Coming up next on Gallery America, we meet Amy Sanders de Melo, a ceramic artist that crafts artworks featuring invisible words of belonging and hope.

That and more coming up now.

Hello, Oklahoma.

Welcome to Gallery America I'm Jonathan Thompson.

Today we're headed to Tulsa to meet ceramic artist Amy Sanders de Melo.

Ceramics has been aroun for tens of thousands of years, but Amy has found that embracing this practice still has a lo to offer us in the modern day.

She uses it to find peace, strength and stillness in the face of the hectic modern worl and her own personal challenges.

Take a look.

it's really important for me to ground myself.

I don't have solutions for many problems in our society and world.

And I think about those problems, it just feels so hard and heavy sometimes.

if I focus on here and now, that, at least for me is really important as a human being is just feeling purposeful and feeling capable.

Ceramics.

It's kind of an intensive process I learned early on not to get attached.

I literally had a professor from day one to, like, not to get attached to my work because things go wrong.

at every step And Ill kind of shape it.

Now.

And it's pretty thin, so it might collapse, but I'll see if I can avoid it I'm Amy Sanders De Melo, Im a ceramic artist based in Tulsa Oklahoma wheel throwing just involves, the pottery wheel.

that's where I create my functional work.

So cups and bowls, vases I really appreciate that time just because it gets me a little bit out of my head and into my body and into this piece that I'm making.

I can kind of just get lost and, in the physics of it Kinda weird looking, I dont really like it I tend to work in batches, so I try to create between 4 to 10 pieces at a time Right now I'm centering which this is the hardest part for most people.

I grew up on a farm, so I was very active and very much about problem solving and there's always this feel about manual labor to me.

And just knowing that you can kind of create something for yourself or for your loved one.

Im kind of a maniac because I like really thin walls.

Which can be my downfall sometimes.

Just gonna do that kind of it.

But those textures will just leave, like, spaces where the glaze can pull, and in some cases, like, it's just a really nice, variation, like for where you can hold a piece.

the way I do this I don't think the smartest way, but it works for me.

afte I've done my piece on the wheel I let it kind of sit to the side for a couple of days.

So it becomes leather hard So, then you can flip your piece over and trim the foot on the bottom.

my least favorite part.

But it's a necessary part.

I just hold it in place by putting these little lugs of clay.

On the side.

the metal first.

You know, it's kind of satisfying to watch a little shavings.

Oh.

What to do?

And then I'm writing, in braille on those pieces.

when people first meet me, they can't tell that I have hearing loss and i lip read a lot, or that I have severe vision loss.

So this was a nice way for m to kind of put that on display and say, okay, disability looks different for everyone.

And, blindness is a spectrum the reason that I bega writing in braille in ceramics is because of my vision loss, which is the result of usher syndrome, which is genetic disorder that I have that' what's causing my hearing loss.

And then that' what's causing my vision loss.

And so very slowly an just losing my peripheral vision and it's kind of tunneling in.

So I think right now I have between 10 and 15 degrees of vision loss youre the suppossed to have 180. that just forces you to adapt and kind of modify how you live your life continually.

So when I initially started writing on my work, it was an exploration of all the feelings, all the negative feelings, all the fear that anger, frustration, and then exploration of all the good things that I learned from having this disease.

now it's kind of more, more into meditation.

So a lot of the phrases that i use are, phrases that maybe people have said to me or things that I want to embody more of like this one says look for a beauty in the world.

those reminders, I think, helped me.

once I've written the Braille on it, then it goes through its first firing.

Basically, that just hardens the clay a bit more.

It becomes like a porous ceramic vessel.

And then I glaze the piece, Red heat is a community clay studio.

with a two fold kind of purpose.

One for professional ceramic artists to find community and to collaborate.

equally And the second, just as an outreach to the general community of Tulsa for people to pursue ceramic arts we started just with a few members, and now, you know, we have over 40, 45 members and a really close community of people that support each other inside the studio and outside the studio.

I do feel really luck because I have a community space where I have access to all all kinds of people from all walks of life, So there are a lo of really dynamic conversations that happen there.

And we talk about anything that is a really wonderful way to stay connected and to feel human and to still feel connected to the work that I'm making.

and then I go through a second firing and I like to use a gas kiln it's a bit more atmospheri than our electric kilns theres something going on insid the kiln that's unpredictable.

sometimes that can lea to failure, but it can also lead to something that's really magical Amy, is a member here in the studio.

But she also teaches classes, which has been really wonderful.

here and now I will start the cone.

She's also one of my staff members.

hired to, fire kilns help mix glazes.

So she's very active in a variety of ways.

it's really important to have someone like Amy because Amy is an emerging artist and is, showing her work on the national level Okay.

I had the opportunity to be a visiting artist, at pottery Northwest in Seattle.

