Annc: COMING UP ON KVIE ARTS SHOWCASE... Over the last 9 seasons we have had the opportunity to showcase some of the most talented artists from all across our region and beyond.

Join us as we take a look back.

Annc: EXPERIENCE THE HEALING POWER OF ART Tiffany: Something happens when somebody connects to a piece of art... that reminds them of something.

Annc: CAPTURING MEMORIES THROUGH DISCARDED ITEMS Sohyung: Everybody's memories and history is different, and how they get from an object they're all different but the way they feel from my work is very touching.

Annc: AN ARTIST WHOSE ART REMINDS US TO ENJOY THE LITTLE THINGS Stuart: My work is a celebration of the beauty of the world Annc: A LITTLE KNOWN BUT PROLIFIC SACRAMENTO ARTIST Bob: He was at the Sacramento bee for 30 plus years and he started as an illustrator... and he rose to be the art director"” Annc: A DANCER DISCOVERS ITS MORE THEN JUST DANCE Kristopher: And that kind of confirmed for myself because I always just thought, I could make true art out of it.

Annc: IT'’S ALL UP NEXT ON KVIE ARTS SHOWCASE... ♪♪ ♪♪ Annc: A PASSION TO CREATE AND A DEDICATION TO GIVING BACK CAME TOGETHER WITH AN AMAZING ORGANIZATION CALLED ARTISAN MIND.

♪♪ Tiffany Paige>> Something happens when somebody connects to a piece of art, that reminds them of something, and when they remember who they are and we can meet them there.

The anxiety or the apathy or the agitation that is often a symptom that comes along with Alzheimer's or Dementia, those things go away when they are engaged in the creative experience.

My grandfather had Alzheimer's, my grandpa Mac, he ran a steel factory in Pennsylvania, his granddaughter going to art school made no sense to him, and he believed in me anyway, he would say honey are you sure you can do something with an art degree?

And I just started investigating how the arts could be used for people living with disabilities, and the Alzheimer's piece just, it just had my heart.

"Artz", Artists for Alzheimer's is part of a national organization that does museum tours that are specifically designed for people with Alzheimer's and Dementia.

The tours here in Sacramento, we arrive early, we've trained the docents at each one of the museums.

Typically they come on a bus form one of the either assisted living facilities, so the second they get off the bus, we're saying hello and introducing them, ourselves, and walking, welcoming them to the museum, and then we guide them inside.

There's these ways to ask a few simple questions and connect with them and create that sense of relationship to develop new memories and to not let that person's beautiful mind atrophy by not being used.

These partnerships started developing with other assisted living communities, and other memory care organizations that kind of grew outside the scope of what Artz was doing, so that's when Artisan Mind was born.

One of the reasons that the art works so well is that the part of the brain where imagination and creativity comes from is the last part affected by Alzheimer's or Dementia, so by tapping into that part of the brain, it actually serves as a gateway to memories, and that's what I see happening.

"Would you help me get that out later?

I will be taking that with me!"

[off screen] "Perfect" We do, definitely see the lights come on.

And when I've seen that connection of this is an important memory!

It's so possible to connect and give this sense of meaning to somebody, and it's so much more engaging than putting somebody in front of the news program, or, getting lost to a television show and not being engaged, and for people who don't know how to connect with grandma anymore, they might be afraid of it.

There are studies all over the place about how happiness is good for our health, so if we can do that and help people in that way, and for somebody living with Alzheimer's and Dementia there's not that many opportunities for validation.

I think if we just learn how to listen and learn how to use the art as that form of communication, I think the world would be a better place and people would be less afraid of Dementia.

I really love what I do.

It just gives me a sense of meaning and purpose, and here I am trying to give these people a sense of meaning and purpose how important that is to the human experience, and I just feel so called to do the work, and so called to be of service and to help and give that sense of hope, and when it happens it's just that confirmation saying you're doing the right thing.

♪♪ ♪♪ Annc: FOR SACRAMENTO ARTIST SOHYUNG CHOI, THE ABILITY TO CREATE ART OUT OF FORGOTTEN AND DISCARDED ITEMS IS HER WAY OF ARCHIVING MEMORIES.

