(cheerful music) (upbeat music) - February is Black History Month and on this episode of "The Arts Page" we'll spotlight several aspects of African-American arts and culture, plus we introduce you to a Brookfield based Turkish artist who's carrying on a centuries old tradition.

Then you'll also meet an artist shifting our focus to often overlooked subjects, plus hear The Angel of New York and see different ways to dance on wheels.

"The Arts Page" starts right now.

(upbeat music) Hello, I'm your host, Sandy Maxx, and welcome to "The Arts Page".

We first visit with local artist and Turkish immigrant, Vesile Yilmaz.

Before the pandemic, "The Arts Page" team visited her at her studio and in the classroom where Yilmaz shares the traditional Turkish art of water marbling called ebru.

(traditional Middle Eastern music) - Everywhere we look, we can get inspired when we do ebru.

It is very easy and simple to produce, but it's very sophisticated to prepare.

My name is Vesile Yilmaz and I'm a marbling artist.

I was born in a rural area in Turkey.

When I was studying to be a teacher in Istanbul, I went to a weekend workshop to do ebru.

Once I did it, I was hooked because it is such a art that when you start doing it, you can't just let go.

Ebru is the name for traditional Turkish art of water marbling.

Historians believe that it originated in 10th century in central Asia, then following the Silk Road, it traveled from east to west.

In Iran they called it ebru, eb means water and ru means surface.

So, ebru means surface of the water, face of the water.

Then Turkish masters took it to a different level and Turkey has been the place that this art evolved a lot, and then from Turkey traveled to Europe.

It takes up to five years for somebody to be a marbling artist, to acknowledge all that history behind it, culture behind it, and to experiment with the pigments and paints.

I did this as a hobby for years, then we moved to Australia.

I think my ebru journey started in Australia because the more I shared this art with people, the more I learned.

When you do ebru you need a lot of interesting materials.

First, you need to prepare the water.

That water is high in viscosity and it's thickened because paints need to float on the surface of the water.

Historically, people use gum tragacanth or carrageenan to prepare the water and it takes up to two or three days to dissolve.

Once it dissolves, the water is ready to put some pigments on.

All those pigments are mineral earth pigments, they're iron oxides and they're organic from nature.

It takes eight to 24 hours to grind the powdered pigments into a cream paste.

When it's nice and ready, we mix it with our crucial substance, which is ox-gall.

Ox-gall is, I would say a magical ingredient in marbling.

When you use ox-gall, the pigments adhere to paper or any surface that you lay on the water.

(tradition Middle Eastern music) The brushes are made out of horsehair and rose branch, they're all hand tight and they have a kind of secret chamber right in the middle where it holds all the paints and pigments, so marblers can continue dropping pigments on the water for as long as they want until that chamber empties out.

We start by sprinkling pigments on the surface of the water and then you use special needles called biz to design the patterns.

Ebru artists start their journey by battal design, battal means stone.

It only happens when you sprinkle pigments on the surface of the water, but you do not manipulate it any way, you just transfer it to paper.

So everybody starts with battal, once your battal technique is well-developed, then you can move on to create flowers or other kinds of patterns if you wish.

(traditional Middle Eastern music) As soon as you lay a piece of paper on the surface of the water, all of the paint is automatically transferred on the paper and you skim it carefully and then it's a capture of the moment and you're done.

(traditional Middle Eastern music) With a tank of solution, you can create up to a hundred sheets of marbled paper.

It takes maybe five to ten minutes for the paper to dry.

For silk and other materials it might take a bit longer.

Anything can be marbled and that's the beauty of this medium, it allows you to work with so many different kinds of materials.

Anybody can just take a brush and marble and create something and because I'm a teacher, I work with students.

They can't believe that they created something beautiful in that short amount of time.

(traditional Middle Eastern music) Every time you start marbling you learn something new, you discover something new about yourself.

Ebru only rewards you when you spend time on it, when you persevere, when you persist and work with determination.

There is no limit to what you can create because every time you try, something beautiful, something unique comes out of the tray.

- Learn more about ebru art on Vesile Yilmaz's website, doebru.com.

As we shift our focus to African-American arts and culture, we meet Michigan born artist Titus Kaphar.

In February of 2020, he participated in the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design's Creativity Series with his public presentation titled "Making Space For Black History, Amending The Landscape Of American Art".

In this interview, Kaphar explains how he wants to transform how we see art.

