[announcer] Art Loft is brought to you by.

[announcer] Where there is freedom, there is expression.

The Florida Keys, and Key West.

[announcer] The Miami-Dade County Tourist Development Council, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor, and the board of County Commissioners, and the Friends of South Florida PBS.

[narrator] Art Loft, it's the pulse of what's happening in our own backyard, as well as a taste of the arts across the United States.

In this episode, art for the every day, centering the people of a region with Kahlo and Rivera's Mexican Modernism, Still Cheaper Than Paying, and curation at the thrift shop, creating new works with Juan Pablo Garza.

The Norton is working on diversifying the story of the history of art that we're telling.

We're doing that by adding to our own collection, but also by diversifying our exhibition program.

So by bringing in an exhibition like this, that really includes art that we don't have in our collection, and a part of the history of art that we can't really tell here, we're able to really expand that history that we're telling, and therefore, kind of present a more accurate history of the human creativity, which is our goal.

I'm Ellen Roberts, Harold and Anne Berkeley Smith Curator of American Art at the Norton Museum of Art.

This exhibition celebrates the collection formed by Jacques and Natasha Gelman, who were leading members of the circle of artists in Mexico City that formed after the end of the Mexican Revolution in 1920.

Jacques Gelman there became a leading film producer, and made a fortune that way, and so that they were able to buy the paintings of their friends who were the leading visual artists in this group as well, and also to commission them to paint portraits of the Gelmans.

This is a particularly fascinating time in Mexico, because this political revolution of the end of the Mexican Revolution in 1920 coincided with this artistic revolution of modernism.

The entire society was really reconsidering what modern Mexican identity should be.

So this is Diego Rivera's Calla Lily Vendor from 1943, and this is really a masterpiece of Diego Rivera's art, and a great example of how he turned to indigenous traditions in his art, and really made them the subject of his art.

So what you can see here is him focusing on two women kneeling in front of this amazing display of calla lilies.

He identifies them as being from these kind of indigenous cultures by carefully depicting their hair done in this, in a kind of traditional way, and also wearing traditional garments.

I love of the fact that the painting is called Calla Lily Vendor, but the only thing you really see of the calla lily vendor is the top of his hat there, and the two hands here holding the flowers, in fact, the flowers almost take up the entire composition.

And so for Diego Rivera, this kind of connection to the earth was also very important, and he felt the Mexican land was also a very important part of this modern Mexican identity, and in fact, that Mexican land was as tied in with these indigenous cultures.

These are two of the five portraits of Natasha Gelman that we have in the exhibition, both painted in 1943.

This one by Diego Rivera, and this one by Frieda Kahlo.

In the year 1943, the Gelmans commissioned their friends, Diego Rivera and Frieda Kahlo to paint Natasha Gelman, and I think it's really fascinating to compare the two, because they depict her in such different ways.

You can see how Diego Rivera really turns her into a flower, and she looks like a starlet from this time, from the 1940s, wearing this amazing ball gown, which to me, almost reminds me of these calla lilies behind her.

The curves of her body kind of echo the curves of those calla lilies.

She's very elegant here, and this is extremely different from the way that Frieda Kahlo chooses to depict her, a much smaller portrait, but in a frame that Frieda Kahlo herself actually painted.

It's a much smaller portrait, and it, in a way it's kind of more intimate, and it's also more serious, I think.

It's not so much about her sexiness, as it is about her individuality as a person.

They're very different depictions of this same woman, and it's interesting, in turn, to compare these two with the other three portraits of Natasha Gelman we have in the show as well.

This is one of a series of photographs that American photographer Nikolas Muray took of Frieda Kahlo.

He is, maybe created some of the most famous images of her.

Frieda Kahlo was very aware of the fact that she could create an image of herself, and she consciously did that through the way she painted herself, through the kind of clothing she chose to wear, but also through the way she worked with photographers like Muray in order to depict a particular kind of image of herself.

I love this one in particular, because I think her pose here really reminds me of the Buddha.

She is seated in the way that the Buddha is traditionally seated in Buddhist art, and therefore has been kind of turned into the the icon she was becoming at this time, or the icon she was turning herself into at this time.

