WOUNDED WARRIOR ART SHOW

By Mr. Wesley P Elliott (Army Medicine)April 1, 2014

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FORT GORDON, Ga. -- For over two years, the idea of an art exhibition at the Morris Museum featuring Artwork by the Service Members of the Fort Gordon Warrior Transition Battalion has been a dream of Elin Rock and Jenna Tankersly.

?"We have been working closely with Jenna, the community outreach, at the museum to coordinate the show and haven?'t had had an opening, but two weeks ago she called and said her boss finally agreed," said Rock, a certified occupational therapist at the WTB.

The show will run from June 10 through June 29, 2014 at the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Ga., and will provide the Service Members of the WTB with a way to express themselves in ways they may not be able put into words.

?"This will be such an exciting exhibit. We utilize art for stress management and thru the medium most of the Service Members show decreased stress levels after an activity," said Rock.

The artwork at the showing came from art donated by the Service Members during the once a month visit from the Morris museum, who sends Jenna Tankersly to teach different types of medium such as water colors, sketching, linoleum carving, ink drawing and oil painting.

On Alternate months, Rock and Susanne Steele escort a group of Service Members to the Morris Museum where the staff has them study a specific type of art, or project for the day and then takes them to create their own design from the inspiration.

?"Each month after the sessions, the Service Members are asked if they would like to donate what they made to the museum for a potential future art show and since then we have quite a few items collected." said Rock.

Steele has previously used art therapy as part of her ?"Transition to Success" program in working with soldiers that have Post Traumatic Stress to get them out into the community.

The Fire House Gallery in Louisville, Ga., worked out a way to have three WTB Soldiers travel to the gallery twice a month for six months to work on building an Achilles shield where they could express different issues they were dealing with from their experience serving in a combat zone.

The therapy is centered on Greek mythology where returning soldiers would gather outside the city and therapists come out to meet them and help work with them to process what they had experienced.

They would create a shield with the inside being decorated with personal motivations and thoughts and the outside with harsh things they had to deal with stemming from combat.

?"Our Soldiers chose the design of the shield to look like the body armor they wore while deployed and as they worked on the shield you could see them transform over time. The added experience of leaving behind the military post and going to neutral ground was good for them and helped with their recovery," said Steele.

The art therapy program is growing and recently the American Legion, Unit 192, donated funds to purchase art supplies for the soldiers and to take the soldiers out into the community to different art shops where they can make projects.

The WTB Occupational Therapy and the EAMC Psychiatric unit also receive craft kits provided by the Help Hospital Veterans organization.

The various donated kits can include painting projects, models, needle work, wood working and leather projects. The projects are given out to the soldiers who want to create things over the weekends and during their free time between medical appointments.

?"I keep in touch with many of my former Soldiers and they are all doing very well. They all talk about how art therapy was one of the programs that helped them the most," said Steele.

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