>>My name is Sohyung Choi, in Korea they say "Che-So-Yung", and I do installations usually and sometimes video as well as photographs too.

Since I was a little girl, just I love to draw, anything, on anywhere.

Then I went to elementary school, middle school, high school, only thing I was interested in just art classes.

I graduated from high school, I had to make money instead of going to university.

I just had to fold, kind of my dream, at that time.

One day, I was very, very bored, got bored of office work.

One day I watched the TV and then saw 'Textile Design Institution,' and just start my dream from there.

But, after five or six years, I got bored again.

So at that time, my mom was living in the United States, then she invited me, as soon as I come to the States, I started working at flea market in Roseville, a huge flee market, but at the same time I had to go to junior college to learn English.

And at the flea market I found lots of used material, they selling lots of used objects from their house, clothes, forks, knives, kitchen stuff, bathroom stuff, even furnitures.

Back in Korea in 1990s, we didn't have that culture, selling our used stuff, we gave stuff to our relatives our family, but we don't sell them.

First thing I found is cassette tapes and I started making installations using cassette tapes.

One day when I had this show, my work was installation cassette tapes, and then mom, like in forties, and then a girl came to see the show.

I placed all the cassette tapes on the floor and then the mom looked down and carefully looked one of the cassette tapes and said "mmm... this is a song, and when I was a little girl this was a song your grandma used to sing to me before I go to sleep," and the girl said "Haa... what is it?

Can you sing now?"

and she sang a little bit.

That moment, that interaction between my work and the viewer, that was very, very touching moment.

They remembered their past, their memory, what they get is very touching actually, because everybody's memories and history is different, and how they get from an object they're all different but the way they feel from my work is very touching.

All the ideas in art world, everything has been done, so I cannot say "Oh, my work is very different than any others," somehow now I think my path in my life is already made, but I think everybody, their life is already made, several different ways, depends on you, how you choose, or how you put yourself hundred percent and concentrate on what you want, and then you can choose which way you want to go.

If there's a chance, I would like to teach also, but, I like to travel, to see more what's out there.

♪♪ Annc: SACRAMENTO ARTIST STUART RATCLIFF HOPES TO SHARE THE BEAUTY HE SEES IN THE WORLD THROUGH EXTRODINARY WORKS OF ART.

ART HE CREATES WITH A SIMPLE BALL POINT PEN AND A FEW COLORED PENCILS.

♪♪ STUART RATCLIFF: MY WORK IS A CELEBRATION OF THE BEAUTY OF THE WORLD.

HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE TREES AROUND US, AND THE SMALL LIFE THE FLOWERS.

IF YOU TAKE TIME TO LOOK AT THE GROUND AND FIND ANYTHING LIVING WE LIVE IN INCREDIBLE BEAUTY AND I AM VERY GRATEFUL FOR THAT.

♪♪ I WAS VERY FORTUNATE GROWING UP SPENDING A LOT OF TIME IN NATURE, AS A CHILD I WAS COMPLETELY COMFORTABLE TO BEING ON MY OWN, FAR AWAY FROM OUR HOUSE.

I THINK I FORMED A BOND WITH NATURE DURING THAT TIME WHICH REALLY STILL INFLUENCES MY WORK.

MY STYLE OF DRAWING IS DOODLING.

IT IS A KIND OF GLORIFIED DOODLING.

I STARTED WITH WHAT EVER MATERIALS WERE AVAILABLE TO ME WHILE CLASS WAS IN SESSION.

SOMETIMES DRAWING ON THE BACK OF MY NOTEBOOK AND THOSE SORTS OF THINGS.

AND I JUST GOT USE TO USING BALL POINT PEN.

AND USING IT IS WAYS THAT OTHER PEOPLE HAVEN'T USED THEM.

USING BALLPOINT PENS THAT ARE RUNNING OUT OF INK.

I FOUND THAT BALLPOINT PENS AT THIS STAGE ARE REALLY VERY VALUABLE BECAUSE YOU CAN USE THEM TO SHADE AND YOU CAN CREATE TEXTURE.

