(classical music ) - Production of Applause on WVIZ PBS is made possible by grants from the John P. Murphy foundation, The Kulas Foundation The Stroud Family Trust The Kelvin & Eleanor Smith Foundation.

And by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga arts and culture (jazz music playing) - Hello I my dear is David C. Barnet.

Welcome to Northeast Ohio's arts and culture show applause.

Losing a limb can be a devastating life-changing experience.

After Paul Leimkuehler of Cleveland lost his leg in World War two, he started a new business and a new winter sport known as "Adaptive Skiing" which allows amputees to ski, Leimkuehler's granddaughter, Katie traces his amazing journey in a new documentary titled "Fresh Tracks."

Paul Leimkuehler grew up in Cleveland.

He graduated from West Technical High School.

He was an elite speed skater and cyclist and competed for a spot on the U S Olympic cycling team.

He attended Ohio State University before going to work as a research engineer at Tinnerman products of Cleveland A manufacturer of fasteners, nuts and bolts.

- He competed in the US cycling trials actually like under age.

So that's one of the reasons he got disqualified.

But I think he was, you know, maybe in the top 15 He won a bunch of Ohio state cycling races and he actually went to Ohio state for a semester before he went and worked at an Tinnerman products.

(gun shots) - Leimkuehler was drafted into the army during World War two as a Lieutenant in a six week incursion that later became known as The Battle of the Bulge.

Leimkuehler was severely wounded by a grenade and lost his left leg above the knee.

[Katie] A piece of sharp metal flew off from a grenade explosion and cut his leg and it got severely infected.

So he had actually asked for his own leg to be essentially removed and was ready to go down that process.

So that was kind of his transitioning to becoming an amputee - During his recovery Leimkuehler, put his skills as an engineer to work, designing his own prosthetic limb.

He later fabricated artificial limbs for other servicemen.

[Katie] My grandfather was extremely driven person.

He really taught himself, So he was in the hospital, you know he built his own artificial leg and always very generous.

He loved working with his patients, just like a really friendly kind type of person.

- After returning to Cleveland in 1948 he started the Leimkuehler Limb Company becoming one of the first certified prosthetists in the country.

Eventually locating the company on Detroit Avenue and becoming the Leimkuehler Orthotic Prosthetic Center.

[Katie] He starts a prosthetic company and I think it really was powerful because he was a patient.

And also, prosthetist seeing the patients.

And most of his patients didn't know that he was an amputee until he showed them.

So they were all really in shock because he could walk so well.

He knew how to adjust the artificial legs to make it great for his patients - His commitment to helping others extended well beyond the business.

While on a winter vacation, Leimkuehler learned of amputees in Europe using makeshift ski equipment to go skiing.

After a bit of research and development, Leimkuehler designed a support system that allowed him to hit the slopes, becoming one of the first adaptive skiers in the country.

[Katie]He wanted to get back into sports, and he discovered skiing and developed a device called an Outrigger.

It wasn't a success right off the bat.

They had to make adjustments and, learn how to ski essentially.

So they definitely had to experience the falling, the crashing all of that, but I think he picked it up rather quickly, I think overall because he was an athlete and that was just in his nature to be able to pick up sports - Leimkuehler proceeded to ski all over the U S and Europe becoming a promoter of adaptive skiing with his film camera, always by his side, Leimkuehler shot much of the footage seen today in the documentary Fresh Tracks.

[Katie]He was a huge film book.

And then you see this amazing footage that he's taking but also people are taking of him.

People kind of knew him because there wasn't any amputee skier.

So my aunt said it was like traveling with the president because everyone would come up and talk to him and say, "How did you do this?

How did you teach yourself?

What is this device that you were using?"

So people were really excited to see someone turning a negative thing into something positive.

- Instead of patenting his designs Leimkuehler shared his discoveries with the amputee community.

[Katie] And he just really wanted to help people.

And that's why he didn't patent the Outrigger design because he wanted everybody to have access to skiing, a sport that he loved - Leimkuehler and his partner went on to found three trackers of Ohio.

One of the original Adaptive ski programs in the country.

He became an advisor to the founders of The National Handicapped Ski Race which developed disabled ski programs at several resorts across the country.

- He didn't see life is full of limitations.

He saw it as, Oh well, let's just adapt and evolve this way.

And how can I do this?

- Considered the father of adaptive skiing, Paul Leimkuehler was inducted into the U S Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 1981 and into the National Disabled Ski Hall of Fame, in 1996 - We all have stories that stay with us.

