- [Narrator] This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

- [Dalia] In this edition of WEDU Arts Plus, underwater photography.

- Underwater photography gives me the opportunity to create, something that's not necessarily part of my everyday life as a sports photographer.

That's where the excitement is, that's where the magic is and the passion is, creating something that you're thinking about in your head.

- [Dalia] Illusionistic canvases.

- [Robert] I wanna see where I can take and use illusion to make metaphor, to use symbol to relate to different issues.

- [Dalia] Singing underground.

- Whether it's "Carmen" or opera or sacred music, I give my all.

I sing it because it's a communion with you, with the person who's listening.

- [Dalia] And Japanese animation.

- [Carla] You can see that development process, how they go from the raw images and ideas into the more technical details and drawings, and then the final product.

- It's all coming up next on WEDU Arts Plus.

(cheerful music) Hello, I'm Dalia Colon, and this is WEDU Arts Plus.

A lot of people have their portrait taken, but Scott Audette of Lakeland knows how to make a photo session truly unforgettable.

Just add water!

(upbeat music) - Hey, I'm Scott Audette and I'm an underwater portrait photographer here in Lakeland, Florida.

Photography is what I've done my entire life.

I was probably in seventh or eighth grade when I picked up a camera.

And I had a teacher in middle school who had a dark room and showed me how to process and print my first black and white pictures.

And once the bug hit, stuck with me my entire life.

So I've worked in primarily pro sports, but also in the news business.

So I've worked for the Reuters News Service, the Associated Press News Service, still do some work for the Tampa Bay Rays, I was with the Tampa Bay Lightning for 21 years.

And I've kind of covered and seen it all.

I've been to Super Bowl, I've been to the World Series, I've been to the Olympics.

You name it, I've probably have been there.

The underwater photography is an evolution of a relationship between me and my father.

He was a firefighter, but he fancied himself as a photographer with other water stuff.

And so really, I picked up a camera, the first underwater, just so that he and I had something in common to do.

And then realized not too long into it that I really wanted to do more with it and explore further in the field and in the genre.

Underwater photography gives me the opportunity to create, something that's not necessarily part of my everyday life as a sports photographer.

This allows me to go back to when I was a 13, 14-year-old kid who first picked up a camera, right?

That's where the excitement is, that's where the magic is and the passion is, creating something that you're thinking about in your head and then taking it and putting it, then on a piece of film, now we're putting it in a digital file.

So that's what drives me to do this.

- It's not as easy as it looks, because you've got a combination of artistic skill and technical skill that he's combining to create finished images that give him the product that he wants to have.

- I do the sets, I bring all the clothes, I pick out all the fabrics, like the makeup that Coral is wearing today, I picked out the makeup that I wanted her to wear, I helped her design the headpiece.

Like, that's part of the creative process.

It's not just what happens in the water.

95% of what I do happens on land before we ever touch the water.

My pool in the backyard, it's the ideal location for this.

We keep it 90 degrees year round.

What we do underwater isn't like shooting a portrait above water.

Like, a lot of stuff has to be adapted and even sometimes created.

So we're using Canon series DSLRs still.

The downside to underwater photography is kind of the cost of entry.

The housings that you put these cameras in typically cost a lot more than the cameras do.

And then we do something unique, which is where we're using strobes above water and in the water.

And then we connect them with fiber optics and radio slaves and specially-made cables and boxes we've created.

And so it's a little bit of a process, but it just kind of comes together.

- Wow, being photographed underwater is very calming.

It's very relaxing.

You slip under the water and everything just goes away.

It's like meditation.

- Once you kind of get into it and you figure it out, it becomes pretty natural pretty quickly.

I mean, we were born in a sack of water.

- Deep breaths.

You know, like you could work on breath work if you want to, especially in the professional space, you know, a lot of us are free dive certified and things like that.

But for just like your first time, just relax and trust yourself.

It's fun.

- We're in an Instagram driven world, right?

In a TikTok driven world.

And this really lends itself to that.

So we tend to see a lot of younger women.

But as my business has changed and to where I'm working to try to create more gallery oriented stuff, I work with a lot of gay men and gay women.

And their openness tends to make this a lot easier in the water because they're trying to express themselves.

