Colorful prints hanging on a clothesline with phrases like "Art lives in all of us" and "Art heals the heart."

Path with Art: Reimagining a Way Forward

From singing to visual art, veterans use creative expression to transform their lives

Grantee Spotlight

(External link)Path with Art is a nonprofit organization in Seattle, Washington, that fosters the restoration of individuals, groups, and society from the effects of trauma through art and community engagement. Their programs bring dignity, awareness, and healing to individuals experiencing homelessness and recovering from trauma, including military veterans. Path with Art began working with veterans in 2019 after learning that they represent 11% of the unhoused population in the greater Seattle area. Today, their programs serve hundreds of veterans through in-person and online art classes.

In 2022, Path with Art was awarded a Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant to support veteran-specific art programs across visual, vocal, theater, and literature arts. Their trauma-informed classes are welcoming and non-judgmental, offering veterans access to the transformative power of the arts in the community with other veterans.

What follows are the stories of three veteran grant participants—Sarah Blum, a U.S. Army nurse and Vietnam veteran, Michelle Murray, a U.S. Army veteran, and Luz Helena Thompson, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran—who have all experienced the positive impact of Path with Arts’ community arts programs first-hand.

Five colorful, textured masks are arranged on stands on a table. From left to right, the masks feature themes of flora, a hooded red face, delicate floral designs, earthy textures, and a clock motif.
A selection of masks made by teaching artist Luz Thompson on display at Path with Art, a Creative Forces grant recipient. Photo by Sarah Westlake

As a writer and visual artist, I realized the significance of art’s impact when you give people permission to take something so painful and give it a tangible space to live outside themselves. To step back and see I wasn’t the only one who went through this, and these people who made the masks, these other veterans, it was like they were saying the same thing I was, but differently.

Luz Helena Thompson, U.S. Marine Corps veteran and Path with Art teaching artist

A Path Forward with Art

Participant Spotlight:

A white woman with long gray hair in two braids holds her US Army uniform and combat boots.
U.S. Army veteran Sarah Blum holding her uniform. Photo by by Sarah Westlake

Sarah Blum

Sarah Blum is a U.S. Army veteran, writer, singer, actor, and retired nurse psychotherapist living in Washington State. Sarah joined the Army when she was 26 years old, taking only a duffel bag and her ukulele. For a year, she tended to wounded soldiers 16-20 hours a day and sang with her comrades whenever she could. While serving as an operating room nurse at the 12th Evacuation Hospital at Cu Chi, Vietnam, Sarah received the Army Commendation Medal. She was also awarded the Certificate of Achievement from Madigan General Hospital when she completed her tour there as head nurse of the orthopedic ward, the highest award for any nurse.

In 2019, Sarah began taking writing classes at Path With Art and joined the Veterans Choir Since then, she has taken multiple classes in painting, singing, acting, music, and writing. Sarah completed her book, (External link)Warrior Nurse: PTSD and Healing , due out March 6, 2025, because of the support she received from Path With Art.

Michelle Murray

Michelle Murray is a U.S. Army veteran, writer, and poet from Detroit, MI, now living in Washington State. She entered the Army at the age of 17, partially as a way to remove herself from a violent home life. Just a few months after she enlisted, her first love committed suicide, absolutely devastating her. Michelle had been a writer and storyteller ever since she was a young child, but after this traumatic event, she couldn’t write anymore. It wasn’t until — nearly thirty years later — that Michelle began writing again after taking a class at Path with Art.

A white woman with sunglasses and gray hair stands on a residential street holding a tall wooden walking sticks and two large dogs on leashes.
Michelle Murray, a U.S. Army veteran walks her dogs near her home. PHOTO BY SARAH WESTLAKE
Latina woman with long wavy brown hair and large hoop earrings looking off to the right. She is wearing a patterned top, and is sitting in a sunny room with large windows.
U.S. Marine Corps veteran Luz Helena Thompson being interviewed for a film about how she participates with Path with Art, a Creative Forces grant recipient. PHOTO BY CHRIS RAHM

Luz Helena Thompson

Luz Helena Thompson is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, a professional glass mosaic artist, and a teaching artist at Path with Art. She lives in Southern California with her Marine veteran husband, children, and service dog. Luz joined the Marines in 1998 after graduating high school and was stationed in Okinawa, Japan. After leaving the Marines in June 2000, Luz turned to visual art to address the trauma she experienced on active duty. Luz is now a steering committee member at Path with Art and teaches mask-making for invisible wounds, design thinking for creative expression, and watercolor classes.

Knowing you are not alone

Path with Art had already been thinking of ways to support veterans when the Seattle Opera asked them to help create a chamber opera based on interviews with veterans. This collaboration led to the formation of a veterans choir and partnership with the (External link)Seattle Vet Center . Participants who joined the choir started taking other Path with Art classes like ceramics, wood-turning, painting, and poetry. Path with Art recognized the unique power of veterans building community with and being taught by fellow veterans.

