This story contains discussion of sexual assault.
Candise Baker is a Navy veteran and an artist who channels the discipline and precision shaped by her service into her leather work.
"I had this idea of like the Sailor's Creed." Baker said. "And I actually cut out all the words so that way I can transfer that onto this piece of leather because I didn't want to waste it. It's a dead animal, you know, you want to make it worth something."
Baker created a wavy flag design as the backdrop, carving at different depths into thick leather and painting it by hand.
"I really like how this blue turned out on the flag," she said. "My hope is to be able to do one for each of the branches. This one is the Sailor's Creed, and you got the Navy, Army, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Air Force, and Space Force. So keeping my hands busy throughout the winter would be good."
Baker joined the Navy looking for a fresh start, and at first, the structure and stability were exactly what she needed. But over time, she encountered painful experiences that added even more weight to what she'd hoped to escape.
"So I had childhood trauma. I was sexually assaulted when I was a teenager," Baker said. "So I joined the military to get away from all that. The job I did and chose was a diesel mechanic, which is specialized in hydraulics."
The routine of military life helped at first, she said, but deployment changed things.
"After being on deployment for so long, it just felt like it became like the savage kind of environment, like more primitive," Baker said. "Like, there were a few girls, females, it wasn't like an overwhelming amount. And it's not like we all stuck together, you know, and looked out for each other. Everybody's trying to survive."
Baker said she was sexually assaulted while on deployment by someone she trusted, a chief, while she was just an airman. When she tried to report it, she said the incident was dismissed.
"So just being like assaulted in the military and then a civilian life and then not trusting anybody, it just gets really hard," she said.
Art became her way forward.
"So art actually gets me to focus on something else. I get to use my hands, which I enjoy," Baker said. "My hands are busy, then my mind is free. You know, it's not dwelling and thinking about all these situations that I've been in and living in the past. It kind of gets me to be in the present moment, which is a good thing for veterans and those with PTSD."
Her basement studio has become a sanctuary.
"I just come down here in my basement, and I'm just like, all right, I'm working on my leather, you know, leave me alone," she said.
For Baker, creating art from pain has been transformative.
"Life is hard. I mean, with great art, there's always some tragedy or pain that's behind it," Baker said. "So I guess being able to like feel that pain and to put it out there in the world as a physical object has been very therapeutic for me."
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 at the Eichelberger Center for Community Voices.
For support related to military sexual trauma, visit https://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/msthome/resources.asp
