An Air Force Veteran who once hid his military service for a decade is now helping other veterans find their voice through art — and judging one of Ohio's largest showcases of Veteran creativity.
Daniel King, a lens-based artist and educator, is serving as juror for the 2025 Ohio Veterans and Military Art Exhibition at the Ohio Arts Council's Riffe Gallery. The exhibition features 37 works by 23 artists, highlighting the complex stories veterans tell when given creative freedom. King said his selections reflect his belief that art gives Veterans permission to express experiences that traditional military narratives often overlook.
King works primarily with photography — both digital and film — as well as proto-photographic techniques such as cyanotype prints and pinhole cameras that predate modern camera technology.
"Most of my work doesn't feature military themes or veteran story or any kind of obvious connection on the surface," King said. "But one of the threads that I've been pulling on is the sort of complications that come with finding yourself at odds with what the military is doing."
For 10 years after his service, King said he didn't tell anyone he was a veteran.
"I wasn't interested in feeling like it was the mantle I had to carry around," he said.
Over the past decade, however, he's worked to reconcile that identity through art and by connecting with other veteran artists.
King has led workshops through the Central Ohio VA Medical Center's veteran artist initiative, part of their whole health program. The sessions often evolved from hands-on art making to extended conversations.
"I think finding ways to give veterans the permission to just say what they want to say and make the picture they want to make — you have to give yourself permission to do it," King said.
Ohio Department of Veterans Services Director Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr. introduced King at the exhibition opening in late October.
"Every piece on these walls tells a story," Harris said.
King said during his remarks to the crowd that the exhibition reveals that Veterans share the same complex feelings, thoughts, and desires as all people.
"We Veterans are, surprise, human beings like everybody else," he said.
The Veterans Art Exhibition is on display at the Vern Riffe Center for Government and the Arts in downtown Columbus, Ohio, through December 6.
Veterans' Voices is presented by Wright-Patt Credit Union. Additional support comes from the Dayton Ombudsman Veterans' Transition Team and Montgomery County Veterans Service Commission. Veterans' Voices is produced here at the Eichelberger Center for Community Voices at WYSO.