AND THEN WHEN I HAVE DECIDED WHAT IS EMERGING, I WILL FEED MYSELF LOTS OF IMAGES FROM DIFFERENT THINGS.

AND I WILL FILL MY MIND WITH THESE IMAGES.

AND THEN RATHER THAN DRAWING SOMETHING FROM THE DIRECT SIDE OF IT, I WILL FROM ALL THOSE INFLUENCES CREATE MY OWN FORM.

CREATE MY OWN TREE OR CREATE MY OWN FLOWER.

SOMETIMES IT IS AN ACTUAL FLOWER, SOMETIMES IT IS PURELY IMAGINARY FLOWER.

♪♪ I GUESS I FIRST STARTED TO ENTERTAIN THE POSSIBILITY OF HAVING A CAREER IN ART WAS IN COLLEGE, I GOT WORD THERE WAS GOING TO BE AN ART COMPETITION ON CAMPUS AND I THOUGHT I SHOULD CONSIDER SUBMITTING MY WORK AND SEE WHAT PEOPLE THINK ABOUT IT.

SO I CUT THESE OUT OF MY NOTE BOOK AND I PUT THEM IN VERY CHEAP FRAMES AND SUBMITTED THEM.

AND I ACTUALLY WON 3 FIRST PLACE PRIZES.

AND I DECIDED, I AM STUDYING PHILOSOPHY RIGHT NOW, WHAT AM I GOING TO DO AFTER COLLEGE.

MAYBE I COULD HAVE A FUTURE IN THIS.

AND SO I STARTED SELLING AT FARMERS MARKETS.

AND WHAT I FOUND WAS A VERY SUPPORTIVE AUDIENCE.

I THINK MY ART HELPS PEOPLE CONNECT TO THAT FEELING OF BEAUTY WHICH THEY ALREADY HAVE, WHICH THEY'VE ALREADY EXPERIENCED IN THE WORLD.

AND REMIND THEM.

ON A DAILY BASIS.

MY ROLE IS JUST TO DRAW PEOPLE'S ATTENTION TO THAT BEAUTY.

♪♪ I HAVE ENTERED A DIFFERENT STAGE OF LIFE WHERE SUDDENLY MY ATTENTION IS NOT ENTIRELY ON MYSELF.

I'VE HAD TO BECOME RESPONSIBLE.

"DO YOU WANT TO TRY DRAWING ON SOME PAPER?"

WHICH IS A JOY, AND A TRIAL.

AND IT HAD CHANGED MY RELATIONSHIP TO MY WORK SIGNIFICANTLY.

TO SEE HIM BEING SHAPED BY THE WORLD AROUND HIM IN VERY FUNDAMENTAL AND BASIC WAYS, HAS BROUGHT TO MEMORY THOSE THINGS IN MY VERY EARLY EARLY LIFE THAT MUST HAVE BEEN SHAPING ME AND FORMING MY VISION.

AND IT IS ALSO HAS ALLOWED ME TO SPEND EXTRA CARE AND THOUGHT INTO THE INFLUENCES... THAT I EXPOSE MY SON TO.

I BELIEVE THAT ALL LIFE ON THIS PLANET IS RELATED.

WE ALL HAVE A DEEP FUNDAMENTAL RELATION.

AND WE SHARE A SIMILAR AESTHETIC ALSO, ACROSS ALL LIFE ON THIS PLANET.

SO WE HAVE AN AFFINITY WITH THOSE THINGS.

PART OF MY CREATION IS ALLOWING THAT AFFINITY TO BE EXPRESSES THROUGH ME AS A, AS A VECTOR, AS A CONDUIT.

WHETHER I HAVE A BUSINESS WITH ART OR I ONLY DO THIS AS A HOBBY THE CREATIVITY WILL CONTINUE.

THE JOY THAT I HAVE TO MAKE THESE WORKS WILL ALWAYS BE THERE.

