West Point-based artist Brett Winn in his studio. David Macaulay/freelance

A quiet art studio near the marshes in West Point is a world away from the pirate-infested waters off Somalia but painting was always Brett Winn’s first love. The Navy was a means to an end.

The artist recalls how he picked up a brush at a young age and kept on painting. Instead of discouraging him from drawing on the walls of the Utah apartment he grew up in, his mother lined them with butcher’s paper which he obligingly filled with art.

He later joined the Navy and still carries the scars of an accident he suffered at sea. Winn is one of several veteran business owners who were showcased by the West Point Chamber of Commerce when it partnered with the local Veteran of Foreign Wars post to host a Business After Hours event in November.

Winn said he never stopped painting. He graduated from the Art Institute of Seattle. However, after leaving a job as a layout artist for a health care magazine, he needed health insurance for his daughter.

“I had a 6-month-old daughter who needed insurance and the Navy was the quickest way,” he said.

He served for 15 years in the Middle East, the Gulf of Mexico, and on patrols to apprehend pirates off the Horn of Africa. However, an accident at sea left him with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder resulting in his medical discharge. Winn decided to turn his art into a business after leaving the Navy.

“I continued to paint, draw and do a lot of photography while I was in the military,” said Winn who painted a mural at a school in West Africa when he was in the Navy. “I was not selling but that has left me at an advantage now because I have a large inventory of originals.”

“After the Navy, I was having a hard time. I’m still dealing with PTSD,” he said. Winn also struggles with the effects of a traumatic brain injury and tinnitus after the accident.

“It started spiraling because I couldn’t sleep,” he said.

He met his future wife Beth in Newport News more than two years ago. They moved to West Point so Winn’s stepson Charlie could attend West Point High School. Winn said Beth and his father-in-law Steve Guethe have helped him move on with his life. Over the last few months, Winn has converted a garage on the property into a studio to run his business from. Brett Winn Art will be officially open for business at the start of January.

“I needed something to do and I needed to get my head clear. This has been about therapy. Building this place … this was just a garage, a nasty, oily floor garage,” he said.

Winn will be selling his work locally and internationally. He broadcasts himself painting live from his studio to a global online audience on Twitch or TikTok.

“What I have discovered is when people watch you paint or watch you create, they tend to get emotionally involved in the creation of that work and they’ve just got to have it,” he said. “It’s really a neat experience to be able to paint like that.”

He intends to live stream his painting four times a week from the beginning of the year. While Winn’s relationship with the military is a complex one, he acknowledges the values the military installs in service personnel can prove useful when they set up businesses.

David and Shelley Gholson also took part in the recent West Point Chamber of Commerce event. The Gholsons own Riverwatch Farm in West Point, where they farm Nigerian dwarf dairy goats.

Shelley Gholson with one of her goats at Riverwatch Farm in West Point. Courtesy of Shelley Gholson

David Gholson is an Army veteran who always wanted to run a farm. A 20-year career that saw the lieutenant colonel completing deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan took its toll because the family moved frequently.

However, Shelley Gholson was initially skeptical of her husband’s agrarian dream and told him it was a bad idea.

“We were not farmers. I preferred to sip on my Starbucks while getting my mani/pedi,” she wrote on the farm’s website.

David Gholson’s dream of farming a few goats and chickens endured and he put the wheels in motion after leaving the Army in 2014 and moving to Virginia four years later. He still works as a civilian contractor with the Department of Defense, leaving much of the daily running of the farm to his wife.

The idea of goat farming grew on her, particularly when Riverwatch Farm switched from meat goats to the smaller Nigerian dwarf dairy goats.

“They were small animals and I could do it by myself,” she said.

“This breed is becoming extremely popular. We bottle raise all of them,” she said. “They are just as friendly and comfortable with us as our house dog. They make great companions plus they produce wonderful milk.”

The goats are registered with the American Dairy Goat Association. Gholson said their licensed dairy sells goat milk wholesale to a local creamery.

“Nigerian dwarfs run between 6 and 9% butter fat, so it’s sweet and creamy like half and half,” said Gholson.

The farm also offers herd share opportunities, fish eggs from the chickens, pet milk and other products. The goats have won awards at shows.

Shelley Gholson admits farm life can be hard and there is little downtime.

“With farming, it’s seven days a week every single day of the year. It doesn’t matter if it’s snowing or an ice storm. You still have to take care of livestock. The goats have to be milked every 12 hours to keep their milk production up,” she said.

Gholson said the rigors of the Army helped prepare her husband for the long hours associated with farming but there are many things she does not miss about being a military spouse.

“We have moved 28 times. If the Army says you are deploying next month, you have to go. Farming is often appealing to military families. It feels like a way to take control of your own destiny,” she said.

Unlike Gholson and Winn, David Ebersole is still in the military. He also runs an engraving business in West Point.

Ebersole started his military life in the Army in 2006 and switched to the Air Force in 2013. He still works at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton where he carries out inspections on F-22s.

“I started because there were so many things I wanted to personalize myself but everything seemed super expensive,” he said. The 36-year-old sees the home-based business LaserUS as his retirement plan once he leaves the Air Force.

“The first two years were building years and just refining my craft on various different items. What interested me was the artistic aspect,” Ebersole said.

“I can pretty much engrave anything you want,” he said. “I engraved a pumpkin pie at the beginning of the month.”

He has engraved on glass, marble, some plastics and metals.

“If you have a jean jacket I can put it on that,” he said.

Ebersole owns a Co2 laser that engraves images on materials including glass, marble, wood, and brick and a fiber-optic laser that engraves on metals and alloys. He said the Co2 laser is a small starter device that he hopes to upgrade next year. The fiber-optic laser was “the price of a small car.”

Business has picked up after a sluggish period dominated by the COVID-19 slowdown.

“This year has been fantastic,” Ebersole said. “I opened it up to manufacturing.”

One company wanted 200 cups engraved and he also secured a contract with a firearms company to engrave its AR-15 rifles. Ebersole learned about engraving and the qualities of metals in the military. He brings the attention to detail necessary for inspecting fighter jets for cracks to his business.

“In my job, my name and reputation are all I have,” he said. “If they ask me ‘is this jet good to fly because of the engine oil sample’ I will not tell them it’s good to fly if it’s not good to fly. I have no problem saying it’s not good to fly. Even if it’s a four-star general, I will tell him that.”

Ebersole, who is also the post commander of the VFW, said West Point is supportive of veteran-owned businesses.

“West Point is a small town. Surprisingly we have a lot of veterans that people don’t even know are veterans. These businesses are important to the economy because we have standards of excellence and integrity.”

He praises the role of the West Point Chamber of Commerce.

“They have been very supportive and held an event for veteran businesses at the local VFW. It seems everybody did well at that event. It was more exposure for other veteran businesses in the town of West Point,” he said.

“Over the past five years, we have an increasing number of veteran-owned businesses that are starting and growing their companies in the region and we wanted to show our support for our veteran-owned businesses in the community during the event,” said Larkin Garbee, president of the West Point Chamber of Commerce, of the event held on Veterans Day.

David Macaulay, davidmacaulayva@gmail.com