♪ Hello and welcome to this editio of Northwest Profiles.

I'm your host, Lynn, Veltrie.

And no doubt like me, you too, are excited to see the longer days and warmer tempe of spring begin to take hold aft seemed like an especially long w Now, of course, for us here at K there is no better way to mark t of the season of new beginnings than with a variety of uplifting and engaging stories that collectively celebrate the and creative spirit of the place we call home, the Inland Northwest and Western So without a moment to waste, let's get rolling, shall we?

For our opening story, we head north of the border to beautiful Penticton, British to meet artist and illustrator Alexandra Brooke, otherwise known as Belle Artist.

Alexandra is known for her whimsical and colorful paintings that bring delight and a smile to all who get a chance to see h I've never really let go of that childlike wonder.

And I think that shows through in my my art.

I'm Alexandra Brooke.

I'm an artist and illustrator, otherwise known as Belleartiste.

[music] I know my palette is quite colorful.

I think a lot of people that will glance at my work assume that it's for children.

But if you really look at it, it can appeal to anybody.

[music] It's not loud and in your face.

It's just joyful.

I suppose whimsical, quirky.

And I think those things can appeal to anybody.

[music] I guess I just grabbed any material that was around and then I didn't really start exploring paint until I was in university and took a painting class.

I loved the vibrancy of the color of the paint.

It wasn't something that I can achieve just with pen or pencil.

So it added something to the whimsy side of my art that just gave it a little bit more punch.

So I guess that's kind of my favorite medium right now.

[music] I use acrylic paint.

It's totally unforgiving.

It doesn't have like an extended open time, like oil paint would.

Basically, when it's dry, it's dry and that's it.

And that works well for me because I like to paint quickly.

I don't do any sketching hardly ever if I'm just doing a piece on the fly.

Like most of these pieces here, there's no sketching first.

I just paint brush to canvas immediately.

[music] My fellow artists in the gallery here laugh at me sometimes because I'll pull off a piece in a couple hours and they'll be working on one for a few weeks to months.

But I like that.

I like working quickly and I don't like overthinking things.

I find it really disrupts my creative process.

[music fades] [music] I consider myself small still.

I'm happy with the way I reach my small audience.

I think because I'm a traditional artist, you know, a piece takes time where, as with digital art, you can make your marks and then mass produce it, and it's going to be identical every single time.

You can't do that with traditional art.

You can't replicate it.

And that's what makes it original.

[music] It's about passion for me.

It's not, it's not about money.

When I first started here, my husband said he said, Oh, you should do like landscapes and quail and vineyards and stuff.

And I thought, Well, I could, but this is what I choose to do for myself, because this is why I went back into it was for me, it wasn't.

It wasn't to sell to other people.

It was a part of me that I had forgotten about for a while.

I was like, What is missing?

There's something missing.

And.

It was art.

Like, I hadn't done anything for a while.

You know, he had a totally different perspective.

He's like, Make some money, right?

I'm like, No, that's not what's happening.

[laughs] I'm doing it for me.

This is what I'm doing.

And if people like it, if they can relate to it and it makes them happy, then it'll just keep me making more.

Take note.

You don't have to travel all the way to Penticton to appreciate Alexandra's artwor Just follow her on Instagram at Belle Artiste.

Up next, we stay within the creative worl but this time back here in Spoka where you're about to discover a who uses the age old Japanese craft of origami to mold and create one of a kind objects using paper and clay.

It was amazing to me how you can turn a square piece of flat paper into a three-dimensional, recognizable object.

just about every collage I have has a crane in it, whether it has a kimono, it also has a crane, whether it has a doll, it has a crane in it, because that's where everything started for me.

And plus, the crane has a very special meaning of peace and love.

And I think that's really important in everyone's life.

So, I just I make a lot of cranes, which makes me happy.

I'm Patty Reiko Osebold.

I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii.

And my parents, my dad's side was from Japan.

My mom's side was from Okinawa.

And my dad was born in Hawaii and my mom was born in California.

So, they got together and had me.

