Canvas of Courage: Bridging Military Service and the Arts

Imagine a world where the discipline of military training converges with the freedom of the arts. Our episode traverses this world, from the story of a veteran who swapped his combat gear for paintbrushes and murals to the inception of Artists in Arms, a beacon of hope that bolsters veteran involvement in creative fields. These narratives underscore the significance of creation as a therapeutic outlet, the importance of camaraderie in artistic endeavors, and how initiatives like Operation Game Changer are championing under-resourced school theater programs.

The anticipation buzzes for the Crawfish and Colors fundraiser, an event embodying the spirit of veteran solidarity and support for education. We peel back the layers on how this vibrant gathering at Senate Avenue Brewery aims to equip local schools with the art supplies they sorely need. This episode isn't just a collection of stories; it's an invitation to witness the resilience and heartfelt contributions of those who've served, as they continue to leave an indelible mark on the canvas of life through their artistic legacies.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

This is Charlie Mike the podcast Veterans helping veterans. Talking about things happening in the veteran community, things we've experienced and overcome, such as addictions, ptsd, depression, legal trouble, and we also promote veteran-owned businesses. If you're talking about it, we're talking about it. This is Charlie Mike the podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:37

Yo, what's going on everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Charlie Mike the podcast. As always, I'm your host, raul, and I was going to introduce the co-hosts, but I don't got one. So, you guys, we appreciate you tuning in. We just I wanted to come on real quick. We actually did this interview previously and I messed it up. So we're coming to you again with two special guests and I'm going to let them introduce themselves.

Speaker 3: 1:07

My name is Melia Templeton. I'm the executive director of Artists in Arms. It's a nonprofit working with veteran artists.

Speaker 4: 1:18

And I'm Chan Smith. I'm an out-large board member with Artists in Arms and I do whatever she tells me to there and art. And art stuff Make.

Speaker 2: 1:34

So tell us a little bit about yourself. You're upbringing your military service. Tell us what got you into this.

Speaker 3: 1:41

Right on. Well, I've been an artist since before. I could do pretty much anything else. I used to sneak into my mom's art studio and mess around with her stuff when she wasn't home to stop me. I don't remember a time when I wasn't doing something artistic.

Speaker 2: 1:56

Artistic is in the family.

Speaker 3: 1:58

Yeah, my mom is a woodcarver and painter and my dad is sort of an engineer savant. He can pretty much make anything out of anything. I don't know how to explain my dad MacGyver yeah, he's.

Speaker 1: 2:12

MacGyver.

Speaker 3: 2:13

Yeah, but like hippie MacGyver long curly hair and stuff he's also a performer. He used to perform at a Texas Renaissance festival. So a lot of artistic stuff happening in my family. My grandparents are both artistic. My brother was artistic, yeah. And then I got into theater for a while in middle school, through high school, graduated high school. Didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, didn't want to waste a bunch of money going to college and getting a general degree, so I joined the Marine Corps.

Speaker 2: 2:47

Marine Corps.

Speaker 3: 2:48

Yeah, yeah, I was going to go into the Air Force like my grandpa, but then they were out to lunch and I ended up seeing a friend that I went to high school with.

Speaker 2: 2:57

Wait, that's for real.

Speaker 3: 2:58

Yeah, for real, for real.

Speaker 2: 2:59

You know what's funny is? I've heard that more than once.

Speaker 3: 3:02

Dude. Yeah, their recruiting office was locked. It was down at Baybrook Mall and it was locked. But then I saw my boy, lee, that I went to high school with and I was like, hey, you look good, what are you doing with your life? And he's like I'm a Marine. And he used to contact a by recruiter and I was like, all right, whatever Was it Bennigan's at night With Plain Trivia. You remember Intian Trivia at Bennigan's? Probably not. I barely remember. I'm aging myself right now.

Speaker 2: 3:24

But yeah, so we're like Plain.

Speaker 3: 3:25

Trivia. And there's this old salty Marine there and I'm like oh, I was talking to Marine Corps recruiter today and he's like you'll never make it, you can do it. Women don't belong in the military. Oh, he's one of the mobile ones, so I signed my paperwork the next day and left for boot camp. Like a month later, what I was like watch me bitch.

Speaker 2: 3:49

How did your family deal with that? They were supportive, yeah they didn't.

Speaker 3: 3:56

My grandpa was the only one who was ever in the military, as far as I know, and he was back in the Army Air Corps before it was the Air Force.

Speaker 1: 4:03

Okay.

Speaker 3: 4:03

You know he was like an MP. I think he was an officer. I think, he went down to Panama. I don't really know. He never talked about it.

Speaker 2: 4:10

Yeah, the older generations are like that, yeah.

Speaker 3: 4:13

I know he didn't particularly like it. He came back, he uses his commission money to go to school, became a geologist, but that's it. There's no other. We're not like a military family. Right right, right. And we definitely didn't have any women in the military. So they were surprised, because I've always been very like don't tell me what to do. And an artist, some kind of artsy-fartsy, and they were just like, really Okay, that's awesome.

Speaker 2: 4:44

So how long did you end up serving?

Speaker 3: 4:46

I was in for five years.

Speaker 2: 4:47

Five years.

Speaker 3: 4:49

I was an avionics technician on CH-53 Echo Superstallion. It's I call it, the semi of the sky. It's a helicopter, it's heavy lift. We moved people on stuff. Yeah, you know Really cool bird. I really enjoyed my job. Had a good time deployed a little bit, got injured, ended that career. Yeah, so it was kind of unexpected. I had kind of thought I might do 20.

Speaker 2: 5:14

Really.

Speaker 3: 5:15

Yeah, I wanted to be a drone instructor because I'm y'all y'all can't see me, but I'm like five foot two and at the time I was maybe 120 pounds soaking wet. You know, it's a tiny little thing, angry at everybody all the time trying to prove myself like I could do it myself.

Speaker 2: 5:34

I don't need you to open the jar.

Speaker 3: 5:37

Yeah, smash the jar against my forehead, pick the glass out of the pickles. Yeah, I had a lot to prove. Is that how they came up with the jar head. Sure, okay, it makes sense, we have decided. Yeah, it makes sense. We just, I was a haircut, but you know that sounds like a more reasonable. But yeah, so I enjoyed my job. I did a lot of art while I was in. You know, once they find out you can draw at all.

Speaker 3: 6:01

They're like draw me this, you know. So I did a lot of morale stuff, you know, painting pictures for people while we were deployed and you know, just doing art, kind of keeping, keeping myself sane, keeping things even keeled for me as like I could just retreat into the art and not listen to the explosions and stuff. Well, if I die, at least I die doing something I love. That's crazy.

Speaker 2: 6:28

So you, you from the beginning that you had that artistic skill.

Speaker 3: 6:31

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I got out, obviously medically retired, and then know what to do with my life, bummed around a little bit, went to Alaska for a little bit, turns out just y'all is really fucking golden Alaska.

