(upbeat tune) - [Narrator] This week on "Expressions", we paint a picture of the Broome County Arts scene by showcasing a group of visual artists who are making the region a more beautiful place to live.

- Those from out of town are rather impressed that Binghamton, this little city, has this.

- I wanted to lift the spirits of people to take a moment and smell the flowers.

- Art is for everyone.

- [Narrator] All tonight on "Expressions Artists Row".

Funding for this program is provided in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.

- Hello and welcome to this special episode of "Expressions" where we'll explore the Broome County art scene and learn why it is fast becoming a hotbed for the creative community.

Later on, I will talk with gallery owner Orazio Salati.

But first, our team visited State Street in downtown Binghamton for a stop at the Broome County Arts Council.

This nonprofit organization has been supporting the local community for nearly 40 years.

We talked to the BCAC's executive director, Jenny Chang, to learn more.

- The Arts council was incorporated in 1986.

Started this very core program, that we are still running right now, is a United Cultural Fund campaign.

The United Cultural Fund supports seven large arts organizations, general opportunity support, and by that it's a non-restricted fund that our grantees can use to pay their rent, their salaries.

And in the nonprofit world, we all know, like, funding is very competitive and sometimes it really ties into a program.

We're really proud of being able to keep this legacy alive and also, like, growing it every year.

- [Adara] In addition to the United Cultural Fund, BCAC is constantly finding new ways to support the burgeoning arts community in Broome County.

They moved into a new gallery space following the COVID pandemic, and have also established an artisan residence program.

- Having a physical space, having an art space, that really opens up tons of opportunity for artists to to showcase their work.

(upbeat music) Natalie Dadamio, she does abstract expressionism.

She's a very intuitive person.

Her art making is a meditative practice and she finds her own voice through her art making.

She filled the entire wall during her residence.

She was a really hardworking artist.

- I'm Natalie Dadamio.

I'm a mixed media abstract artist, which allows me to break the structure, bring out my childlike nature, express my raw emotions, and define beauty on my own terms.

I picked abstraction or abstraction picked me because it's almost like I've never been understood, and then I'm trying to, like, climb this mountain of like, do you accept me in the process or do you wanna have this dialogue?

It's a natural tendency for me to just go into my emotions.

The sensitivity, you know.

I've always been told I'm too much, I'm too sensitive, too emotional even.

So I always thought something was wrong with me.

But this abstraction really lends itself for the emotions, the raw, intuitive, expressive nature of being.

It's a innate in me.

I was fortunate to get an artist residency with the Broome County Arts Council.

It was a month long artist residency and my project is called Draw It Out.

And I created a community drawing wall as well during the open studios and I wanted people to come and just draw something.

And it didn't have to be anything.

I mean, it could just be that immediate expression and that ties into when people just show up and draw something, whether they, there's no plan and you just see what happens.

That's exciting to me.

It's exciting for me as the artist to have, like, the mark in the moment, but it's also really exciting to see other people just creating.

Filling the space was really important for me.

I have the hallway filled, (chuckling) and this room filled with me.

Which I guess as the artist it should be you, but for me, because it has been such a long journey outta myself and the artworks and in my life, to just take ownership of space and to say yes, these are all the sides of me and I'm allowed to be exactly the way I wanna be in art and living.

There's a lot of layers to what I learned in this residency and with my project Draw It Out specifically is I really wanted to focus on non-representational drawing and highlight that.

I love the process so much that I feel like it can standalone as a product.

And I also feel like sometimes it's overlooked, that the immediacy of the mark in the moment can't be accepted because maybe you didn't spend, like, 10 hours on it.

What really became embodied for me is that emotion is the technique and it can stand alone, and that's where I'm working from.

I wrote the question, "How does it feel?"

So, feeling first and then I follow the technical things.

But, you know, and that is huge for me because that's just how I operate in the world.

I'm not a linear person as we've learned.

(laughing) I've always been abstract.

I've always been dreamy and intuitive and sensitive, which caused me to be so shy and I feel like because life kind of shut me down, as the artist returned and I, the more I make the art, you know, I'm returning, which is really powerful.

So I, that is why I like to distribute the art because I feel like we all can be creative.

We all have that innate, you know, connection.

If we just start to open to ourselves, you know, we think we're not creative sometimes or that it's reserved for someone special, but really it's, art is for everyone.

- For more information about Natalie's artwork or to explore her online art courses, please visit nataliedadamio.com.

Our next subject is ceramic artist Matthew Wilson, an art teacher in Chenango Valley who has a long relationship with the arts council.

- Matthew Wilson, you can tell he really loves what he's doing.

He's really pushing the limits in this medium that he's working mainly with.

So that was a very unique show that we had.

We usually have 2D painting exhibition, but he really kind of showcased, like, how diverse one material can be.