She typically combined elements from the indigenous past in Mexico, because she herself had that ancestry, and she did that in order to really convey her own mixed identity, so it's very personal, but also because she felt that that mixed identity was also characteristic of modern Mexico, which combined, again, this kind of indigenous traditions, with Spanish colonial traditions, with modern Mexican traditions.

We hope that this exhibition will give our audience an opportunity to see these very famous works by Frieda Kahlo and Diego Rivera in person, and also that this exhibition will give our audience an opportunity to understand the greater context of these works, and the rich history of artists who surrounded Diego Rivera and Frieda Kahlo, and the greater history of Mexican modernism.

[announcer] You can follow the Norton on Instagram, @NortonMuseumOfArt, and get info on their latest exhibits at Norton.org.

[narrator] From a life of curating his surroundings, visual artist Juan Pablo Garza talks about his process.

[juan pablo] I think a lot about the intersection between decorative objects and visual arts.

I started collecting and arranging objects in my room when I was really young.

Four to five times a year, my parents would rearrange everything around the house, lamps, figurines, ashtrays, vases, candle holders, furniture, and paintings.

I had a very fetishized relationship with these objects, whereas now, I'm more interested in their potential, and how they change each other just by their mere proximity.

I can see now that I was kind of intuitively researching.

It took a long time for me to start intentionally making artwork with these things that I'd been surrounding myself with.

I like to listen to the work, and let it do its will.

Disaster, chance, and missteps are part of that will.

Art is an ordinary activity, linked to everyday life.

I believe that art exists between these two places, the mundane and the sacred.

You would need new multiple points of view in order to have a very small idea of its vast nature.

My first encounter with art were through my father's sonic paintings of still lifes, and through my mother's meticulous organizations of decorative objects all over the house.

The still life, for me, became an an idea in and of itself, a kind of structure for thoughts, a mental, yet visual place, where I sort ideas, an instrument to ponder my relationship with art, and the way I experience the world.

I've surrounded myself by artworks gifted by friends, my own work, or some pieces that I've acquired.

Art is a channel to share both the personal and mutual stories.

In that sense, it's a place of communion, and I think Commissioner serves that purpose.

[announcer] The art world is changing.

Museums are rethinking their role in the cities they serve.

Galleries are adopting new models of selling work, and aspiring collectors want direct connections with artists.

Amid these changes, Commissioner's redefining arts patronage.

With a collaborative platform for collecting art, we're building a community centered on learning and exposure.

Our membership program allows new collectors to acquire limited edition works from local artists, visit artists' studios, collectors' homes, and creative places around our cities.

Building a stronger arts community means developing a deeper connection with the broader communities where we live.

Since launching in 2018, we've placed hundreds of new artworks with mostly first time or beginner collectors.

Commissioner is what we wanna see in the world, more learning and understanding, more believing in artists, and more collaboration in the community.

[narrator] Tampa's WEDU brings us the story of a digital artist, focused on empowerment and inclusivity for all members of the L G B Q plus and disabled communities.

My name is Michaela Oteri, and I'm a disabled digital artist.

I started getting into digital art, really, in 2009, I believe.

I was starting to learn to draw traditionally with pencil and paper, but I injured my hands, and I was told by an occupational therapist that I needed to stop drawing.

I didn't really take that advice, though.

Instead, I started learning to draw digitally, where I could change the sensitivity for the pen tablet, and it was a lot easier on my hands, and I was able to learn to draw the way I wanted to.

It was really great.

When she's told no, most often she finds a way around that.

She'll follow the letter of the law, but will find a way that works, to accomplish what she feels needs to be done.

When I start to draw a portrait, I gather as many reference images as I can, so I can properly display the person that I'm drawing, and then I set to work on the sketch, which takes probably the most amount of time out of the entire process, but then I get to work on the line art, which is my favorite part.

I love to work with some really bright, fun colors to make sure that the piece really pops.

When I first saw Michaela's portrait of me, I was like, "Wow, this is so different," because when you usually see disabled art, it's not empowering, but to see this, like, I look so powerful, like, I look like I could be a God.

It's amazing.

Just the strength that she portrays in her portraits is so important.

So the reason behind the username Ogre Fairy actually comes from when I was a teenager, and I just was really struggling to see myself as something that I deemed special and beautiful, like a fairy.

Because of being, you know, disabled, and fat, and queer, I kind of identified more with being like an ogre, so created the username Ogre Fairy.