And this water is just another medium.

So Born This Way is a really fun project that I started a year ago.

I had a 15 foot umbilical cord made that goes to a prosthetic belly button that goes to the person.

And the idea is basically that we're exploring how that, I feel like everybody's predestined to be who they are in life.

And so, especially in the LGBTQ+ community, I'm wanting to embrace part of that too and you know, give them the opportunity to say, okay, this is who I am.

- So Polk County, because we're wedged between Orlando and Tampa, right, we don't necessarily get people thinking of us as an arts and cultural destination.

Scott's a perfect example of the type of creative artists and creative industries we have here in Polk County that maybe people in some of the larger urban areas around us that aren't aware of.

But his work's very creative.

He's thinking innovatively, outside the box, so to speak, or maybe inside the pool.

And the fact that he's here in Polk County lends credence to what we're trying to do at the Polk Arts and Cultural Alliance, which is make Polk County a destination for arts and culture.

- I like to say that a photograph isn't a photograph until you print it.

- As a photographer myself, I know the power of the printed image.

And to see his work blown up, he had an exhibit and there were some, you know, 10 by 20 banner-sized pieces, were just amazing to see that.

- All the pre-planning that went into it, from the makeup, the clothing, the backdrop, the lighting, the finding the right model, that's the culmination.

That for me is when I say, okay, this is something I'm proud of.

- Yeah, look at the reflections.

Awesome.

I'll put it on my birthday wall.

- See more at scottaudetteunderwater.com.

Artist and educator Robert Schefman uses illusion to render an image.

Head to Michigan to visit the artist in his studio and find out more about his recent series of realistic paintings and drawings that delve into the world of secrets.

(upbeat music) - The most important thing you can do is invest yourself in the work.

And be willing to take and use what is most appropriate in terms of the skill to get your idea across.

Since I was a kid, I always loved art, but I also liked medicine as well.

So actually, when I was in high school, I had an internship down at Receiving Hospital doing autopsies.

That experience gave me a different perspective on the human body, about being us.

And eventually, that found its way into my work.

What you see in terms of my paintings and my sculptures is not the way I was trained.

Back in the '70s, you were pretty much discouraged from doing anything that was illusionist, like I paint.

You were also discouraged from doing anything with a figure.

But I finally went in that direction.

And it seemed like endless possibilities as opposed to dead end.

So I went there.

I'm making an illusion, it's just a magic trick.

I wanna see where I can take and use illusion to make metaphor, to use symbol to relate to different issues.

The inspiration will come from any place.

You take an idea and you run with it and you develop it 1,000 different ways and explore wherever it will take you.

If you have the guts to go to places that were quote, forbidden, fine.

It's not about starting in any specific way.

So sometimes I might see something that sparks an idea and it goes in my sketchbook.

I might work that and develop an idea.

Then again, it might take five years before that idea which I see in that sketchbook over and over and over kind of coalesces with other things that I see, and it's suddenly, wow, these things go together.

And they make a different thing than I wanted to say before, but it's unique.

Ideally what I like to do when working in series is take an idea, and I'm exploring different things that are relative to that and trying to explore as many as I can and develop images from that.

So they're all gonna be different.

The series that I'm working on now, which is the Secrets.

So I solicited secrets across the internet and people sent me personal secrets.

Everyone's secret is not unique.

In fact, I had very few unique secrets.

By using that secret, not as a an illustration of what they sent, but talking about more internal feelings, developing an image based on that idea.

Some of the secrets were more personal, less political, some were more political, less personal.

Some of the secrets were legal issues.

(laughing) But it was enlightening.

The biggest secret that Americans keep right now seems to be suffering from depression and everything that goes with that.

And so because of that, it became the largest painting that I was gonna do in the series.

And I wanted a take on that being otherworldly and right in this world at the same time, because that is what we do.

Depression is something, you are right in this world, yet you can't take a point of view that keeps you in this world.

There's another painting in the show that is someone who was in love with their best friend and couldn't tell them.

And it was about sexuality and about choice and about also the hiding.

And that internal struggle is what I tried to get on the canvas.

And then there was a lot of people who were hiding sexual orientation, drugs and addictions to either food or different drugs and alcohol.