- I'm Matthew Wilson.

I am a ceramic artist and potter.

I'm also a high school art teacher and really just a lover of arts since I've been little all the way until now.

As an artist, I've been messing around with different styles and different techniques and lots of different colors, and I've had all these ideas sort of floating around in my head and it was a decision of how do I make it a cohesive unit.

So, I grouped everything up by style and then color, and I used all those different techniques that I've been practicing and working on to showcase what each of them can do.

I really am into the process of things.

So, I like step by step.

I like seeing my plan come into action.

So, I've always been really drawn to art forms like 3D, printmaking, things where you're going through, like, building with your hands.

So, I've sort of been drawn to the 3D side since the beginning, and I do find that feeling with some of the drawing and paint techniques that I do.

But my practice has always come from the steps that lead up to the final project, and that's been my, sort of, inspiration as I go.

Is following through the steps and completing each task.

My favorite thing about my work is an assemblage of ideas and pieces.

So, taking different techniques or ideas that I've developed and learned and putting them together, pairing different throne pieces into one larger sculptural form.

So, taking those recognizable things that maybe a viewer feels very familiar with and presenting them in a new way that they haven't seen before that makes it more authentic to me as an artist.

I would say my favorite thing about being an artist is the connection that you make with people.

I'm a very social person, but I'm also not one to necessarily, like, present or perform, but my art sort of does that for me.

So, having that be the conversation piece, you know, you make things for other people and that if there wasn't anyone else here, I don't know really the point of making it to begin with.

So, sharing the experience has always been my favorite part.

- Please visit Matthew's website at wilsonceramics.com for more information about his creations.

We still have a few more artists to look at in this episode, but first we check in on Binghamton's First Friday Art Walk, a community event now over 20 years old.

(upbeat music) - I think, like, this is a very important event in this community because it is the one time when, not only all the arts gallery have extended hours on the Friday, but it also encouraged businesses or other creative space to turn their space into a exhibition or music performance venue.

So, it is a really a night of social and celebration of arts, family friendly.

- First Friday has become a major event.

Redid the street for us, which is wonderful.

We get hundreds on a First Friday, and there's still people that don't even know much about First Friday or it's, "This is my first time."

It is evolved from a small event to this major event.

Everyone wants to get involved somehow.

It's a great thing and the community embraces it, which is really satisfying.

- For more information about all the activities associated with Binghamton's First Friday Art Walk, please visit broomearts.org.

Now let's look at a pastel artist who draws inspiration from the scenic beauty of upstate New York.

- I consider myself to be a landscape, seascape, pastelist artist.

Although I've worked in other mediums, for the last 10 or 15 years I've been working in pastel.

What I wanted to do was, I guess, remind people of all the beauty that's all around us and in us.

I did most of the paintings specifically for this show and I wanted to, like, lift the spirits of people.

You know, give people something good to think about.

Think about all this, the beautiful scenery that's around us, you know?

And just to take a moment, you know, and smell the flowers.

Nature is very healing.

It's healing for the mind, it's healing for the soul.

You know, and when your mind and soul are healed, your body's heal.

What I would like to say I like about the work is that what people feel about it.

That's what makes me happy.

That's what makes, if someone is pleased and they're happy and it moved them and the piece spoke to them, that's what made me happy.

- [Adara] Please visit adamtharpfineart.com for more information about this talented artist.

For our next feature, let's learn how BCAC is brightening up the Broome County urban landscape.

- The iDistrict Mural and Mosaic Project is a collaborative project between Broome County Arts Council and the county government.

It started back in 2018.

We were able to select about, like, 20 to 30 artists.

All of their work are within the three I districts, which are the Endicott, Binghamton, and Johnson City.

And the I stands for Innovative, it's trying to use art to revitalize the urban spaces.

Danae, she is a muralist from Montreal.

The last mural that she finished was in JC, that was her second mural.

Her first mural was installed in Binghamton.

She has very unique style, so when you see it, you can definitely tell which ones are hers.

She likes to do kind of like a surrealism.

She has a lot of symbolism in her drawings.

She really did a lot of research to try to come up with designs that will speak to the history of this place.

- Yeah, I've started as more as a sculpture and a puppeteer.

And then when I started to travel, I started to paint mural.

And it's been almost 13 years that I'm traveling around the world, painting murals, doing puppetry and installation.

When I do a mural, I always research history or, like, trying to research culture and tradition, and try to have kids and community involvement.

I do, like, a research books and online and articles and I try to kind of blend them and use symbolism and that are strong and can talk to the collective and consciousness.

This mural is about the shoe factory in Endicott Johnson.

So, I tried to have something that looked more like a jewel, like a pattern.

I inspired myself from the baroque motif that are around the building here, the vintage style of decoration.

And I kind of created that pattern that has to do with shoes.

