Phyllis Thomas is a Santa Monica resident, phenomenal artist, and veteran who decided to use art to help heal the community of veterans of which she’s a part.
She knows that art doesn’t solve problems, but has seen firsthand how it can change a person’s disposition. She has witnessed this from countless veteran participants whom she served from 2010 to 2014 as an onsite art instructor. She then expanded the art endeavor to a Paint & Snack which she still presents (on the Veteran Administration’s Heroes Golf Course, north of Wilshire Boulevard in West Los Angeles).
This program empowers veterans through art, by helping the students discover the artist within themselves, while learning to embrace what art is, along with the mediums and tools offered, and ways to incorporate them.
Phyllis teaches this class in a non-instructional way. After taking her class, some of the participants are more open to receive counseling and treatments that are available to them. Her only rule for participants is to leave the inner critic at home, as people tend to be their own worst critics.
Phyllis is keenly aware of the trials faced by veterans, being that she is a veteran herself. Prior to hosting these classes, she was a Second Lieutenant of Logistics. She supervised 135 people who handled drafting weapons above and below the ground, in an isolated program in Coronado, CA for eight years.
In this program, staff were under constant situational awareness, performance, obligations, and duties. During breaks, she would encourage staff to utilize art for doodling and calming purposes, which she found to be helpful in reducing their anxiety and PTSD.
The military has been a part of Phyllis’ family. Her mother was an RN and physicist who worked for the Manhattan Project in World War II. She was also a colonel in the army. In addition, she was a physicist from NASA who worked on the Los Alamos Project alongside Oppenheimer. Her father worked for the steel mill.
Following the Los Alamos Project, Oppenheimer even wrote a note to Conrad Hilton Sr., letting him know that Phyillis’ mother was a physicist, which helped her get an executive position. In her later years, Phyllis’s mother ended up suffering from severe PTSD which had her experience great memories, alongside those which she survived during the Jim Crow Era.
Phyllis’s love of art began, and was empowered by her mother and father, when she was a child. She vividly remembers drawing a beautiful portrait, with a safety pin, on a armoire in her childhood home. When her parents came home and saw it, they didn’t scold her. Instead they went to an art store, filled their car with supplies, and just asked that she create directly on the new art supplies, moving forward.
She painted her first portrait of Muhammad Ali, in the tenth grade. It was a black and white tempered 18” by 24” portrait. Muhammad Ali learned about, saw the portrait, and purchased it from her for $2400. (This was her first sale.) This fueled her to continue to make more portraits, and she even held a Summer job with Walt Disney.
Phyllis’ artwork has been showcased in many spaces throughout the U.S. Most recently, Phyllis was the tenth artist selected, out of 140 artists, to participate in the Annual City of Santa Monica’s Art Fair held at The Barker Hangar. She showcased a variety of art pieces, along with one of her newest called The Price of Freedom.
Phyllis will continue to offer classes and showcase her groundbreaking art, with the hopes of reaching a larger audience to help promote providing more programs for veterans.
To find out more information on the next Paint & Snack, or to view Phyllis Thomas’ art please visit meroegallery.com.
By Stacy McClendon
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