Carol Trzcinski, executive director of McCord Gallery & Cultural Center in Palos Park, wants to help veterans tell their stories by exhibiting their art during a monthlong exhibit in March. That’s why the gallery created The Veterans Experience Through Art last year.
“We are always looking for ways to expand our reach in the community and expose the arts to a larger audience, and we were aware of veterans who turned to the arts to cope when they returned to civilian life,” she said. “It was an opportunity for the community to learn more about their journey and introduce them to the McCord Gallery.”
This year’s exhibit, set for March 2 to 28, still needs artists, who have until Feb. 13 to submit up to two pieces to be considered for the show, although submissions may close earlier if they run out of display space. “We have a committee of artists and instructors that review the submissions,” she said.
“Whether your art explores your service or ventures into entirely different worlds, we welcome all themes and mediums, including painting, sculpture, photography, and mixed media,” a news release notes. “This showcase is dedicated to honoring the diverse creative voices of those who have served.”
Last year’s inaugural show was “very well-received” and drew more than 300 visitors, Trzcinski said. It featured “a mix of veterans from all branches of service and many different experiences.”
Only original work – none using artificial intelligence – created after Jan. 1, 2023, will be accepted, and artists must be 18 and older and live in the United States. Complete submission guidelines are found at mccordgallery.org/veteransexhibit or by calling 708-671-0648.
The exhibit includes an artist reception from 6 to 8 p.m. March 6 and a veterans luncheon March 28 that features the Joliet American Legion band of 30-plus musicians. The luncheon, which is free to veterans, costs $10 for guests. It commemorates Vietnam Veterans Day, which is March 29, Trzcinski said.
Orland Park resident Carmelo Schifano, who served in the Marines during the Vietnam War era, exhibited two watercolor paintings at last year’s show, “Thousand-Yard Stare” and “Deep in Prayer,” which shows a soldier with a rosary held up to his lips.
“When Carol asked me to participate in the Veterans Experience Through Art I chose the two images through a very deep feeling of memories long ago … of not only my era of Vietnam but of all wars veterans experienced,” Schifano said. “To honor those who gave their lives, the wounded and those whom God, in His wisdom, came home to their families. In essence, my soul moved me as I painted with tears, remembering my comrades.”
Schifano, who worked as an artist-illustrator at Cherry Point, North Carolina, drawing everything from charters to drawings of engines, still has “nightmares of guilt” that he wasn’t shipped out with his platoon at Parris Island Boot Camp in South Carolina.
“I still see a psychologist – a lot of my buddies didn’t come back,” he shared. “I feel like I let them down, not through any fault of my own.”
He was chosen for his specialty during boot camp at Parris Island after a sergeant noticed drafting was on his enlistment papers. He gave the recruit a piece of paper and a pencil and told him to draw a profile of Abraham Lincoln from a penny the sergeant took out of his pocket. About 45 minutes later, having added shadows and details to the portrait, Schifano showed the sergeant, who exclaimed “Holy whatever,” kept the picture and gave him the job.
“That kept me out of Vietnam. But like I said, I have this guilty conscience,” he said.
Despite not serving in a combat zone, Schifano didn’t make it through his time in the Marines unscathed.
“There was one time during training we had a very close call. Five soldiers almost got killed by a live hand grenade. One of the men dropped a grenade,” Schifano explained. “To this day, I still can’t hear out of one of my ears. The flash of the blast was bright like the sun. A hand grenade blowing up that close to you isn’t like the movies.”
After his discharge, Schifano made cabinets and architectural drawings, worked for five years as a carpenter and eventually went to college, becoming a woodshop and carpentry teacher with Chicago Public Schools. He retired in 2006 and began teaching watercolor workshops, which he continues to do at five area galleries, including McCord. He also became a Franciscan brother of the Third Order in 1989, inducted at St. Peter’s Church in Chicago.
At this year’s exhibit, Schifano plans to create a watercolor about the rising of the flag at the battle of Iwo Jima, and he encouraged other veterans to submit pieces of their own.
“It’s not just Marines – it’s all military. It helps give military (personnel) a credence and a thank-you for veterans. When I was discharged, those men and women from all the forces came back, they were not acknowledged for what they did,” he said. “There was no parade. After many years they finally made a memorial to Vietnam veterans in Washington, D.C.”
He visited the memorial once, taking his graduation book with him. “I did find a lot of Marines I went to boot camp with didn’t make it through the war. I took it as an omen – God coming out. I think if I would have gone to Vietnam, I would have come back in a box,” Schifano shared.
Another veteran who finds art therapeutic is Palos Park resident Steve Kost, who served from 1991-95 as a Navy Seabee in Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 40, the “Fighting Forty,” stationed in Port Hueneme, California. He deployed with Alpha Company to Rota, Spain in 1991, Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1992, Guam and Saipan in 1993, and Crete, Greece in 1994, eventually earning the rank of E-4 third class petty officer before leaving the service.
Kost’s experience as part of the construction force of the Navy with structural steel, operating and repairing heavy equipment, welding and reinforcing bars for concrete work led him to join Local 1 Ironworkers when he got home. “I also found a great sense of brotherhood that I had missed since leaving the Seabees,” Kost said. “Erecting steel buildings is exciting and dangerous work, and the feeling of creating something that will last lifetimes is a very rewarding part of the trade.”
He exhibited a series of fish sculptures and a 38-inch seahorse at McCord last year. “The show was a month-long event filled with veteran artists that I had worked with in the past as well as new friends I made at the events McCord hosted during the month,” Kos said. He plans to show other fish sculptures in the series at this year’s show.
The sculptures began as a way “to pass the time late at night or early mornings before work. I have PTSD from my combat experiences in Somalia, and the process of dismantling typewriters and sewing machines was therapeutic for me when I could not sleep due to nightmares and anxiety,” he said.
He first showed his art publicly in 2018 at a show hosted by Chicago Veterans and enjoyed the “great sense of acceptance” with artists he met. “My counselor at the VA hospital had a firsthand view of the successes in my artistic journey, and she suggested that I share my process with other veterans, so I began documenting my work on Instagram.”
Kost gained a following there, which included messages from other veterans inspired by him. “This filled me with a sense of purpose and made it easier to relate my military experiences to the start of my art career,” he said. “I changed my business name to Metal Health Artwork to send a clear message about why I set out to repurpose metals into sculpture.” His work can be seen at www.stevekost.com.
“I encourage others to find the healing power of art, and by being a positive force, I can be an example to other veterans that something good can even come from life’s bad experiences,” he said.
The past year was a big one for Kost, who celebrated the 10th anniversary of his foray into art. He showed art at McCord Gallery and at Christopher Gallery at Prairie State College, as well as showing his art on an ABC 7 segment of “Localish,” he shared, adding that the show led Disney and National Geographic channels to feature his art during Earth Month in April. Kost also was featured on PBS’ program “Eye on the Arts.”
He called his family “incredibly supportive as I spread my wings and started creating,” including wife Colleen, his high school sweetheart, who’s seen him at his best and his worst. “She knows firsthand how this journey has given me confidence and an exciting reason to travel the country for exhibitions and veteran events,” he added.
His daughter Natalee was key to bringing him to social media, and his grandson recently told Kost “how proud he was after reading about me on Wikipedia and the internet, and I began showing him how arc welding works.”
Melinda Moore is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