I do draw a lot of fantasy.

That's what got me started to begin with is drawing things like fairies and mermaids, and these days, I try to tie my disability art into the fantasy art where I can.

So I know Michaela actually, we had an opportunity to be connected with her through a project that my firm is working on, Crip Camp, which is a Netflix documentary that is executive produced by President Barack and Mrs. Michelle Obama.

Being that the film is really about activism, but also engaging with the disability community, my role as impact producer in leading the impact team is to connect with leaders of today, and specifically disabled creatives, and those that are really involved in the movement.

I've been a big fan of Michaela's art for a long time on social media, and just from other people in community who had shared her work, or that I had seen some portraits that she had done, and followed her on social media, and was instantly attracted to the style that she had, and the ways that she incorporated people's disability, but also the things that they really cared about or were passionate about into her artwork.

I love how she can take what was likely just a portrait, a regular photograph perhaps, and bring it to life.

One project that she did for us, my colleague and dear friend, Stacy Park Millburn, who was a co-impact producer with me on the project, she passed away in may of 2020, and Michaela created this beautiful rendering of Stacy around these bright flowers.

I basically told her her favorite color, and she just took that and brought a photo of Stacy to life in such a way that you know, really, all you could do is just smile.

I think that we couldn't think of anyone better to do that than Michaela.

Her artwork is beautiful.

It's inspiring to see her glow when she feels like she's really accomplished what she set out to do in a certain piece, and when it's received the way she put it out into the world.

That's just the most amazing thing for a mom to see.

I really hope that the takeaway from my art is that disabled people are individuals who are beautiful, who are strong in their own ways, and just are their own individual people.

I really want to continue making this bigger, displaying more people of all different backgrounds, who don't get to see themselves in art very often.

Every time I hear from someone who sees my artwork, and messages me, like, "I just saw myself like I've never seen myself in art before," it just always means so much to me that I'm able to do that.

[narrator] Follow Otery online at OgreFairy.com.

My name is Marjorie Smith, and I'm an illustrator in Key Largo, Florida.

I migrated down here 28 years ago.

I grew up in Illinois.

My family brought us here vacationing when we were in, I guess, junior high school and high school, and then one by one, my whole family moved here.

I love this town.

It is so beautiful here, and I don't know if you like to go boating, and fishing, and diving, but I do.

That has a lot to do with the kind of work that I do.

The drawings that I do are based, for the most part, on a nautical theme.

The nautical chart pieces start off always with somebody's idea of "I do this here," "I fish here," "I live there," and often it's a fishing tournament.

So I'll go into my chart catalog, and, you know pull up a number, and now I have something to work with, and that's my background, that's my backdrop, and so the image has to fit into the areas of on the chart that work the best, but I begin with a pencil sketch, and then I do inkwork over that, and do all my outlines, and then spend hours making dots and lines just for all of the shading.

After that, I do a little bit of watercolor.

I do a little bit of pastel that I use wet.

Never had any professional training.

The most art education I ever had was in high school.

I can draw pretty much anything from a picture.

I started up way before the internet, with sport fishing magazines.

I would cut pictures outta sport fishing magazines, and file them A to Z.

Whenever I would wanna do a drawing, say, for a fishing tournament, or for an individual person, I would sit on my living room floor, and lay out all the pictures, and then little by little, I'd like the fins on this one, and a wave out of this one, and I'd put 'em all together like a collage in my head.

I started doing the mermaid several years ago.

My mom, owning a picture frame shop, knows a lot of interior designers, and one of her favorite customers came in, and she said, "Your daughter oughta draw some mermaids," and I heard her say it, and I'm like, "You know, that's really a good idea.

People like 'em."

So I did one, people loved it.

Did two, people loved it.

Now there's eight, and I have more on my desk to finish.

It's something people collect.

It's a great working relationship, my mom and I here at Keys Images Custom Framing in Key Largo.

Anytime I have an idea, I can just come in and do it.

Having all the right tools, and being able to do anything a customer wants from a design standpoint, I can go from idea to on their wall done without having to source anything out.

I see every step of it.

[narrator] Follow Marjorie Smith online at ChartworksArt.com.

With his first major museum exhibit, painter Thomas Bills brings beauty to the mundane by selling the receipts.