And the shoes are like, the shoes are creating the town, so there's town inside of the shoes.

The shoes are also, like, the factory, kind of like the stair going in between the bird and the shoe.

The little house are inspired by the fact that the company was helping all their employees to get their own home.

They were acting like bank and helping them having loans for their house.

So, I kind of used the symbol of the house and flowers and plants and birds or more.

I wanted to be, like, kind of a shoe ruins, like there were ruins or temples and the plants and the nature had take over, take over the ruins because it's in the past and it's been long time.

People also are attracted by artists.

I think it, it kind of bands people together.

It like comes and make a little glue in the community and people go where spaces are artistic to just talk and create conversation.

So it does create a lot of connection.

- For a complete list of all the local murals that have been completed as part of the I District Public Art Project, please visit broomearts.org.

Now, we move to our last stop on Artist Row, the studio of Orazio Salati.

Raz has been a staple of the Broom County art scene for the last 50 years and shows no signs of slowing down.

When did you first come to the Greater Binghamton New York area?

- I came from Italy.

I was seven years old and we came to Endicott, New York.

Of course, Endicott Johnson shoes was a big deal back then.

So my father, almost immediately got a job with Endicott Johnson.

Endicott was really our home until I became an adult.

- So, what were your first memories of art as a young child and when did you know you wanted to make that your career?

- I remember I was probably, maybe, in third grade, and I drew a yellow Christmas tree.

And this art teacher said, "Oh, there are no such thing as yellow Christmas trees."

So, I was confused and I went home, I looked at the tree, I plugged it in, it was yellow from of all the lights.

And so that little design of a tree is still in my memory.

So, obviously it's important in my career.

I began doing things, not out of the norm, but a tree would be yellow or a house might be green.

I would play with that, tinker with that.

And then when my parents realized that there was maybe a little something, because, you know, our heritage of Italian Renaissance, the arts were a big deal.

They always encouraged.

They never said, "You don't wanna do that."

He built me a little studio in the basement of our house.

I had a drafting table.

I had a, my first easel that we purchased at Collier's Paint Store in Binghamton, which it no longer exists.

And I began painting with oil paints.

And then in high school I signed up for a course at the Roberson Museum, which meant I had to go to the big city.

'Cause in the sixties, Binghamton was a hustle and bustle.

And I had a portfolio box and I'd walk down to Roberson and I just took these little classes, drawing, painting.

I still have some of the pieces.

And that's when I really decided that this is serious.

I'm gonna do something with this.

And the rest is history.

I went to college and here I am.

(upbeat music) - [Adara] Orazio's creations have run the gamut over his long career, and his work has been displayed in over 25 exhibitions over the past 35 years.

For this program, he gave us a behind the scenes look at how he is creating his latest series of paintings.

- Was working with oil paint.

And not that I got bored with oil paint, I wanted to do something different and I couldn't figure out what.

I observed an artist in Provincetown Mass, Cynthia Packard.

And she was mixing her oil with a wax and she took this blow torch and she just started.

And I was just like.

I was blow, well blow torch.

I was blown away.

It completely changed my outlook.

And so I said, "I've gotta do this, I gotta do it."

So, I came back and I started working in that, those techniques with oil paint, wax, then the tar and binding it with a blow torch.

(blowtorch whirring) My first markings that I do on my wood boards, take the tar with a big spatula and just move it around.

But I leave much of the wood exposed.

Let it dry for a couple months.

Then I start mixing my oil with my wax, and I use sponges and rags and spatulas and my hand.

I don't use brushes in all my work.

(upbeat music) Excites me because when you're using the blow torch, the heat, it starts to break up a little bit of the tar underneath the paint and bubbles occur, crevices.

All of a sudden all these textures, and I love textures, and it would just build, 'cause you do layers and layers of the paint.

And it's just layers and layers of torching and painting, torching, painting until eventually the paint, the painting starts to speak to you.

(upbeat music) I also go out into nature and I, I'll pick up leaves, fern things that I find has texture, and I'll roll out paint with the oil and the wax, and then I roll it onto the boards, then torch it.

If you don't torch it, the colors will stay, but they're not as vibrant.

And I'll take a a tool and I'll make a line.

I'll use anywhere from a small little nail to a spike.

And I take that and I just cut right into the wax.

The tar comes through, which creates another dimension to the pieces.

It's amazing when your painting is almost complete, and then when you start cutting into it and the black comes through, the painting changes.

All of a sudden it's like you're outlining everything.

But a lot of the times the exploration, the journey from beginning to the end, is the most exciting part.

- That is all the time we have for this episode, and I wanna thank both Orazio Salati and the Broome County Arts Council for their help in putting it all together.

Visit wskg.org/expressions to see more of this program, and remember to support your local arts scene.

Thanks so much for watching.

This is Adara Alston.

Goodnight.

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