From Friends of the Vet Art Project: Do You Love a Veteran?

Hello All
This a reminder that our group meeting for loved ones of veterans will start up this coming Monday, Nov 1st. Please forward this reminder to any of your loved ones that might be interested if you are a veteran.
We are really excited to get this group going here in Chicago and we hope it will be just the beginning.  The first meeting will be a chance for us to get to know each other a bit and think about what we all want out of the group and how we can best accomplish these goals. Hans and I have some activities in mind but we hope this to be a place where we can all participate, lead, and share equally.
Please RSVP to me if you are planning on coming so that I can make the right amount of snacks :)
Here is the information about the group that I sent out earlier:

Do you love a veteran?

1st Monday of the month
First Meeting Nov. 1st  7-9pm
Garrett Wellness Center
3020 N. Kimball
Chicago IL

Welcoming home veterans is a community endeavor, a process that may start with banners and welcome home parties but continues for years. All too often the support of the community falls away and the people that love and care for these men and women are left to support them in isolation and without their own network. Veterans, although often isolated from mainstream society, share experiences with their fellow veterans and may find solace in these bonds. However, their loved ones have no such community bound by common experience. The issues that veterans struggle with after their service can dominate their lives and the lives of their loved ones, and the injuries of war can strain our relationships in unforeseen, unpredictable, but often similar ways.
We are  a group of spouses, partners, friends, and parents of veterans meeting once a month to build  our own community of support.  We hope to develop a safe space to address our experiences, personal struggles, and to share our coping methods. It is all to easy to lose sight of our own needs and well being as we try to support our veterans, perhaps this group can allow us the moments to focus on how these wars have affected our lives and give us strength to continue the journey. The group will be facilitated by partners of veterans Johanna (Hans) Buwalda, LCPC, and Nicky Baltrushes.

Contact us with any questions and to confirm your participation in the group:
Hans info@storiesandart.com
Nicky  nbaltrushes@gmail.com

Thanks so much and we look forward to this group very much. Again, please feel free to forward this information to any other loved ones that might be interested in participating

