- [Jason Kypros] Next on "Curate."

- [Will] Privileged to be able to help a person who went through some serious stuff and be able to help them in a positive way.

That's kind of why I do this stuff.

- It's a great sign to see, you know, a relatively small town that's embracing the arts in such a way.

- My work represents my multi-culture identity as a Nepali and as an American.

- [Heather Mazzoni] This is "Curate."

- Welcome.

I'm Jason Kypros.

- And I'm Heather Mazzoni.

Thanks for joining us today.

We're coming to you from Hampton and the Charles H. Taylor Visual Arts Center.

This hidden gem just off the downtown waterfront features some really cool works from Hampton Roads and Virginia artists.

- And we'll take a more comprehensive stroll through the center later in the show.

But we start this week with a gifted Virginia Beach storyteller.

- Will Smith seeks out subjects for his documentary-style photographs that you might miss if you aren't looking closely.

The people in the margins, the people forgotten about, but people with interesting and compelling stories.

- Will is working with Virginia MOCA and the Judeo-Christian Outreach Center as a featured artist in MOCA's exhibit, "More Than Shelter."

He is our 757 featured artist.

(gentle staccato music) - Something that I noticed about Chris, going through his whole journey, he always had a sense of pride.

He always tried to keep himself in a realm of moving forward.

He conveyed to me later, "I just want my humanity back.

I just wanna be human again."

(gentle staccato music) Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art approached me to do the exhibit for "More Than Shelter."

And I was actually really kind of surprised.

(gentle serene music) I'm just a documentary-style photographer who's just out doing things and I never realized I was gonna pop up on anyone's radar.

Where my mind was going with the whole unseen and forgotten plan of highlighting a community, it was a good union between JCOC, MOCA, and myself.

So they sat us down.

We met.

I heard about some of the great stories of people who just overcame their journeys and some people who just got stuck in the cycle of their journeys.

What I wanted to do was to show that there's not a linear path out of homelessness.

It's moreso it has a different pathway for everyone.

It's a cyclical process that most people don't realize.

(gentle serene music) So through that, what I wanted to do was tell a story about a gentleman named Chris.

To show his picture and his journey in a full view, so you can see that there's different nuances that cause you to not get out right away.

And through that, I was able to just document some of the locations that he's been to in his life or key moments in his life and pair that with dialogue of him recounting those moments.

(gentle serene music) Chris was someone who's been with JCOC for many years.

He's gone through all of their programs, whether it's free dinners, temporary housing, permanent housing.

He's someone who's seen the whole cycle of homelessness.

He's gotten stuck in all the different nuances and just like little ruts.

He's gone from point A to point B, back to point A, all the way down to Z, and back to A.

He always said, "Hey, I'm an open book.

I'm here to share my story because I want people to finally get it."

(gentle serene music) With the community I'm focusing on, I didn't want to say that I was giving them a voice.

I was helping them elevate their voice, 'cause they already have one.

They just need someone to help prop it up to the same level of all the other voices.

(gentle serene music) What I want people to take away from it is to get everyone to pause for a moment, remove a lot of barriers that are out there in everyday life.

You may see one of these individuals on the street or, you know, making their way through their days.

You're in a museum right now, you can see them.

There's no cars, there's no concrete, there's no nothing.

Here are the images of his past.

Just take a moment to read their story and just maybe open your ears enough to start hearing that there are different nuances, to like understand there's a different perspective, so we don't quickly judge them and say, "Hey, it's easy.

Why are you there?"

Just understand there's different things that go on in a person's life.

You may not agree with them, but what I want to achieve is just pause for a second, see them, hear them.

And then go where you want to go with your decision making on their journey.

But just to see that it's not an easy battle.

(gentle serene music) - All I can do is just be happy, be grateful for what I have.

Thank God every day for even the little things.

Just getting up going to the refrigerator and getting something cold to drink.

That's just, like, that's phenomenal, man.

That's, like, incredible to me.

Coming outta the woods where, you know, I had to walk, well, it was, like, seven miles to the HRC to get a shower, to get, you know, something cold to drink and some food.

I mean, just- It was- I never want to go back.

