Next on Gallery America.

This Weatherford local likes motorcycles and rock and roll and over a couple decades ago he paid in something on his garage that has been passed by over 20 million vehicles.

We'll find out why he did it and we'll learn how graffiti inspired murals in Ohio.

And art from found objects in Florida are inspiring local communities around the country.

It all begins right now.

Hello, Oklahoma.

Welcome to Gallery America, a showcase for how creativity and expression makes Oklahoma and beyond a better place.

I'm Robert Reid and I'm at the Sky Dance Bridge in Oklahoma City, one of the most popular pieces of public art in the state.

But if you follow that road, I-40 to Weatherford, you'll see something many more people have seen a very simple sign spray painted on a garage by a local 20 years ago.

And it always gets a reaction.

The big question, is it art?

Well, brace yourself to find out when we meet the unforgettable Bobby Cornelsen.

Hes slammin on the gas and can't find the brakes.

Just a beautiful human being.

I mean, lovely hair.

I think that's a pretty decent way to describe me.

I have rode my whole life before I could even before I even knew what a bike was.

And I never looked back after the cancer to get on that bike feels wonderful.

It feels like.

Like I never lost it.

We are located dead center.

Route 66 Weatherford, Oklahoma.

I-40 runs right behind my shop, my workshop, my home, my coven, my everything.

Yeah yeah yeah .

This is a trail 70.

It's pretty rare but i took three three bikes and have built this this motorcycle right here.

And Corvette Yellow.

Lovely.

Alright, Bobby.

Been a long time.

lets get out there and touch this thing up.

I remember it very vividly.

It was 20 plus plus years ago.

Way back there.

We've been sitting here drinking some cold beer, hanging out, you know, just talking.

And we had I had some Joan playing and then it just hit me.

It's like, go get that spray paint, grab the ladder, go for it.

I think a million people have seen that easy, easy peezy.

They're passing by and they honk.

You're watching this and you're going, That's stupid.

But you got to love Joan Jett when you drive by and you honk.

Why would people do that?

It's just the love.

I was going to show this.

Here's my, you know, sixth grade.

Seventh grade, I believe.

I sent my $2 in.

I think I had to go get a money order at the grocery store, had it ever since.

I love Joan Jett.

She's incredible.

She she lights my fire.

She keeps me going, Makes me think.

What I find so fascinating about this particular piece that I question myself is how many different interpretations would come from it.

We're at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in the art building.

I'm Glenda Ross.

I direct the art education program here for our BA and our masters.

My daughter and I, we were just coming back from Colorado and she was like, What does that mean?

And we had a long discussion about it.

So whether you're driving and you resonate because you're like Joan Jett, you know what I mean?

Or whether you're just thinking, Oh, someone for president outside our political nature now, it doesn't matter what the response is.

There's no doubt that anyone who takes a look at it is questioning their selves about what that means to them.

Do you know what I mean?

So do I think it's art?

Yes, I do.

It's pretty powerful, in my opinion.

But I'm just an artist.

Wow.

Damn good.

Oh, that E looks like monkey * * * *.

But yeah, other than that, I started getting a a very.

It's a very tight.

Your neck gets very, very tight.

Basically, it was head and neck cancer.

Now there is a 30 to letter word to what I had.

But basically it was here and was into the brain and it affected it.

Effects, smells, sound, everything.

And I went through I think there was 27 straight radiations.

They both your head to a table and it goes quiet.

And all that's left is you and your thoughts when you're here and they're out of the room and it's just you in that for 30 minutes.

See what I mean?

You start taking.

You start going down that hole, you know, and you see that rabbit hole.

Where's that's that lead.

Years later, when I went into remission, the doctor had come out.

We were having a conversation.

I don't know how this came up.

And he said, Bobby, we don't see your type very often.

He goes, 8.5 out of ten people come in this building.

They don't leave.

You let that sink in a minute.

That's pretty powerful.

And that's why I tried to go up and speak to as many people as I could.

Our kids, a lot younger than me.

I, you know, just put my hand on my shoulder.

I donate blood working on my 14th gallon.

If I had not gone through the trials and tribulations that I have in this life and have fought the battles that I have fought and fought for, people that never knew they had someone fighting for them, what more can I do know?

I'm so sorry.

You know.

Well, I went on the diet and it's was a great success, you know?

I mean, just be awesome and help people out.

Yeah.

I mean, what, you know, how hard is that?

This is a shrine basically built to all of those people that watched over me, guided me, helped me to get through the cancer that I was not supposed to get away from.

Well, my guardian angel is here.

She's with me every day.

She's she drinks a lot, but she's taking care of me.

She kind of has this Joan Jett glow about her.

She kind of looks like Joan Jett with wings, and she's pretty special to me, though.

And so she was so beautiful.

I want a tattoo it tattooed baby!