And this was a story that had stayed with me my whole life.

It kind of defined the way I looked at things, because I remember thinking, well if my grandpa can do this all with one leg, if he can start a business without a business degree, if he can do all these things then there are endless possibilities for me.

- The documentary Fresh Tracks about inventor Paul Leimkuehler can be seen on streaming services like Amazon Prime Video.

After moving to Florida to retire.

Francis Edwards discovered a new purpose in his life, the joy of teaching.

As a substitute teacher, Edwards works to help his students learn different subjects by creating a unique collection of books, he calls "Tunnel Books".

Take a look.

[Edwards]I've always been interested in education.

I actually went to Grad School Education, University of Pittsburgh, and I earned a teaching certificate, to teach in Pennsylvania.

We decided to move and we went to Florida.

To retire in quotes.

We came down here and I decided to not be bored.

I joined the Polk County School District as a substitute school teacher.

And I thought, how am I going to couple that with some good to the world?

So my substitute teaching immediately on the kids and looking at them and what their needs would be.

I decided to keep the kids engaged in reading.

I was watching actually antiques roadshow, U K and this gentleman had brought in a book.

That he opened up and there was a castle in the background and street in the front.

He pulled it open, And in front of me, he kept calling it something.

What is he calling this book?

And he called it a Tunnel Book.

So I researched that.

And I thought what if could adapt that to education and learning the concept.

So this is what happened.

I decided to do my first book and it was on dinosaurs.

How I put the book together.

It's kind of interesting and it sound right.

And as you open the book, you'll notice that it has actually two covers, the front cover and the flaps that have the information on the dinosaurs.

When you look through the peep hole at the second cover, you actually pull the book up and like an accordion.

And the idea of the book is I look through the peep hole and you'll see the 3D illustration.

In fact, it's 8D in this book, each book different number of plates.

This book has eight plates in each dinosaur figure is placed special.

So when you put the plate in front of you still see the figure.

The last plate, is the scene that you'll see on each plate.

So that's the magic of it.

This is the second most popular book that I have made.

The kids in school love it.

And it's called Gaze.

You open the book, pull it out and look through the star.

And you're gonna see our planets lined up from the sun.

And it's very interesting and a very great book, and it was a fun book to make.

I'd come home from school, and that gave me enough enthusiasm to want to do more books for them.

And they're the ones that gave me insight into the subjects that they liked.

You'll find out that there's a secret hidden in each book.

And that secret is a bit of humor, that I put in my writing.

And each book has that for you to discover.

When you look inside the book here and that is an African elephant its ears are actually the shape of the continent of Africa.

And these are kind of little details that are interesting to learn when you're learning about animals.

And I put a picture of an Asian elephant in here to throw you off cause this is not an African elephant at all.

And you'll notice how small its ears are.

This is one of my favorite books, E.I.

E.I.O I treasure this book because it tells you every animal that was sheltered in a barn.

And it's fun because you open this book and all the animals are numbered inside.

And you look through the peep hole or the door, and you see all these fantastic animals inside.

And by pulling pulling the book open and each one is described and it tells you their purpose and what they did on the farm.

I was substituting in the class for two weeks and the kids had a whole 20 pages to learn about triangles and circles.

And I thought that page after page, after page after page and the poor kids, they were just agonizing over that the lesson.

I got to maybe make a tunnel book and make this easier for them.

And you'll notice that every book I have says "Let me see a tunnel book."

And the reason for that, "let me see", is that as soon as you pick this book up and look through it you're going to have a friend or somebody else that, Oh, "let me say it."

"I want to see it too."

Every time now they see me When I go to school, they ask me if I brought more books, "Did you bring this books?"

So that kind of a reaction just fulfilled my heart.

(classical music) - Next time on Applause with the St Patrick's Day Parade canceled, we bring you a taste of Ireland with Cleveland's Kilroy family band.

Also liquid painter Arabella Proffer portraits of punks depicted as medieval royalty have international fans.

But then her work took a surprising turn.

Plus a cartoonist inserts, real life into his work.

All this and more on the next round of Applause.

Dayton Ohio artist, Willis Bing Davis, is well known for his distinctive mixed media work that pays tribute to his African-American heritage and culture.

He's been a teacher, a mentor, a curator and a gallery owner, and he uses the arts to spark dialogue and build bridges in his community.

