'I'm very proud of him': Helena artist brings home first place in national VA competition

A 92-year-old Helena artist is among 50 first-place winners in a nationwide U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Creative Arts Competition, making him what his family and Montana VA officials say is the first Montanan to garner such an award in the event's nearly 40-year history.

Earl Fred describes the win as one of the "greatest achievements" of his colorful life.

“I’m very proud of him,” daughter Karen Fred said of her dad placing high among the multitude of entries in the national competition. He won first place for his “Grey Owl” art piece in the scrolls saw/fretwork category.

The owl was created through intarsia woodworking, a mosaic-type of patternmaking in which Fred hand cut and hand sanded 525 individual pieces from six kinds of wood.

Fred, who entered the Montana VA Creative Arts Competition through the Montana VA Health Care System, said the win was something he never anticipated.

“If not for the guys at the Fort (Harrison) I never would have entered,” he said during a recent interview in the workshop that features much of his artwork, including the “Grey Owl,” next to his Helena home that his parents built in 1951.

“This started off as a challenge — to take something and make something out of it,” Fred said of his artistic endeavors. He said he has done pen-and-ink sketching as well.

The contest for veterans enrolled at VA health care facilities highlights their creativity and their use of creative arts to impact their health and wellness, VA officials said. The competition has three divisions: visual arts, creative writing and performing arts.

Mike Bassett, an outpatient recreational therapist at Fort Harrison VA Medical Center, saw Fred’s artwork and encouraged him to enter Montana VA’s competition, according to the VA.

Fred's “Grey Owl” won first place and advanced to the national competition. In all, there were 7,000 entries from 4,000 veterans at 124 VA hospitals and clinics among the various categories. He received an invitation to the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival, running June 9-14, in Columbia, South Carolina. Fred, who has difficulty walking, said he will not make the trip.

However, he recently received his first-place medal during a presentation at Fort Harrison.

“To reach the award level I have is one of the greatest achievements I’ve had in my life,” Fred said.

Bassett said Fred's win "celebrates the many talents which veterans bring to our communities. It also celebrates the value of recreation on lifelong wellness and function."

The VA’s creative arts therapies use art, music, dance and drama to help veterans work toward rehabilitation goals. They aid physical, mental and social well-being through creative expression and give veterans a way to manage pain, build focus and connect with others, the VA said.

Fred, a published author, hails from Marysville and joined the Air Force because he wanted to fly. But he said he ended up walking 15 days a month.

He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1954-1957 as a survival instructor, stationed in Reno, Nevada, and Caribou, Maine. He ran a 15-day course that trained airmen to survive off the land, sea and desert if they were ever cut off from support, according to the VA. The final two days were escape-and-evasion exercises.

“I taught air crews how to survive off the land,” Fred said.

He said what he’s most proud of came in the mail long after his service was over.

“It was receiving correspondence from crew members who were actually faced with, and found themselves in, a real survival situation and thanked God for the training they had received,” Fred said in a VA news release.

Fred, an avid baseball player, said he had a contract with the Chicago Cubs at one time, “but the Air Force wanted me.”

During his service, Fred played in a baseball tournament in Wichita, Kansas, where he batted twice against a young pitcher named Sandy Koufax — years before Koufax became a Hall of Famer.

“I didn’t get the bat off my shoulder,” Fred said. “He was too fast.”

Fred said he ran the purchasing department for the state of Montana for 34 years. He said he grew tired of the bureaucracy and took early retirement.

Fred found intarsia woodworking at a local craft show around 2005. He talked with a man building intarsia motorcycles from wood. The man invited him to his shop, walked him through the process and gave him a couple of patterns to try.

“That was the start of a rewarding and glorious hobby,” Fred said in the news release.

He said he finds satisfaction in seeing a finished piece and the customer’s reaction.

“When you hand a piece to a person and they cry, you know you have reached your goal,” Fred said.

He said his hands have a few nicks from cutting the wood pieces out of a pattern, reflecting the toil of his work. He and his daughter, Karen, who has also taken up the hobby, work a few hours daily on their projects in their Helena woodshop.

“Karen does better than I do,” Earl Fred said.

He said intarsia takes patience. He has encouraged others to get started by giving them patterns to work with and offering to help.

“To date, I have not seen any results of those,” he said.

They both said they enjoy being able to spend time together.

The two produce artwork for sale ranging from $20 to $400. Some examples are dog heads for owners wanting a memorial of their pet. Others have a veterans or wildlife theme. They do two shows a year.

Fred’s favorite pieces of work are a blue heron and egret, which hang in his shop. He likes the detail involved in the pieces.

Fred says the hardest part of any design is the time it demands. Some pieces have to be recut because they don’t fit right. Every piece has to be sanded by hand.

His woodshop gives him a place to settle his mind and something to look forward to every day.

“I’m in my own little world for a period of time,” says Fred. “The relaxation I receive while working on a project keeps me coming back.”

Contact the Freds at kran13@yahoo.com or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mtcustomwoodcraft.