- [Narrator] Coming up on "Art inc." Out and About with Reporter Matt.

The Art of Tufting.

And Out of the Box.

(static interfering) - [Announcer] If you want to know what's going on.

(mellow jazz music) (object whirling) (birds chirping) (crow cawing) (crowd applauding) (car horns honking) (static crackling) (traffic humming) (upbeat rock music) - Storytelling is one of the oldest forms of art.

(train clanging) And journalism is storytelling.

I like to think of journalism less like a spreadsheet and more like a canvas.

Hey, it's Matt Shearer from WBZ NewsRadio.

I'm in Attleboro.

This is about as close as they let get to Rhode Island.

(upbeat rock music continues) Hey, can I talk to you on the radio real quick?

Wanna be on the radio?

Hey, can I talk to you on the radio real quick?

No?

All right.

I'm Matt Shearer.

I'm a reporter for WBZ NewsRadio, perhaps best known for my social media antics.

What would Hollywood be without Acton, Massachusetts?

Do you call is Ashland or Ashland.

- Ashland.

- Ashland.

(girl laughing) His name is Sam, and if you knock twice, (hand knocking) he'll give you the good stuff.

Some of them have gotten millions and millions of views, which is really exciting.

This house in Topsfield just got posted on Zillow this week, and it's already goin' viral.

Let's see why.

- First bedroom.

- [Matt] Okay.

- [Woman] And here's another bedroom.

- [Matt] Okay.

I know what you're thinking.

How much does it cost?

- $1,069,000, Matt Shearer.

- Oh.

George, where are you from?

- Attleboro.

- Do you like Attleboro?

- It's okay.

- [Matt] Uh, just okay?

Why just okay?

- Well, why not?

- One thing that I always notice when I put up a story about a small town is everybody in that town shares the story.

People of Shrewsbury seem like a friendly, inviting, and stylish bunch.

Because they want everybody to know this is where I'm from.

This story was made specifically for me.

You know, you see other news shows show up in a town after weeks and weeks of extensive research into the town, and me, I like to just show up with zero prior research and see where the day takes me.

This is gonna be great.

There's like nobody walkin' around.

(laughing) It's not always about finding people on the street because, ooh, I see a tattoo shop right there.

I'm sure there are gonna be some people in a tattoo shop.

(hand knocking) (upbeat keyboard music) Hey, what's up, man?

I'm Matt Shearer.

I'm a reporter with WBZ NewsRadio.

Nice to meet you.

(mellow music) So, what's your first and last name and title here?

- My name is Diego Borges, and I am the CEO of the studio.

- There you go, hell yeah.

So, what is this studio called?

- It's called Blue Diamond Tattoo Studio.

- There we go.

(mellow music continues) - [Diego] So I got the stencil for ya.

- [Matt] All right.

How cool is it that you get to do art for a living?

- Ah, it's awesome.

- Right.

People pay you for it.

- People pay me for it, man.

- Boom.

Sick.

All right, see you, man.

See you, Diego.

So, somebody had recommended to me a really good hot dog place.

Oh my gosh, there it is.

That's hilarious.

Wait, I gotta pull over right now.

I'm gettin' lunch.

(upbeat big band music) (door creaking) Ah, thanks so much.

Hey, how's it goin'?

- I said this is the best hot dog place ever.

- [Matt] What makes it so good?

- The sauce is just to die for.

- Mmm.

On a cold day like this, chili dogs just taste different.

A warm chili dog, and it's a warm bun too.

Oh my God.

What's your name?

- Steve.

- Steve, where are you from?

- Attleboro.

- Do you like it here?

- Yes, I moved out of Boston to here.

- What do you do for work?

- I work at Stop & Shop in Foxboro.

- Oh yeah?

- Yeah.

- And then you go home and go to bed.

- I go home and go get in and sleep.

And then come back to work.

(laughing) A great hot dog place though.

- Really?

- Yes.

- What's great about it?

- Hot dogs, they got chili sauce that goes one 'em like eating down South.

- [Matt] Maybe I'll come visit you at work.

- All right, come over.

- Can I?

- Yeah sure.

- All right, I'll come say hi.

(upbeat big band music ends) So, I'll pull in just, I guess, right here.

We were out there for about three hours, and I just kept the audio rolling the whole time.

Hey, it's Matt Shearer from WBZ NewsRadio.

I'm in Attleboro.

This is about as close as they let me get to Rhode Island.

I'm pullin' out clips and moments that I like.

What do you do for work?

- [Steve] I work at Stop & Shop in Foxboro.

- Let me start with this guy just 'cause I liked him the most.

And I was gonna say your accent doesn't quite scream Boston to me.

- Sure, I'm from South Boston.

(laughing) North Carolina.

- That was funny.

Maybe I'll come visit you at work.

- All right, come over.

- We should do that.

We should visit him at work.

That'd be fun.

- All right, come over.

- Can I?

- Yeah, sure.

- All right, I'll come say hi.

Ah, we should bring him a hot dog at work.

We're gonna go back.

We're gonna get him some hot dogs.

We're gonna go find him at Stop & Shop in Foxboro, and we're gonna make his day.

Yes.

I always find myself coming out of doing this having made friends.

Perfect, thanks so much.

Hey, appreciate it.

Chest bump.

