Coming up on up rocks, a unique approach to color and form reflected from stainless steel, my art is a combination of graphic design and colors.

I was in the printing business for so long, I became a good graphic designer.

When I started painting, I used those skills to develop art, a festival that celebrates diversity in the classical music world and a different kind of celebration with wide open walls.

These stories are up next on art rocks.

Art rocks is made possible by the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana, public broadcasting and by viewers like you.

Hello.

Thank you for joining us for art rocks with me.

James Fox Smith from Country Roads Magazine.

Let's begin in Shreveport with the story of a long time graphic artist whose quest for bold colors, forms and effects led him to develop his own paint.

Byron Mae applies that paint to an unusual substrate to stainless steel.

Let's have a look at his story.

My art is a combination of graphic design and colors.

I was in the printing business for so long.

I became a good graphic designer when I started painting.

I use those skills to develop art.

I had art pop into my head.

I see shapes and colors, and that's what I put on my canvas, which is stainless steel.

There are certain things that I do to the stainless steel, and it's actually a brushed stainless steel.

It's just like the front of a refrigerator door is what I buy and cut sizes, but makes me unique in the art world of doing work on stainless steel.

And the benefits you can get from it are incredible because of the light reflection that happens when the light hits my work, it changes it all day long.

The more light you apply to my work, the better.

The more vivid they become, the more translucent they become.

And it's kind of like the difference in looking at a printed piece and then looking at the same pictures on your computer monitor.

I experiment with a lot of different colors, but mainly my colors are primary colors.

I like the big and bold pieces that I've done, probably more than the softer pieces.

The paint I'm using is a proprietary paint that I helped develop with a chemist in Dallas.

I've had pieces that have been out in the community now for 1214 years that are doing just fine.

All our use of the palette knife, I don't use a paintbrush on my art and basically how hard I press that palette knife into that metal makes the paint thinner or denser.

The thinner I make the paint, the more translucent it becomes, the more light reflects and the more crazy things happen to it, but takes practice.

And I've got quite a few years to practice my paintings extremely dense.

It's like heavy maple sirup.

It's not like an acrylic or even an oil.

I can work it and work it and work it.

And there's things that it does that separate this paint from the rest of the paint out there.

The colors don't mix unless I force them to mix.

In other words, I can take red, yellow, blue and put them down on a sheet of stainless steel, cover them up with a dark blue and then open them up with a palette knife and the colors underneath remain perfectly true to color.

It's really an amazing thing to see.

I don't have to build texture with my art.

I basically just have to apply the right paint.

We got it to the point where I could get a color.

Let's say red.

I could get a red and smooth, or I could get a red that wrinkles same color.

It looks exactly the same when you put it down on a piece of stainless steel.

As it drives, it stays perfectly smooth or it ripples.

I can dictate where texture goes without having to build texture, which is something most artists have to do.

If they want texture, they have to create texture.

Mine happens through the drying process when I want to blend colors.

I create an under painting, and that's the first thing that goes down.

But a lot of art is three, four or five step process.

I'll create the under painting, which is just like background noise, and then I'll put color on top of that after that, Strad.

When I use that technique and my paint has many different techniques, some that I haven't even discovered yet.

The paint is a lot thinner because I'm using varnish to dilute the color, and the colors actually do start mixing together.

But they play so translucent that you can see straight through to the painting on the finished pieces.

And it's one of my favorite techniques of painting with this paint.

I'm not sure that it's necessarily the customer's favorite technique.

They seem to like the bold colors of primary colors, more so than a, I think, the softer colors.

But I enjoy doing the other technique as well, and I've used to quite a bit on pieces and sold pieces like that, too.

I had art classes in high school.

My art teacher was pretty proud of me from the sixth grade and then again in the 11th and 12th grade, I actually did some pieces for our business.

Before all this, I did some pieces for behind my desk in my offices and I did some pieces for the front, for two of them.

Are up there now, really?

Other than that, the graphic design is really the closest that I got to art, the market is so different in person than it is and in front of it, I've sold some pieces online, but it's not nearly as good as somebody seeing your in person, especially with my art, because you can't relate.

What more does it change so dramatically?

I can take a picture of a canvas that I've done, and it looks exactly like it on the internet, but I can't do that with my art on metal.

I've never been able to predict what piece would sell.

I would go into a show thinking this piece would go first, and should I take this piece or not?

And the one that I thought, should I take this piece or not was the one that sold first.

It's always shocked me as to what the public likes or dislikes out there, and every community is different.

It's been a great ride.

I did play golf competitively all my life.

I had major double fusion back surgery 14 years ago that went awfully wrong, and overnight I was basically crippled and completely through with golf.

I got into art because of my pain.

I was unable to work.

I was on heavy pain medication.

I started painting really to try to find something to take my mind off pain, never intending to sell the first piece.

And it did.

I was able to escape pain through art, which was pretty amazing.

I created FP Magazine 21 years ago, before then, all Freeport had with tabloids.

We didn't have a really nice publication representing to report Mosher.

It was a big project.

