Veterans Mural To Be Unveiled This Weekend In Kearny Mesa

A new Muriel is going up this weekend in Kearny Mesa. Like many it is more than just a picture, it carries layers of meaning. It is a work of art created by veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. It is part of a veterans mural project organized by the combat arts San Diego. Here in the studio we have Elizabeth Washburn. Thank you for being with us. We also have Chris Tomlin, a Marine veteran who did three tours in Iraq and is one of the lead artist on this Muriel. Elizabeth, I wanted to start, what got you started working with veterans? I started off as a volunteer providing art classes for wounded warriors. Then NAB psychologists asked me to come over to a treatment facility over on the point moment Naval base. He has opened an inpatient treatment center called Oasis, which is for combat related posttraumatic stress. What is it that drew you to doing this? An article I read in the paper about summaries being killed in Iraq in 2007. It was one of those moments where it was like what can I do? And I can teach you make art. That's when I call them up. Chris, how did you get involved? I have been painting since I was a kid. Coming out of being medically retired from the Marine Corps after I return home, I started to paint again. There were multiple groups of people that I had known that point me in the direction of combat art. That is when I met Elizabeth. It started from there. You are the lead designer on this Muriel that will be unveiled this weekend at the veterans building in Kearny Mesa, Tel Aviv in about the concept behind it and describe how it evolved? Like anything we do we try to do something different. The Muriel, that's great. I love seeing things around the city like that. But when you are doing something, especially something important, any type of awareness for our veteran community, you want to stand out and be a little different. We wanted to create a Muriel that actually popped out at you, literally. A lot of us remember reading and looking at pop-up books but we were kids, illustrations that when you actually opened the book they would jump out at you. I love watching them when I was little, I love reading them to my nephews. We wanted to bring that to the wall. Creating a mural that actually popped out, that is what we have done. The panels will come out in different lengths with different scenes of wars that we fought in the past. You will actually be able to see them jump out at you from the Muriel. We are excited. It is sort of three-dimensional, yes? You describe what it looks like, you work with a group of veterans to put this together, how did that process go? A lot of moving parts. With all that is coming together we made it possible. The good thing about veterans is a lot of us work together and when we were overseas, especially in the Marine Corps, we had to build a lot of things ourselves. We had to find ways to get the job done. That forced us to use our tools, building skills, even when we had no experience and you have to learn. So with all of that experience, no matter what we do it is usually one person there. All of us combined is what makes these projects possible. Elizabeth, this is like a multimodal piece of art and not just pain. Is there some way it is connecting with the community where it is place? Absolutely. It is going on the veterans of foreign war buildings. It is a gigantic connect between the servicemembers who does not or the comic veterans as well as Vietnam, Korea, and I don't know if there is a work to guy out there, there might be. Chris, has this project help you process anyway what you experienced in combat? More than you know. It is nice to be able to sit and paint and build things, use my hands and have some time to sit there and think. Just knowing that we are helping a local VFW makes it all worth it. All of the artist that I have talked to in all the veterans that have worked with us, it is nice to go paint and clear your head sometimes from everything that we deal with as combat veterans. At the opening event, what are you hoping to happen with the public who come to see it? I was a for them to enjoy themselves. They get to see the art as a great thing to add to any business. The public seems to enjoy it. It is great for all ages. And it raises, for one, the constant awareness of what we are trying to bring up when it comes to our veterans, how large of a veteran community we have here in San Diego, and to show that veterans are a very good thing to add to the workforce. We are very skilled and pretty much anything we put our mind toward. Hopefully, a combination of all. At least where people can come out and enjoy a mural and make the city look a little more colorful. Elizabeth, combat arts San Diego, do you have more project in mind for the future? Sure. We do weekly art classes and will continue with art expositions. We have a Muriel coming up with the DAs office that we will be starting, I think in August. I would like to thank you both for being with us. Combat arts San Diego will unveil its latest Muriel on Saturday at 2 PM. Elizabeth Washburn's founder, thank you for joining us. Chris, is the Marine veteran who did three tours in Iraq. And thank you.