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- Army Veteran Deshaundon Jeanes takes assorted materials,
almost anything from anywhere,
and assembles them into what's called collage art.
- It is basically two-dimensional
with a little three-dimensional quality.
Then I'll be able to cut it with a pair of scissors.
So collage, assemblage is me
taking many different materials and adhering them
to, basically, two-dimensional surfaces.
- Deshaundon is just one of more than a dozen military Veterans
now studying art, with financial assistance from VA,
at the world-famous Corcoran College of Art and Design
in Washington, D.C.
- I'm just really drawn to being able to say what I want to say
through materials,
designing something for someone to look at
to deliver a message that I have.
- Judas Recendez is another Army Veteran
studying here with support from the GI Bill.
He served in Iraq and lost parts to two limbs.
Following his recovery,
he came to the Corcoran to study ceramics.
- I actually started prior at a community college,
and that's where I really found my path
towards art and, actually, ceramics.
For me, ceramics is such a universal tool.
I mean, there are so many different ways
you can really make,
and the process is really basically the same material,
but creatively, you're able to form it to whatever,
whether it's functional or nonfunctional work.
- Every time I flatten it,
the image becomes the background again.
- These students are preparing for a career in the arts
and reasonably expect that this experience will offer them
more than the life of a struggling artist,
and, in fact, their prospects appear to be pretty good.
There are any number of jobs open to them
in museums and galleries, but it doesn't stop there.
- What's come out really recently is that someone
who has a fine art education is being sought after
in other forms of business and industry
because the creative thinking that is engendered
in this type of learning experience
translates really well into a whole lot of other fields.
[Camera shutter clicks]
- Air Force Veteran Karin Rodney Haapala
studied photojournalism here and created
this exhibit of photographs titled "Incidents."
[Camera shutter clicking]
Inspired by her military experience,
it documents her perspective
on combat-related post-traumatic stress.
- In the news, we always hear about our brothers in arms,
but we really don't hear too much
about our sisters in arms and how they are dealing
with their struggle with combat-related
post-traumatic stress syndrome.
So I wanted to put my own spin on it and how it affects me
and my family and my space and how I view the world today.
- The exhibit also includes pages torn
from Karin's handwritten journal
describing her stress-related feelings
of loneliness, anger, confusion, and fear.
- I unplugged the iron.
I have to check to see if it's unplugged
again and again and again and again and again.
- I can use any other material that I want,
but I choose to use wood.
- Like Karin, Marine Corps Veteran Jeremiah Holland
is attending Corcoran with the help
of VA-provided Vocational Rehabilitation assistance.
He's thrilled to be here, he told us,
but at first, it took time.
- For me, coming from a regimented organization
like the Marine Corps, it was about two years
before I really felt like I could, not really drop
the identity of being a Marine, but assume the identity
of being a student or an art student.
It's a new chapter in your life,
and it is difficult, but it's well worth it.
I mean, these benefits are here.
You paid for it with your service,
and you put into the GI Bill.
So you should definitely take advantage of it.
- It's a message every Veteran we met here was eager to share.
- I think it's horrible if, for whatever reason,
the soldier decides not to claim the benefit
just because they have some fear of it being hard to navigate
to receive the claim, but it's easy.
I was surprised at how easy it was.
- They made it 100% viable
for me to come to this school
because if I didn't have the assistance of the VA,
I would not be able to afford going here to the Corcoran.
- You just got to find what really excites you
and what you could see yourself doing
because then it's really not work.
You enjoy it. It won't be a job.
It'll just be something you enjoy.
- That's something each of these Veterans
came to see for themselves,
that in shaping their art,
they themselves became shaped by it.