Speaker 2: 6:48

So I came back to Texas. I wouldn't have guessed it.

Speaker 3: 6:53

And the the thing is like I was out in what they call the bush. It's out in the sticks Um Bristol Bay. If you've ever seen the show, deadliest catch is filmed around where I lived. So I'm like out on the coast and there's nothing like. There's no road system, you can't get to Anchorage, you can't go to the movie theater, you're just out in this tundra town and there's nothing to do.

Speaker 2: 7:12

Um and it's daylight most of the time.

Speaker 3: 7:15

Not where I was at. So, like, if you look at your handy map of Alaska, y'all I'm holding up my hand here. Um, if you look at your handy map of Alaska, I was like over here. So the the places that are like daylight all the time, that's like way up north.

Speaker 2: 7:26

Okay, okay, so you got night and day.

Speaker 3: 7:28

Yeah, I think our shortest day of the year was like there was still four hours a day light, you know. So there's a little bit of it, but we're we're like kind of even with like Canada and stuff. Okay, alaska is so huge we don't realize how big it is until you superimpose Texas over Alaska and you go, oh um a lot of coastline to do so much coastline and most people live on the coast. Area Like the interior of Alaska is pretty much just weirdos and bears and moose.

Speaker 3: 7:58

Sorry sorry for all you off grid folks that are listening to this podcast.

Speaker 2: 8:03

So I have a question, like when I think of Alaska, I don't think seasons do they have seasons, so there's not always snow there all the time.

Speaker 3: 8:10

I mean again, it depends where you're at.

Speaker 2: 8:11

So if you're up, in like gnome.

Speaker 3: 8:13

then, yeah, it's mostly snow and it's. They've got the like 40 days and night or whatever. I don't know, I've never been there.

Speaker 2: 8:20

It's, it's colder there, so this is a podcast studio right here and we do another podcast with these guys called grab them in the brisket, and my job is to is to I produce it. So I'm in the bag checking the statistics and things that they say. So he's like, uh, you know, if you go to Alaska, you got like an 80% chance that you'll get attacked by a bear. And I was like, yeah, that makes sense. And I didn't check it. And they're like they went somewhere else, to another like barbecue festival, and somebody from Alaska came up to him and was like you guys are idiots, shut that off, shut that off.

Speaker 3: 8:53

I will say, though, like when, when I was, I was there for around two years and, um, we did have a guy whose dog got eaten by a bear, which was really sad, and then, um, we also there was a lady whose dog got carried off by an eagle, and we have those here too.

Speaker 1: 9:08

So look, danger is everywhere. Keep your dogs inside.

Speaker 4: 9:10

That's what I'm saying. Eagles are everywhere up there, all the Eagles everywhere. They're like trash birds.

Speaker 3: 9:15

Yeah, they're obnoxious, they're like, they're everywhere and they get into your stuff. Bears are the same way. They're like raccoons that can kill you. Um, they have the same personality, like if you leave your trash in your car, they will like tuna. Can your car to get your trash out to like dig in it and see if there's good food.

Speaker 3: 9:34

Um and, if you like, you can't leave trash in your Arctic entry because they'll kind of break into your house sometime. They're really obnoxious and they're yeah, but the moose are the dangerous ones. I stay away from the moose. Anyway, I don't know how we ended up talking about Alaska.

Speaker 2: 9:48

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 9:49

I'm from Alaska and I went back to school for theater degree. I got a degree in theater. I do mostly um scenic art and prop making. I like acting but it's not my forte. I guess Um more of a backstage person.

Speaker 3: 10:06

So when you say scenic art, just of like painting walls, making stuff look like other stuff. So, like you know, if you have a, a white painted table and the director comes to you and it was like I want this to look like walnut, but you don't want to strip the table down, Then you have to paint paint on top of the paint to look like it's wood. Right, Okay?

Speaker 1: 10:26

I guess, Woodgrain and stuff yeah.

Speaker 3: 10:29

Or, um, you know, you have somebody who's like I want this million dollar statue in my play, but you know our budget is, um, this pile of peanuts. So what can you do? And so you carve a replica of that statue to be in the play. You know stuff like that.

Speaker 2: 10:43

Wow, that's awesome.

Speaker 3: 10:45

That's cool yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:47

So tell us, tell us more about yourself. I knew you said you're part of the organization, part of the nonprofit. Now tell us you're upbringing, where you're originally from and your military service.

Speaker 4: 10:59

Awesome, um, I was born in West Texas, odessa, odessa, there's nothing out there.

Speaker 2: 11:06

Yeah, that's why I said it like that. My brother calls it a God's country.

Speaker 4: 11:12

But I had a little bit of sense and my, my mom, uh, my father passed away when I was young and she brought us back here, uh, basically east side of of Houston, um, bellevue, barber Hill, cambridge County, yeah, and um, I had a Cuban grandfather and he was the artist and my mom painted Um so I think it was in the blood. You know that Cuban blood is where that came from, um, you know grandfather. Also, his sisters were actresses and um musicians and singers and stuff like that, but I didn't take it in any of it in consideration. You know I was just like a kid and don't appreciate that stuff when you're young, um, but you know, even even that going to school like um, my art education was um, was seventh grade art. Um, how was it?

Speaker 4: 12:16

You know it was like, okay, I had a lot of fun, but did I continue it now? My father was a World War II veteran. It's not that I'm that old, he was much older and not knowing my father and that he was a World War II veteran.

Speaker 4: 12:37

It was something that I wanted to do. So two months after my 17th birthday and I enlisted and was able to retire at 37. That was kind of cool. But yeah, I enlisted and kind of that same thing. Amelia is saying you know? It's like, yeah, some skills, though you can draw, you can paint. I got this cool idea for a tattoo or first art and Sergeant Major find out you can paint. And it's like a smitty Come here. What do you need to paint this whole wall? I want a mural of me, whatever it is.

Speaker 4: 13:21

Well, you know, you know. First, armored Division, old iron sights. He wanted a painting of USS Constitution in the day, you know, like a dayroom. I was like you want to paint a ship on the wall in an army barracks? I was like, well, okay you know, so got me out of some crappy duty, you know as a PFC.

Speaker 3: 13:45

Yeah, but that's the best part about being in. Yeah, it's like nope, are you guys mowing the yard? I'm gonna paint this wall.

Speaker 4: 13:52

Yeah, exactly, Pain rocks. No, no, no Bricks. Um, yeah, but I got out, you know, just enlisted and ended and I was like I'm going to go to college and Wallamon College, Um, I actually met a friend of ours was the Lewis Medina, um, in a National Guard unit and while I'm in the National Guard going to college, and there's like this 13 year old kid and he had a dot on his cap and I'm like what's up with this kid? I'm like oh, he's in, he's a, an ROTC at the University of Houston. I was like I go to University of Houston. So I went over and talked to him and I'm like, hmm, so I got in the senior ROTC program at U of H, got commissioned with a waiver because I was already old um from prior service Um, so I got commissioned after 12 years in list of service Um didn't get the branch I wanted, really.

