Art speaks volumes and helps those express emotions without words.
In Ep 46 of Beyond The Frontline Donna introduces her listeners to her long-time friend, Tim Gagnon, who had an incredible journey from the military to an artistic career. Together they unpack the therapeutic value of art and spotlight the Patriot Art Foundation, an organization dedicated to providing free art classes and supplies to veterans in order to use art therapy for healing.
ART Therapy For Healing – Ep 46 Beyond The Frontline
Tim talks about how he visited an exhibit of Mary Whyte and was deeply affected by her intimate portraits of Veterans and how she captured their stories on canvas. Thus, giving birth to the Patriot Art Foundation.
“The Patriot Art Foundation is absolutely phenomenal. It’s probably one of the greatest joys and honors of my life. Now, I really enjoy working with the foundation and the mission that we accomplished there. It started when I was at another organization’s annual conference, the Portrait Society of America. I’m primarily a figurative and a portrait artist. So, I’m at the annual conference hanging out with a bunch of other portrait artists and there was a particular artist named Mary Whyte. She’s one of the top artists in the world today. She is just the elite of the elite of the elite, and she was one of the keynote speakers, and she was giving a talk on her recent exhibit that at the time was at the Marine Corps Museum. It was called “We the People” and she painted 50 veterans, one from every state, and these are just everything from a homeless guy to an astronaut and everything in between.
Mary said she just started traveling around and meeting with all these veterans, learning their stories. Through that journey talking to them and spending quality time, Mary would paint their portrait. It was intimate. Extremely intimate. The relationship that develops between the artist and the model. It’s hard to describe. It’s very intimate.
It was very powerful and it was very moving for her and so she was just like I’ve got to do something about this. And from that exhibit you know these are in the paintings my gosh, they’re some of the most beautiful pieces of art.”
We all have stories. At the Patriot Art Foundation, Veterans tell their stories through the arts. They find camaraderie and family, a new Tribe. A new way to share their experiences as well as heal through the wonderful benefit of art therapy.
Check out Beyond The Frontline Episode 46 and learn how art can give voice to expression.