-Nicky Baltrushes

A Letter from the Founder of the Vet Art Project

7 October 2010

Dear Friends,
This letter of gratitude is long overdue. I started the Vet Art Project after being inspired to build a community around self-expression, envisioning a community where veterans and family members could come together with a collection of artists and civilians to create art for transformation and for educating each other about what its like to serve in the military, both with its blessings and its curses. From stories of the mothers left behind, to the sons and daughters who seek a way to reach out to parent who remains silent about their service, to the shared hell of boot camp, to the friendships on the battlefield that makes all others pale in comparison, to the guys that didn’t serve and got ahead, to the mothers who had to leave their children behind, to the choices that are made on the home front and down range that are hard to live with, to the inside jokes and gallows humor that sustains you, to the R-n-R that goes on a bit longer than expected, to the memorable people we meet along the way who enrich our journey. There are as many unique stories as there are people. And these people, these storytellers, have changed my life. I am grateful to each and every one of you for sharing openly and honestly.
    The Vet Art Project has succeeded far beyond anything I could have imagined. After a dozen outreach workshops in 2008 to share my dream with others in the community of civilian artists and veterans, we came together during the cruelest month in Chicago—February—2009 to try out this idea about sharing stories and building bridges between the civilian and veteran community. What does it mean to serve one’s country? How does war affect us all? This was the continuation of something transformative. In Chicago, with the assistance of Jessa Carlstrom, the programming, rehearsals, performances, and community response are rich, and the ripple effects of the work are incalculable. Jessa Carlstrom has continued to sustain Vet Art Project Chicago over the past year in my absence while I worked on my own creative expression with a local theater production, while I traveled to various retreats and even back to college to work on becoming a drama therapist to help provide a safe, supported, and contained environment to explore our stories. I am very grateful for all of Jessa’s efforts, time, and commitment. She helped make much of what has grown to be Vet Art Project Chicago possible. She is an incredibly giving and talented artist who is making a lasting difference in the Chicago community. I hope you, too, will express your gratitude to her for all her hard work.
    Other artists in other communities have answered the call, too, and I’ve found myself traveling in support of their efforts and sharing my vision with all who will listen, from people who sit next to me on airplanes, to psychologists and nurses in Veterans Administration Medical Centers, to Department of Defense personnel, to the guy who fingerprinted me for my biometric identification as I applied for a UK visa to do a drama therapy internship who told me about what it was like to grow up with a father who served in Vietnam and yeah, he had stories he wanted to share, too.
    While I am not in Chicago in body, Chicago and her beautiful people remain in my heart. I hope to resettle in the new year in a place where the cost of living is less to create a national center for the Vet Art Project where artists and veterans can come and be trained in the methodology and philosophy of the project, where transformational workshops can be offered separately for veterans, spouses and partners, and children. And of course my door will always be open to all of you, my first Vet Art Project family, for a night’s rest, a bowl of soup, a story and a laugh.
    I am grateful to each and every one of you for your participation, for your willingness to work hard with the rewards measured in heart, not in pocket.
    Jessa will be starting a new project in the coming months that you all will hear about shortly. I hope you will join me in fully supporting it. I know you join me in wishing her the very best.
    I hope, too, you will join me in welcoming a new group of committed artists and veterans who will take over the duties of Vet Art Project Chicago. The fact that it takes many people to fill Jessa’s shoes is testimony enough to her contributions. The new co-lead artists come with a variety of skills and I hope you will offer your assistance and support and welcome them at the next Vet Art Project Chicago event at the Chicago Cultural Center, Wednesday, October 20, 6:30 p.m. where you can share your ideas and hear theirs for upcoming programming. This will be followed by a playwriting workshop on structure with Dana Lynn Formby at 8 p.m.
    It is my privilege to reintroduce you to people you likely already know because they’ve been engaged in Vet Art Project Chicago for some time.

Gail Adduci, R-DMT, LPC

Edgar Gonzalez Baeza, Army Veteran, Visual Artist

Tim Brien, Air Force Veteran, Visual Artist, & Writer

Gerrie Gorman, Ph.D., RN, Assistant Professor College of Nursing, UIC

Suellen Semekoski, ATR-BC, LCPC Adjunct Assoicate Professor,School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Art Therapy Graduate Program

And the new e-mail address is vetartprojectchicago@gmail.com.

    I am with you in spirit and very occasionally working behind the scenes. And no matter where I am, I’m always reachable by one of the following methods:
Phone:    708.715.5488 (still on!)
E-Mail:    vetartproject@gmail.com
Skype:    lisarosenthal
I promise to blog more, too, to let you know what I’m up to or what’s happening in other Vet Art Projects. I’d love to post your contributions as well. (Send them along to me via e-mail attachment please!)
I look forward to hearing from you in the future. And I will be very grateful for the day when our paths cross again.
In gratitude and wishing you all amazing and transformative journeys forward,
Lisa Rosenthal, Founder
Vet Art Project

News Article in the Northwest Herald

Artist Does a Service for Servicemen and Women

This article talks about artist Jeanine Hill-Soldner. She and Edgar Gonzalez will be co-curating a show in November.

Greetings and Introduction

My name is Edgar Gonzalez. I am an artist, an USAR Veteran with a year in Iraq under my belt, and I am a teacher. I am also a contributing blogger for the Vet Art Project here in Chicago. I will be posting various events and reflection of such events on the Vet Art Project Chicago Blog. I first got involved with the Vet Art Project in December of 2009. I have since pretty consistently attended Vet Art Project events and collaborations throughout the year. I have had many wonderful opportunities to meet people, help them tell their story, and share elements of my own story.
In July of 2010, I led my first workshop for the Vet Art Project, teaching participants some basic drawing skills and surrealist art making techniques. The veterans and participants appreciated the expanded skills in art making, and I was very pleased with the beautiful artworks which they created.
I look forward to working with the Vet Art Project Chicago, and continuing what I think is a great program.