Speaker 4: 14:48

I mean, I didn't know what I wanted to do, even as an officer. Um became a quarter master, which is supply and services. Um had a lot of fun, a lot of stress, went ahead and decided retired right after 20 years. Um really is a couple of months after my my oldest son was born and I was like it is not the time to have kids and be in the army and yeah, how many deployments happened after 2007.

Speaker 2: 15:20

Um, so yeah that was the, the push.

Speaker 4: 15:23

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 15:24

I mean it was we were doing 18 months man.

Speaker 4: 15:26

Yeah, oh, and I had the. You know, I had the opportunity. I had actually busted up my knee pretty good, uh, had to have surgery on it, so I didn't deploy with my unit. At one point and I was. I was like the, the rear detachment commander, so I had all the um, all the people that stay back on rear detachment, all the squared away.

Speaker 2: 15:47

So yeah, yeah, yeah, 18. Yeah 18.

Speaker 4: 15:52

So a lot of fun, um, and then, you know, got squared away for for deployment. 20 year later came and I was like I can retire now. And they're like, well, you know, we can uh, send you over and you'll be in a back of the airfield as a logistics officer for an aviation brigade. And I'm like, or, or, I can hang up that uniform. So I did that. Then I brilliant idea, um, also Lewis suggested it I went and taught JRTC as a retired army officer and I went over in fifth ward and taught it at Whealy high school, um, which did not have a theater program, by the way, which I thought was really interesting. Um, they had an art teacher and then everything else was banned.

Speaker 3: 16:47

marching banned marching banned marching, banned sports. The football team yeah.

Speaker 4: 16:53

Um well and it's also very underserved Community and the little, the few resources you know were very spread then. And there are teacher there, um great guy you know, he bought everything himself. That's, um, that's, and we'll talk about that.

Speaker 3: 17:10

Right, I'll talk about that, yeah.

Speaker 4: 17:13

So, um, but it was really, I would say, in uniform. It was the hardest job I ever had to teaching um underserved young people Um, you know the value of service right, especially when they they come from a community where they're usually recipients of that service. Um, but it was too much for me. You know I was neglecting time with my family Um, so I ended up getting out of doing that. Uh found myself through voc rehab Um a job working for county government Um doing emergency response. Um training for the public. And you know I still had that service and you know, focused on young people. So I'm still doing that with um high school students. Great, great opportunity. I mean really active shooter drills.

Speaker 4: 18:09

No, it's a community emergency response. It's a program under FEMA, okay, and it's just teaching life saving skills. Oh right, um, in disasters, and we face more than our share here, uh, in our region. So, you know, very rewarding kind of thing that, knowing that I'm going to tell some young person something that you know, have them gain the skills that could save somebody that they love or or a complete stranger. Um, but that gave me um more time with my family. Um, I was like what did what old retired guys with the second job do? Um with their time? Not much with their family.

Speaker 4: 18:51

Um, so my wife, she kind of she's going to watch this. She told me I needed to find a hobby and, um, we made that happen after yet several years of her telling me I need a hobby, you need a hobby, you need a hobby, and she knew I had some artistic skills just because I do, you know, would do little things. Um, so we, we have a studio in our house now, and about two years ago I, since I have a space, I'll go in there and we'll spend a whole weekend in the studio together, and so she does her, her watercolor or whatever she's working on on, you know, just across stable from me and it's great, great quality time and it really is helpful for me. You know, it's a decompression, um, it's an outlet, um, it's something I really just enjoy doing.

Speaker 4: 19:51

And as far as art goes, what I do is I do those props, but I do them much smaller. And you know, I was a kid in middle school that would like make model tanks and blow them up with firecrackers. That's why I joined the Army. So, yeah, practice on one to one scale.

Speaker 4: 20:11

As an adult, though, yeah, it's not as easy anymore.

Speaker 2: 20:15

It's not as fun.

Speaker 4: 20:16

You can't get away with much, I mean it's like when can you get firecrackers anymore and you know if somebody watching me take this across the county line. You know it's like always watching. Yeah, so you know working for county government. I want to stay on the right, yeah, that makes sense.

Speaker 4: 20:37

So I was like okay, I need to. You know, I still like to make small things, that attention to detail, and you would think that it would be tedious, like stressful things, and it's just like it's not been that way for me. I've made super small things. You know, if you're, if you're kind of able to figure out scale one to 300 scale, so a person that is six foot tall, maybe like a quarter of an inch tall. And then I recently, my wife, found a old Fisher Price dollhouse for sale online and I was like she's like, hey, you can do something with this. So I took it home and cleaned it up and painted it and it's looks like a Victorian mansion kind of creepy haunted house feel. But it's it's all those small things that I do that I'm like, instead of stressing over how do I do this make it's, it's like setting a small goal. I was like what can I do with this and what can I use?

Speaker 4: 21:46

And using found, found things I'm from Texas using found things to make these you know details, but it's been a great outlet and it's really kind of opened up me to do other things with within kind of this assemblage art, you know, putting things together. That I'm yes, I go by Chan, but kind of this other name that I use is Earl kind of always been Earl at work and I'm like it's a family name. I'm a third generation Earl but I've never been like Earl. I didn't feel like it was me. But I'm like what I do is kind of eerie. I was like I like eerie Earl, so I make like this kind of small dark things. Yeah, it's not the, the goth, it's not horror, it's just kind of odd dark, eerie stuff and I've really enjoyed it and If you wouldn't mind, send me a couple pictures.

Speaker 1: 23:01

I could post it so people can see the video the video.

Speaker 2: 23:03

When we release the video, they can see it. Yeah, make sure that those videos are in. Well, I know that pictures.

Speaker 4: 23:08

I know we're gonna talk about an event we have coming up. Yes, and I'm. I'm putting one of my. I made a piece for our upcoming fundraiser and and I'll send you a picture of that.

Speaker 3: 23:22

People are gonna have to fight me for this piece of art. I'm already planning to be on it. Hey, I'm looking, I'm.

Speaker 2: 23:27

I'm. I think I was telling you last time I'm looking for artwork to put in my house, so I just got it in. I need to decorate. There's nothing there.

Speaker 4: 23:36

Awesome, fight me, did you say, bite me, arm wrestle.

Speaker 2: 23:45

She looks stronger to me.

Speaker 3: 23:46

I'm fighting.

Speaker 2: 23:47

Yeah, so I Want to ask about the nonprofit so how did it start? Where did the idea come from? Artist in arms. Now that's a bad ass name.

Speaker 3: 23:59

Oh, thanks so my, my husband and my one of my best friends kind of code, came up with it. I can't remember. You know, there's there's a bit of debate of who came up with it first and who was the one who was like, yeah, that's the one, but they, they both were instrumental in naming the organization. I just, I know a good idea when I see it. So I was like, yeah, they're right. Yeah, thanks, I like the name. So where did it come from? Okay, well, I worked professionally in theater here in Houston. I worked at alley theater for a while, worked with a few smaller theaters here and there as an independent contractor, really enjoyed doing that.

