Vets Show Creative Side at Arts Festival

An all-day creative arts festival at the Sepulveda VA Medical Center drew the participation of dozens of veterans Wednesday, including four who dropped out of the sky to join the fun.

The four-man skydiving crew, all veterans, provided the midday entertainment at the event that featured creative efforts by local veterans ranging from abstract paintings to piano recitals.

Award winners at Wednesday’s event will have a chance to qualify for the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival to be held in November in La Crosse, Wis.

“The work that’s put forth is amazing. It’s all professional work,” said Charles Clemmons, a recreational therapist at the medical center and one of the organizers of the festival. “The best thing about this is it lets the guys get together and enjoy themselves and show their talents to all the people here,” Clemmons said.

The festival began with visitors pouring into the center’s recreation hall to view more than 50 fine art pieces created by about 20 local veterans in the past year.

Rick Schwartz of Northridge submitted several paintings from a series he is working on about his experiences in Vietnam.

“This is called ‘Mad Minute,’ ” Schwartz said, pointing to a dark painting streaked with explosions of red emanating from its center and glimpses of rolled barbed wire on the outside.

“Sometimes we would just open up with everything we had around our perimeter. This is my interpretation of that,” he said.

“For me, painting releases a lot of energy,” Schwartz said. “It’s a lot of emotion, but at least it’s going outward instead of inward.”

The day also included performances of music, drama, poetry and dance.