Coming your way on, rocks, turning timeless timbers into one of a kind dining and conference tables.

You can make one piece of wood.

Is your table top.

So when you do that, you do run into the defects.

I try not to let any holes or anything slide by me.

Everything's generally filled.

A painter follows her dream.

Finally, if I won the lottery, that's what I would do, you know?

And my friends are like, why do you have to win the lottery?

Why don't you just do it?

A family finds its signature sound.

You know, we were definitely happy with how our album turned out, but we were like, can we, like, find even even a better sound?

And photography focuses on the abstract end of the spectrum.

It allows me, as a photographer, to concentrate the viewer's attention on the lines, the forms, the shadows, all that.

Up next, art rock.

Art rock is made possible by the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and by viewers like you.

Hello, and thank you for spending some time on Art rocks with me.

James Fox Smith, publisher of Country Roads magazine.

Monroe is an interesting town for creative times, especially the place known as Washington Antique Woods.

Their owner, Kyle Shellenberger, is repurposing fallen trees and reclaimed timber to create stunning live edge tables for all sorts of uses.

The larger the table, the more difficult the job, and the more Kyle loves the challenge.

Listen up.

I'll make the joke a lot that a lot of the pieces I built, I did everything other than plant the tree.

When the trees cut, we'll cut it down sometimes.

Or if it's a sink or log that comes out of the bayous, we'll pull them out, bring them back here, mill them on the sawmill, drum in the kiln and build furniture out of that.

So everything other than planting that tree, we were a part of it.

And there are some very large sawmills that all they do is cut pulpwood or railroad ties, and they'll you'll see mountains of trees out there.

The skeleton of a sawmill is having that big saw that can cut trees in the woods.

I've got about the same store that everybody else runs.

I just use it on a much smaller scale, just making material for myself.

My material selection starts with the tree.

If it's a long, straight, boring looking tree, I'll know it's gonna look like a two by four on the inside, which is good for some people, but I like the unique look and stuff.

So I want a tree with all the nasty stuff where it forks out and everything from there.

I'll mill it how I think would look the best.

And people that come in here.

I try to tell them which one they need.

It's a lot of pushing the right material in front of someone, and they'll realize that was what they were looking for.

These are kind of umbrella termed as slabs, lavage slabs, big giant single pieces of wood.

There's no gluing multiple pieces involved.

You can make one piece of wood as your tabletop.

So when you do that, you do run into the defects.

You've got to use every square inch of that wood.

So once there's a defect, a lot of the towns will fill it with resin, put bow ties to keep cracks from expanding and stuff.

But yeah, try not to let any holes or anything slide down and everything's generally filled, so you don't have to worry about any cracks or anything like that.

We make a lot more tables than anything, just that's the most common piece of furniture.

Usually in somebody's house, they want a nice piece of furniture.

It's generally their table.

I do a lot of conference tables for companies.

I do make headboards, big headboards, coffee tables, bar tops, really anything that you can make out of wood, I've done, but the majority of it is mostly dining tables.

That's what most people like to have.

It's a nice big dining table.

I'm a big proponent of all wood joinery.

Don't ever use nails or screws in anything.

Make mortise and ten inch joints.

If you can make the wood hold itself together then you don't need a screw.

Like traditional woodworking techniques, it's all woodworking glue and good fitting joinery.

I have trouble letting anything leave the shop.

They're all my children.

I don't want to see them go, but at the same time you got to eat.

So I almost just about everything I make, I say one day I'm going to have to make me one of those.

I get a lot of people wanting you not to touch nothing.

Just like I want that piece of wood right there.

Don't touch it.

That's.

That's how I want the table.

And that's that.

That's good for me, you know?

Let's work 90% of woodworking and sanding.

You get something built, and then you spend twice as much time as anything just sitting there.

The sawmill, it's accurate, but it's not to a 16th of an inch perfectly accurate.

So we'll mill those boards up and then bring them inside the planer will bring all the boards to exactly the right thickness.

So we'll run them through there.

And they'll get once they're all exactly the right thickness, then we can laminate them all together to make a single thickness tabletop.

You don't want a table that's wavy in different thicknesses.

I sell a lot of reclaimed beams, reclaimed boards that are used for walls, ceilings.

I sell a lot of reclaimed flooring.