♪♪ ♪♪ Annc: WE REDISCOVER THE LIFE AND CAREER OF VISIONARY SACRAMENTO ARTIST JOHN LOPES, THROUGH THE ONES WHO LOVED HIM MOST.

♪♪ Bob: I realized, this stuff probably has some value and quite honestly historical value and I was intrigued by just digging through some of the stuff and looking at the things that he saved unbelievable.

When he passed away all the stuff was still in the garage... We ever realized really how great his, the work he did... just didn'’t realize.

It was just Mr Lopes.

Narr: FROM CREATING CELEBRITY PORTRAITS TO CARTOONS, ADS, POSTERS, FLYERS, YOU NAME IT.

ARTIST JOHN LOPES CREATED IT AND SAVED IT.

Bob: He was at the Sacramento Bee for 30 plus years and he started as an illustrator... and he rose to be the art director.

Victoria: Knowing that my dad worked for the newspaper growing up I did see all these things come home.

He would put them out in the garage or somewhere, so I didn't really realize the volume of it until ...actually my brother-in-law started going through all of this.

Bob: Nobody really had the inclination of how to start into this.

My background is in material management.

Organizing a mess if you will and I started in with just a simple system of numbering it putting it in the computer.

The biggest difficulty was I didn't know who a lot of these people were.

So I had between my wife and her sister, you know, they would dig it up.

This is cool the way he did this.

The detail in the feathers.

Victoria: That's Judy Garland.

Bob: I'm sorry It's Judy Garland.

Victoria: You have Liza Minnelli written on it.

Bob: How did I know that Liza Minnelli was Judy Garland's daughter?

You Know.

I probably didn't appreciate it as much as I should have because you're in the middle of it.

You don't really realize what the talent is and I don't have any Talent so to me it was like a miracle the things that he could do... the fact that he had had Polio...

Growing up.

The only time I ever really thought about it was when he went to shake someone's hand and you'd have to hold his arm to do so.

other than that, I never, you know, he never said anything about it.

He never complained.

if he can draw with his left hand when he was born right handed.

You know What Anything is Possible it has brought a whole new Dimension back into it for all of us.

I think and to see all this and to really realize how he really had his fingertips on the heartbeat of what was going on in the country.

Bob: The Sacramento Bee.

I mean the "“bee"” he actually, I had found documentation that he drew the "“bee"” and he would have to send it to Disney to have it approved and finally after so many months or whatever.

They came back and said, well we can't we can't do any better than that.

So you don't even send it down.

Don't even send it to us.

Just go ahead and publish it.

He was never really I would say, universally appreciated.

Victoria: He was a very thoughtful artist.

I truly believe that he loved his work.

Cared for his subjects cared that he made them look the best way that he could.

Bob: I respected him a great deal.

And he worked he worked hard and ... that's the fruits of it.

I mean,...

It's a nice collection.

So it's been a it's been a long road to what's here today.

You wouldn't believe it and we keep finding things... Narr: FOR JOHN LOPES'’S FAMILY, EVERY BOX HAS GIVING THEM A NEW UNDERSTANDING OF THE ARTIST BEHIND THE MAN THEY JUST KNEW AS DAD.

Victoria: I think that one of the most important roles he played besides being our father was my mom's husband.

He was a model husband and I think it kid of ruined men that my sister and I married because they had a lot to live up to.

...They were married.

Well, he died the night of their 50th wedding anniversary or the night before actually so 50 years.

I hope that Somewhere somehow It gets preserved possibly not all of it because there is a lot but that for people to be able to see it.

...and well obviously there's too much for the three of us to have and hold forever and it would be nice to know that the legacy of his drawings lives on somewhere somehow...

He was just probably a perfectionist artist and probably the best artist I've ever known.

♪♪ Annc: FOR SACRAMENTO DANCER KRISTOPHER "“JUJU BEATZ"” MANGONON, A TALENT FOR DANCE LED HIM ALL THE WAY TO THE VEGAS STAGE AS A MEMBER OF THE WORLD-RENOWNED DANCE CREW, THE JABBAWOCKEEZ.

Tell me, how kind of did you go from family dancing and kind of just loving the experience of dance?