Stay Arty Oklahoma.

Oh, that is an expression of art That is my art.

Throw a tornado at it, throw 100 mile an hour straight winds at it.

It hasn't gone anywhere.

It's not going anywhere.

So if you're coming through Weatherford, you're going to see me.

You should say hi.

You should Hawk.

You should do something.

Throw beer bottle at me.

I don't care.

You know?

Say, hey, get a smile on your face.

Mona Lisa of Oklahoma.

Come on.

So what do you think is Joan Jett for Pres Art?

Well, you can hear more of our conversation with the art professor Glenda Ross.

Check out the new gallery America podcast Super fun Conversation with about art at SWOSU, Art in General life in the 1980s.

I Think you'll enjoy it!

And if you want to see the sign itself, it's always there in Weatherford.

Anytime you want.

On the north side of I-40 between exits 80 and 81, just west of the Weatherford grain elevator.

Next, we're going to get some more do it yourself ingenuity from a miami, Florida, artist who has found a pretty unique way of transforming abandoned chairs and computer monitors and jugs into a pretty interesting art movement.

I have a look.

Through I think it's referred to as a social practice type of thing, where you're kind of working with mediums and people and things that you can't really control them, but you can kind of nudge the whole movement in a certain direction.

So this is going to be the picture.

And I think when the intentions are pure and people can feel it and like we are like the real Miami in my opinion, seeing people already heading it up.

It's not a membership based thing where you have to like buy your way into it.

I think that that we're engaging our city right under everybody's noses the same way that graffiti exists or street art exists.

Doug, congrats to you.

I was in halfway through hip hop sales and then I saw the drop on Dischord and didn't have time to change.

Just jumped on the bike, sprinted over here.

I kind of had a feeling where it was at, like zooming in and checking out the pictures a little bit and happy I was in the right spot at the right time.

Yeah, it's not a bro.

My name is David Sagasti and I go by a horse and it's glue and I paint on stuff, draw on things.

And that's pretty much it.

In a way, it's a photography project, you know, like, I go out, I find something that's interesting.

I paint it and then based on, like, where it is, how it is like I try to make the most, like, nicely framed picture that I possibly can with my cell phone, but also giving enough context where somebody that lives in that area or knows that area better would have dibs on figuring out where it is.

Show some love to Little Havana.

Then I post the picture, I wait a minute later, and then I put it on Instagram and I put it on Twitter just to kind of like apply pressure, you know, to let them know, like, hey, there's other people that might get to this first, and that's pretty much it.

I usually try to do the whole entire thing and get out of there before they show up.

Like somebody said, they're a block away from the sick to have like a local artist and make his art accessible and, you know, eventually my whole apartment will have these sleepy eyes everywhere.

Geographies of trash happen.

From what I did, a collaboration on a bicycle jersey with this company called Rafa.

They're like pretty big in the bike scene, and I didn't want to push something that wasn't something that I was believing in.

I wasn't riding bike, I wasn't fit or doing any, you know, active stuff.

And I told them I was like, look, I want to get on a bike and try it out and see what's up.

So they helped me get a bike and then I started writing the bike.

I got really heavily into it and like I was always painting on random things, you know, like it wasn't just like, Oh, now I'm going to start doing Geography of Trash.

It was more of like that.

I just figured out a way of like, All right, if I'm on the bike and there's a bunch of trash laying around, even if the only person that sees it painted or people that drive by or the person that picks it up, at least it's something cool.

There's plenty of trash out there.

But the more unique and the more specifically cool thing and the more that I think of like this will look cool in somebody's house or this will look cool.

Somebody's trying to get this into their house, you know?

So those are the things that kind of like, you know, make me decide on what it is that I'm going to paint.

But also like knowing that I'm giving people this opportunity to get something for this fact.

Like, I started thinking about, like, man, like somebody through this out here without having no idea what was going to happen.

And it kind of makes this like fairy tale story of like that.

How far can we elevate this thing?

Next, we're going to Ohio to meet an artist that grew up surrounded by graffiti and street art and believes strongly words of inspiration as art.

And now he's getting the community to help out and feel the freedom that comes with creativity.

Welcome to the art studio, everybody.

My name is Lance Johnson.

I'm an artist.

I have three rules when it comes to workshops.

One, there's no mistakes in art.

It's all unique creative expression.

Don't worry about making a quote unquote mistake because there are no.

Two, We have to support each other as artists.

You know, we're collaborating.

The theme of this week is collaborate issue, and it's important to support each other as artists, right?

So no clowning somebody for what they've drawn or anything like that.

Right.

And three, have fun and just enjoy yourself.

It's like an art studio.

You know, you guys can talk.

You don't have to be quiet and have fun.

All right?

If you have any questions, I'm here.

Hilliard Darby High School reached out to me and they saw my work.

