Art Workshop in Texas

Collaborative artwork being created in the Texas art workshop

As an artist without borders, my work demonstrates how art can engage participants by activating new creative spaces. In November, I traveled to Austin, Texas, to present my interactive art at the Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) conference. My presentation and workshop showed fellow artists how to connect with an audience through a collaborative project called “Art Mysteries.”

The hands-on activity challenged participants in team building as they problem-solved together. After coloring small tiles, the group compiled the pieces like a puzzle. This fun, team-building exercise celebrated collective community expression and exhibited how art can be part of the healing solution.

Finished artwork created in the Texas workshop

Healing in Arts activates spaces where people become part of a healing canvas. Offering community workshops and collaborations, Healing in Arts emphasizes creative care in our collective journey towards growth.

The Collaboration of Story: Healing Imprint

Healing Imprint project on display

Healing Imprint: This multi-media collage series embodies the history, suffering, and grief of our neighbors, while exploring cultural conflict in a new way. The scattered placement of random forms on the raw canvas portrays the disconnect. In life and in art, our personal narratives define us. But strangers’ stories also matter, because they are part of the collective whole. As part of this project’s interactive exploration, gallery visitors are invited to continue the artwork. By adding their story or expressing their ideas on the paintings with a pen or Sharpie, participants leave a healing imprint. The responsive work calls for empathic listening, with the intentional act to include the other.

Thor’s Story

Thor

Throughout 2020, we faced a pandemic with prolonged isolation. But the Yellow Ribbon project proved to be an important opportunity to help galvanize the West Michigan veteran community. Everyone appreciated the chance to be part of something bigger than themselves.

Thor on Yellow Ribbon installationWhile we learned new lessons about resilience, one of our Gulf War vets lost his highly-specialized service dog, named Thor. When Thor senses a PTSD episode or nightmare, he lays his head on the veteran’s chest until the incident subsides. Without his dog, this veteran would struggle daily. So, we banded together as a military community, contributing towards the reward to help recover Thor, because one of our veterans needed help.

Along with Thor’s story, the broken-looking trees in Yellow Ribbon portray many veterans’ stories. The trees include bits of my interviews with vets of all ages, ethnicities, and wars. This art highlights the importance of empathy and a supportive community.

Our new type of ArtPrize venue gives veterans a voice as they share their stories of struggle and healing through art.

ArtPrize 2021: Introducing America the Beautiful

Grand Rapids Veterans Home - America the Beautiful

This is America through the eyes of our beloved veterans, the true heroes of our time. So much joy comes from our wonderful members, even in the midst of the pandemic. We learn many things from them, as their perspectives have changed throughout their lives. In this work, they have been able to express themselves through art, especially their appreciation of nature. We value them and their varying abilities and contributions to our lives. It is a privilege to see the world through their eyes.

Our new type of ArtPrize venue gives veterans a voice as they share their stories of struggle and healing through art.

America the Beautiful is showcasing at Veterans Memorial Park

A special thanks to Kent County Veterans Services, Zero Day, Finish the Mission, West Michigan Veterans Coalition, PlexiCase Inc, and Healing in Arts for making this collaboration of veteran stories possible.

ArtPrize 2021: Introducing Jodi Martinez

Teal Enlightenment by Jodi Martinez

I’m very proud to be part of a heritage of four generations of military service—my grandpa, my dad, me, and my son. To me, service in the military opened up a new world, for both good and bad. I’m grateful for all the new things I learned as a U.S. Air Force medic, such as suturing a wound, making a cast, and giving injections. I appreciated the chance to grow professionally and the opportunity to help people.

Although I faced many challenges, overall, I met some great people, developed discipline, and learned how to keep my mouth shut. In recent years, I started struggling with an autoimmune disease called Crohn’s Disease. Although I’m no longer able to work or carry on our family’s tradition of military service, I still try to help people. For example, whenever possible, I smile at others. Mother Teresa once said, “We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.”

Teal Enlightenment

Each year, I love visiting ArtPrize. Art has always been a part of my life; I especially enjoy drawing and photography. After getting sick with Crohn’s Disease, I learned a new art technique called quilling. To make these paper works, I use a tool with a slotted tip to roll paper strips into tight circles. Next, I pinch the rolled paper into different shapes and glue them into unique patterns.

Each design takes about eight hours to complete. After watching YouTube tutorials, I eventually learned how to create my own designs. Now, I even sell my quilling projects on social media. Art helps me to maintain a positive outlook and relax. This year, I’m so excited to be a part of ArtPrize, not as a visitor, but as an actual ArtPrize artist.

