November 5, 2015 –
Sgt. 1st Class Pedro Rios welcomes people he meets with a firm and enthusiastic handshake. His energy and positive outward attitude are balanced by the inward spirit and an emotional awareness discernable in his eyes and in his artwork. Rios is an injured veteran with three overseas deployments under his belt. He is an Army Reserve Soldier who creates art to strengthen his mind and body as he heals.
Rios enlisted with the Army Reserve in 1995 as a radio operator and maintainer with the 24th Military Intelligence Battalion after earning a degree in Illustration from Syracuse University, New York. Rios learned a second specialty as an imagery analyst a few years into his Army Reserve career. Later he became qualified as an all-source intelligence analyst with the 3100 Strategic Intelligence Group.
Rios moved from his native New York City to Southern California in 2012 for his career with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. This federal law enforcement agency is charged with keeping terrorists and their weapons out of the U.S. while facilitating lawful international travel and trade. Shortly after moving to the west coast, he deployed for 400 days to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait with the Army Reserve’s 335th Signal Command.
Using the little available downtime to increase his physical fitness while serving in Kuwait, he overworked his muscles and developed tears in his shoulder, rotator cuff, and bicep muscles. He said he worked out more than he should have to cope with deployment stressors.
“In keeping fit, I got broken,” explained Rios.
The Army sent Rios to the Warrior Transition Battalion at Fort Bliss, Texas, to begin the healing process upon return from deployment in March, 2015. While in Texas, he took up water painting and sculpture. He showed his watercolors in an El Paso gallery and studied sculpting with Jimmie Bemont, who is known for his “Buffalo Soldier: The Errand of Corporal Ross” statue at Fort Bliss, Texas.
Now Rios reports to his Army Reserve unit, the 311th Theater Signal Command, Costa Mesa, California, daily and continues to attend physical therapy and other medical appointments throughout the week. He is part of the Warrior Transition Brigade’s Community Care Unit, which allows for injured Army Reserve Soldiers to live at home with family while healing and continue to be productive members of their units. Rios is the noncommissioned officer in-charge of his unit’s military intelligence section, where he works when not at medical appointments. The 311th Theater Signal Command in Costa Mesa does not usually have a full-time military intelligence Soldier, which left many of the standard duties and requirements neglected. Since reporting in July, Rios updated the unit’s military intelligence standard operating procedures, force protection plans, anti-terrorism plans, operation security procedures, and he helped upgrade the physical security at the Army Reserve Center.
When not at the 311th Signal Command or a doctor’s office, he sculpts with oil-clay and casts his work in plastic resin. He also paints using a multimedia process to create reliefs on canvas, boards, and other surfaces. He calls his work futuristic. He blends trees and figures together in his unique style of painting over built up textures. His sculptures are fantastical animals and figures painted in acrylics.
Art can be an uplifting escape. Rios said, “You are the king while you paint.”
He has been drawing and painting on and off for years, however not very seriously. In getting injured Rios found a new reason to make art. He found it has helped relieve stress and art has helped him get out of the rut he found himself in with the limitations he suffered due to his injuries. Working on his art nearly every evening and on weekends in his garage, he hopes to move his workspace to a proper art studio someday.
As Rios carries on with his recovery he plans to continue creating art and spend time with his wife and twin teenagers whenever he can.
“I am fit. Fit people usually recover faster because they have more flexibility and strength than people who don’t work out,” said Rios, “My goal is to get ‘fit for duty’ and get out of this program.”