Tom Carlos on Service and the Veteran Art Institute

Tom Carlos, a U.S. Navy Seabee veteran, shares his story of joining the military, how art became a therapeutic necessity in his post-service life, and his serendipitous connection with the Veteran Art Institute.

Transcript

Interviewer: Why the Seabees?

Tom Carlos: Right after high school, I was afraid I was going to be drafted. It was during the Vietnam War, but toward the end. Probably wouldn't have happened, but just to be safe, I didn't want to go in the Marine Corps or the Army, so I thought the Navy would be safe. Well, to make a long story short, when I got in there, I took a series of tests and what ended up happening, because I was good with a rifle and I had a really good mechanical aptitude, they put me in the Seabees. And what you do there, besides the construction work, is you also have pretty intense military training and combat training through the Marine Corps. So I didn't get out of it, but it's probably one of the greatest things that happened to me, because being in that kind of environment and that kind of unit gave me a lot of confidence, discipline, and leadership skills that I was able to use later in my life.

Interviewer: Is art therapeutic?

Tom Carlos: Absolutely. When I first started doing it, I didn't really pay attention to how I felt about it. I just liked doing it. But now, in my later years, I needed something when I retired to replace what I enjoyed—the level of detail and the work, keeping busy, you know, something meaningful. And art gave me that. But in addition to that, because now I was older and having problems with chronic pain and that kind of stuff, and I think most people, when they get older, they start thinking more about their health, how they feel, what their purpose is—that kind of thing. And art really helped me with that, physically and mentally. It's to the point now where it's therapeutic for me. It's almost like I'm meditating, and I have to do it. And it's not just to make the paintings; it's the process of making the paintings that's the most important thing and the most beneficial thing for me. So yeah, absolutely therapeutic for me.

Interviewer: How did you find the Veteran Art Institute?

Tom Carlos: I discovered the Veteran Art Institute quite by accident. I was online looking for some places to display my art, maybe a gallery or maybe another place that could do prints and that kind of stuff. I periodically do that, look for things. And they came up in a search. And when I saw it—the Veteran Art Institute—I thought, "What's that?" So I looked at it, and it was different than any place I had seen before or anywhere I had art. I liked the fact that it was for veterans and they weren't trying to do what a lot of other places do—trying to get you in, trying to charge you for this and that kind of stuff. It all looked like it was geared toward helping people. And I thought, "Okay, I'll put some of my stuff on there." And as it turned out, it became a really good thing for me.

Interviewer: Talk about your art being in a veteran housing project.

Tom Carlos: One day, I got this email from this interior design company in L.A. They said that they had been working on a project for the West L.A. Veterans Campus, and there was a building that they were doing the interior design work on. And they felt it was fitting to have veterans' art in the building. And so, apparently, they searched the Veteran Art Institute and they found me, and they started asking me questions about my art, what I had, what I wanted to sell. I directed them to my website, and they came back and there were some things that they wanted, and that's how it started. And they actually came back—it was three different times that I engaged with them. The first time was October 2024; they bought some prints and they bought three oil paintings. And then later in 2025, I think it was around July, they came back, and I was kind of floored—they bought 12 paintings. And that was great. And then more recently, this last December, they came back and bought three paintings. And while I appreciate the sales, what I really liked was the fact that my art was going to be in a place with other veterans.