They know I use a lot of words of inspiration, and I like to collaborate a lot with artists.

So they reached out to me and they were like, Hey, we have this idea that we want to create a piece that represent your style, but also incorporates all the community of Darby.

I was like, It's perfect.

You can do a wall of inspiration where everyone in the building adds a piece to this collaboration and it becomes a legacy piece for them and the school.

I always think of canvases as walls, like graffiti walls, and there's always these layers of the graffiti wall, right?

There's the old graffiti covered by the new.

There's the urban decay with the paint chips and everything, and the poster is torn and it becomes a history of that wall.

And that's what I wanted to create with this project, like a history of this piece, right?

So we started with layers where we started with everybody adding one layer of markers like we used a lot of sharpies and each person added something to it.

Whenever I see a canvas, I want to activate it with markings, right?

So I'll use words of inspiration.

I'll maybe write my name.

You can draw a picture on it and it becomes the soul of your piece right?

And then we would cover it with paint and then add another layer to it.

So it becomes a history.

That wall becomes a history of the school and the legacy of that community.

This is the second part of my process right?

Once this paint dries, then I go over it again with spray paint or paint markers.

We have a bunch of different colors, so we're going to keep going right?

And it's just a process.

And by the end of the week, the piece will be completed.

For me, the most important work that I do is with kids, and I love collaborating with young artists and I'm always looking for opportunities to share my process with them because a lot of young artists are very like worried about making mistakes and everything.

And for me, creativity is about freedom and I want them to just enjoy the process and have fun.

Think about how it feels when you create right, How it makes you feel.

I don't think about the final project.

I think about the process, you know, the journey to get there.

The most amazing thing about being an artist is you can create something that someone that you may never meet can see and be inspired by.

You know, it's a powerful gift that we all have as artists.

Art connects, right?

Are connects us across cultures, across languages, across borders.

I want them to be able to walk by it and see how the community came together and how all the community is represented.

Right?

A sort of abstraction because there's so many different markings.

But you can sit there and the piece will evolve over time because you can sit there and look at different like, Oh, look at that.

Oh, I didn't notice that.

And every time you walk by it, you'll see something new.

And to me, that's the beauty of it, right?

And then also to inspire the younger generation.

You think about how once these kids graduate, these pieces will still be there and the next generation will come in and be inspired by that project as well.

One of OETAs most beloved staff members, Danny Rose, recently left us to go full time into art, and we could not be more proud of Danny Rose.

He's a great artist, and not long ago, Gallery America Online dropped by his studio to see how he does it.

We're going to share it with you now.

Have a look at Danny Rose's art.

This is my studio, but it's also in many ways, it's representative of Temple creativity.

It's such a large part of my life.

It's honestly the biggest part of my life.

And so having a space like this where I can come in and engage with this thing that brings me so much joy, but at the same time pushes me to always ask more questions.

And it makes me think that I think everyone needs a space of their own.

It doesn't mean that you have to have a studio or whatnot, but some place that you've chiseled out that belongs to you because creativity, whatever that is for you, is important.

You need it.

It really it really gets us through those those hard times, but also inspires us to do more and to to investigate, to think in a different way.

Mostly, I paint landscapes, even if in some of the work it's a lot harder upon first glance to see the landscape in the works.

I really do think that it's always there.

I love being outside and I spend a lot of time traveling and camping and hiking.

So those places still exist in my memory, in my mind, and I like to recall them.

But at the same time I like to remove them from the familiar.

You know, I want them to seem odd and and remove from maybe a recognizable place.

This morning I have been thinking a lot about forms and circular shapes.

When you say order, I think that it takes on something that's living, something that's a being.

And it exists in a way that's not just a shape anymore.

It's not purely shape, really.

It's a it's always a dance.

It's it's kind of because I work so intuitive.

There's not always a plan in place.

One time I was doing a show, someone was interacting with it and I didn't know them.

And I remember that painting.

It was a painting about a beach I used to go to with my dad and my grandpa when we were kids, and the colors are what reminded me of it.

Not so much the shapes really.

They were looking at it and they were looking and looking and looking.

And finally they said, That doesn't look like a beach at all.

And I was like, That's hilarious.

It does.

You're right.

That's actually that's perfect.

You've got it.

You understand it?

I'm Danny Rose.

I'm an artist.

And Oklahoma City.

Sorry.

Thank you so much for joining us on Gallery America.

As always, you can see past episodes of Gallery anytime you want on the PBS app or at OETA Dot TV slash Gallery America.

Don't forget to follow Gallery America Online on Facebook and on Instagram at OETA Gallery.

And don't forget about the new Gallery America podcast, where we talk more about Bobby Cornelsen and Joan Jett for Press.

Thanks again for watching.

Until next time.

Bobby Cornelsen has some words of advice for you.

Stay ARTY Oklahoma.

WOO!