Aiding veterans with the healing arts

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November 15, 2026 / 9:27 AM EST / CBS News

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Looming in Charleston Harbor, the USS Yorktown is a great, grey reminder of service to country. Now a museum, she is the symbolic choice of venue on the Saturday before Veterans Day for the last five years, where artist Mary Whyte holds one of her painting classes for veterans.

This time, 30 vets attended; dozens more joined online at other sites. "So many of our veterans are isolated," said Whyte. "But I think art, especially, is a way for them to be connected with each other – connection with other veterans, connection with community, but also connection with self."

Something missing, Whyte realized, as she traveled the country painting life-size watercolors of 50 veterans in 50 states. The exhibition, called "We the People," has been touring the United States since 2019. 

• From the archives: Mary Whyte's veterans in watercolor ("Sunday Morning")

Its most recent stop was at the Grohmann Museum in Milwaukee, where Whyte showed it to veterans there for one of her free classes in May.

During the seven years it took her to complete the paintings, the idea took shape: "I realized that this is something I can give to others, particularly, I think, our greatest patriots, our veterans," Whyte said. "You can do two things as an artist. You can do art, and you can do good."

She created the Patriot Art Foundation to help. "As one veteran said to me, a Vietnam veteran, I asked him, 'What's it feel like when you draw?' And he said, 'This is the only thing that stops the voices in my head.' And I understand that as an artist. We go to this different place when we're painting."

In Milwaukee that day, Carissa DiPietro was in her comfort zone, painting away the pain of the unthinkable. "I joined the Army April 15th, 1999," she said. "And Day One of military service, I was raped by my recruiter. It happened in-between signing the paperwork and raising my right hand."

And then, if that wasn't bad enough, she said, "Two weeks before 9/11, my five-year-old daughter, Ashley May, was murdered by her father – he was also a service member."

Asked how she handled multiple traumas, DiPietro replied, "I did not. I just pushed 'em down."

For years, that is, until finally she discovered art. "So, painting, not only am I thinking of my daughter, I'm thinking of grief," she said. "It's freeing, and it's another way for me to say that what happened to me isn't OK. And I could do that safely in a room with those veterans."

There is no criticism of the artwork, only encouragement. "You're not afraid of the paint, that's for sure," Whyte told one veteran.

She goes for the gut, challenging veterans to paint their combat boots. She calls this "watercolor boot camp."

"They really seem to respond to that because that's a real self-portrait, their boots – where these boots have gone, the weathering of the boots, the story that these boots can tell," Whyte said.

Navy veteran Jeffry Peterson served on warships in the Pacific during the 1970s. Paintings of combat boots bring out an emotion in him. "Because most likely, somebody's not here that fit into those," he said.

Asked what his boots say to him, Peterson replied, "Welcome home."

There are video tutorials online, and a weekly online "art muster" for veterans who want tips, or just camaraderie. Whyte said, "I would love to see one day, maybe the Saturday closest to Veterans Day, where we have the Great Veteran Paint-Out all across the country." With flags flying, and the message loud and clear that a grateful country really does thank them for their service.

"Not one veteran should be homeless, not one veteran should be hungry after all that they've given us so that we have a home, a place of safety," Whyte said.

Asked what we owe our veterans, Whyte replied, "I believe we owe veterans, in many ways, our lives."

Story produced by Jack Weingart. Editor: Emanuele Secci.

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For more info:

• Mary Whyte (Official site)
• Touring Exhibition: "We the People: Portraits of Veterans in America"
• Patriot Art Foundation
• USS Yorktown, Charleston Harbor, S.C.
• Thanks to the Grohmann Museum, Milwaukee

See more:

• From the archives: Mary Whyte's artistic labor of love ("Sunday Morning")

In:

• Art
• Veterans

Aiding veterans with the healing arts

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