WASHINGTON STATE — The statistics on veteran suicide are staggering. They’re at a 58% higher risk of suicide than people who have not served, according to VA statistics.
The work to end veteran suicide in western Washington is taking on an artistic look in the form of small paintings of pets: cats, dogs, gerbils, hamsters, roosters, horses, goats, and even a turtle, painted not by professionals but veterans.
“It’s just the beauty of being able to perform that hand-eye movement and what it does inside your brain, and it creates endorphins, and it makes you feel so good about it.” Alix Frazier told KOMO News.
She created Paws with Cause, initially getting Alzheimer’s patients and the elderly to paint pets waiting to be adopted. Jim Armstrong compares the feeling he gets from painting or any form of art to a runner’s high.
“Now, when I do art, I have that art high where I just forget everything. It’s just such a wonderful feeling,” Armstrong told KOMO News. An Iraq and Afghanistan veteran, Armstrong returned with post traumatic stress.
“I was in Afghanistan one week, and then a month later, I was at my job,” Armstrong said. Struggling with that about-face, he immersed himself in art. Seeing how it helped him cope, Armstrong created Operation Art to Heal through the Pacific Northwest Veteran Assistance Program in Snohomish County.
“The main purpose is to combat veteran suicide,” Armstrong said.
He then partnered with Frazier and her Paws with Cause group, getting people to paint portraits of pets in shelters waiting to be adopted. Holding a small white canvas with a horse sketched on it, Frazier explained that volunteers sketch out the pet for others to bring it to life with paint.
“The veterans were working on the art, and they were just completely immersed in it. And it was silence, and everybody was smiling and happy, and that’s kind of what happens. You just kind of forget what’s going on around you, and that’s what our purpose is,” Armstrong said.
“They can feel oneness with the animal, and they can help us create a community that cares. And no matter what form it is, it brings joy because you’re helping that animal, and you can see right into its soul, I believe,” Frazier said.
“When you see this art, you can see a lot of people’s feelings of the horrors that they went through go into this art,” Armstrong said.
“And then afterward, when we ask the people at the tables to talk about what they’ve done, that builds a sense of community, and it’s just overwhelming, the love that you see being shared at these events,” Frazier explained.
There are no therapists involved, just someone guiding painters through the brush strokes. Frazier said Paws with Cause gets some of its funding from a Washington State Arts Grant and Washington Arts in the military. Together, this pair of non-profits is working to get more veterans interested in painting their way to a better outlook on life.
Operation Art to Heal and Shoreline Arts are hosting a veterans art show June 7.
To connect with a Veterans Crisis Line responder anytime day or night:
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