Never.

(gentle serene music) - It didn't actually hit me that I was doing anything towards helping him until we sat down after we all went out into the woods that one day.

It wasn't until he said, "I hadn't thought about it, I didn't realize that I was processing it."

And I felt kind of, like, wow, shocked.

Moreso shocked, man.

I'm just a guy who's documenting things.

You never think about what you're getting out of it or what you're pouring into them.

So I would say moreso shocked and just privileged.

Privileged to be able to help a person who went through some serious stuff and be able to help them in a positive way.

Man, that's kind of why I do this stuff.

(gentle serene music) - Will's work as part of the "More Than Shelter" exhibit runs now through February 5th at MOCA in Virginia Beach.

- As for art in the city of Hampton, like we mentioned earlier, we are here at the Charles H. Taylor Center for Visual Arts today.

And the Charles H. is a showcase for artists from Hampton Roads, including some "Curate" alumni.

Kristin Skees has works here currently.

A huge part of their mission is to support local and regional artists.

To provide a platform for their work to be seen.

- They also offer art classes with one day workshops and multi-week courses on a variety of media and disciplines, taught by skilled instructors.

Learn more by visiting charlestaylorvisualarts.org.

- Get "Curate" anytime.

You can see this show again or any episodes from our seven seasons.

We're at whro.org/curate.

A mind closing in the ecological ills that followed led a small Oklahoma town to board up its main street shops, leaving the community in economic despair.

But art in the form of an annual mural festival has breathed new life into the Route 66 town of Miami.

(moody music) - Hello everyone.

Local broadcaster, Michael Woodruff.

Here's your forecast calling for today.

Sunny with a high near 75, perfect weather for Mural Fest, coming up at 10 o'clock in your beautiful downtown Miami.

It's a free event for the entire family, so come on down.

They're gonna be here till about five o'clock tonight.

And while you're doing that, well, you can continue to listen to some great music here on KGLC 100.9 (indistinct) radio on the road.

(chill funky music) - We're in our fourth year trying this.

2017 was our first try.

This year, we will have 11 new murals put up by 10 artists from around the state and myself.

And then one mural painted by local artists.

So, 12 new paintings.

That's quite a, quite a big thing really for a small town.

(chill funky music) - [Woman] We're three local artists.

Jeanette, how long have you lived here?

- Since I was 15, so, about 45 years now.

- Yeah.

- And I've lived here for about 45 years, as well.

Jessica got ahold of us and said, "Hey, we have a wall, would you be interested?"

And we, we said, "Yeah!"

(chill funky music) - The Oklahoma Mural Syndicate is a nonprofit that advocates and creates public art throughout the state of Oklahoma.

You know, in 2017 when we first started this, we had people from the community walk up and say, "Wow this is so cool what you guys are doing.

We've never seen anything like this."

(chill funky music) - Our first year we tried Mural Fest out here.

This building was vacant at the time and since then it got renovated, was sold, and now it's this daycare center.

The Praying Mantis, that that was mine.

Bugs are cool.

- It's really great to introduce modern art to, you know, a community that might be used to some more traditional murals.

- I like to describe my style as colorful abstract work.

I do a lot of work that references typography and calligraphy.

I think it's like a nice little moment of joy, you know?

Like, not even just today, but, like, just seeing the murals every day.

It's like just a little moment of happiness or joy or, you know, excitement at having a little bit of art brighten your life.

(chill funky music) - That's called a doodle grid and it's just a, another form to put up a big image on a wall.

In this instance, yeah, I mean, you just fill up the whole wall with a bunch of different reference points.

Just to in order to get the image up on the wall.

And then, once I have that, then I can kind of just play jazz and improvise a little bit with the color.

- I have painted my whole life.

Six years ago I finally, after years of wanting to try it, started spray painting.

It takes it a lot of practice to really kind of get it down.

(indie acoustic music) - I don't know exactly where the robots came from.

I don't have, like, some big purpose about why (Kellen chuckles) I started painting them, but I think they're cool, you know?

I've always been kind of attracted to like painting things that I would've thought were awesome as a kid.

You know?