[Willis] I characterize the work I do as reflecting what I experience and see and what I feel about being alive.

I always thought that my work was a reflection of my whole experience of being almost saying that this is what I saw, this is what I felt, this is how I expressed it.

It's almost all my way of acknowledging that I was here.

I learned early on that no matter what material, what process and what technique I use, its still coming from the same feeling, in the same aggressive form of experience.

My work was all speaking about the same thing no matter what the material.

At the core of it is the being a part of the human family.

And knowing that that also tasks made to every human being, and that I am the product of everybody I've experienced and see, they've been a part of me.

I'm happiest when I'm making art.

I feel the most complete and the most human.

I cannot remember a time that I did not make art and made a public commitment that I was gonna be an artist.

In the fifth grade when the teacher had me stand up besides it "in front of everybody in the class, Say what you wanna be when you grow up" And while I had been identified already by that time as being the next athletic star in my community I knew it was art.

I grew up in a small enclave African American city state, I saw people who he did art who did dance, who did music both with the church, community center, on the playground.

My oldest siblings drew and painted and my mother made quilts.

So I had a nurturing environment even though it was externally considered impoverished.

It was only after I grew up that they told me that we were poor, but it was very rich to me that it was okay to be an artist.

At four years of Barton High School and the e-asTTle Director, Mr. Beekman, At Woolbright High School in this state with my art teacher I chose to go to DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana and I took art there and then came back and began my career in '59 and '60 to teach art in High school and going into master's work at my handmade in Indiana state and the school of the day.

I had a tremendous amount of knowledge about art, in terms of the masters.

So whether you're talking about French and precedence of surrealism and Picasso's, I had all that knowledge in my head, but no one had given me knowledge about me.

And so I began to look around my hometown of Dayton, Ohio.

I began to look at native American art Indian art, Maya, Archaic, straight, Aboriginal and traditional African art.

What I found is that art wasn't just about paintings you hang on the wall.

That it was about spiritual, cultural and social values of people and it always been there.

And that the arts were interrelated.

Art, music, dance, drama to reflect feelings.

And that changed me.

In '66 I stopped teaching art, I began to teach people.

Art is my vehicle and tool.

So how could I use art to help someone find who they are and be the best they can be?

And that has been my mantra ever since to use arts as agent of change, as knowing oneself, that's what I found.

That I can not only know myself, but I could also look at the art, music, dance and drama and better understand someone who is different than I am, from a different culture.

I can just look at their art, look at their dance and learn to appreciate it as I appreciate my own.

And that allowed me also to say that every student who came into my classroom or studio was the most important person in the room.

They birth already somebody, So what can I add through art to enrich who they already are?

And if that happened, then they would be a more full person.

And then they, to will to give back they too would begin to share, they too will begin to realize inclusiveness of all this.

And so that's just been the under occurring drive, Give what you can, when you can, as long as you can.

And then you hope that the person you give to will also give to others.

I retired from the classroom in 1998.

And one of my dreams was to take my studio out of my house and get in a place where I could share it better in the community.

We call it Ebonnia Gallery.

On the nonprofit side is Shango The center for study of African American Art and Culture.

We happen to be in The Wright Dunbar historical business district.

This significant neighborhood is where Wilbur Wright walked daily.

This neighborhood is where the first international African American poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar lived and work.

I still feel the energy and I still feel that innovative spirit here.

This is the 12th year for visual voices.

And that's one of the highlights of our exhibition season here at the New York gallery.

The visual voices show is at the Schuster Carson performing arts center, downtown Dayton.

I wanted to do something with some of the African American arts in the community.

I serve as curator this year I selected the theme 'Black Life as Subject Matter'.

You can celebrate any part of the black experience.

But I wanted to look at some of the things that are happening.

That we may be able to address them personally, to contribute to the dialogue.

Because we knew the problems that we're confronting as a society, aren't going to go away anytime soon.

We may not have all the answers, but we can raise some question that's worth discussing and considering.

Most of the problems that we're having today are manmade.

There's limited information and narrow biases.

The arts touch us and unify us in a way that adds to our humanist because all societies, all cultures have always used music, dance, drama, creative writing through ceremonies and rituals to reflect what was the value and what was a beauty in their society.

And so art then becomes a natural ally to human unification.

If we let it, if we let it - Florida artist, Heather Kendall uses seashells to craft elegant home decor.

Join us as we go to the artist's home studio and see her unique designs.

- Hi, I'm Heather Kendall.

