
Hicks and Raine Jackson won first place in the multimedia art category with their video “It’s not Just Photography” about how the pair found a love of photography that helped them find meaning while recovering from medical treatment at the Long Beach VA Medical Center.
“This photography group is one that welcomed me in spirit and showed me how to use my camera as a tool to change my focus, to see beyond the pain and capture the beauty around me,” Jackson said in the video.
Michael McCann won first place in comedy prose for his skit titled “On the Throne,” where he recounts being crowned as the “Supreme King” during a fictional Veterans of Foreign Wars Annual Baby Show in 1947. McCann also snagged second and third place for dramatic and patriotic poetry, respectively.
“The final stage show and art display each year is an opportunity to meet other veteran artists and performers that could not happen any other way,” McCann said in a statement about attending the creative art festival. “What we share makes us family.”
Robert Richert picked up the first place award for humor for his short story “J. C. Saves my Sole,” which is about his schoolyard dilemma about wearing or not wearing a type of sandal that Jesus Christ (J.C.) would wear.
“These days I enjoy writing, as well as creating paintings of beautiful scenery. Art is my profession. Both activities are greatly therapeutic,” Richert, who is also a published author, wrote in an email. “They are positive outlets for my creativity, and bring me joy.”
Lastly, Leo Zabala received first place in the transfer engraving art kit category for his work “Bird of Thunder,” a piece of organic wood painted in the tradition of his Maya and Yaki ancestors.
“As a veteran, we find ourselves coming to the VA because something ‘broke,’” Hicks wrote in an email to the Signal Tribune. “For me, it was my last option.”
Enjoyed reading this. Would have been nice to see the winner’s second and third place poetic work.
Thank you.