(sporadic alternative music) - Listen, KGLC 100.9 FM Radio on the route.

Local broadcaster, Michael Woodrow, hanging out with you this afternoon.

Hey, come on down to Euro Fest here in beautiful downtown Miami.

They got some great stuff and while you're at it stop by the Coleman Theater and pickup tickets for tonight's music performance.

It's air conditioned, it's fun.

It's KGLC 100.9 FM radio on the route.

(dramatic classical music) - Welcome to the beautiful historic Coleman Theater Beautiful.

This is, on the stage, where the Marx Brothers performed.

Where, of course, Will Rogers was here.

Where Tom Mix rode his horse on this stage.

If you see behind me, flown halfway down from the fly space, is Miami's very first mural.

This is the backdrop that was here on opening night in 1929.

(dramatic classical music) (muffled crowd chatter) - This is a mural that I painted about the history of commerce and life in Miami, Oklahoma.

Miami's an interesting little town.

The economy of it was really based on local led and zinc mine.

It was the biggest supplier of led zinc for the world, really, during World War I and World War II.

And that built the town, and it also ruined the environment.

(unsettling shrill music) It's kind of that eternal story of the good and the bad mixed together.

When we moved here, there were a lot of buildings on Main Street that were boarded up.

The windows were boarded up.

And yet it survives and it's building up now.

Downtown's looking good, keeps getting improved.

We have events like Mural Fest.

(airy acoustic music) - It's a small town just trying to make their downtown prettier.

- It's a very encouraging, just a great sign to see, you know, a relatively small town that's embracing the arts in such a way.

I wish that more small towns in Oklahoma would do the same, because I do think that it revitalizes the community a little bit and it gives people something to look at every day, you know?

(airy acoustic music) - When we first moved here, we had BFGoodrich and it was a really happening little place on the go.

And then Goodrich shut down and it was like Miami just lost its will to live, almost.

(airy acoustic music) People talk about it.

They see the murals and they just talk about how happy it makes 'em feel.

(airy acoustic music) We're starting to take some pride in things that we're doing again and it makes me happy to drive down Maine and see life.

(Jeanette laughs) (airy acoustic music) - Well, the Mural Fest is finally coming to an end.

If you've yet to come down here it's gonna be open 24 hour seven.

They did such a wonderful job.

We want to thank them, again, for another wonderful year.

(airy acoustic music) - Anita Maharjan grew up in Nepal but now calls Columbus, Ohio home.

She has come up with a very clever way to connect the two worlds and create beautiful art in the process.

(folk flute music) - I was still painting during my undergrad and at the time one of my professor challenged me, like, "What can you bring something new in the art world?"

I was taking fiber art as an elective and during one of the project, I used a recycled grocery bags from my kitchen pantry and I started weaving, like, how it is done in my culture in Nepal.

Weaving really took me back home, to my people, my community.

So in that sense, taking something familiar, a historically rich technique from my culture, and blending it with the material I find every day became a way for me to to explore my art.

(folk flute music) Recently, my work highlights the consumerism based society in western culture and its ecological impact.

I grew up in a agricultural society.

We produce very few non-degradable waste.

Straw, that is the agricultural waste after harvesting the rice, we use that to make mad.

This kind of weaving.

It is very specific to my ethnic background which is Newari.

(gentle piano music) Weaving is done primarily by uneducated, home-staying women.

It's very communal activities where they all chit chat, and talk, and then weave all day.

It doesn't require like loom or any kind of support.

The human body itself helps support the weaving.

(gentle piano music) It is passed from generation to generation.

And my mom taught me this.

My mom used to work all day 'cause she's a single mom and she worked in a brick factory and then she would come home and after dinner this was her another job that she would do to make extra income.

And, you know, I grew up seeing her weave and put that intense labor to feed our belly.

And so, in that sense, it's very personal to me.

And being able to connect that to memory living in seven sea across from where I come from it's very powerful to me.

(gentle piano music) It begins with the plastic bags again.

And then hotel bed sheets.

And I also use the tissue paper that people use for like a baby shower and some other stuff.

I'm, like, give me all of that.

I can use them.