Speaker 3: 24:43

And then, you know, co-ed kind of happened and I saw another career that I thought I would retire from, kind of go up in flames around me and I kind of messed with my head a little bit and I Just didn't really have the heart to go back into it. After things started to kind of settle and I I started thinking about throughout my career. I was always kind of Looking for other veterans in the arts scene, you know, because we just have like a different mentality, right, you know, like we get together, we start talking about boot camp or whatever. There's just like a different vibe in the veteran community and Then a different vibe and kind of the arts community right, and I I always felt kind of on On the outskirts of both of those you know as an, as an artist. Sometimes you go into veteran spaces and people are like arts, artsy-fancy types.

Speaker 3: 25:43

So you know, or draw me a tattoo or whatever. You know how many, how many tattoos have we all drawn for people? But and then you go into art spaces and they're like oh, you're a veteran, I can't, we can't relax around you, we don't know what, where you are mentally trigger.

Speaker 3: 26:02

We don't want to trigger you or whatever or or the other way, and I was like, oh, I don't want to be around and they're gonna do something that's gonna be harmful to me sometimes, yeah and you know I mean that's not every person right but there is a sort of sometimes like you're kind of afraid to relax in either group because either you're gonna say something that's gonna like out you as as as an artist, or you're gonna like say something's gonna offend somebody that you just thought was funny you know?

Speaker 3: 26:40

Yes, it can be. It can just be a challenge. You know, as much as you love both groups, you just kind of are like I just want to be able to take a deep breath. Right, I want to. I want to Go watch a Shakespeare play and laugh at the jokes with, you know, my friends, who understand what it's like to be deployed, you know, and why that line was funny, or you know you saw a lot of resemblance.

Speaker 3: 27:06

Oh, in Shakespeare, yeah, so, like there's a. There's a character in Shakespeare who actually there's an entire speech about how he has PTSD from battle. What, yeah, the man? Like? We have been dealing with this stuff for thousands of years. There's a Greek play its name I can't remember right now, but it's sort of tied into like the Iliad and the Odyssey, and it's about this character who's injured. Right, he gets a foot injury and it won't heal, and so Odysseus and his crew, they decide that this guy's bad luck. So they abandoned him on an island. They just they just boot him out and they leave him and they sail away. But this guy Phylactides is his name, oh, that might be the name of the play. Anyway, phylactides is left on this island and they only leave him with this like magic bow and he's like this amazing archer. And then they go throughout this war and they're like getting ready to Might be the Trojan War. Yeah, I'm not a scholar so I could have some of this messed up.

Speaker 2: 28:07

Oh, you could say it and I'd agree with you.

Speaker 3: 28:11

Somebody's gonna be listen to this and be like so forgive me if I get some of this wrong, but Phylactides is left there with his magic bow and he's like blessed by Athena or somebody. Anyway, they find out like ten years later that they're like they're not gonna win this war without him and his magic Bow. Well, without the magic bow. So Odysseus and his crew are like Shit man, we got to go back and get Phylactides. I bet he's pissed.

Speaker 3: 28:38

You know, and so this whole play is about like they go back to get him and he's, you know, he's pissed, he's, he's been abandoned. We just realized you were gone, Like oh sorry bro, and they're trying to like, trick him and to give him them their bows so they can leave him again, because his foot still really miss you, but I'm sorry, buddy, how you doing, anyway.

Speaker 3: 29:02

So like so this theme of this guy who's injured and left behind by his crew and he's gone through all this stuff, but he has this PTSD and he's like really upset and he feels abandoned. And I'm like I Was injured, my foot got hurt and I got kicked out of the Marine Corps because they broke me and I feel left behind and abandoned and they always say no man left behind, but I got left behind, right and like. So there's this play that was written like 2,000 years ago or whatever that I'm connecting with because I have the same injury as this guy, basically, or whatever, the same experience, or similar experience, right.

Speaker 3: 29:38

Anyway, all of that, I mean, is gonna bring me back around to Like, throw at history. Like, if you look at our oldest cave paintings here in the in North America, they're scenes of battle, right. There are scenes of hunts there, scenes of the colonizers coming over and like killing people, and it's it's a way for the people who fought these battles whether it was hunting or war or skirmishes or whatever To tell their stories when they come back home to their family, to their friends, and they're they're leaving this history behind of what happened, and sometimes they're the victors and sometimes they're the losers, but they're connecting and they're telling their stories. And that is our oldest art, right, that is the oldest art in the world. And then you look at, like, again, the Iliad Odyssey. It's all about these battles and these relationships between the People who fought and their families.

Speaker 3: 30:37

And like what happens when Ajax is killed? And and how does that affect? And what's his name? The guy who goes crazy cuz Ajax is killed anyway, it doesn't matter, nobody, it doesn't matter. Tom, tom, yeah, tom, Rad Pitt played him. He was real cute anyway, oh.

Speaker 4: 31:01

No it's right there and I feel really stupid.

Speaker 3: 31:03

I feel really stupid right now. But yeah, and Shakespeare wrote about PTSD and Hotspur, and Hotspur's wife is actually the one giving this Speech about. Hotspur can't sleep and he's having these, these flashbacks, and he needs to like Get right with himself or their, their family, is not gonna survive right, and so many of us are dealing with a lot of these things still today. Like this is not new, stuff is nice new ways of talking about it.

Speaker 3: 31:30

So I Was looking for those connections. I was looking for people, for community of people to share my stories with, to be like, yeah, I was in this combat zone and I have all these feelings about it and I want to paint a picture or I want to watch a play, and then I want to joke about it and you know I'm gonna whatever. I just want to connect with people who will get it to some degree, who have a similar life experience, you know, and sometimes I just want to do stuff for fun and not have to worry about like, am I gonna say something that is upsetting to somebody? Right? And I wasn't finding it here in Houston, I could find it in LA, I could find it in New York, chicago, austin, all these places had some sort of arts programming for veterans, but Houston didn't really have it.

Speaker 3: 32:19

We had an organization that kind of started and then the founder moved and it just kind of Didn't happen and that's kind of as close as we got and like there's art therapy, you can go to the VA, you can do art therapy, right, but there's not just like groups of artists getting together and doing stuff, you know, and I Proceeded to complain about that for a while, for probably a good six months, before my husband finally looked at me. It was like If you want it so bad, build it yeah, but stop bitching about it.

Speaker 2: 32:55

Do it or shut up.

Speaker 3: 32:59

Yeah, and I was like well, I can't do that, I don't know how to run and I don't know how to do something, I'm an artist, what do I know?

Speaker 3: 33:04

And I paint, I sculpt, I make things. I don't know how to do that. And he's like all right, well, I don't know what to tell you. And and I talked to some other friends about it and they were like, yeah, no, you should start that, you should start that, you should start that. And Kind of unanimously, I talked to the veterans you should start that, right. And so we finally just Did it. We just started this group because I got to thinking about it. I was like, well, I'm feeling lonely and I'm lucky, my, my spouse, is also a Marine. We no, we didn't meet in the military. We were actually friends in high school, weirdly enough. But, um, so I have someone I live with who I can talk to about stuff.