It's usually barns or old factories that we're getting the wood out of.

So I sell a lot of reclaimed mantles as beams.

I like to mill those big beams down into boards and make flooring or tables, or any type of wood product.

Out of those, I've had barns that they've torn down in Ontario, Canada, shipped all the way down here.

South Carolina, Georgia, Chicago, really all over the country is if I can find a good factory or a barn or something that they're tearing down.

That was that was built in the late 1800s, early 1900s.

I try to get my hands on it, and it's hard to get that stuff without buying a big volume of it.

If they're turned down a big factor, they're not letting you come by a couple boards.

You got to buy all of it.

So that's one part of it that you've kind of got to buy an entire 18 Wheeler load of beams to get them all.

You've got to pay for it.

But if it's a nice material, it's worth it.

There's no way to get that old virgin grove timber anymore, other than getting it out of something that was built in those days.

A lot of the time, some of this stuff's 200 years old.

It's it's as dry as it would ever get.

It was kind of like a dream of mine to be able to have a wood shop and do what I want to do every day, and people come and pay me to do it.

When it started, everything I made was from the material I was buying or tearing down.

Now I've gotten a lot into the milling my own wood.

Accomplished artists from this state and all around the country are showcasing work in museums and galleries near you.

So here's some of our picks for notable exhibits coming soon to museums and galleries in your community.

For more about these and many more events in the arts, subscribe to Arts Monthly, the new free e-newsletter from the editors at LPB and Country Roads Magazine.

What's more, the Art rocks website features every episode of this program, so to see or share any episode again, log on to lpb.org and navigate to Art rocks.

Cincinnati, Ohio artist Carol Abbott first got serious about painting at the tender age of ten, but like many a creative spirit, Carol couldn't summon the courage to pursue art as a career until many years later, when she finally picked up a brush in earnest and began sketching the shape of her dream.

Here's how she made the leap.

I can remember in this grade, my parents let me go to the Finley Art League, and I painted with all the adults and took classes and got my own oil paint.

My mom said she always try to get me to play with dolls because she liked dolls when she was a little girl, and I was the only daughter.

I would get these paper napkins that had embossed designs on them, and all I would do is color designs on those paper napkins.

She could never get me to play with dolls, so it was pretty early on.

I feel lucky that I always knew what I was, you know, was sure what I wanted to be.

I started taking fine arts in college, but I decided, well, I'm going to go into graphic arts because that way I can have a better chance of earning an income.

Well, I got out with my degree and I got involved in it, but I really wasn't the greatest graphic artist.

And I gravitated away from actually creating things to selling equipment to the people that printed and produced books and posters.

It was a great way to earn an income, and at least it was sort of adjacent to what I was interested in.

But I used to come through here in the Pendleton Art center and just think, oh, that's what I wanted my life to be.

If I won the lottery.

That's what I would do, you know?

And my friends were like, why do you have to win the lottery?

Why don't you just do it?

Well, I guess when I had nothing to lose, then nothing was holding me back.

And that was nine years ago.

And I'm still here.

I'm not going to lose it again.

I did grow up in Findlay, Ohio, which has beautiful old Victorian gas boom homes all along Main Street, so that was my environment.

But I started wanting to paint houses from the very beginning, and that was always the subject matter that drew me.

That's what's a fun part of the job is, you know, one day it'll be a very intricate, older Victorian home and then the next day something very modern.

Some people see every tree as being different and having a personality that sort of the way houses are for me.

And I've painted homes that are almost the same design, but everyone is different to me, and talking to the people that live there even make that more so.

That's one of the things I enjoy about it is talking about when they bought the home and their life there.

That all makes it part of the personality of the painting.

If I can go and photograph the house myself, I'll usually go around sunrise or sunset, and I want a sunny day where the plains are really distinct on the house, because that gives it the shape that makes it come alive.

It's sort of like if you do a portrait of a person and the face is what makes it come alive.

For me, a dramatic light effect on that building is what makes you notice it.

So I always have to do drawings of a subject before I paint it, just to kind of get to know the angles of the house and know where the perspective problems and things are.

So I'll show them the drawings from the left, from the middle, from the right, and kind of get a feeling from talking to them about those what they like and don't like.

And if there's something that really bugs them, they'll say at that point, which is good, because then I have time to fix it.

