Creative Arts Festival
Wife in Self Portrait, by Kenneth Bossard
For Kenneth Bossard, a Vietnam Era Veteran who served in the Army, creative art is relaxing and gives him a sense of self-worth. “Just participating in the Veterans Creative Arts Competition gives me a feeling of self-worth, especially when you have pieces that come in first, second or third,” he said. This year, Bossard won third place in two categories in the local competition—oils and mixed media.
An Army Veteran who served in the 1980s in Germany and who continues to serve as an employee in Nutrition & Food Service at the Perry Point VA Medical Center, Lorelei Allen relies on painting to take her away from a rough day. “If you have a rough day, you can pull out your paints to relax. Painting soothes your mind and gets you away from everything that made your rough day,” said Allen.
Jungle Garden, by Kenneth Bossard
They are not alone. Coordinated by Kelsey Eisenhauer, a music therapist at the Perry Point VA Medical Center, the Maryland segment of the Veterans Creative Arts Competition took place virtually last week on Facebook and Twitter with 52 entries from 32 Veterans in 22 unique categories. The event has five divisions: art, music, dance, drama and creative writing. Within each division categories range from oil painting to leather work and even paint-by-numbers kits, to rhyming and non-rhyming poetry and short stories, to drama and more. Because VA medical centers incorporate creative arts into therapy programs to help patients achieve their recovery and rehabilitation goals, the Creative Arts Competition provides recognition of progress and recovery made through therapy.
“The Creative Arts Festival is a way to highlight and recognize the incredible talents of our Veterans,” said Eisenhauer. “It takes courage to share one’s art publicly.”
A Quiet Place, by Lorelei Allen
In addition to Bossard and Allen, other winners include Robert Clark, who won first place in the Poetry Rhyming category and Harry Carpenter won first place for his short story. Veterans Reginald Thomas won first place in two categories--Vocal Jazz and Vocal R&B/Soul Funk-- and Thomas Dare won first place in the Vocal Spiritual category for his rendition of “Ave Maria.” Evelyn Simmons won first place in the Original Vocal category.
In all, more than 30 Veterans placed first, second and third, with 20 of the first place entries qualifying to compete in the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival—set for April 18-24, 2022 in St. Petersburg, Florida —where thousands of winners from local competitions throughout the country will be named first, second and third place winners nationally.
To view this year’s competition on Facebook, click on the Events page for the Festival and then select the “Discussion” tab: https://www.facebook.com/events/842554149711182/?active_tab=discussion