I do my best working on it subconsciously, like, if I try to inject things that mean stuff, usually it happens very ham-fistedly.

I used to get these parking tickets on my car, and this was kind of like right when I was fresh outta art school, and still like, working at like, an entry-level food service job.

Getting like, a $28 parking ticket could be like, a real day-ruiner.

Me and my friends were kinda having this discussion about like, what to do when we get like, these tickets, and we like, you know payday was two weeks ago, and rent's coming up.

We kind of like, fell into this thread of like, how as artists do we utilize like, our very specific set of skills to circumnavigate like, this very sort of like, you know, ubiquitous, metropolitan problem?

And it felt pretty straightforward that what I do is I paint, and by taking these tickets that the city would leave on my car that would cost me $28 to receive, what I would do is paint on these tickets, and then whoever wishes to pay the bill off for me can have it.

I had a lot of friends who like, couldn't afford, you know, like, more expensive canvas paintings.

It was all very exciting that suddenly I was like, producing a body of work that like, all my friends and colleagues could afford.

I'll do these sketches just because I have like, you know, a mile long reference folder of images that I wanna sort of dissect through painting.

Like, really quickly, I'll kind of like, put one down on one of these tickets or invoices, then I'll like hang it up on my wall in my studio, and start to dissect it, which is like, what worked here?

What didn't work here?

Did I use the right color?

Is there too much contrast between like, the light and the shadow?

So I'll have these like, initial sketch pieces to be sort of like, this piece of meditation that I can kind of like, look at and dissect, before I decide to do something a little bit more ambitious on a canvas.

And when I post the parking tickets on Instagram, I think the average sale time for them is probably about five to 10 seconds.

I'll post a ticket on Instagram, and maybe like, 20 people get push notification, and I'll get all of them commenting dibs within maybe like, a two to three second range, and I have to like, screenshot what like, my notifications look like, so that I can like, prove that this person made it by like, half a second.

There is a growing commission arm of the Still Cheaper Than Paying Project that I reserve for anything that's more expensive than maybe like, two to $300.

At least at the time of this filming, I have maybe three invoices from my mechanic that are at about $500 each that I'm like, waiting for buyers for.

I also have a collector who has a pledge to pay one year of my car insurance in exchange for the monthly bills, which has been really nice.

So far, I haven't made a penny worth of profit on this project.

If I receive a ticket for $36, I'll sell it for $36.

If I receive a mechanic invoice for $238 and 41 cents, I'll invoice the buyer $238 and 41 cents.

I'm very willing to die on the hill that memes are maybe the avant guard of visual arts.

A large majority of these parking ticket paintings are actually just like, memes that I've thought to be like, particularly funny at the time of painting, and this sort of like, helps my ability to sort of like, document meme culture, in like, sort of like, this like, more concrete, physical way, 'cause after a meme falls out of fashion, it just gets like, lost in the noise of the internet never to be seen again.

The concept net zero, and it's a pretty far one out there, as like, kind of like, the demand for these pieces have gone up, and the, I guess like, the value of my work has been appreciating, it's becoming more and more realistic that I can start expanding the project out.

Maybe somebody would love to pay a year of my studio rent, or even further down the line, somebody might like to pay for the rent at my like, next apartment.

As the project is progressing, I get closer and closer to this idea of net zero, where I'm personally paying for less and less of my like, initial living costs.

The conceptual backbone of Still Cheaper Than Paying isn't really like, the images that I put on these tickets, but it's more so the modality of the transaction.

I can never sell these for more than, you know, like, the intrinsic value of like, the piece of paper that I've been assigned, you know, 'cause then it stops being like, you know, this concept process of, you know, addressing like, what it's like to receive parking tickets, or bills, or things like that, and it just becomes sort of like this, you know just cheap paint on paper practice that you know, anybody could do.

[narrator] If you've seen Bill's work at the NSU Art Museum, tag us on Instagram, @artloftsfl.

Find full episodes, segments, and more at artloftsfl.org, and on YouTube at South Florida PBS.

[announcer] Art Loft is brought to you by.

[announcer] Where there is freedom, there is expression.

The Florida Keys, and Key West.

[announcer] The Miami-Dade County Tourist Development Council, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor, and the Board of County Commissioners, and the Friends of South Florida PBS.