I'm looking at the photos that I took and kind of thinking about what background color I might use on my canvas.

So a lot of times I'll take a canvas sheet and divided into four quadrants and paint some different background colors on it, really different.

And then I'll do some color sketches of the house on those different background to see which ones work right.

I'll look for things that I definitely analytically know.

I've got to change this angle or this has got to be lighter, this has got to be darker.

And then once I know what the client wants, I'll take the real canvas and coat it with the background color that I've picked.

Colors.

What I like about painting, it's like a mad chemistry experiment.

Sometimes mixing the different colors and acrylics are fun because it's almost like watercolor.

It's like laying transparent film on top of each other.

The color will change, but the underneath colors show through.

I've learned that instead of mixing acrylics on the palette like I do with oils, I actually do mix them on the canvas.

I'll lay layers of color on the canvas, so I'll just start putting in the more dramatic darks and lights and kind of drawing in paint.

I'd much rather drawing paint than with a pencil.

And in about 10 or 15 minutes I'll be into a zone where I'm not thinking about it at all, and it's just happening.

Every once in a while.

One will just flow out and you kind of have to learn, leave it alone.

Sometimes it's just stepping back and looking at it and seeing, is this really done?

They're usually surprised because I'm not the kind of painter that paints it very realistic looking.

Sometimes people say, well, you know, our roof isn't that color.

So I think they're excited by the surprise as well, because it's not going to look exactly like the photo.

And so, then it becomes a part of looking at it enough to let it tell me, is it finished?

And sometimes I'll ask for help, even from the person that's commissioning it.

I'll take the real painting and show it to them.

And if they think it's not finished and they want more, they're the customer.

So they're always right.

And in that sense, it becomes something more than what I've done too, because they've worked on it with me.

And that's satisfying.

A bit like The Sound of Music.

Von Trapp family only without the leather shorts.

The hunt for a band of seven siblings who have combined their vocal talents to create a sound described as unique and original.

Take a listen to how this Chesapeake, Virginia family is riding a score for musical stardom.

Hey, Jimmy weighed in this time as you guys go in from outside.

Each person is important to every song.

If if it doesn't, if a song doesn't make it through all seven filters, then it's not the hunt.

Oh, I can see.

I can see your heart through your eyes.

On that night.

From the bottom.

How can we ever make this link?

Our mom and dad were musicians.

My mom played classical violin and our dad played electric guitar.

But they were their own duo and they'd go around to local events just as kind of background musicians.

And, one time I think Jenny and I were maybe 5 or 6.

They brought us out to play violins and kind of stole the show.

Everybody from then on wanted the twin girls to come with them and play violin.

So that's kind of how it started with bringing in the kids into the group.

Oh, I think when we hit our teen years, writing music was something that really kinda interest and just brought a fresh, feel to music, and it had a spark in us and we couldn't stop writing, and we wanted to find our own sound and be something unique.

And we could see ourselves just going farther with our own original music than being a cover band for.

We decided to, schedule just a writing retreat where we got away from our schedules, got away from our, daily lives, and we got a house down in the Outer Banks, and we just wrote all week.

It was really cool to see the hunts come alive and to create our own sound, and to just begin to build this dream of who we are.

Now, if I could see you.

And with Mom and Dad, they were kind of sad.

They're like fish out of water.

I think right at the transition.

And they didn't know.

Okay, well, what do I do now if this is what, the changes.

But they really picked up the torch for, for still being a part of the band, just in a different way.

My dad drives the bus and gets us to every gig on time.

And he also runs or sounds system and does a phenomenal job there.

And then my mom is we call them momager.

So like our manager and dad's on the phone calls and also she's our merch lady too, so it's a full family business.

Still, your mom say you love.

I think our parents are great to have involved because when you you're sitting on a project and in it for hours and hours, they come in with fresh ears and can listen to the whole thing with fresh perspective and hear things that maybe our minds are dulled to, that we've been so focused on this or this, they come in and can offer advice that we listen to, and because they're on the same page as us too, they know our vision and our sound and, we respect their opinions.

Well, partially the kick, but the the bass should probably match the kick.

So we recorded our first album shortly after our writing session, and I sent the tracks to 96 X, our local radio station.

They kind of put us into a rotation right away, and that really caught some attention from some publishers in New York, some management and a label.