How did it go from that to kind of your career?

When did you know you were really good?

Kristopher: I think when I first started dancing, uh, it came from family.

So my family knew people that had a studio and that's kinda how I started dancing.

Um, but once I actually, when I did Ellen, the first time, uh, is when I was like, Oh, wow.

Like I could actually like.

Kind of make a career out of it.

Video clip: Our next guest aren'’t only adorable.

They're also three of the coolest dances around from Sacramento, California, please.

Welcome back Gavin, Kris and Kita.

♪♪ Marinda: Tell me about kind of, you talked about being on um Ellen show.

Tell me kind of that transition from just dancing in the studio and with family, to some of the things you started to do with Ellen, World of Dance.

Tell me about how some of those things you're, a part of?

Kristopher: It was kind of crazy.

Like I still can't even process everything.

Like I was, I think, I think I was about eight when I first went on Ellen, uh, with two of my dance members, Kita the great and Gavin.

Yeah.

It was just a surreal experience.

I, I grew up watching Ellen, so, uh, for me to be on that platform and.

You know, watch myself on the TV show is actually like, really amazing.

And World of Dance.

My crew, uh, we won that competition.

Video: .

.

.and the winner is "Art of Technique"” Kristopher:Yeah.

And I think that's kind of where we blew up, at least in the dance community.

And people started to realize, like, we're not just little kids and we actually like have talent.

And I feel like that kind of confirmed for myself.

Cause I always felt like, Oh, just not just dance.

I never thought I would be like, Super good or could really make a living or true art out of it but.

♪♪ I didn't start working with jabbawakeez until I was 16.

And they asked me to be on the World of Dance, TV show, that's televised now on NBC.

And yeah, after that, then it kind of took off and I got to start traveling just a little more and experiencing more things and really.

You know, making a career out of it.

Yeah.

I think.

I kind of just when I dance, I kind of just let the music take over me and just move freely as much as possible.

And that's what I really enjoy about dances because I could really express myself and in a way where, like, it just makes me get this feeling like, Oh, like I really enjoy this.

And, um, yeah.

That's where my passion comes from.

Marinda: What does dance really mean to you?

What are, what are your kind of the emotions or kind of the relationship you have with dance and who you are, like, how does that transition into your everyday and who you are when it comes to you performing, but then when you're not performing, what role does it play within your life?

Kristopher: Um, I think I'm always dancing or at least thinking about music.

Uh, I'll sometimes I'll catch myself, like, you know, just like doing like random stuff, like, just because it's really a part of me and it's kind of like fully emerged in my life.

Um, but it definitely means a lot.

And, uh, has shaped me into who I am.

Dances not only been.

Just, you know, something for me to express myself, but it also has taught me a lot of things about life in general and you know, the discipline and the passion and caring for others.

Like it, it shows more than it's more than just dance.

It's also a culture, you know what I mean?

So the culture has taught me and kind of made me who I am today.

My mom's always told me, you know, always have a backup plan.

So I've never, always fixated myself on, Oh, it's just dance.

I've always, you know.

So I'm a pre-business major at uh UNLV and I feel like it'll not directly impact my art, but I feel like it'll impact other people's art.

I want to go into marketing and I feel like.

Uh, you know, marketing, especially in our industry is a very like useful thing, especially for dancers, for myself and for other people.

And I feel like if I know how to market myself and my own brand, I could also help other people and market their art.

Marinda: As you move forward in your career, uh what do you feel like the end result?

Not even the end result.

What, what do you feel that the future holds for you within your art and within performing.

Kristopher: I don't really focus on the end goal, um, because I realized that, you know, over time, if I kind of focus too much on something or where I want to be, I kinda get lost in that.

And I don't want to really taint my passion for dance.

I feel like as long as I keep my, my passion for dance, I feel like.

You know, it's to kind of just take me where it'll take me.

And, uh, I trust that where wherever I am or wherever, and it's where I'm supposed to be.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Episodes of KVIE Arts Showcase along with other KVIE programs are available to watch online at kvie.org/video