- Hello, I'm Beth MacMillan, and welcome to "ARTEFFECTS."

In our featured segment, we meet Joanna Drakos, the 2026 Reno City Artist.

Using acrylic, charcoal, and graphite, this abstract artist strives to make work that is imperfect and irresistible.

For Joanna, her sensitivity to the world is not a liability.

It's her superpower.

(ethereal music) - I'm almost creating an environment, a place to exist of my own making.

(ethereal music) My name is Joanna Drakos.

I am a painter, and I live in Reno, Nevada.

(ethereal music) You're just capturing energetic marks.

(brush scraping) (ethereal music) (low gentle music) Non-representational abstract art is artwork that expresses emotions through color, form, and shape, and not necessarily a recognizable image or feature.

There are no rules.

I have complete control.

I can make it up.

I love exploring the world.

I love exploring music, nature.

That exploration and curiosity of the world definitely does come into play in my work.

(low gentle music) (brush scraping) I had experienced a lot of life.

And I feel that the work I'm creating now could have never been created by the younger me.

Everything that you experience and you absorb into your being, it does somehow come out in the artwork.

I feel like that's me on the canvas.

(gentle music) You get into a call in response with what's happening in the painting.

And the painting tells you what it needs.

It's literally being developed as I paint.

The creation is happening right in front of me.

The paintings sometimes paint themselves.

(gentle music) (brush scraping) I don't like perfection.

I like to leave mistakes in.

That's the discernment is me knowing where that is and when to stop, and what to leave, and what to take out.

(soothing music) What you get with an original painting is you have surface and you have history.

(tool scraping) A painting is not created in one instant.

It's a record of time.

It's unique and it stands out from mass production.

And I love using color to convey emotion, to stir something in the soul.

(brush scraping) (soothing music) The process of titling my work is actually one of the funnest things for me.

I keep a notebook.

I'll be doing a mindless task, like taking a walk or cooking, washing dishes, whatever, and then suddenly phrases will come into my head.

And sometimes I can get a big download all at once and I have to quickly go write it down.

That's the creative magical spark.

(tool scraping) (soothing music) (brush scraping) And so when I started painting again, I felt like I had come home to what I was meant to be doing in this life.

(soothing music) (upbeat groovy music) - This year, they selected artist Joanna Drakos for the City Artist for 2026.

We're very excited to have her as our City Artist and sort of representing visual art in Reno in the Metro Gallery.

(upbeat groovy music) - It's extremely gratifying to be recognized after so many years and months of putting my artwork out and showing it to people.

And it makes me feel like it has made an impact.

(light bright music) It makes them stop for a moment and witness the artwork and ponder it and then question it.

It's not preaching anything to you.

It's not telling you a point of view.

(light bright music) I like to think that my favorite piece hasn't been created yet.

I want to create that masterpiece that is still out there.

And I'm pursuing that.

And every time I go to the canvas, it may happen.

- [Announcer] Funding for "ARTEFFECTS" is made possible by Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pearce Motors, Heidimarie Rochlin, in memory of Sue McDowell, The Carol Franc Buck Foundation, and by the annual contributions of PBS Reno Members.

(upbeat swing music)