Speaker 2: 33:44

You know if.

Speaker 3: 33:45

I wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat because of a dream about something that happened 20 years ago, that Really I feel like I should probably be over. But let's be honest, I'm not right.

Speaker 2: 33:55

You know, let's not the wrong with that, or I get a.

Speaker 3: 33:57

I get a random Facebook message saying, hey, so, and so is gone, we lost him. He, he, he, he, he left us, right, and I break down. I haven't tossed this guy in 20 years but I'm breaking down like my best friend just died, right, right, and my husband gets that. But everybody doesn't have that privilege. Everybody doesn't have that support system kind of built in at home and I thought, if I'm Lonely for other veteran artists, even with my husband in the house, I'm feeling this like lack. There's got to be other people in the same situation. There's got to be other people that need this community of support to like just that, get it. And so, yeah, so we just started it and that was in 2021, I think and we've been sort of slowly growing ever since. We didn't want to get ahead of ourselves. You know, learning how to do all this, finding the funding it's pretty much self-funded at this point, right okay, and self-funded mean out of my pocket.

Speaker 3: 35:04

Yeah, my pocket, my husband's pocket, so and some from generous friends and some small programs we've done here and there for fundraising, but we haven't gotten any grants or sponsorships or, yeah, no corporate sponsorships yet, nothing like that. So we just have been taking it kind of slow so that we don't let people down. We don't want to make these big promises and get ahead of ourselves and then it all falls apart right.

Speaker 3: 35:31

So we've been trying to build structure so that we have a really solid foundation, and so now we are running a couple different programs. We've got our art car, sergeant Bubbles, where some of our more mechanically-minded veterans can like tinker with this car. And we've got a replica 50 caliber machine gun on top that you can get in the turret of this old Chevy Malibu and you can ride through the streets of Houston shooting bubbles at people out of this giant machine gun. It's really stupid and fun and we love her. We usually do the art car parade, but this year we have an event that's kind of conflict with that. We've got our second service program that we're getting ready to kick off, where we're gonna donate some art supplies to underfunded schools. We can talk a little more about that. That's Operation Game Changer. We do socials just get together and BS. Yeah, we do workshops where we just do art for fun. Last time we made sock puppets.

Speaker 4: 36:40

Family-friendly.

Speaker 3: 36:41

Yeah, we generally try to keep most of our stuff family-friendly. That's good, it may not be like four kids, but I was a single parent for a while and I know how difficult it can be if you can't bring your kid to stuff and also just you want to do stuff with kids sometimes, yeah, you do. And doing art with them, especially something that's really low risk, like making a sock puppet. You can't screw up a sock puppet. I mean really it's hard. You could, but you'd have to try it really are.

Speaker 4: 37:11

I was. I had some anxiety about coming and doing that one yeah. Yeah, I didn't show you should have.

Speaker 3: 37:17

I feel so bad, it was really fun. I made a unicorn, yeah, anyway, so we do those programs, we do. What else do we do, chan? Oh, we go to events, you know, and we just talk about our artists in arms and try to meet new people and we do some silent auctions and yeah, those events, there's a lot Getting recognized out in the community.

Speaker 4: 37:50

Yeah, the greater Houston area, you know that's the thing. You know it's like how does a, how does a nonprofit grow, and when you don't have funds, you know it goes by word of mouth. The veteran community, again, you know Milius said it great.

Speaker 4: 38:12

I mean we can get around each other and we can tell our war stories, but we get around each other and we're like, hey, don't you do like leather work or woodwork, you know so, and that's where I was like artist I'm afraid of that word Because I'm like, I make stuff and I think there's lots of veterans out there, you know, that may have a hobby. It doesn't have to be this high brow, you know museum stuff and, and yeah, it is not therapy.

Speaker 3: 38:52

Right.

Speaker 4: 38:52

This, you know, artist in arms is, does not, is not a art therapy provider. But I think that those of us that make things hobby, wise, you know, it's therapeutic. And when we get around other veterans and and we can talk about those things and like, hey, don't you, you know, whatever it is make something, some sort of creative outlet writing, singing, you know music, any of those things you know and it creates that community, that camaraderie, and we become more creative. So we support each other that way and kind of this social. It's like here's somebody that gets me, yeah, and they do stuff and I can say that's really cool. I, that's not, that's not my skill set. Your husband, josh, he's a woodworking guy. Yeah, welding to welding.

Speaker 3: 39:58

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 39:59

Welding is an art.

Speaker 3: 39:59

If you all ever seen some of this stuff welders do, yeah, what am I?

Speaker 2: 40:03

good buddies does and he does some, some artistic stuff. Yeah, I mean, and that's what I'm like.

Speaker 4: 40:10

So I'm like, you know, I'm like. So any moniker of artist that's when I tell people about you know, meet other veterans and try to tell them is like don't be shy, you know, don't shy away from that. It's that you're being creative, makes you an artist, creating something that wasn't there before.

Speaker 4: 40:36

Right, I think that's how you usually say it's like you're an artist, you know the person that writes a poem, a story, you know the literature, you know even if it's kind of half fiction. You know, some of us have our stories and with time, those stories, good, they grow. But you know, and it is an outlet and, and I will say, I did attend art therapy outside of the VA and I was like, ok, well, this, you know, it may be helpful. You know, I'm sure it's helping me. It's not developing skills, it's more like now I want you to use these colors and draw X and then we're going to talk about it. Well, that's not what we're doing.

Speaker 4: 41:31

Tell me, tell me, how that makes you feel.

Speaker 2: 41:34

It's a line.

Speaker 3: 41:36

It makes me feel like I don't want to be.

Speaker 4: 41:39

Right. So you know, it's just like more freedom of creativity.

Speaker 3: 41:46

I like to say it's low risk.

Speaker 4: 41:48

Yes, low risk.

Speaker 3: 41:49

It's low risk Like you're not going to come to one of our events and we're going to be like now, raul, I want you to make this sock puppet and I want your sock puppet to act out your feelings about XYZ event. Right, we're just going to be like we're making sock puppets. What do you want to make? And you're going to be like I want to make a spider and I'm going to be like but we can do that.

Speaker 3: 42:10

I'm going to help you make a sock puppet spider just because it's for fun, right. And the act of creation in itself is therapeutic, even when it's not intended. Because what do they teach us Ultimately when we are in boot camp or whatever the rest of y'all call basic training? Basic training, oh basic training All right Whenever we're in basic training basic combat training.