Welcome to my home studio, where I make seashell designs for my business Elegant Shells.

When I make a piece for someone, I really try to imagine it in their home.

And I finish it meticulously with small shells which is my favorite part.

And I send it off in hopes that it will create a piece and an appreciation of the ocean in their home.

I've always had a love of seashells, About 16 years ago I was on a family vacation and I walked into a store with a bunch of girlfriends.

And we saw this amazing seashell work.

one of my girlfriends, and I looked at each other and thought we could do this.

And we collected a bunch of shells and we've purchased a lot of shells also.

So I came home and I tried it and with a girlfriend and we made $10,000 in three days in our first three shows.

And we knew it was a viable business then.

Friends started to hear about us.

Designers started to hear about us.

And we started getting business via word of mouth.

And I grew up on Clearwater beach.

Those people started talking.

Thanks to social media, I have become known as one of the top seashell artists in the world.

When I see sea shells, I'm happy.

I feel at home and to work with them as a medium has been a real blessing.

I get my shells from the beaches here in Clearwater beach and Minnesota.

I kayak out into the Bay to get my crushed shell for my white mirrors.

I buy shells from India, the Philippines, South Africa.

Those are the main countries they come from.

This is a mirror that I finished last night.

It is all muscle shells that I got from bonefish.

My family and I ate all of these.

I'm just gonna take a little glue, and then place it right in here and I'll be finished and it'll be ready to deliver to Vero beach this week.

I had been working for interior designers.

I understood interior design.

I was a visual merchandiser and a stylist for photo shoots.

So I understood placement.

And I also had taken a lot of art and was raised by artists who were raised by artists and art collectors.

So I felt confident that I could look at a blank chandelier and figure out where to put the shelves and how I could adorn it to make it beautiful.

And with that confidence because of working and all those different jobs and positions I went home and put it together, a chandelier and then did a mirror and then did my fireplace.

And I thought it was great and fun.

And people came in the house and said that it felt good.

And it was beautiful and said they wanted them too.

See how it picks up the lines?

I love it.

Like magic.

You can't even tell that all of that is on there.

You know, like all the metal work, but then as soon as you do that, I just play around with them.

You can actually put these in here, you can put in pieces of coral with it and just load this whole center part up and then hang these shells in whatever shells you like all these different little places are places where you can put shelves on the top on the bottom and just find coordinating shells or shiny ones pro polished and mix them with natural or color.

Sometimes I use red coral and black and white shells.

Every one is different because every seashells different.

I receive a lot of emails and phone calls from people that want to know how to shell a piece.

And I certainly do answer all the emails and, you know give anybody whatever advice I can.

I believe I've inspired my children to be entrepreneurial and that we can create a job for ourselves.

And it's possible to live your passion and do things that you want and that you should.

- And finally, Northeast Ohio recently lost a musical favorite son.

Michael Stanley died after a bout` with lung cancer.

Over the course of a half century Stanley wrote and performed songs that spoke to his hometown of Cleveland.

We close tonight's program with a tune that he performed for us back in 2014.

It's a reflective song about endings ♪ I'm a man of good intentions ♪ ♪ But that and a dime ♪ ♪ Won't get you anything ♪ ♪ Hardly worth your time ♪ ♪ And I've had my share of lovers ♪ ♪ Drove that train right off the tracks ♪ ♪ I broke some hearts along the way ♪ ♪ And they, broke it right back... ♪ - Thanks For watching and stay safe.

I my dear is David C. Barnet hoping to see you next week for another round of Applause ♪ Seems like subtlety and nuance ♪ ♪ Might just as well be dead ♪ ♪ Traded for a moment ♪ ♪ In the spotlight overhead ♪ ♪ And those windmills I've been chasing ♪ ♪ Well they vanish all too soon ♪ ♪ And leave a leather jacket lunatic ♪ ♪ Howling at the moon ... at the moon ♪ ♪ And I wish that this sunset was slower ♪ ♪ Wish I knew how to right some wrongs ♪ ♪ And I'm hoping that today ♪ ♪ It ain't too late to pray 'cause ♪ ♪ It feels like winter's coming on ♪ ♪ It feels like winter's coming on ... ♪ (upbeat music) (classical tunes) - Production of applause on Wviz PBS is made possible by grants from the John P. Murphy Foundation, The Kulas Foundation The Stroud Family Trust The Kelvin & Eleanor Smith Foundation.

And by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga arts and culture.