And growing up in my household, I used to see Japanese dolls, porcelain dolls made in Japan.

it never occurred to me that it was anything special.

It was just there.

And it wasn't 20 years later that I saw my first Japanese origami paper Crain, and this blew me away.

And it wasn't in Hawaii.

It was in Iowa, which always makes me chuckle because it's not the place you would think of seeing a paper Crain.

And that's where my story really started.

I became interested in doing origami and loved it.

Absolutely.

And this is 40 years later and I'm still doing origami.

There's many reasons why origami is important in everyday life.

When I had my stroke six years ago, I when I was in rehab at St Luke's, that's one thing I brought with me was paper.

And then I'd fold all the napkins and just fold them into different objects to strengthen my fingers.

And so, I had origami all on the ledge as the edge of my hospital room.

I've used it personally to rehabilitate myself.

My initial dolls were all paper dolls.

So, I went from paper because I wanted to show more movement.

I went from paper to clay, and I made and that's when I took a sculpture class.

I made the complete body of a person and then I put paper over it as their clothing.

And this is where my paper dolls are today.

I have a piece that I've called "homage to the Endangered and the Lost."

So, I made an art object out of the things that didn't turn out.

I keep adding to that.

So, it's a never-ending art piece.

I enjoy going to different schools.

And when asked and I will teach the kids how to do different things and show them what I have done and share with them my dolls and the meanings of them, as well as how to make a paper Crane.

Patience is a big deal, when I teach the kids how to make origami or something, they just suddenly get frustrated and want to rip up the paper and crush it up and throw it away.

And I tell them, you know, you have to do it over and over and over again.

And it does require a lot of patience.

But you come up with something so beautiful at the end and it teaches you patience and creativity also.

At the church I go to, we made a thousand cranes, and each of these cranes stand for peace, which is what we want...and love.

There is another part of this that has to do with my family now.

And World War two, my dad was in Pearl Harbor on duty at the time when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and then my mom's family was in California, and they were taken into internment camps.

So, it's it has all a connection to me of this paper crane.

Me having the meaning of peace.

They made paper cranes in the internment camps and it it's just meaningful to me to know that this represents not only today what I'm doing, but in the past and the history.

And for me, that's very important.

I've been here at the ballpark since 1990, which made this the 34th season in a row that I've done the signs out here.

I used to do a lot more signage, but over the years it's been more and more vinyl signage has been taking over, which I really don't mind because it's the little stuff, I like the big stuff.

I like big, I like colorful.

You know, the small signage is more like penmanship.

I enjoy stuff that I can just do more freely, more where the spirit carries me.

It's a skill that not many other people have.

And I think even if you look at 20 years ago, there were not as many sign painters as there are obviously today.

And then now there are very, very few, if any at all.

I know a couple of people that still hand paint signs.

There's somebody around.

Every now and then I'll see a wall sign somewhere, but I try to stick to large walls signs, things of that nature.

Just like the number of sign painters, the number of ballparks that have hand-painted signs, or we may be the only one in the country.

I think that there are lots of ballparks who have things that, are places in the ballpark that may be painted, but not the outfield fence.

A lot of that has changed to digital.

We have always made our commitment to Ruben as long as we're able to have an outfield fence made of wood, that it's his job.

I'm really good at it.

I'm very specialized, you know, and I've done pretty much every aspect of the sign busines but I enjoyed that, that part of work.

So I kind of seek it out.

One of the last guys that does big stuff on buildings and I like that that Aslin Finch, three different people all said there's a Spanish guy, New Yorker named Ruben, and if he's still alive, you know he can do that, but I'm not going to touch it you know, And they've got this side of their building that you can see from the highway.

So it's their own big giant personal billboard.

And that thing's got to be 25 feet high and 35 feet long.

And I painted that.

Ruben is special.

He's a unique guy that has a unique skill set.

And he's also really charismatic.

I went to the High School of Art and Design in New York City, graduated in 75, and then I went to sweep the floors in a sign shop and I just never left.