Speaker 3: 42:38

What are they, fucking Marines? Honestly, what are they teaching us? They're teaching us to destroy stuff. Right, they're tearing us down. They're teaching us to tear other stuff down. They're teaching us to destroy. They're taking kids, whoever, and, and they're they're teaching us to become agents of destruction as necessary, right, when we go through taps. Ha ha ha, they don't. They don't teach us how to create again, right. They just kind of go you could drive a truck for you know, pinsky, or whatever, and then they tap us on the button, send us out the door.

Speaker 2: 43:16

Yeah, good luck, which I feel like 75 percent of it is by yeah.

Speaker 3: 43:22

But they don't like, they're not. They're not teaching us how to create again.

Speaker 1: 43:26

Right.

Speaker 3: 43:27

And so some of us, we really lose something in that. You know, and it's not that bad what they're teaching us in bootcamp. It's necessary, it's what we're there to be doing, right, what we're getting trained for. But the the act of creation, it doesn't have to be subjectively good, Right, it doesn't have to be good. Or, you know, I melt crayons on canvases sometimes, that's, I make paintings out of melted crayons. You might look at that and think it looks like trash and that's OK, it doesn't matter, because I'm making something.

Speaker 3: 44:02

I'm creating something. I am kind of healing something within myself through the act of creation, and I know this is getting very esoteric or whatever, but Melting crayons, destroying something in order to create.

Speaker 3: 44:15

In order to create Right, and I'm creating something fun and something beautiful. We have broken crayons, still color. I love it. Um, and I think that's kind of the core of what we're doing is we're we're embracing that ability to make, to create, to, to build things again, you know, and we're having fun with it. Another thing we do is the fogs, which are forward operating galleries. It's been one of our really cool programs that we started. We go into spaces. We did one in U of H Clear Lake, we did one at Artist Gallery up in the woodlands. We've got another one coming up with Spring Street Studios and we bring in artwork, usually from our veteran community. Sometimes we'll take stuff from family members or really dedicated supporters.

Speaker 2: 45:09

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 45:11

And we hang that art in that space for a certain amount of time. You know, it's just like a Ford operating base. It's not intended to be permanent, right, it's a, it's a found space, it's a Ford operating gallery and it gives an opportunity for artists who may not have more traditional means of getting their work into a gallery, an opportunity to show their art in the community and to have their friends and family come and see it and to see their stuff up on a wall with a light on it, right.

Speaker 2: 45:41

And is that? Is that available for purchase?

Speaker 3: 45:45

So we don't, we don't charge we. What we do is a a small application fee. It's usually around ten dollars.

Speaker 2: 45:54

No, let's say I'm in the gallery and I see some they're busy in the gallery. I got you Sorry.

Speaker 3: 46:00

It depends on the venue. So, some venues. They don't want to deal with having to try to manage money and get people in touch with the artists and stuff like that. But we always try to put some way of contacting the website or QR code or something, so that if somebody wants to buy that art they can get a hold of the artist. But some galleries do like artist gallery. You could sell your stuff there. I sold a piece.

Speaker 2: 46:25

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3: 46:25

Yeah, I was real happy.

Speaker 2: 46:26

That's awesome.

Speaker 3: 46:28

So that is location specific.

Speaker 2: 46:31

OK.

Speaker 3: 46:31

I do always ask because I want the artist to have that opportunity.

Speaker 2: 46:35

Right.

Speaker 3: 46:35

I'm a big believer that artists should get paid, of course, for their art, you know, for their skills and for their time. But yeah, it's specific to the location.

Speaker 4: 46:46

So I've participated in one of the kind of pop up for operating galleries and I mean it was kind of a very short notice. It's like in this one for me. I was like, hey, I'm going to do this. And then I was like, oh shit, I'm going to be doing this, people are going to look at my stuff and they're going to judge my stuff. And I say judge. You know, that was my perception and I brought I think they, they allowed me a few pieces and I brought, brought some variety of things and it was really eye opening to me. It changed my perception that that judgy Because the people that are that'll go. You know, I had some friends that showed up and they had never seen my stuff. It's great to get support from them, but then see strangers Come look at your stuff and really look at it and get engaged with what you've done, what you created, and it helps, I don't know. It, just like I said, changed my perception.

Speaker 4: 47:59

I was like, ok, so people can come to a gallery and they can look at my stuff and they don't feel like oh, that is just you know my 12 year old could have done that.

Speaker 4: 48:11

You call this art, right, right, I mean. And I was, I was really really I did not know. And I know Amelia she was. I flooded her with questions. I was like what do I do? What about this? How do I? And she's like just come, we'll figure it out. And yeah, and I actually sold a few pieces, awesome, amazing, you know, just like whoa, somebody's like my stuff enough to buy it. Yeah, you said with money.

Speaker 4: 48:46

Yeah, like yeah, I mean OK. And even. How many times have I asked you well, how do I price this?

Speaker 3: 48:56

My price is yeah, and guess what I do.

Speaker 1: 49:01

Google how to price I don't know either.

Speaker 3: 49:03

In fact, that's a workshop that we're going to work on. Presenting is helping artists, especially non-traditional artists and artisans, figure out how to price their stuff, artisans and artisans. Artists and artisans. So a lot of people here, like Chan touched on earlier, a lot of people hear the word artist and they think painting, drawing, maybe sculpting, that's it.

Speaker 2: 49:28

That's kind of where it goes.

Speaker 3: 49:29

The number of times people have said oh, I'm not an artist, I can't even draw a stick figure. And I look at them and I see that they have hand. Or they have designed and hand built an entire Elizabethan gown. And I'm like buddy, yeah.

Speaker 2: 49:46

OK, I got you.

Speaker 3: 49:47

You are absolutely an artist. You just don't. You're thinking too small. You're thinking too small. So one of the things we want to do is actually expand the definition and the acknowledgment of what is art and who is an artist, Because I don't know if you've ever had a really bad cup of coffee.

Speaker 2: 50:05

Oh yeah, we're a bear.

Speaker 3: 50:07

Or a really good cup of coffee. Roasting coffee beans that's an art, because you've got to know just the perfect crack and everything right. There's all these classes you can go take. There's a coffee, sommelier's and stuff A really well-brewed beer, that's an art. Baking is an art. Welding is an art. Designing buildings is an art, you know like you tell me Making a podcast. Making a podcast is an art. You tell me a career. I could probably find the art in it. Makes sense.

Speaker 3: 50:39

Creativity and artistry is not limited to drawing. You know that's a big soapbox. Item I have is getting people to acknowledge, yeah, you are an artist. Man Like you designed a car. Like you designed an entire car right or whatever, I don't know where. I was going originally, but my wife calls them tangents. Yeah, yeah, tangents. Yeah, not a tangent Train about derails and goes off this way.

Speaker 2: 51:15

Well, there's a couple questions I want to ask you all. Ok, so tell me a little bit about the supplies. You said you all do a thing about school supplies.

