For retired Navy Chief Joe Pisano, each piece of art comes with a story — from the early beginnings to the finished product.
"The artwork that I do speaks really loud, but unless you understand how to listen to it, you know, it's challenging," Pisano said.
To understand the significance of each piece, you have to understand Pisano's upbringing. He never knew his birth parents and was adopted into an Italian family, where he was introduced to stencils at a young age.
"Because I was in a military family mode meaning traveled and relocated, every school I would just sit down at the desk and start drawing," Pisano said.
His drawing skills developed during his time serving in the military and continued into retirement, when he fell in love with a different form of art.
In 2018, he wanted to create an image of the American flag. After seeing a YouTube video, he discovered a different method of 3D art techniques using drywall screws.
More than 4,000 drywall screws later, his art was finished — but to him it wasn't complete. He decided to create a frame so service members past and present could sign it.
"It's a footprint right," Pisano said. "I realized in the military once we step out of our role just blend into the civilian community it's almost like we have sense of identity loss."
He says this opened the door to meaningful conversations with service members as he asked people to sign the frame at different events.
"The pieces I do allow veterans to come here and talk about their service, talk about their experiences, and now it becomes this platform where I've had veterans especially in the Vietnam era. They don't talk about anything. And then they see a signature of someone they served with or in their command and now all of sudden they'll open up and then you just see their emotions start surfacing it just become as very healing experience for them," Pisano said.
As he created more art pieces, more people came in to chat. He eventually moved into his own space at Liberty Station, where as he puts it, the doors are always open. Service members reminisce about their past while he teaches others who wander in about the rich military history of our country.
His artwork has won numerous awards and has been included in several military events. While he appreciates the accolades, Pisano says it's the conversations his pieces start that keeps him doing what he's doing.
Eventually, he'd like to work with different companies and organizations to create logos that tell a story, like this creation he's working on with his daughter called "The Miracle of Being Different." He invites different schools to glue together the pieces, teaching them a life lesson about being different.
"That's what we do as a society — we try to fit but if you notice there are different colors within the green there's not one exact. It becomes a special piece," Pisano said.
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