It was my first time ever doing something like this.

I spent a few days in Seattle, installed my exhibition, gave an artist talk, I led a workshop while I was there, it was brief and fast and a lot of work, but it was really wonderful after the piece had gone through the gas firing I'm adding gold luster to the surface of the Braille and then go through one final third firing.

on this level, I have, all the little, tiny guys.

they're just so little, and people love tiny things.

Some of these I put like right on the edge of the shel so that the flame will touch it and it'll give it that like flash of purple.

But typically it would look like this without that purple.

some of them are my favorite because of the color variations that happen in the column, and I don't thin I can ever achieve that again.

So again that kind of reminds me of life.

Like there are moments when everything's aligned jus right for you to just experience the most perfect little moment, and that stays with you.

And then this one's kind of fun because I wasn't expecting that.

And so it's just a little, just a little surprise inside your cup, which.

Some people are some for I try to be like other work life balance between in the studio and being at home when there's deadlines.

that kinda goes out the window a little bit, But I've really been working on gardening a lot, that's kind of bee my big, project this past year.

I think it's just.

A continuation of, like, my desire to have my hands doing things and working with the natural world around me, you know, going back to clay.

Like, why i Like working with clay.

I think a lot about my own childhood I didn't see other kids with disabilities or adults with disabilities.

I didn't see a lot of people of color.

I didn't see a lot of immigrants like my mom.

I felt kind of different.

Like, I felt like I didn't quite belong here.

And I guess my hope is that other children and families in work may by a blind, I mean technically a deaf blind artist.

Maybe they can feel comfort knowing that they could be an artist, or that they can pursue somethin that is kind of like the norm, Just kind of watch that.

You don't press too much from the inside and watch your speed, okay?

You can keep up with Amy by following her on Instagram at @AmySandersDeMelo.

And if you'd like to donate to Usher Syndrome Research, go to the Usher Syndrome Coalition website.

Usher-syndrome.org.

All this pottery has made m want to give it a shot myself.

So I'm here at the paseo Pottery with Colin.

Rosebrook.

Colin, tell me a little bit about this place Well, this, we've been here 35 years.

So, yeah, it was an old laundry cleaner's back, back in the day.

And, when we got it, it was boarded up for three years, and it was perfect place for a studio and, And so we've evolved over the years, and it's become kind of a community I think i kind of gets to your inner self.

You, So you come here, you can be yourself.

You can learn a new skill.

You can't.

It' kind of like playing the piano.

It's learning an instrument if you will, and just in touch with your min and your creative side of your.

Of your self.

Yeah.

This has been a lot of fun.

now we're going to Ohio to meet an artist who uses a common material and an uncommon way.

Artist Cheong-ah Hwang uses paper to create detailed and intricate sculptures.

Check it out.

Oh, she.

Is a realist sculpture made out of paper.

So really a sculpture we see on coins and maybe like stones on the wall.

But paper sculptures are a little differen because paper is being shared.

And then you cut it and cut layers and put together.

But because there are so thin, this has a floating effect from the wall.

It has more dimensional effects, but so it's like if you see, paper sculpture, reliefs, sculpture, you kind of have like little illusion.

Oh, like more three dimensional because it's really if there's a combination of two dimensional and thre dimensional elements together.

So that's why you're seeing, oh, this is a picture.

But and then there's like all depths to i or layers to it, textures to it.

That's what you're going to see.

I came here to the United States as a student and, and with my family.

So, so we traveled a lot.

And then because I was it I had a student visa, I had to always be student to, yo know, go to community colleges.

And I, I didn't even know I wanted to be an artist.

I mean, that's what I just drew in.

This is like taking all classes.

There was like more than 3 years ago in community college.

That's how I started, you know, doing I mean, when I was in high school in Korea, I did like, sculptures with, like, clay sculptures and also drawings was still back then.

I didn't want to be an artist.

I just didn't.

Oh, yeah.

So and then I came here and setting up the studio, and I found those, and then.

Wow.

Like, it's been so long I haven't done these sketches.

And that's where the core is.

Like, I know I love to do Human Figure.

The paper is so expressive.

Material is especially when I did the human figure.

It's just, just muscle tones and like, even I can do the vein and the hair and all is so fun.

And the paper just, like, perfect.

It, captures that.

All that, like, love it.

I like the process of craft, the craftsmanship, like traditional, like the, you know, the craftsmanship from like, centuries ago.

They have, like, rules and procedures and all the steps and, you know, certain things.

I wanted to kind of have that not like much machine involved, but with hands and, I don't know, just print over it.

This is like I have to imagine something and decide to make something and make little Scott, sketches.

And then I scanned, all that and then make, patterns, separate the layers and then cut all the paper and then print together.

Yeah.

And then I frame and then, oh.

Oh, yeah.

A lot of steps.