(bell tolling) - When I say shifting the gaze, I'm imploring the viewer to set what feels natural aside for a moment and try a different route through the work and when you do that through a painting, even a familiar painting, you might find something you never expected to find.

(solemn music) Composition, there are techniques and strategies for guiding the gaze through a particular composition.

I've spent a lot of time studying them, artists spend a lot of time studying them, they work.

I'm shifting it from the strategy of the original artist's pathway through the work and trying to find some other way to see, not giving in to what will feel most natural.

What I've been doing is actually trying to separate those black characters from the other characters in the paintings who were oppressing them, to give the viewer the opportunity to contemplate these characters on their own terms, on their own merit, without the pressures of this oppression that exists within the compositional structure of the painting itself.

(solemn music) I taught myself how to paint by going to museums and looking at images like this.

There is a reason he is the highest in the composition here.

There is a reason why the painter is showing us this gold necklace here.

He's trying to tell us something about the economic status of these people in these paintings.

Painting is a visual language where everything in the painting is meaningful, is important, it's coded, but sometimes because of the compositional structure, because of compositional hierarchy, it's hard to see other things.

There's more written about dogs in our history then there are about this other character here, about his dreams, about his hopes, about what he wanted out of life.

I don't want you to think that this is about eradication.

It's not.

The oil that you saw me just put inside of this paint is linseed oil, it becomes transparent over time.

So, eventually what's gonna happen is these faces will emerge a little bit.

What I'm trying to do, what I'm trying to show you is how to shift your gaze.

When people say that I'm erasing history, they're pointing to the fact that they don't recognize that I'm actually uncovering what was already there.

I'm attempting to make you look at a different part of the painting, not erasing history.

That takes a kind of structural, institutional power that I actually don't have.

We can look at institutional, structural power and we can look and see the ways in which history has been erased.

It hasn't been erased by some random, black dude in Connecticut making paintings and putting white paint on it.

That ain't how it works.

(solemn music) I didn't grow up going to museums.

My mother worked really, really hard.

My mother had me when she was very young, she was 15 years old.

She worked three jobs, usually, just to make sure we were taken care of.

I found art very late in my life.

I was 27 by the time I realized that this was really what I wanted to do.

So, I take my kids to the museum every time I have a chance, whether they like it or not.

We were in New York City and we were going to The Natural History Museum in New York and as we were walking up the stairs, we came upon the Teddy Roosevelt sculpture that's out front of The Natural History Museum and Teddy Roosevelt is sitting on the horse, looking really strong, boldly holding that horse with one arm, and on one side of him is an African-American man and on the left side of him is a Native American man, and as we were walking up those stairs, my oldest son, Sabian, he said, Dad, how come he gets to ride and they have to walk?"

and it was one of those moments where you, as a parent, realized this is gonna take way longer than we really have (laughing) but you can't pass up those kinds of teachable moments, and so, we sat on the stairs for a little bit and we talked about it and in my house, history is a really important thing.

It's alive and we try to help our kids understand that understanding the past is about understanding the present.

That painting, "Behind the Myth of Benevolence", is about the dichotomy of this country itself, of our country itself.

You have the individual who probably wrote more eloquently about liberty than anyone's ever wrote, Thomas Jefferson, right?

And you have that same individual who values liberty more than life itself, withholding liberty from hundreds of people who make his very life possible.

The character in the painting, the woman in that painting is at once Sally Mae Hemmings, in quotations, and at once a stand in for all of the other black women who were on that plantation.

There are over 300 other enslaved people on that plantation, at least 50% of them are women.

And so, it's easy for us to focus on that one part of the story and forget that there were other women who were abused in so many different ways.

In that painting, it's a literal pulling back the curtain to, again, shift our gaze.

You can't just simply demonize our founding fathers, but it's also important not to deify them.

Let's just find the truth in the middle.

"The Forgotten Soldier", I've been working with this concept for a little while now.

It came as a sort of fascination of the process of making sculpture.

In this particular work, I decided that I wanted the mold to be the finished work.

That is, I wanted you to be able to look, in this case, at George Washington, one of our founding fathers, in his absence, his complete, his perfect absence, but in his perfect absence is, as I said, the pure potential for all of the good things, but the reality of the bad things, as well.

In front of that is this figure, this soldier on one knee preparing for battle, in profile.

The black figure in the front is about those forgotten soldiers, the ones that were there, that participated, that, for some reason, history forgot.

(gunshot banging) Let's be honest, it's not for some reason, it doesn't work with the narrative that slavery makes sense, slavery is good for the nation, black people like to be enslaved.