Luz first came to Path with Art as a Teaching Artist after working professionally as an independent artist and middle-school glass mosaic teacher. Because of her passion for art as a therapeutic outlet for veterans’ healing and storytelling, she joined the veteran steering committee and continues teaching in the veteran program for Path with Art. Through her teaching, she uses design thinking for creative expression, encouraging veterans to create meaningful projects.

A choir group reherses in a large room with vaulted ceilings and picture windows.
Rehearsal at the Seattle Opera House of the Veteran’s Choir, a program created by Path with Art, a Creative Forces grant recipient. photo by sarah westlake

This journey back to myself led me to Path with Art, where I rediscovered the power of artistic camaraderie. About half of it is the art, but the other half is the people, the community, the support, and the love.

Sarah Blum, U.S. Army veteran and Path with Art program participant
Two women wearing hats are seated while looking off to the right side. The woman on the left is holding an open songbook in her left hand.
Veteran Sarah L. Blum during a rehearsal of the Seattle Opera Veterans Choir, presented in partnership with Community Engagement grant recipient Path with Art. Photo by Philip Newton for Seattle Opera

Colors, chapters, and chords

Path with Art offers classes and programs in multiple art forms, such as painting, writing, photography, and music, so each participant can find the art form that speaks to them.

For Sarah, playing the ukulele while she was stationed in Vietnam provided an opportunity for emotional release and healing. She found that same release and healing almost 30 years later when she started taking classes at Path with Art, saying: “I was so happy to be back with my brothers. Being around the other veterans and all the wonderful people at Path With Art gave me the emotional support I needed to help me keep going.”

For Michelle, a single writing class unlocked her former storyteller self: “When a soldier gets out of the military, they should automatically be given an art class. There are already so many difficulties becoming a civilian that having art and having that way to express yourself, I think, would really help a lot of veterans make the transition a little bit more smoothly.”

For Luz, visual art enabled her to fully come to terms with everything that had happened while she was serving overseas; and to express herself: “In the military, we all wear the same uniforms. The idea of self-expression and identity is you are part of a collective identity. I realize I’m a very different person now that I am free to be who I am and express myself in the way I want, which is so different than in the military.”

People seated around a large white table engaged in painting and crafts inside a bright room with huge windows. A person in the foreground wears a shirt with inspirational text about art.
Participants at a drop-in art class at Path with Art, a Creative Forces grant recipient, in Seattle, WA. PHOTO BY SARAH WESTLAKE

The resilience of women warriors

For Sarah, Path with Art classes became one of her conduits for healing and transformation. By exploring her story and identity through writing and music, she began to be able to talk about her journey: “It was around the time when I started having some problems in my body that doctors couldn’t figure out when I started working with the Veterans Choir. I was one of the few women with all these big guy voices, and I was so happy to be back with my brothers. Being around the other veterans and all the wonderful people at Path With Art gave me the emotional support I needed to help me keep going.”

Trauma from military service can take many different forms. Speaking about the effects her own traumatic experience had on her, Luz said, “I lived with some of the most severe PTSD, not even knowing what it was….Visual art is what allowed me to begin to unravel some of that and share my story.“ [The VA defines Military sexual trauma (MST) as “sexual assault or sexual harassment experienced during military service. About 1 in 3 women veterans tell their VA health care provider they experienced sexual harassment or assault while in the military.”1] In Luz’s case, visual art gave her the means, and the permission, to “…explore some really difficult stuff, military sexual trauma, trauma (and the long road to recovery) and PTSD. This is unique to art as a whole. It opens a door to see more than just the person on the outside.”

As a veteran who hasn’t given up on herself despite a long battle with depression and PTSD, Michelle has found healing and connection through the arts. “Through that connection, I began to see that I have value. And in those moments when I don’t believe I have value or anything to offer because depression is whispering in my ear that I’m worthless…the Path with Art community, both staff and participants, show me in ways big and small that I matter. I want other veterans to see…that art can help them in ways that go far beyond the medium. It can provide human connection, a community of like-minded people, an understanding of the difficulty others have faced and use art for expression, meaning and connecting with others through art.”

A collection of military memorabilia, patches, and medals sits on a white shelf. One patch reads Puget Sound Honor Flight, another says Improvise Adapt Overcome. A framed photo of two people is in the background.
Various medals, memorabilia, and photographs on display in U.S. Army veteran Sarah Blum’s home. PHOTO BY SARAH WESTLAKE

“Everybody says, “What does it take to be a soldier?” We’re willing to put our life on the line to defend our country. That willingness is the true mark of a soldier because we always want to be of service. That’s the greatest way for veterans to find the healing that they’re looking for. “

Michelle Murray, U.S. Army veteran and Path with Art participant

References

  1. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.”Creating a Safe Space for women Veterans at VA.” U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website, March 20, 2024. (External link)https://www.va.gov/sheridan-health-care/stories/creating-a-safe-space-for-women-veterans-at-va/#:~:text=About%201%20in%203%20women,women%20can%20experience%20sexual%20violence.