So I just started painting for different companies and, you know, just learning, you know, going from the young, you know, clear eyed, bushy tailed apprentice all the way up to the old grizzled old timer.

Right.

With a grouchy attitude.

And so that's where I'm at now and enjoying every minute of it, too.

So I've never had a real job.

You know, most people I mean, when I was a kid, I would get spanked for scribbling on the walls, you know, Now we get well paid for painting on walls.

Look at me.

Lucky me.

Opening night.

for your Spokane Indians.

And the fence is his background.

I mean, it really is.

And look the fence is 40, 50 years old as well.

And so when he sees the boards at our place, he knows just enough how to put new boards up and cut and replace.

And we never have to worry about that.

So what I'll do is I'll come out here and I'll, I'll white out the sign out, scrape the old paint, and then I'll white it out.

Just put a coat of whitewash on it and let that dry.

Then I come out here at night with an ancient overhead transparency projector.

So all you old people remember those from school.

I'll set that on the grass and project directly on to the fence, which saves a ton of time.

And then I come back in the morning the next day with paint and brushes, and I hold the artwork in one hand and I just brush away till I'm done.

So easy.

There's usually one or two signs a year that I'll hand him the artwork and I say, Hey, just do the best you can, right?

Because we print out the artwork off of a computer and it can be pretty sophisticated, right?

Some are easier than others.

And there was one this year that I remember looking at him and I said, Hey, to see what you can do.

And my expectations were, you know, let's just see what happens.

And they were bamboo shoots behind this logo for froyo earth.

And it turned out like it was printed on paper.

You know, you can only do it if you love it.

It's not one of those 9 to 5 punch a clock and hate your job type of jobs.

I mean, there are individual signs that I wasn't really happy about, but basically I yeah, I'm blessed.

I love what I do.

I you know, I've never done anything else.

Like, I sometimes joke is that I've never had a real job.

You know, I don't want to compare Ruben to a Picasso or to a Van Gogh or whatever, but they but they're special, right?

They're really unique.

And they have a talent that not many people have.

And he is a true artist and he can paint not just replicate things, but he can create new things as well.

(Crowd cheering a goal) Well, Bobby Bret, you know, the owner of the Spokane Indians, also owns the hockey team in town, Spokane Chiefs.

And so each time they put a new sheet of ice in for the hockey team, there are sponsor logos that go in the ice and then the big chief's logo.

So he does that as well.

So I'm actually the ice painter, you know, I've been doing that since the new building, which is 1996.

It's actually, it's a water base paint that freezes.

It doesn't dry.

It freezes in, you know, And there I make patterns, you know, and and just take a big brush and paint as fast as you can, you know.

And it's pretty cool.

It's a pretty exciting process.

Look, Ruben became part of our family.

He was here with his wife.

His children have grown up at the ballpark.

He's been just a consistent part of of being here with the Indians for this long.

I love it when a plan comes together.

I plan to work to 67.

And when I go, I'm taking the ballpark with me.

All right, So how cool is that?

We understand that Ruben will ge to paint the wall one last time next year with the start of the baseball season.

After that, a AVISTA stadium will undergo a major renovation and Rubins services will no longer be requi Moving on now to our final story It's time to go exploring in the picturesque community of Republic Washington.

There we found a special place where one can discover items over 50 million years old.

Not only will you be the first human to see th but in many cases you'll be able to take home the discoveries fou just beneath your feet.

So the city purchased the Sears building that was formerly on this property for the library.

And legend has it that the floor would actually bow under the weight of the books.

And so the library went out for Bond in the 1990s.

And that is what funded the library that you see here today.

The original structure of this library .

In 2015, we started asking citizens what do you want in a library?

What are you looking for?

Some of the top answers were more meeting rooms, more places to connect and improved children's areas.

And then in 2018, voters again approved a bond to update all of our library system.

The Central Library here reopened in July of this year, fully renovated into a 21st century library.

So you'll see a really excellent system of children's areas that have a whimsical and playful experience that really develop the love of libraries from a very young age.

People are looking for places to connect, to be together, to use technology that they might not have access to, and of course, still access books and resources and study.