And of our single Make This Leap was featured in a commercial nationwide.

And it just really gave us, a big springboard into excitement and a momentum, just starting right here locally.

I think Chesapeake is a huge part of who we are.

It's where we grew up and where we'll always call home.

So we love investing in to the musicians and the community, to the kids at the schools.

We've done several programs, working with them, having them play along with us.

It's really fun.

I think we just go through every MC and listen to one thing with the click, make sure it's spot on.

For me, I was really able to see what a record label is all about.

And, all the all the ways that they were really helpful to us in all the ways that we kind of saw, hey, we could do this ourselves.

Everything else is so syncopated in that let's do the piano in between.

I'll simplify it.

And then and, you know, we were definitely happy with how our album turned out, but we were like, can we like, find even even a better sound of, like, the PA sound ourselves?

We definitely have learned a lot from all our past experiences with the producers we've worked with.

And I think what we realized this time around is that we know our vision best.

We know what we want the best, and instead of trying to explain that to someone else and have them create that for us, we're on an adventure to do it ourselves.

Like, let's create what?

What we see, what we want to hear.

so that's the goal for this album, is to to take our vision and let it blossom.

00000.

It brings so much joy to do it with your siblings.

They're my best friends, my closest comrades.

we have been through the ups and downs in the years, working hard for this.

And it's just rewarding to feel like we're conquering it together and and going places.

Journey.

When you reach start that, you know it's gonna be fun.

and we'll go farther than we've been ever before.

Heading down to Santa Fe, New Mexico now, which is where you'll find photographer Phillip Augustine, who turns to shapes to push the boundaries of the photographic process.

What do you see in nature that captures your attention?

Well?

My Yellowstone work.

this.

The snow, the fog.

All made for very minimal images.

You know, there wasn't a whole lot of distracting details and as I worked more and more with the Yellowstone landscape, I spent seven, seven winters up there.

little under 200 days there.

And gradually my work became more and more abstract within the natural scene.

a good example of that is Shadows in Yellowstone mean at the time, that was a fascinating image to me.

In hindsight, that was a pivot image for me, because even though it's of shadows and it's very abstract, it's still a snowdrift.

That image came back and was one that showed.

It showed in advance, thought about how abstraction works, that the natural world is busy.

You know, if you're out in the wilderness of Yellowstone, there's trees and there's grasses.

And to me, minimalism is muting those down.

There's one thing that Winter did.

With the snow, all the grasses are hidden.

the distance is muted with the fog.

It allows me, as a photographer, to concentrate the viewer's attention on what I saw specifically, that the lines, the forms, the shadows.

You.

Photographs come about as questions.

And what are the questions that come to mind when you're.

Well?

My current work is about, non representational photography.

So the question becomes can a photograph be non non representational.

There is an object that a photograph has to have.

But by focusing in the image by making it so out of focus you can't tell what it is.

It's no longer representing what's in front of the camera.

How did you arrive at that process?

I was working on, a series called Questions of Perception.

I was printing one of them in the darkroom one day, and I'm usually really careful in the darkroom, but for for some reason, the enlarge was grossly out of focus.

I didn't notice it until I had the film or the print processed, and while the print was garbage, it clicked.

With what?

Something else that had been going on in my head, and I put my thought.

My question was, is it possible to make a lens based non representational image?

I think it gives you a different way of viewing the world.

most of my, abstract images are triggered by something in the real world.

And what I think is important between talking about the Yellowstone work and my abstract work, is that they really aren't all that different.

I'm.

I'm using different materials and I'm taking it further in surface tangent or vanishing point, but it equates to what you see in nature or what you could see in nature.

What I'm really talking about in in my abstraction is forms like shadows.

the the relative composition of the two.

what is the role of the artist?

The role of the artist, I think, is to show the viewer something that they might not see, to show my vision to the viewer.

You're putting a frame around something and saying, this is important to me.

This is something that you should see.

And maybe you're telling the viewer that they just need to take a closer look at their world.

That'll do it for another edition of Art rocks.

But as you know, you can always find, watch and share episodes of this show@lpb.org slash, rocks.

And if you want to know more about the culture that surrounds you, Country Roads Magazine makes a great resource for finding out what's going on in the arts all across the state.

So until next week, I've been James Fox Smith and thank you for watching.