Since 2020, when David attended his first glass blowing class at the center, he’s found a supportive community and an outlet for the depression and post-traumatic stress disorder he faces each day.

“In the first few years, when I was doing this, I was in a really bad mental health place,” David says. “This provided me with a creative outlet that I truly didn’t know I needed. It’s saved me in a lot of ways.”

David grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves in 1996 after graduating high school. He studied natural resource conservation and management at the University of Kentucky in Lexington and graduated in 2002. In 2003, David joined the Army again, finishing three deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq before medical retirement in 2015. Soon after, he and his wife of 25 years and two children moved to south Asheville.

“I was not doing well,” he says. “Things were getting very dark for me. I had tried a couple of different things, and I just started looking at the arts.”

Healing arts

In 2020, NCGC’s six-week veterans program captured David’s attention. Unfortunately, halfway into the session, the classes were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. David was hooked on glass blowing and once businesses began to open, he contacted the center to see if he could restart the veterans program.

“It’s kind of evolved since then into a weekly thing here,” David says. “Whatever I sell on the [gift shop] shelves goes to the veterans program.”

David runs the program with Joe Nicholson, a glass artist and the center’s studio manager. Veterans can coordinate with the center for free studio time.

NCGC Executive Director Candace Reilly and David are pursuing funding sources to expand the current program. They envision an eight-week healing arts program with a therapist available for the veterans. Combat trauma training, a program to process each part of a veteran’s military career from basic training to discharge, is another element they hope to include with additional resources.

Overcoming challenges

Glass art isn’t for everyone: It takes a long time to learn, and glass doesn’t always cooperate, David says. Like most newcomers, David started with a paperweight to learn how to manipulate the glass. A year of practicing yielded a cup that didn’t look like it was melting.

David was hooked on glass blowing and once businesses began to open, he contacted the center to see if he could restart the veterans program. “It’s kind of evolved since then into a weekly thing here,” David says. “Whatever I sell on the [gift shop] shelves goes to the veterans program.”

The studio’s heat may also be uncomfortable for veterans. For those with patience, it can be a rewarding endeavor. Glass artists are continually adjusting the speed of the work and the heat to fit the piece they’re making.

“There is a level of challenge that they want and that they’re accepting,” David says. “It takes a lot of persistence.”

When David isn’t making cups, flowers and vases to support the veterans program, he creates award-winning conceptual sculptures. “Hitting the Nail on the Head” won first place at the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival in May 2025 at the Newfields in Indianapolis, Indiana. The two-inch by four-inch work showcases bent and straight nails, all made of glass.

“I made a conceptual piece that represents a brain injury,” he says. “I was thinking, ‘How many times can you hit a nail on the head before it breaks?’”

Another work, “Spilled Milk,” a cup with milk pouring out, symbolizes David’s memories of returning from deployment and being unable to handle the usual stress and mess of family life. David’s mind associated chaos with someone dying.

“After I had the awareness, I realized I was literally crying over spilled milk,” he says. “I was able to get that sadness out. It made me feel a lot better.”