Speaker 3: 51:23

Oh yeah, operation Game Changer that's our newest program, really near and dear to my heart. I told you I did theater in high school. There is a thing that you do in Texas called one act play. It's kind of like the playoffs for theater. Right, it's our big competition. A lot of funding for your drama department can kind of ride on how well you do it. One act play it's all the UIL rules, just like in football and everywhere else where you have to keep your grades and attendance and all that stuff. The thing about one act play is there's is really stringent rules, including the set you can use. And they have this thing called a basic unit set. It's these certain pieces of geometric shapes. It's like ramps and platforms and pillars and doors, and they have to be very exacting measurements. They all have to be painted medium gray. It's a very specific color. You can only have a certain number of them and it's very specific and you have to use that for your competition. You can't have any other set. One of those to purchase starts at around $6,000.

Speaker 2: 52:40

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3: 52:40

Yeah, many of our theater programs are entirely funded by the teacher, and I don't know if you know what teachers make right now, but a lot of them don't have $6,000 laying around that they can afford to buy this set.

Speaker 3: 52:57

Sometimes they'll have a budget, but it will be like $300 for the entire year and out of that $300, they have to buy the scripts, because you have to pay royalties to use a script. They have to buy costumes, they have to buy lighting, they have to pay for food for the kids when they stay after school.

Speaker 4: 53:13

Paint transportation to the events.

Speaker 3: 53:16

That's for the entire year. One act play is just one play. In the entire season. It's in the spring You're probably doing six, seven, eight plays a year if you're a robust theater department. So there are a lot of theater departments out there that are using either busted old 20-year-old one act play basic unit sets that are falling apart, or they just don't have them at all. And then what happens? When you practice, practice, practice on AstroTurf and then you go to play the playoffs and now you're on grass right, it's a whole different field. It's gonna screw it the way you play your game. Same thing happens with one act play. I use a lot of sports analogies.

Speaker 2: 53:58

No, it's good.

Speaker 4: 54:00

It makes it understandable. Yeah, but there's funding there in sports.

Speaker 3: 54:04

Right, right. And so you same, with one act play. You're practicing on a bare stage. Then you get the competition. Now you have the basic unit set available to use. You've set up your stage. That's been hypothetical until this point. And now you're performing. You might get one practice, maybe if you're lucky, if there's time. And now you're performing in competition on a set you've never set foot on, that you're not used to. It puts you at a competitive disadvantage. And who gets the funding? The schools that win, right, you know. So these underfunded.

Speaker 4: 54:37

Rich get richer, I think, is how it kind of goes.

Speaker 3: 54:38

Yeah, these underfunded programs remain underfunded because they're you know, and it's not always some people like they do fine and they, you know, power through, but it's problematic, right. So this whole operation game changer idea came when I was like, well, what if we built a basic unit set and donated it to a school? Well, buying the lumber, finding the people to construct this thing, buying the paint, that's a lot of money, right. That's a couple thousand dollars in itself. So then I was talking to a friend who's an art teacher and she was talking about how, you know, she couldn't afford to buy watercolors for one of her classes and she was gonna have to go and, like, put it on her credit card. And I was like that's BS, the school should be providing basic art supplies. And another friend of mine was like, oh man, that's nothing he does. He teaches workshops for drawing. He goes into schools. They don't have pencils and paper in their art class.

Speaker 2: 55:33

Wow.

Speaker 3: 55:34

There's nothing.

Speaker 2: 55:35

Imaginers.

Speaker 3: 55:36

Yeah so.

Speaker 4: 55:38

Well, and even I think those of us that have kids have kind of gone up through the public schools and you find is like, oh yeah, there's a fundraiser, You're allowed to do this fundraiser and this fundraiser Okay, that's great. And again it's that rich get richer. And I don't mean rich, but you know, the schools where there's resources are also the schools where parents of kids have resources.

Speaker 1: 56:06

Right, right, right and he's underserved.

Speaker 4: 56:08

It's doing a fundraiser for buying overpriced X. Whatever that X is is not gonna fly If I'm working three jobs to pay my rent.

Speaker 3: 56:20

I'm not spending 100 bucks on a fundraiser.

Speaker 2: 56:23

Good, no, it makes sense, I just don't have it.

Speaker 3: 56:26

So our idea is to start a little smaller. With Operation Game Changer, we're gonna start building these supply packs and what we're gonna do is we're gonna have a little survey on our website and that we can send out to teachers and they'll be able to tell us like what supplies they need. They'll be able to apply for the program and anybody who is approved through the application process and starts small probably just do a few a year they will receive a supply pack with a certain amount of supplies in it. Whatever it is they need, it'll be monetary value. We'll shop the supplies, we'll pack them up, we'll bring them to school, we'll donate it and that's the program and it's really cool. It gives our veterans a second service opportunity, because second service is hugely important. A lot of us were service minded. That's how we ended up in. We wanted to help, we wanted to make changes, we wanted to do something, and then that doesn't change when we retire or get out for other reasons. We're still a lot of us looking for those opportunities to serve our community.

Speaker 2: 57:32

Service after service.

Speaker 3: 57:34

Service after service, and so this is our program that we're instituting, where we can give back to our community. We can serve the artists of tomorrow's by providing the tools they need today.

Speaker 2: 57:45

I love it.

Speaker 3: 57:46

Right.

Speaker 2: 57:47

Is that an active program right now?

Speaker 3: 57:50

We are. We're about to have a fundraiser. Actually we're trying to raise a few thousand dollars so we can kick it off. We'd love to do 10 schools the first year. We're thinking about $300 worth of supplies per supply pack just to get these teachers started. Get them crayons, paper pencils, whatever they need. That would give us what $3,000 would do 10 schools at 300 bucks a piece.

Speaker 2: 58:19

This is tell me about the fundraiser.

Speaker 3: 58:21

The fundraiser. You wanna tell them, or do you want?

Speaker 2: 58:22

me to you get going, I'm on a roll.

Speaker 4: 58:26

All right, and it's name. You fill in when I forget stuff.

Speaker 3: 58:28

Yes, I will, I'll punch you in the and all right, our upcoming fundraiser it's gonna be on April 7th.

Speaker 2: 58:37

April 7th.

Speaker 3: 58:37

It's called Crawfish and Colors, because again we're Marines and it's Crawfish season and Well, and I think colors has a dual meaning.

Speaker 4: 58:49

It has, I went and dropped off some flyers at a location and one of the employees there was like I dropped them off and just kind of eavesdropped afterwards and they're like colors, what if they're colorblind? I'm like you sell art supplies here People that if they're gonna buy art supplies and they're colorblind it doesn't matter. You know, it's just like why. But for me, you know, when I saw Crawfish and Colors Crawfish pretty obvious colors, what do we call?

Speaker 3: 59:24

flags.

Speaker 4: 59:24

Yup.

Speaker 2: 59:25

With friends in the military.

Speaker 3: 59:26

it's colors and what that's our dual meaning. That is our art.

Speaker 4: 59:30

You know, that's what I'm saying. A lot of us use colors, so I was like yeah, I think it's cool. Yeah, it is, it is. I try to be clever with our names, just to say that's cool.

Speaker 3: 59:41

I try to be really clever with our names.