Just, I love paper.

The medium.

I usually it's not my work, actually.

It's.

This is what paper can do.

I just love paper.

Paper's awesome.

Is speaking beginning of everything?

It's, It's, Well, it's just like, biggest.

There's biggest, like, the best architecture.

The idea there's somebody has an idea.

There's probably drawing on i on the here first on the napkin or whatever.

The.

The best novel idea or the best mass mathematic formula, whatever.

The biggest, the bank robbery heist, whatever.

You know, a piece of napkin, like, it's just beginning of so many great things at, it's just like, I want people to realize whatever it's like, so common things laying around you or even people, whatever, as a potential of, like the, the what is that, possibility.

The sky's the limit.

Finally, we're headed to Milwaukee, where, like Amy, art therapist Amber Thomas uses art to battl the stresses of everyday life.

Take a look.

My main art practice is watercolor.

I really enjoy the release of like, water and pigment hitting a page.

I do a lot of wet on a wet watercolor work, which is the practic of wetting your page down first and then dropping color so you can't really control the movement of the water.

I think most of my main focus is how does this painting make me feel after not.

Is this an exact replica of your reference?

So you tie back to emotion?

Yeah, I always.

Art is just a proces for whatever you need it to be.

I feel like it can be like a tool or a vehicle, even for communication.

Sometimes it's just easier to talk when you're doing things with your hands.

People will even see.

It's easier to listen when they're regulating their mind in different ways.

I feel like I've had so many experiences where people look lighter after making art, and this isn't something they're going to put up in a museum.

It was a 45 minute activity that we did together.

A typical day in the studio beads, where there are therapeutic tenants in repetitive motion, and how that actually comes in your body, releasing positive endorphins, reducing cortisol levels.

So it's literally stress reduction.

But it could even just b like tearing paper and gluing it down, making a collage based on like, the pieces around you.

I think it's sometimes just hard to say how we feel, but that doesn't mean tha we can't release that emotion.

And Art does a beautiful job at that.

I grew up in a family full of artists.

I took a lot of art classes.

I took AP drawing, AP design from those courses.

I learned that art is so many things.

And then once I got to college, it was like, okay, I think I actually want to pursue a career in art.

When I was sitting in an informational session at Albano, they mentioned art therapy, which I had never heard of befor To a brush box started, in my final year of grad school.

That was also the beginning of the pandemic, and people were seeking forms of connection.

And I was like, oh, what can we do?

And I thought, how I always do this.

Build your own superhero program with different communities that they really enjoy.

And I was like, oh we can make like a superhero box with different clothing and people can decorate it.

And those are all about knowing your super strengths, knowing it's okay to have a weakness.

And from ther we've like we work for the DCC, we work with the ACLU, we worked with children's, we worked with Make-A-Wish, and now we're working with Saint Joan and Tina, and they are running an Empower Our, which is about bringing community partners into their school space and learning this skill.

So we are in there running, expressive Art therapies group, and that is really just focused on giving the girls one time in their week to regulate, decompress and build community with each other.

So each week we bring in a different art material, which is, how to use it and then give them the rest of the clas time to create and then share.

We do check ins at the start and at the end of each group, just to see where they are in the space, to not only let me know, but let each other know.

Like this is how this person is feeling today.

So just be aware of that.

But I would say consistently by the end of group they're more elevated in their mood.

They feel like they have this space to express themselves.

And it's just I thin also a good way to end the day.

Like let's go home on a positive note and let's finish our week off strong or so.

Beautiful.

I like how you us the bottle tablets to do that.

I would say my min does not have a lack of ideas, so a lot of the times that it's like I tell people I brush myself this feels like a fever dream.

Like that is just kind of like, okay, we're doing this, we're rocking with it.

But a lot of times to the community will be like, oh, you should make this or it'd be cool if you did this.

So we're like, okay, let's try that out.

This is our whimsical garden kit.

And the purpose behind this goes back to the tenants of, like, creating a safe space.

So a safe space is just a place that you feel comfortable, grounded, regulated.

And this is kind of a fu metaphorical way to create it.

The manifestation kit is all about making your dreams come true.

It's very important to carry affirmative thought with you through the day.

That's just instilling positivity in yourself.

So these are a way to carr your positive thoughts with you?

I think I just want people to feel joy, to feel like they deserve to make art.

People just lack that idea of, like, they could even be an artis and it's just showing like, yes, you deserve to create just like everybody else.

You can do it.

We want people to make art and if we can make that easier, then we'll do that.

Nice.

Not bad for the first time.

Of course.

I had a little help from the instructor.

That's all the time we have for Gallery America.

Thank you so much for joining us.

As always, you can see past episodes by going to our website a OETA.tv Slash Gallery America.

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We'll see you next time.

Until then, stay arty.

Oklahoma!