Retired Marine Gunnery Sgt. Ernesto Aquino came back from his fifth deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan in 2012 in a wheelchair with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. The weight of his combat deployments, the injuries and the loss of fellow Marines pulled him down. He came close to taking his life, but the thought of his children snapped him out of what he called the “grip of depression.”
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He found healing in a craft called woodturning, where a piece of wood is turned on a lathe and shaped into symmetrical wooden objects such as bowls and pens.
He opened a woodturning workshop in his garage in 2016 to teach the craft to fellow Marines, and share with them what helped him deal with PTSD.
“We talk about things while we work with the wood; it’s a way to decompress and get things off the chest, like battle buddies,” Aquino said.
Aquino was selected to show his work and share his story in an exhibition, “Journeys Onward: Military Veterans’ Experiences,” running June 30 to July 31 at the prestigious and historic Salmagundi Club in Manhattan. The exhibit of about 100 works features the art and stories of 35 veterans and their families.
“Ernesto’s pieces express a poignant story of endurance, repair and the dignity of surviving brokenness,” said the exhibit’s co-curator Omar Columbus, a U.S. Air Force veteran.
Aquino, who has won awards at the Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange County fairs along with the Southern California Fair, met Columbus at a Fourth of July pop-up veteran art exhibition last year in Escondido and this year submitted samples of his work to Columbus.
“His pieces transcend typical woodworking. His creations feel like memories solidified, sculptural vessels rather than mere bowls,” Columbus said.
But for Aquino, the product of woodturning is only part of the story. The process itself and the solace it brings to people has become his focus.
Aquino first got involved in the craft at a woodturning therapy class that was part of a free program called, Turn Around for Vets, run by the nonprofit San Diego Woodturners. He went on to join San Diego Woodturners and mentor Marines at the Wounded Warrior Battalion at Camp Pendleton, the Naval Medical Center San Diego and Veterans Affairs Aspire Center. Later, he served as chairman of Turn Around for Vets, the program that got him started. Aquino, along with the Turn Around for Vets team, opened a fourth location at the VA Medical Center in La Jolla.
Using donated lathes and wood, volunteers from the nonprofit taught injured Marines woodturning skills to make things ranging from bowls to boxes and, in the process, come to terms with what was deeply troubling them.
That experience led Aquino to open a woodturning workshop in his garage 10 years ago to teach Marines one-on-one at his home in Fallbrook. He called it Warrior Oak Woodturning. He’s worked with dozens of area veterans.
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“Woodturning provided a way to cope with my PTSD and I wanted to offer that to others,” Aquino said.
Working with the wood and creating a piece of art that is both useful and beautiful and doing this in the community of other veterans was a large part of the healing process.
Aquino’s mission statement says woodturning is “a therapeutic craft that goes beyond the physical act of woodworking, fostering peace, focus, and a profound sense of accomplishment.”
On a recent Monday, he invited a Camp Pendleton Marine veteran Joshua Ray and his family for a class on making wooden honey dippers.
“As a fellow Marine veteran and family man, I connected with Ernesto immediately. Beyond teaching woodturning he genuinely cares about people. The classes are about much more than woodturning, they create connection, confidence, and community,” Ray said.
Last year, Aquino finished building his own studio next to his house, because his efforts outgrew his garage.
“As Warrior Oak Woodturning has grown, so has my vision. While the organization was founded to support veterans and wounded warriors, I have come to realize that the need for healing, connection and purpose extends far beyond the veteran community,” Aquino said.
Today, Warrior Oak Woodturning gives classes to children, nurses, first responders, and anyone facing challenges such as anxiety, depression, stress, trauma or life transitions.
“Our goal is to provide a safe, supportive and judgment-free environment where individuals can focus on creating rather than struggling alone,” Aquino said.
“The mission remains the same: to foster healing through the therapeutic power of woodturning,” Aquino said.
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