It took a number of years for the communities to accept it.

But when they did, they really did.

And we've been going since 2000 with ACP magazine, and I've enjoyed graphically what I've been able to contribute to that.

Our lives are greatly enriched by the creative endeavors of others.

The trick is knowing where to look.

So here are some of our picks for notable exhibits taking place at museums and galleries in our part of the world.

For more about these and loads more events in the creative space, visit LTV Dorgi Art Rock.

There you'll find links to each episode of the program.

So to see or share any segment again, visit LP B Dorgan.

The Color of Music Festival celebrates contributions that people of African ancestry have made to the classical music field, from vocalists and musicians to composers to the festival gives artists a stage from which to perform and values inclusion, diversity and accessibility.

So we're off to nearby Houston, Texas, to have a listen.

Why do I saying you?

You could.

I sing because I know that I have something to say, and I know that it's important to possibly be honest.

There's a challenge involved in singing classical music.

It's the memorization component.

It's the style component.

It's the component of actually communicating what the composer has asked of you to communicate.

Border Patrol, she one is constantly thinking about your focus at this moment.

What is the character thinking at this moment?

How would the character sit at this moment?

How would the character look into the eyes of someone that she loves?

And so when you have those things running in your mind, the music lends itself to be sung.

What do?

I stumbled upon us.

I'm involved with the colored music festival because I think it's a fantastic premise.

The idea is quite amazing.

The poem music exists to showcase the extraordinary talents people of African ancestry have contributed to the classical genre.

We are truly the largest black, classically presenting organization.

The talent of the musicians that performed and the country music festival is truly global from the natural voice.

Having missed the clue to Mitchell, who's a phenomenal soprano to conservatory trained musicians that come from the Curtis Institute, Oberlin Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, the Royal Conservatory, I can go on and on and on.

I think something like this can thrive because the importance of inclusion and diversity is needed.

And with classical music, I think there's it's like 0.01% of orchestras have people of color.

So like many black institutions that start, it's out of necessity, we have to create our own institutions when they're not giving us access.

The classical music world is a very complicated, expensive world.

That's where it started by aristocrats, who used to pay very poor composers to do things that they could show off their wealth.

So it still carries all of those standards of what classical music should be and how it should be presented to these people of African ancestry , many of whom can't get the covenant spots in their limited spots and orchestras around the world.

This is an opportunity for them to present these huge works.

Oh.

With Mr. Singh, Norman is probably one of the most celebrated African-American sopranos of our time.

She has sung in every major opera house there is in the world.

So at the age of 14, I was able to meet Tracy Norman and that I was able to see her on stage.

I'm a kid from Brooklyn.

I had no idea that that was actually a possibility for me.

So the importance of diversity on stage, it's it's paramount, it must happen.

It's really, really important that young people understand that there is a possibility when I walk out on stage, I'm thinking that there probably will be someone in the audience who's never seen anyone look like me that is doing what I'm doing.

So I need to always put my best foot forward when I'm performing.

Oh, oh.

Art for all is the mantra chanted at the Wide Open Walls Festival in Sacramento, California.

So let's discover how this singular festival is creating conversations and transforming a community into a vibrant arts hub.

Most people, I think if you take a look at the general population, they don't normally go into museums, they're not normally going in galleries, but we are able to make art available for everybody to see in any kind of setting.

The purpose of wide open walls was not to only give attention to the history of the murals in Sacramento, but to make it really exciting and bring in an international cast with local artists.

We invited twelve international artists that we knew from their styles of the art, the type of painting that they did, that we would have a great balance.

And then it was a matter of mixing muralists that have been creating for many years or already in the Sacramento market.

And then we did something a little bit sort of unique.

We gave an opportunity to artists that have never created a mural before, and I think that might have been my favorite part is seen the sense of pride from some of our local and regional artists that had not created on such a large scale.

We made a pretty big impact with 44 walls this year being the largest mural festival on the West Coast.

But I think they have as much impact.

We don't necessarily need to do as many.

There's always room for improvement of what the future of the festival looks like.

But if you take a look at the impact of what we are able to accomplish in a short ten day period, the amount of attention that it received both locally and internationally, it was pretty spectacular.

We not only had a volunteer list, we had a couple of volunteer coordinators.

There was literally 100 bodies running to support the artists, to bring them food, to bring them water, to make sure that they had all their supplies.

The support that it takes to do something like this takes an army of volunteers.

We produced a 40 page guide.

We had maps both online and in an app form, so people were able to follow along and learn something about the murals as they were touring.

I think one of the greatest success stories of those tours is what the Ali the Improv Alley looks like on Sacramento right now.

It was probably known as one of the worst alleys.

We were able to get the alley paved and we created seven brand new murals.

All the garbage cans were painted in the alley.

Even the grease trap bins were painted, and there is now a 300 foot plus humanity mural with just some incredible messaging, a gorgeous piece of art and six surrounding pieces of art six other murals and it's now become a tourist destination.

Oh, my God, this is one of my favorites.

