Southern Illinois Veteran Wins Two Categories At The National Creative Arts Festival
Army Veteran, Joe Stanfill, has won first place in two different categories: short story military experience, and digital art.
On August 25th, 2022, the Marion VA Health Care System held it’s first in-person Creative Arts Festival. The festival took place at the Celebrations Event Center in Marion Illinois, which hosted approximately 70 attendees.
Twenty-nine Veterans from all eras showcased their artistic talents and achievements in art, music, and writing competitions. To view the photo album of the visual arts, click here.
The festival opened with musical performances by local Veterans, mixed with live poetry readings and short stories.
While locally, Veterans were awarded first and runner up places, only the first-place national winners are being invited to the National Creative Arts Festival in April.
And that’s where a local Army Veteran from Vienna, Illinois, Joe Stanfill, was able to bring home TWO, first place medals.
“When I first got the call, I was in disbelief to be honest. I thought I had something nice, but I didn’t think it was nice enough to compete with others that have been creating art for a long time,” shares Joe Stanfill when he was notified about winning.
Joe Stanfill won first place in the Shorty Story Military Experience category, as well as the Digital Art category.
We followed up with Joe to learn more about his creativity habits and processes.
Interview with Veteran Joe Stanfill
We asked him how long he had been writing and creating digital art.
“I have been writing since I was a kid. I actually submitted a story to a hunting magazine when I was 10 years old, thanks to my grandpa. Nothing came of it, other than I continued writing over the years, both in long and short form.
Can you tell us a little about your creative process?
“The digital art thing is relatively new. I recently discovered different programs to manipulate images. Sometimes when you take a photo, it doesn’t represent what you want. But manipulating photos helps enhance those stories. I have only messed with digital art for about a year and a half. For the digital art, I used like three different programs. It’s an original photograph, then adobe light room. Then I took it into an AI program. I uploaded the image into the program, and then I drafted a series of written prompts. After that, I used this other third-party program that uses algorithms from the image and the prompt.
It’s definitely a process between one program and then manipulating, and then reentering the image into a different program until I got the image that I was happy with.”
Why did you decide to participate at the Marion VA Creative Arts Festival?
“I think it’s because of my prior experience of telling my story, I felt more comfortable with the idea of it. We don’t get to tell our story often to the public, and I felt it sort of like a duty, that we should take on to tell our fellow Veterans and the community. Even if it’s just a glimpse of our experience, it might help others overcome their own experiences, or maybe even help them heal.”
Why should other Veterans take part in a Creative Arts Festival near them?
“I think there is something cathartic about the art process. It can be powerful. It’s also an opportunity for the Veteran to push themselves and get out of their shell. They get to participate with other Veterans at the local festival. You get to hear stories of hurt and healing. Sharing something in a community or with fellow Veterans is good for us.”
Joe Stanfill plans to attend the National Creative Arts Fest, taking place in St. Louis, Missouri, April 10-17, 2023.
To view the photo album of the visual arts, click here.
For any questions about the arts festival or creative arts classes opportunities in our healthcare system such as guitar, percussion, harmonica, painting, and creative writing, please contact our Whole Health Services at 618-993-4147, or email WholeHealthMarion@va.gov.
Many thanks to those that helped to make this a reality for our Veterans to express themselves. In the words of Aristotle, “the aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”