So, we write out those kinds of histories, we just ignore them because it challenges other aspects of what we believe.

My intention is that we see both of these characters at the same time, that there is a visual dialogue between the character who sits in front, this black soldier, and George Washington.

We have this tendency to kind of write our history, thinking about those people sitting on that horse, but there is a lot of other characters, those soldiers on the ground that actually give their lives for the battle.

In this particular exhibition, we're talking about the black soldiers who were, by and large, forgotten to history, erased from history.

In putting them together I'm trying to say, let's not prioritize either part of the conversation over the other, let's have both of the conversations at once.

(bell tolling) - Now to The Angel of New York.

She is singer Martina Bruno, making the subway there sound a lot sweeter.

(singing "Carmen, Habenera" in French) ♪ L'amour est un oiseau rebelle ♪ ♪ Que nul ne peut apprivoiser ♪ ♪ Et c'est bien en vain qu on l'appelle ♪ ♪ S'il lui convient de refuser ♪ - I know how it is to work in the morning ♪ Rien n'y fait menace ou priere ♪ in the hustle and bustle.

♪ L'un parle bien l'autre se tait ♪ One day I heard a little girl sing and it really touched my heart, it made a difference in my day, and so I was like, "You know, maybe I could do that for other people."

I just graduated college and I was like, "What am I going to do with my life?

Eh, let me help people out while I figure it out" and so one day there was this lady, she came up to me really, really upset!

"You know, you have a beautiful voice, honey, you sound just like an angel.

What are you doing down here?"

(laughing) And I was like, "I want to be an angel."

♪ How precious deemed ♪ ♪ That grace of You ♪ I decided to take this seriously at some point and I just went, like, I was tired of getting harassed by the cops and becoming part of MUNY allowed me to have a schedule and then I could really keep that schedule, that structure.

So, right now I am at Yale Divinity School where I will be getting my M. DIV.

I work as a chaplain, I gig a lot, and so that's how I kind of balance everything.

♪ Ah, requiem ♪ I don't think I would have ended up at Divinity School if I didn't sing in the subway.

♪ Et dominus ♪ People are crying and telling me all their issues in the subway, and I wanted to be able to be of service.

(singing "O Mio Babbino Caro" in Italian) ♪ E se l'amassi indarno ♪ I tend to like do the goodies, oldies but goodies.

I like to tap into the collective consciousness of New Yorkers.

♪ O mio babbino caro ♪ So, it's, like, laden in your subconscious and people usually react to things that are very familiar.

♪ Mi piace, e bello bello ♪ "Ave Maria" is a big one, so I can sing off "Ave Maria" all day.

(singing "Ave Maria" in Latin) ♪ Ave Maria ♪ ♪ Gratia plena ♪ Whether it's "Carmen" or opera or sacred music, I give my all, I sing it because it's a communion with you, with the person who's listening.

It humbles me 'cause I sing, I worship.

(singing "Pie Jesu" in Latin) ♪ Pie Jesu requiem ♪ ♪ Agnus Dei ♪ I love the shuttle, I do the Grand Central shuttle.

It's just less interference, basically, and I guess my comfort zone, (laughing) I'm used to being there.

I like the energy.

Every subway has its own culture.

Thank you very much, (laughing) I appreciate it.

Which is kinda weird, but it's true.

When you're in Grand Central, (operatically singing in Latin) there's a lot of business people but then people transiting and it's a very interesting mix.

(operatically singing "Panis Angelicus" in Latin) ♪ Panis angelicus ♪ ♪ Fit panis hominum ♪ ♪ Dat panis coelicus ♪ But I just want them to know that they heard an angel and they're not alone.

♪ Figuris terminum ♪ ♪ O res mirabilis ♪ I'm not saying I'm an, my personality is angel, but at that moment, that's what I'm wanting to channel.

♪ Pauper, pauper ♪ ♪ Servus et humilis ♪ ♪ O res mirabilis ♪ Seeing somebody, it could be a very chaotic but very beautiful at the same time, that's New York City.

♪ Manducat dominum ♪ - Such a beautiful voice!

Finally, enjoy the escapism and expression of rollerskating as we take a trip to Tampa to see the styles and the moves.

(uptempo funky music) ♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey ♪ ♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey ♪ ♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey ♪ ♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey ♪ - Skating was my first love before my wife, like before I got married and had kids, skating was my first love.

I started skating actually downtown in Central Park.

After that I've been skating at United Skates for over 30 years.

