Haley Yates – In Motion Special
Daytona State College offers many services for its veteran students, including the art therapy program “Art in Action,” a vehicle for examining and understanding psychological issues to better understand and resolve them.
All art works contain nonverbal messages and cues, which art therapists and student examine together to achieve a deeper understanding.
Art in Action is a free program offered to veteran students to cope with PTSD and the psychological difficulties associated with it. The program was founded in February 2017 to allow veterans the opportunity to share their stories and have an outlet for creative self-expression.
Christina Katsolis, Program Director of the Southeast Museum of Photography and founder of Art in Action, says, “Our participants — some accomplished artists and others newly emerging — have drawn from the deep wells of their personal and collective experiences to further inform and enrich the public narrative regarding military service, the effects of engagement and the subsequent pathways to healing and reintegration.”
Nationally certified art therapist Cristina Coffing-Blain of Jacksonvillesays art therapy is a way to express yourself in a physical way. Participants are able to paint the world as they perceive it, accounting for emotions at the time, and thus creating a more complete picture of an event.
In a telephone interview, she gives an example regarding anxiety by saying, “What if that anxiety was a thing? What would that look like? Can you make it?”
Katsolis emphasizes that the program’s impact has been apparent in the lives of participating veterans and their families. One veteran she recalled was Gerardo Ramossanchez, a Daytona State College student and former U.S. Marine. Ramossanchez came into the program having never unpacked his military duffle bag since leaving the Marines.
“He brought his duffle bag from the service and we unpacked it together. I was honored,” recall Katsolis.
In the bag they found his military jacket with which he decided to tell his story. Katsolis worked with him personally to put a cyanotype image from his service on the back fabric of the jacket. Cynotypes are a type of photograph that produces a cyan-colored photo and can be printed on any surface that can absorb the iron-based solution. While producing his piece, they had to cut off the sleeves to allow the negative photo to lay flat on its surface. She was taken aback by the amount of trust Ramossanchez placed in her to disassemble his jacket and sew it back together. Katsolis explains that the project allowed Ramossanchez to express what he went through to his daughter.
“Art in Action” is not the first arts program aimed at Daytona State College veterans. Ceramics instructor Trent Burning, who is now the chair of the Mike Curb College of Music, Entertainment and Art, has been holding free classes for veterans and their families since 2017.
Berning joined forces with the Veteran’s Art Project (VetArt.org) to provide free classes in pottery hand building and wheel throwing to veterans and their families. Berning’s Veterans Initiative in Ceramics and Art awarded some 20 scholarships to qualified students, thanks to a nearly $8,500 VetArt.org grant.
Since its establishment,“Art in Action” has expanded and last January the veterans’ artworks were exhibited at the Southeast Museum of Photography. The display included a piece based on 30 year’s worth of wartime film from a student and Vietnam War veteran, a cyanotype image placed on a used airplane part and an actual military parachute made into a projector screen. The parachute and projector displayed service pictures from the 82nd Airborne Division of Daytona Beach.
For vets, each workshop has something new to learn. Art in Action has hosted various artists such as couple Nolan and Jeanne Preece who held a chemigram workshop in November of last year. Making chemigram artwork involves brushing chemicals onto light-sensitive paper to create a unique image. Other art forms taught have included woodwork, photography, ceramic art and painting.
In the future, Katsolis hopes to be able to continue the program with the support of the community and the college. For information, contact here at 386-506-4569.