Our new type of ArtPrize venue gives veterans a voice as they share their stories of struggle and healing through art.

Teal Enlightenment is showcasing at Veterans Memorial Park

A special thanks to Kent County Veterans Services, Zero Day, Finish the Mission, West Michigan Veterans Coalition, PlexiCase Inc, and Healing in Arts for making this collaboration of veteran stories possible.

ArtPrize 2021: Introducing Dewey Heetderks

Spotted Maple by Dewey Heetderks

From 1963 to 1965, after graduating from the University of Michigan, I worked in the Army medical core as a urologist on Sandia base. The base, located on the edge of Albuquerque, New Mexico, produced and stored nuclear weapons. I also worked at Kirtland, which is the world’s largest storage for nuclear weapons.

After the military, I continued my career as a urologist in a private practice for thirty-three years, and I taught clinical urology at Michigan State University Medical School. Throughout my years in the army and my private medical practice, I served patients who needed solutions to various physical problems. But the greatest way that I could help anyone in life would be to encourage them to have faith in the Lord, who would be their greatest blessing.

Spotted Maple

At seventy-five, I started a new hobby of making hand-carved bowls. I learned to work with maple, one of the hardest wood species. Some of the tools used to create the wooden bowl are a lathe, a gouge, and a scraper. The lathe helps to form the outside of the bowl, while the gouge and scraper help make a recess on the inside of the bowl.

Common wood defects, such as a fungus infestation, can cause spots, bark inclusion, or streaking on the wood, producing interesting effects. I enjoy the creative process of starting with a small log and, eight hours later, ending with a unique, hand-carved object. As a former surgeon, woodworking seems to be a natural creative outlet. In art as well as in life, the rustic simplicity of the work portrays the beauty within imperfections.

Our new type of ArtPrize venue gives veterans a voice as they share their stories of struggle and healing through art.

Spotted Maple is showcasing at Veterans Memorial Park

A special thanks to Kent County Veterans Services, Zero Day, Finish the Mission, West Michigan Veterans Coalition, Breton Woods of Holland Home, PlexiCase Inc, and Healing in Arts for making this collaboration of veteran stories possible.

ArtPrize 2021: Introducing Michael Bauer

Tiny Sculptures by Michael Bauer

I want to leave the world a better place, but I’m not a writer. I can’t help a person feel good through a poem or a book. I do carve opal gemstones, though. If I am able to present an elegant art piece, the work might inspire others to feel good on the inside—and maybe even change their outlook on the world. Before starting, I study the shape of the opal. The stone often speaks to me and shows me what to do.

My inspiration comes from nature, such as flowers, birds, sea shells, and butterflies. After carving the gems, sometimes spending twenty years on each piece, the shape uncovers an inner mystery. For the last step, the opal needs light to illuminate its complex matrix of color, which changes from white to blue to green to pink, depending on the angle of the light.

Along with sculpting, for 27 years, I have worked with profoundly impaired children. These special children shine like the colors of the opal’s rainbow, showing me the path to dignity, patience, and the value of life. I also coach swimming for children, teens, a high school varsity team, and the adult swim program at Grand Rapids Community College, which usually involves life coaching, too. In a small way, art and coaching allow me to make a difference—leaving the world a better place.

Tiny Sculptures

As a G.I. in Vietnam, I witnessed terrible suffering. As a result, I struggle with PTSD and anxiety, making it difficult to form close relationships. Loud noises and war movies often trigger my PTSD. But I have found comfort in creating tiny opal sculptures. For this work, I use a magnifying glass, a rotary cutter, sand paper, and a polishing tool. Opals are difficult to carve. I have to be careful to cut away only what’s needed, because I can’t add back what I have already taken off.

The additional two-dimensional photos of the sculptures, by photographer Edward Bussa, help magnify the intricate beauty of the gems. Although each piece takes decades to complete, the creative process helps diminish my anxiety. Plus, art provides a positive way for me to leave a legacy of kindness and peace—reversing the effects of war.

Our new type of ArtPrize venue gives veterans a voice as they share their stories of struggle and healing through art.

Tiny Sculptures is showcasing at Veterans Memorial Park

A special thanks to Kent County Veterans Services, Zero Day, Finish the Mission, West Michigan Veterans Coalition, PlexiCase Inc, and Healing in Arts for making this collaboration of veteran stories possible.