There was lots of stuff for me to explore.

Some of the people actually wrote again to tell me how cathartic it was that they've been holding this secret for 45 years and never told anyone, and that the experience of putting it down and sending it out released them in a way.

The Carbon series started with a trip to the Middle East.

And I was most impressed by this intersection of politics and religion and the carbon.

The carbon was a part of all the decisions in religion, dust to dust, ashes to ashes.

Us as human beings, we are carbon.

In the Middle East, so much of what was going on was not just about religion, but the religions controlling other carbon issues, resource carbon issues, political carbon issues.

And this intersection where all of this was coming together gave me a notion about this carbon series and then a series of paintings called Politics and Religion.

And the two were integrated.

So the Carbon series was drawings.

And everything I did was made out of carbon, about carbon.

And the paintings were more about the political and the religious aspects of this carbon system.

My process has always been starting from a blank sheet of paper.

When you start with a drawing that has no direction, everything is possible.

And I'll use the drawing and I will make hundreds of drawings until one strikes me as making that agenda hit as much as possible, being as direct to what I want to say.

And then when I start painting, it's still a moving target.

And things are gonna change when I start painting.

And either for visual reasons or for content reasons, this is illusion.

It's not real.

It's just pixels on a page.

And if you think about the pixelization of an image, this is how painters have always worked, only instead of digital pixels, it's a brushstroke.

So every brushstroke is a different color.

And how illusionist you want this work to be is how often you change the pixels.

I'm changing the pixels as much as I can.

That experience, that illusion is important to me.

It's not the focus, but it's how I want to get the idea across.

And so if I want to paint a hand or an arm, it'll probably be 15 different colors.

And I will start with those and then intermix and change those depending on how it goes.

My paintings are not about paint, it was about what I wanted to say.

You take an idea and you make an image.

And I've been fortunate enough to have moved enough people that they will give me a platform, meaning shows.

Whether it's galleries or museums.

When you get the work out there, people come and see the work.

I'll get letters back saying, "Oh, this affected me, that affected me."

I think that's the communication factor.

That's that image transferring information from one person to another.

You're trying to affect someone.

You could go in a closet and make all your work and burn the closet down.

You fulfilled only half of the issue of the arts.

The arts is communication.

Without the audience, you have not fulfilled all the mission.

(upbeat music) - Learn more at robertschefman.com.

Singer Martina Bruno is known as the Angel of New York.

As part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Music Under New York program, she goes below ground to sing for the city's subway riders.

(Martina singing opera) - I know how it is to work in the morning in the hustle and bustle.

One day I heard a little girl sing and it really touched my heart.

It made a difference in my day.

And so I was like, you know, maybe I could do that for other people.

I just graduated college and I was like, what am I gonna do with my life?

Eh, let me help people out while I figure it out.

And so one day there was this lady, she came up to me really, really upset.

"You know, you have a beautiful voice, honey.

You sound just like an angel.

What're you doing down here?"

(laughing) And I was like, I wanna be an angel.

♪ How precious did that grace appear ♪ I decided to take this seriously at some point and not just moonlight.

I was tired of getting harassed by the cops.

And becoming part of Muni allowed me to have a schedule, and then I could really keep that schedule, that structure.

So right now I am at Yale Divinity School where I will be getting my MDiv.

I work as a chaplain.

I gig a lot.

And so that's how I kind of balance everything.

I don't think I would have ended up at Divinity School if I didn't sing in the subway.

People are crying and telling me all their issues in the subway!

And I wanted to be able to be of service.

(Martina singing opera) I tend to like, do the goodies, oldies, but goodies.

I like to tap into the collective consciousness of New Yorkers.

So it's like laden in your subconscious.

And people usually react to things that are very familiar.

(Martina singing opera) Ave Maria's a big one.

Listen, I could sing Ave Maria all day.

(Martina singing "Ave Maria") Whether it's "Carmen" or opera or sacred music, I give my all.

I sing it because it's a communion with you, with the person who's listening.

It humbles me, 'cause I sing, I worship.

(Martina singing opera) I love the shuttle.

I do the Grand Central Shuttle.

It's just less interference, basically.

