Iraq Veteran with PTSD shows talent as artist

Army veteran designs new beer cans for Rock Bridge Brewing Co.
Missourian
BY PETER MAREK
Thursday, January 9, 2014

Curtis Bean displays his art at the BLACKOUT art show in Denver in September. Bean has created the artwork for the can design of two Rock Bridge Brewing Co. beers.
COURTSEY OF CURTIS BEAN AND BLACKOUT

COLUMBIA — When Curtis Bean exhausted the traditional methods for coping with post-traumatic stress disorder after coming back from Iraq, he found artistic inspiration in a quote from the book "American Psycho."

"You can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable ... I simply am not there."

That is part of the Bret Easton Ellisquote he used as the background of his first artwork: a painting of a man screaming.

Bean, an Army veteran, has moved on to some lighter subjects since then. He recently completed the artwork for the cans of two Rock Bridge Brewing Co. beers. The new cans will be introduced in late February.

After returning in 2007 from his second tour in Iraq as a sniper for the U.S. Army, Bean found himself struggling with PTSD.

"I didn't know how to deal with it," he said. "I went into inpatient care and was looking for other ways to help."

In 2010 while living in Florida, he picked up a paintbrush to see how his thoughts translated onto paper.
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