But the breadth of services that libraries provide today is wider than just checking out materials.

In some ways, we're definitely trendsetting in our children's area, in the media studios.

But you do see this shift to a 21st century library across the country and around the world really.

So on the first floor, we have a business lab and it is run by our business research librarian, Mark Pond.

And he's kind of famous in the Spokane community for entrepreneurs.

If you want to start a business, if you want to grow your business, he can connect you with cutting edge business resources that are, again, unreachable by normal citizens.

So it's New York public, Boston Public and us that are the three public libraries that offer access to a Bloomberg terminal.

And yeah, we're we're pretty unique in the public library space for having access to that and you know it's the it's the deep dive into any publicly traded company and or the industries that that they occupy business lab space, you know co-working space that's it's not unheard of in the public library world.

But I think really where we just knocked it out of the park is with the recording studio.

Where you can come practice your instrument or record a full length album or even record a track.

And you can do that on your own or with our audio engineer.

To my knowledge, we are the only library in the country that is doing it to this high level, having a control room, having a tracking space with isolation booths as well as additional separate studios with the video studio, the radio station, as well as our podcast production room.

So records that are made here will go on to our online music platform, which is Lilac City Records.

And then we have a video studio that's kind of the same idea with a video education specialist where you can come in and film your own videos, become a YouTube star or TikTok sensation using high end equipment that is not accessible to most people.

I love it, thats great.

We have an amazing events programing team, so we have an adult programing team and a children's programing team.

So we're creating all kinds of free programs for the library.

And your beautiful host, Ryan Dean Tucker Hey, Hey, How's it going, everybody?

So Lilac City Live is our program that we do the third Thursday of every month.

And it is like a late night talk show for all things Spokane.

So our video education specialist hosts that program and we bring in local celebrities to talk about what they're up to.

I know we're all excited to have our first guest on Jess Walter.

So what do you think of the new library?

Oh, it's beautiful.

I've always been so proud that the best view of the falls is a public building.

We've got a phenomenal view in the city of Falls here and the Spokane River.

And so we partnered with the Spokane Tribe of Indians to actually name the hall here on the third floor of the Central library that seats up to 300 people with a stage.

So we can have special events here.

That's where Lilac City Live is.

And so they helped us name the hall- in we we et Hall, which means life in the water.

We want people to think of the library when they're looking for something to do and, you know, find that next Tai chi class or cooking class that's on The choice is your to choose.

And we have specialists.

So we have a writing education specialist, Sharma Shields.

She is a local author and she does writing programs where you can come in and learn for free from a published author.

We have food and garden education specialist Juan Juan, so you can come in and learn from us for free how to grow your own garden, and then how to prepare it in your kitchen.

And on the youth services team, we have an arts education specialist, a STEM specialist, and an environmental education specialist, all creating free programing for the youth in our community.

We also have a lot of digital offerings that some people don't realize we have.

So you can check out e-books using our Libby app.

So free ebooks in the palm of your hand.

We have a program called Hoopla where you can read e-books, stream audiobooks or stream even television or movies.

We have a program called Kanopy where you can stream movies, and most of those are films and documentaries.

The list is endless.

We have a program called LOTE for kids, L-O-T-E for kids and its thousands and thousands of books translated into multiple different languages.

So if you're learning English or if you're learning another language, all of that is at your fingertips digitally and free from the library.

Sometimes it feels like we're the best kept secret and we don't want to be a secret anymore.

We want everyone to know these services are here, they're available to everyone and come see everything that we have to offer.

Stone Rose is scheduled to open for the sea in early May, and the team and m there are excited to offer their educational outreach progr not only to the schools around the Northwest but to the rest of the world.

So with that, it's time to put away our tools and say goodbye to this edition of Northwest Pro Knowing, of course, there's even more stories ahead on the season finale next Until then, this is Lynn Veltrie saying, So long.

And remember here in the Inland Northwest, and western Canada, there's always plenty to see and experience.

So get out there.

And when you do, make sure you take time to enjoy