And I also have family and friends who donate the bags to me.

So again, it start all with collecting the material first.

(sentimental acoustic music) The plastic bag, I cut into the strips to make it long, which also it's very intense labor of work.

And then I twist the, the strips, all like a parallel strand, to make like a one rope knot.

As I have the quantity and the land I want, I start weaving with the plastic.

I use my legs to to kind of hold it and as it grows, I sit on it and then move from right to left to, left to right.

(sentimental acoustic music) First, I was using it as a canvas to paint on it, which progressed slowly to more twisted different forms and different shapes.

And so, it shifted from two-dimensional to more three-dimensional work.

And now my works comes in different shape and size and they're more interactive installation pieces.

(sentimental acoustic music) And even those bags comes in a different shape.

Different shape in a sense, like, it represents different brand.

From high-end brand to discounted stores.

And, you know, that resembles the informal hierarchy of class and the value we put in objects and ourselves.

(sentimental acoustic music) My work represents my multicultural identity as a Nepali and as an American.

How it is shaping me and how I'm shaping it.

I see myself woven together into both culture.

And in that sense my work is a march to people, especially women from my culture, to represent the art craft and the labor of those underprivileged women.

- Curiosity and intrigued continue to motivate artist at Valentine, who for more than 40 years has been delving deep into his psyche to find inspiration for art that comes together at the intersection of accident and intention.

(hopeful instrumental music) - I started probably in about 1989 putting birds in a lot of things.

(hopeful instrumental music) I think maybe because I just hungered for some sort of nature.

We lived on (indistinct) New York.

We had a fire escape that was probably, oh... 15 by 5 feet.

I had tomato plants, I had basil, I had oregano, and I had morning glories and it would attract birds.

And it reminded me of how much I missed nature, growing up in the bottoms, hanging out on the railroad tracks.

It was all about nature.

So, the birds just sort of found their place in I guess my subconscious.

(hopeful instrumental music) (innocent piano music) The idea of a chalkboard, writing on a chalkboard, is just something that I think everyone can sort of relate to.

(innocent piano music) And then the idea of that sort of basic rock on rock, 'cause that's what we're doing when we're drawing with chalk on a chalkboard.

So go to the opposite end of that.

And, and it's definitely spray paint.

It's chemicals, it's a lot of technology.

And then I had to find something in the center, in the middle, so I just thought it would be the drips and the spatters, which are sort of accidental.

So in other words, the landscape is built through intentionality, which is the lace.

And then a little bit of planning the way I place the birds.

I sort of analyze where I want them according to design.

And then the drips and spatters just sort of imply accident.

So you get those three sort of psychological levels which is why I call them a landscape.

And this is what I've always told my students to I say, "Walk in with your back against the painting.

Walk 10, 15 feet away, spin around quickly, and the first thought you have, go with it."

(paint spray bottle rattles) (spraying noises) Nature has a pattern.

There is a pattern and there is a rhythm.

But the thing of it is sometimes those patterns sort of overlap and then it creates something that looks like chaos, but it might just be, just might be the intersection of two patterns.

(playful music) I do like the idea, and I do it in my portraits and I do it in the still eyes, as well, the idea of, and it's almost like I'm giving away a secret recipe when I say this, so, but I will say it, the idea of the paradox between intentionality and accident.

I mean, it just works.

(playful music) I have this idea that art should be just a little bit over people's head, but not so much over their head that they just look at it and they're confounded.

But if you're gonna invent a language, which is what we're doing, when I finish one of these paintings, the thing always pleases me is I've brought something new into the world.

Something that never existed before.

So when you're doing this you're sort of creating a language and if you create a language that only you understand, because it's so elevated and it's, like, so ethereal, what's the point?

Most people overthink painting when just I just want people to react to them.

(playful music) - We're just about out of time this week, but before we go we wanted to say thanks again to the Charles H. Taylor Visual Arts Center and the city of Hampton.

- They have been great hosts for us this week.

And thanks, too, to you for tuning in and supporting us.

I'm Jason Kypros.

- And I'm Heather Mazzoni.

We'll see you next time on "Curate."

(low mellow music)