Beautiful, adding new landmarks, gathering places, economic development also, I mean, we put walls in areas that weren't necessarily the best parts of town.

And our goal there was not just to make it more beautiful, but to drive people into that area to go look at the beautiful art, whether they're walking and riding their bikes, jumping off the cars, they need to go, have a place to take a break and eat a meal and grab a cup of coffee.

Why the name wide open walls?

I think it brings a lot of different ideas to a lot of different people.

first off, it makes things a lot more beautiful.

And that same concept of art for all is giving people an opportunity for everybody to see it.

Whether you're driving down the road and all of a sudden you're seeing something that's 18 stories tall that used to be a blank wall and be able to identify specific areas of town and specific buildings.

There is new, modern, more contemporary artists that are coming up with new designs and new ideas, and that's being enforced by incredible street art.

So I think the duplication factor of it happening, whether it's wide open walls in other cities or just additional cities participating in these types of events.

I think the future looks really bright.

Art has the capacity to change things.

It changes people's attitude, it changes their outlook.

It gives them hope, it inspires them.

All of those things can come from art that's in a public place that anybody can be exposed to.

You can have the worst day of your life, and you can walk by a piece of art that you've never seen before and put on a big smile and go home happy.

How cool is that?

The gathering places the economic development aspect of it, of being able to put on art that makes a difference to the community and brings people up.

How cool is that?

I mean, it's just all about art for all.

Let's put this.

Let's put art out there for everybody to enjoy.

Potter Jim McDowell pursues his craft to keep the memory of his ancestors alive.

McDowell creates what is known as face jugs, anthropomorphized vessels used by African cultures in spiritual or funerary practice, or to waterway evil.

So let's learn a little more.

I'm a storyteller.

So I tell the story and I tell the story in my jokes, my jokes reflect the scar ification, my jokes reflect the rite of passage.

My joke reflects the struggle.

I'm doing it to honor my ancestors.

I'm the black bodied.

Well, open area and we'll set it over here.

I call myself a gypsy potter.

You know, I've never had a studio of my own like this while we had a garage or something like that.

But this is the first time I've had a studio and it's going to be my studio and I'm going to work in there the way I want to do it.

It's like a potter name.

The from from Japan said moving the pottery is like moving a mountain.

Now, the history of the face shows is that an African ancestor worship when they took him into slavery, they took him to the island to acclimate them.

They picked the voodoo and all that hoodoo stuff.

And then when they got the United States, the missionaries quickly tried to convert them to Christianity So they amalgamated all those three religion and set the words You put Africa, voodoo and Jamaican Christianity.

And they came up with an ugly job.

Now look at your premises.

Anything that you possess, your hat, your clothing, your pots and pans.

Your spirit resides in it.

And so when you die, they put it on your grave.

You wasn't allowed to have a great market because they did not consider you a person.

You were chattel.

And so you put the grave marker on the on the grave and it scared them away.

So you soul could go to heaven.

That's what they believed.

The thing about the face, just for me, is to tell the story of what was going on at that time when the lynching was going on in this country.

So I got a joke inside there where Emmett Till, the young boy that was killed, I think, 1954.

It's two sided.

one side looks like a normal child and the other side looks like, you know, all the kind of bad stuff.

Now, sleep on a date with a slave who was owned by some people in and Edgefield, South Carolina.

And they, as a young boy, grew up on the plantation.

So one day they asked him what he'd like to learn how to throw.

So the person that owned it, they taught him how to throw.

But also, they taught him how to read and write and sit tight.

They had a newspaper company called the The Hive, and Dave could set type, read and write the one thing that I do now in honor play potter Dave.

I write things on my joke like I can read now.

They were, they could write and read, but sometimes they whisper, read r e d instead of R EDI.

And sometimes they would write things that were phonetically.

And he would write things, and I'm like, I belong to Mr Miles with a pot boils in the oven, give me silver, give me gold.

They're not good for you.

So he would write all kinds of things on the jokes.

And then he was it ill. That was the people that owned it.

And then he put Dave and even put the year.

So I think what I'm going to make now is a face check body, so I usually make about four or five bodies and then the revelation or the inspiration of what I'm making comes later.

I'm more concerned with trying to stay with the African tradition.

Everything that you do of joining together is also a design.

And also when I when I get this to the kill, I can put glass here and haven't run down.

I'll put scarification, I'll put the scratching.

I'll do all kinds of other things to it later.

But I want to get it together today right now so that it will be ready to go when I when I get to that point, because different things come to me at different times and I just I got to be aware and ready to ready to work with.

I get an idea.

I'm not striving for realism.

You know, I want to approximate that and do what the sway parties do, and I think I'm a continuation of what they do.

So I make things that refer to the the black experience.

You know, I'm trying to keep the story alive because if we don't keep stirring alive, we don't have to do it again.

And that is that for this edition of Art Rocks.

But as we are fond of saying, you can see or share any segment again at El-P dot org slash art rocks.

And if all this art is making you curious for more, remember that Country Roads magazine makes a fine resource for finding cultural adventures all across the state.

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

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