And I guess my comfort zone, I'm used to being there.

I like the energy.

Every subway has its own culture.

I appreciate it.

Which is kind of weird, but it's true.

When you're in Grand Central, there's a lot of business people, but then people transiting.

And it's a very interesting mix.

(Martina singing opera) But I just want them to know that they heard an angel and they're not alone.

(Martina singing opera) I'm not saying my personality is an angel.

But at that moment, that's what I'm wanting to channel.

(Martina singing opera) Singing in the subway, it could be very chaotic, but very beautiful at the same time.

That's New York City.

(Martina singing opera) - Hear more at martinabruno.com.

The exhibition, Anime Architecture, presents Japanese animation before the digital era.

Located at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach, the show features drawings and paintings used to create remarkable animated films.

(upbeat music) - I'm Carla Stansifer.

I'm the curator of Japanese art at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens.

This is Anime Architecture.

This exhibit features four films that came out between 1988 and 2004.

These films are all anime, which is the Japanese animation process.

And they are all sci-fi.

And they all also encapsulate a realistic style.

So that's what each of the films have in common.

And you know, anime is a multi-billion dollar business today.

The original curator of the exhibition, Stefan Riekeles from Berlin, he started this project back in 2008.

And he was fortunate enough to go into studios, meet with the animators, and look at some of their work.

And he was really interested in the process of anime making.

It's amazing, you have hundreds of artists working together to create one film.

And he talks about how a lot of the artists were hesitant to put their art in frames and on the wall.

They didn't see it as art, they saw it as just its small part of this whole production.

The curator went with the backgrounds and not just the characters.

For example, in the Japanese anime process, the voiceovers come last.

You know, in a Disney production, they come first.

But in Japan it's the opposite.

They have a much greater emphasis on the environment and movement.

"Ghost in the Shell" came out in 1995, and it's based on a very popular manga series.

We really can't underestimate the importance of this film.

The people who created "The Matrix" say flat out that this film inspired them.

And the entire film is about artificial intelligence in the future.

But how this artificial intelligence interacts with the technology, with the machinery.

And really, they're talking about what it means to be human.

For this film, we featured some of the hand drawings by Takeuchi Atsushi.

And then we have the paintings of Ogura Hiromasa, which actually appear in the film.

So you can see that development process, how they go from the raw images and ideas into the more technical details and drawings, and then the final product and the feel and the emotion that comes out.

It's almost as if the background and the environment is its own character in the film, they really wanna emphasize that.

We do have some photography as well.

And location photography was very important.

Remember, these artists were going for realism.

And the director, Oshii Mamoru, not only worked on anime, but he also worked on live actions.

And he thought, well, why don't we do that for anime?

And I love to point out this piece right here.

He snapped this picture in a shop, after he had gone in, his lens sort of clouded over.

And then this is what his art team did with it.

And I love it because we're not just seeing a copy.

They're not copying what they saw.

They were inspired by this.

You could see they added some signage, they added a building over here.

I also like to point out in this piece, again, it's a watercolor on paper by Ogura Hiromasa.

And this one would've been captured on film for the final product.

You see these dark colors here, it has this nice broody tone to it.

But when that transfers to film, a lot of that gets washed out.

But Ogura was a master at finding just the right mix to create these darker tones and still keep them vibrant.

This piece here is from the film "Patlabor", which came out in 1989.

If you look very closely at this piece, you'll see a few little bits of tape across the top.

And that's because there are actually three layers here.

Why would they do that?

Why would they go to all that trouble?

Well, in this particular scene, we have a flock of birds that flies through the frame.

And so we had to have space in between those buildings.

And they were moving at different camera speeds.

How complicated it gets just for a flock of birds to fly across screen.

Around 1997, the anime industry moved to entirely digital productions, from concept design through to the final piece was all digital.

And it was this great way, this great change that took over the studios, especially throughout Tokyo.

And today, there are only five studios left who can do hand-drawn backgrounds.

- Discover more at morikami.org.

And that wraps it up for this episode of WEDU Arts Plus.

To view more, visit wedu.org/artsplus, or follow us on social.

I'm Dalia Colon.

Thanks for watching.

(rhythmic music) (upbeat jingle)