Speaker 4: 59:42

Wait, that's creative, right, appreciating it. It's artistic, yeah, creative, at least.

Speaker 3: 59:47

So Crawfish and Colors, april 7th. It is a Sunday. It's from 11am to 3pm. It's intended to be a day that people aren't already super booked with a million things going on, because every kid's birthday party is on Saturday morning, saturday afternoon.

Speaker 2: 1:00:02

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:00:03

We did a Sunday. The event will be at Senate Avenue Brewery up in Jersey Village area. It's like about way eight and two ninety.

Speaker 4: 1:00:15

Yeah, two ninety. And Senate Avenue and Senate Avenue, yeah, I mean, there's an exit for it, there's an exit for it.

Speaker 3: 1:00:23

It's actually a veteran owned and operated brewery, wow yeah. So the the guy who owns it and runs it is a veteran and I believe his brother is also a veteran, and they have good beer y'all. If you're not a beer drinker, they also have non-alcoholic options. They have wine and hard seltzers and all those things, but they do actually brew their own beer at the. At the place it is family friendly. There's a patio. There's food where you have the crawfish company Bayou Boiled Seafood coming in. That's also veteran owned. He's going to be cooking the crawfish fresh for us right at the event. Every ticket will come with two drink tickets for our general admission and, I believe, a pound of crawfish for the general admission. I can't remember. Yeah, yeah, we just changed it, but you know what it's on the website.

Speaker 2: 1:01:19

On the website. Yeah, you can find out what is the website.

Speaker 3: 1:01:23

It's wwwartistsinarmsorg. That's the easiest way. We're also on Facebook and Instagram, so you can find us there. Artists in Arms.

Speaker 4: 1:01:37

Links to purchase your tickets Links to purchase the tickets are posted.

Speaker 3: 1:01:42

all of those places, yeah.

Speaker 4: 1:01:46

Or even donating. I'll say that because of the programs, people I found that do have conflicts and if they want to support. They can still go through that same website. They can say, hey, I want to put X number of dollars over towards this operation, game changer, to get some arched plastic kids, and that's where their money will go. I mean, it's that kind of thing. So, yes, we hope to bring in veterans and supporters of veterans to the event. Come, hang out, and we're going to have some a silent auction.

Speaker 3: 1:02:34

Oh yeah, we got some good stuff. We got some box ticket Crawford box tickets for an Ashgrove's game. We've got some family an annual family pass for five for the Houston Interactive Aquarium. We've got some one of a kind art donated by a very generous veteran artists that's going up. Some books, yeah, some really nice copies of the Iliad and the Odyssey by donated by one of our board members. Just a lot of cool stuff.

Speaker 2: 1:03:05

Sounds awesome. I'm excited, I'll be there definitely.

Speaker 3: 1:03:08

We're gonna have our art car there. Sergeant Bubbles, I just bought some new bubble guns yesterday.

Speaker 2: 1:03:13

Can I shoot?

Speaker 3: 1:03:14

it. Yeah, I'll let people, I'll let people shoot it.

Speaker 4: 1:03:15

Are we trailering up there?

Speaker 3: 1:03:17

I'm gonna have to trailer it up there.

Speaker 4: 1:03:18

I'm gonna have to rent a truck, unless somebody wants to.

Speaker 3: 1:03:21

Unless somebody wants to donate time to join trailer the Sergeant Bubbles. Yeah, she needs new tires, so she's got to be trailer.

Speaker 2: 1:03:29

So if somebody wanted to donate, is there a donation link on the website.

Speaker 3: 1:03:34

Yeah, it's through the platform Give Butter so that it's nice and secure.

Speaker 2: 1:03:38

Okay.

Speaker 3: 1:03:39

And it's. We have our tickets for sale through that. We also do donations through. That would keep it really centered, so that we're not, oh, you gotta go to PayPal for this and you gotta go for that. So it's all on Give Butter, and the links to that are on the website and on our socials.

Speaker 2: 1:03:54

Sweet. So if somebody wanted to reach out to you, will it be the best way they could do that?

Speaker 3: 1:03:58

Email yeah, info at artistsinarmsorg. Awesome, awesome.

Speaker 2: 1:04:04

Awesome. Do y'all have any closing remarks you'd like to say?

Speaker 4: 1:04:07

I got one one thing. It came from when I was in Desert Storm.

Speaker 4: 1:04:14

You know they had this any service member mail and somebody sent me an article from a newspaper and I cut it out. Very small thing and it was just a quote said freedom for those who fight for it has a special meaning that protected will never know. I still carry that clipped out piece of paper and that freedom that we all fight for, have fought for, you know. I think it is something that the protected you know that makes us something different in our society. So to all the veterans that are out there you know you hear it all the time thank you for your service. I understand your service means more than just a simple thank you. There's folks out there that don't know the things you went through. Peace time service is still service, maintaining freedom. So just wanted to say that.

Speaker 1: 1:05:16

And well.

Speaker 4: 1:05:17

thank you so much for having us. I appreciate you I appreciate you guys.

Speaker 2: 1:05:22

I appreciate you guys and any any way I can help with sharing anything that y'all got coming up in the future. Please let me know. Get your checkbook. I do actually. I'm just just save it for April 7.

Speaker 3: 1:05:32

Just bring it. Yeah, we we'd really love to see a lot of people show up on April 7. You know people talk about, oh, you know, support, support the troops, support the veterans. And this is this is an opportunity to do exactly that to show up and be present, get to know our artists, you know, spend some time with us, like see what we're working on. We're going to have some art out on display from some of our artists. We're gonna have some some art there that you can look at. We're gonna have some artists there speaking about kind of their experiences, you know, and what what we're doing and what it's meant to them and how they got into the arts and we've got one.

Speaker 3: 1:06:13

Guys got a really cool story and we just we'd really love to see some faces out there, to see our community come together in person and hang out with us. Man, like it's, it's a kickback, it's it's the anti-gala. It's an anti-gala. You don't have to wear a tux, you wear your stretchy pants. You can wear a tux if you want to look, I'm gonna show up in the tux.

Speaker 2: 1:06:36

Oh, it depends how hot it's going to be. It's gonna be a crawfish bib on your tux, you know.

Speaker 3: 1:06:40

I'm gonna be wearing my stretchiest pants to see how many pounds of crawfish I can eat. But yeah, that's, that's what we that's what we want.

Speaker 4: 1:06:49

I just want a designated driver.

Speaker 2: 1:06:53

You guys again. Honestly, I really appreciate you guys coming out and thank you for sharing the information and, like I said, I'll push it out on websites and we'll get it all going, as always. We appreciate you tuning in. Be sure to like, share, subscribe. Hey, remember that if you ever need any help, please reach out 988. Press one if you're a veteran and you can also text it and they will respond. If you're in a crisis or you just need someone to talk to, as always, I'm here as well, and reach out to your brothers and sisters. It's, they'll pick up the phone, as always. Thank you again for tuning in and Charlie Mike.