Healing Combination of Art and Music

By Susan Nolan

Music has a healing power. So does visual art. Recognizing the need for healing among veterans, Maryland Cultural & Conference Center (MC3) and the Warrior Music Foundation are collaborating on a new project they hope will do just that.

 A Veteran’s Narrative: Healing through music & art pairs six artists with veterans to work together, interpreting the vet’s personal story to transform guitars into art. Each pair will use various artistic media—acrylics, pen and ink, photography—to transform two guitars into playable works of art.

 “Our goal is to show how art and music can be healing,” says Riley Hoaglin, MC3’s Art Administrator. 

The program launched in late February and the teams will be working until September to complete their projects. Then, MC3 will install the guitars as a public art exhibition. Once the exhibit closes, six of the guitars will be given to the veterans. The other six will be auctioned with proceeds benefiting MC3 and Warrior Music Foundation. 

“Both acoustic and electric guitars were made available to the teams,” says Hoaglin. “The guitars were donated to the Warrior Music Foundation. They offer a variety of music classes and songwriting classes to veterans.”

Comacell Brown Jr., (aka Cell Spitfire) an Annapolis artist best known for The Walking Man mural on West Street and the Carr’s Beach mural on MC3’s grounds, is one of the artists participating. He says the project resonated with him because his father, uncle, and late grandfather all served in the Army. He has been paired with his girlfriend, Letia Smith, an Army veteran who served for over eight years.

Smith, a proud Baltimore native currently residing in Annapolis, is an artist in her own right. “Letia has worked with me on all my big projects,” says Brown. The couple primarily works in acrylic, spray paint, marker, and fabric paints. 

With six months to complete the project, the couple is still conceptualizing. “We are still at that dreaming and sketching phase,” Brown says.

Veterans and artists have been selected and guitars have been donated and distributed, but Hoaglin says there are still ways for the public to be involved. “We are looking for sponsors,” she says. “Individuals and businesses can sponsor a guitar for $250.” The money helps offset costs incurred by the participants, and in return, sponsors will be recognized on MC3’s and Warrior Music Foundation’s print and electronic media.  

For more information about sponsorship, email [email protected].