Meet Alicia:
Artist Alicia Arbaszewski grew up in Fishers, Indiana, and always felt pulled toward civil servant jobs and eventually enlisted in the military. She was in the service from 2011-2020.
She felt like she would be in the military forever, but sadly during a training event she ended up breaking her hip and femur. She had never thought of a life outside of the military, but becoming and being a veteran is just a small part of what she has become.
Alicia is the mother of two littles, aged 5 and 2.5 and she is the wife to her best friend, Garrett.
Alicia holds a Master’s in Psychology and her undergraduate degree is in Applied Behavioral Science. The hope is to one day work in the mental health field, specifically as a therapist. She has always been a creative person but never thought of herself as an artist.
She had never envisioned viewing her art as a therapeutic outlet. That is until she attended a women's program held at Ft. Belvoir while still on active duty. The National Veterans Creative Art Show was the first art show in which she had ever taken part. She thought it was amazing seeing all the art other veterans were creating. In the future, she hopes to keep creating pieces that were inspired by others and motivate others to do the same.
Author Meets Artist:
Before the VA Arts Competition, I had never known the talent that lay within the former troops of the military. The 2025 Arts Competition was my second year entering. I arrived with my wife, and we were amazed at the scope of the entries, all types of beautiful, sad, and thought-provoking pieces. But one stood out amongst the others to me, and I say this honestly, it was the only piece of art that I took a personal picture of on that floor. I glanced at the artist’s name, I gathered the first name was Alicia—the last name, well I just knew that it was a lot of the alphabet! All jokes aside, my belief is that anything prepared as art or performed as an art piece that speaks to someone is truly art. And my taking that photo was my belief in the piece created by Alicia.
With that look, I felt a kinship with what the artist was saying. It’s not easy to determine what makes any piece of art speak to me or to anyone else. I am not speaking in a pretentious way; I just know what I like. And that first glance had me. To my happy surprise, as they were announcing awards I heard, “Alicia Ar—Ar…” and then a voice from a short distance away spoke up.
“Just call me, Ski.”
After the awards were completed, I had been looking out of the corner of my eye to make sure that she didn’t disappear, I walked over and tried not to appear like a creep.
I said, “I’ve written a book, and I wanted to talk to you about licensing your art for the cover.”
After a quick conversation, a few emails, and a meeting, Alicia agreed to create more beautiful art for the book. She is quite humble, intelligent, and well-spoken. I look forward to seeing what she creates for this book. From our meeting, I can say that she has a great many ideas already taking shape!
Other Art From Alicia:
The Art for the Book Cover