- So, skating is my happy place.

I think it's so corny to say, but the skating saved me.

There is a lot of things that I've gone through in my life, just personally that I had no outlet for, and I really didn't know how to express myself any other way, but when I started skating, it was just freeing for me.

Like, not only the music, not only just being able to express myself, but finding people that were just so positive, so caring and just ready to help.

I never experienced that in my life before outside of my family.

- Skating makes me feel alive.

Like, when I hit the floor, it's, like, just me on the floor and the music, everything else inside your reality just melts away.

- Skating puts me on cloud nine, it's my release on life.

It's my break, it's my love.

(upbeat disco music) - I think rollerskating really is an art because everything we do, it's just seen in our movement.

Like, there's no talking involved, I could see a skater rolling around the floor and I can just feel their energy, and I feel like when you watch someone who's skating, no matter what style it is, you can interpret everything that person is bringing to the floor at that point.

- With rollerskating you put your own twist and flavor to it.

Once you're comfortable on your skates, I just feel like it's endless what you can do.

(uptempo funky music) The skating community in Tampa is changing as far as, like, there's a lotta different people from a lotta different places.

So, we get people from Virginia, people from Chicago, New York, DC, so it's just starting to be a melting pot of different skaters in Tampa.

Usually you go out of state to see different skaters, so it's just getting to be where you can see a little bit of everything in the house.

(uptempo funky music) The styles of skating, I'll give you a rundown of 'em.

Fast backwards is from Philly.

They skate fast backwards all the time for some reason, no matter what the song is, fast backwards.

(uptempo funky music) - You have JB, which is out of Chicago, James Brown music.

- A lot of the music that they have, they take samples from James Brown's music and put that in there.

They do remixes and they take the original and mix it, also.

My main style would be fast backwards and JB.

Loved it ever since I got introduced to it.

(uptempo funky music) - [Rashad] The style I skate is New York/New Jersey style, which is to me, my favorite.

- [Al] They do a lot of pivots and turns and spins and stuff like that.

- [Rashad] Trains & Trios is a part of New York/New Jersey style.

That's when, normally trio is three, holding hands with a movement altogether, unison, one-and-one.

Trains is, could be from 4 to 15 people, even 20 or 30 people.

(upbeat disco music) - Then you have sliders, which you have two different kinds of sliders.

You have Chicago slides where they're doing more of a split, like, they're coming from halfway off the floor, and then they'll go into it, get down low on one leg and then they'll go into a split, and then you have a slider that comes from Detroit, where they're have all four wheels on the ground and they'll be turning sideways and sliding across the floor, either with a train of people.

So, they do more of the old-school artistic style skating, but, I mean, they're very smooth with it.

I don't have a specific style that I do.

I like a little bit of everything.

I just feel like, you know, I wanna be diverse and be able to go to Chicago and do a little bit of JB, go to New York and still be able to get on a train.

I just try to stay diverse, I don't wanna just do one style.

Skating inspired me to, I guess, just become the man and the husband and the father that I am today.

I mean, I met my wife at the skating rink, My kids are into skating and I wanna have a legacy where people from the Tampa Bay area remember me, say, "Oh, well, I remember Big Al.

Yeah, he used to skate at United Skates" or, you know, "He used to host a skate party" or, "He was someone that loves skating and you know, wanted to continue in the next generation and the next generation."

I just think it's a real experience in the energy that you get at the skating rink.

You wouldn't see it nowhere else but at the skating rink.

You wouldn't see it at a hockey event, you don't see it at a ice skating rink.

It's just roller skating just has a different energy.

It just feels, like, you can light up the whole neighborhood just with the energy that's in the rink.

I don't know, it makes me smile just thinking about it.

(uptempo funky music) - The Tampa Bay skate community is very much a family, I've never experienced anything like it.

- [Alexandria] I feel like we all have the same passion, we share the same values and it all just shines through skating.

So, it's something that we just can do together to forget about everything else.

- I mean, people are always friendly when you come to skating because you're here doing the same thing that this other person enjoys.

Whether they're old, young, you know, intermediate skater, beginner skater, it's just for the love of skating.

You know, we're always welcoming anybody that wants to come and try it out and just, you know, enjoy yourself, and I don't think I would never stop.

Even if I get an older age, I think I'm gonna continue to keep skating, it's a way of life.

- I'm Sandy Maxx, thank you for watching (upbeat music) and please join us the first Thursday of each month on Milwaukee PBS for another half hour full of art on "The Arts Page".

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