And that's something that I know a lot of journalists try to stay away from, but I don't know, man.

I feel like building a connection, that's what gets people to open up to you and give you the best answer.

Back in December, I met someone in Boston who was singing on the streets of Boston.

♪ I'll be home for Christmas ♪ - She had this unbelievable voice, and she told me her dream was to get into a studio and record her original song that she had written.

So, two days later.

- Do you want me to sing it?

- [Matt] Well, I'm taking you to a recording studio.

- Are you serious?

- [Matt] Yeah.

- [Ara] No.

- [Matt] I'm serious.

- [Ara] No.

(crying) - [Matt] We're going to the Record Co in Dorchester.

- [Ara] Are you serious?

- [Matt] I have a professional audio engineer.

- Oh my goodness, yes.

- She wasn't asking me for help, but she mentioned that casually, and I thought to myself, well, I have the ability to do that.

It's already up on Bandcamp so you can stream it for free or pay whatever you want to download it.

100% of that money goes to Ara.

- [Ara] Thank you for believing in me, Matt.

It means the world to me, man.

- Was I reporting?

Was I being a reporter doin' that?

Yeah, I guess to the extent where I was telling her story, but I was telling her story through trying to have a real human moment with another human being and do something special and, you know, memorable for her and myself.

And it worked.

Home ownership can be a sensitive subject for.

♪ Wishin' you were here ♪ - I've heard that there are certain people in the newsroom who aren't a huge fan of my style.

Austin loves potatoes so much we even have a monument for them.

And I'm okay with that.

I'm being chased through the woods by a bunch of goats.

(goat baaing) Ahhh.

Because I'm doing me, and I believe in what I'm doing.

How I ended up here.

(film screeching) Yes, yes, we gotta go get that hot dog.

(upbeat rock music) Hot dogs, hot diggity dogs.

(door creaking) Wup.

Yeah, I tripped, sorry.

Hey, so I'm gonna get a couple hot dogs for my friend to go.

All right, well, there we go.

Got some hot dogs.

We're gonna go bring 'em to Steve over at Stop & Shop in Foxboro.

(clip beeping) I did get an extra two to go.

- [Steve] Hello, young man, how are ya?

- [Matt] Just not for me.

That's for you, Steve.

Those are hot dogs.

- I knew it.

I looked up, I said, this is the.

Oh my God, I made a fool out of myself.

(laughing) You did say you were gonna see me.

Oh my, God have mercy.

- And I'm Matt Shearer.

If you want more, ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on iHeartRadio.

(upbeat rock music ends) (static crackling) (mellow electronica music) ♪ Let's begin together ♪ (hand slapping) - Cool.

(mellow keyboard music) My name is Savary Sav Hazard-Chaney.

I like to go by Sav, and I'm a fiber artist right here in Providence, Rhode Island.

(device clattering) I've never even taken an art class, and I had zero experience working with fibers or textiles.

I started painting, completely just out of interest and on my own and just being inspired by my blackness, queerness, culture, music, things like that.

I'm painting and recreating some really cool and dope art, but I'm using this tufting machine.

Growing up, being a creative was probably one of the last things that I thought I would ever grow up becoming.

I was pretty hell-bent on, you know, being one of the first girls in the NBA.

That was one of our, all famous dreams in the '90s.

I played a little bit of college ball, and then the joints and the knees and things like that really caught up with your girl.

And I just couldn't play the way that I wanted to play.

I was still connected in community, and I joined a few women's leagues around here just to be able to still move my body.

I'm realizing now that I really was missing the community that I had when I was playing, the teammates and the culture and the rhetoric that we have before and after the game.

I was in Warwick.

I was going to school at the time.

This was like prime pandemic period, and my family and I experienced a house fire.

That is sort of what shook and moved us then to Providence, and it was here that I really started exploring being an artist.

The art community here in Providence is remarkable.

It completely took me in when I didn't feel like I even had a place inside of it, and then it completely just hovered around me and helped me grow in this.

It really felt like my call and my mission to explore and figure out what it meant to build that community.

You're ready for you cut.

Yep, absolutely.

I didn't have any idea that I would be teaching when I first stepped out into community and started sharing my rugs.

People were like, "You should totally teach."

And I was like, "Yeah, I'm gonna teach."

It is okay if you go over.

I just don't need you to go hard over because.

I very loosely made a Instagram reel of a workshop that I had that I had a remarkable time at.

And go ahead and squeeze that button.

(device clattering) Yeah.

- Is that goin' up?

(audience cheering) - [Sav] And stop and pull the machine right out.

- Pull the machine out.

Oh, I like this.

- But I made this with a lot of love and a lot of adoration.

- And I love it.

I love it.

- I posted that reel, and next thing I know it had half a million views, and my workshops are sold-out for the first six months of the year.

And I was begging people to take this class a year ago.

You know what I mean?

So, there is just power in intuition, and when you're anointed you're anointed.

Just the idea of tufting in more of these spaces just keeps expanding.

And then, of course, the idea of what it means to make a rug also just continues to expand and grow.

And as the community grows, more cooler artists come out with even bigger and better ideas, and I feel like I got to have a piece of that.

(mellow keyboard music continues) I still like to consider myself a basketball girlie.

I'm learning that too.

Like, bein' an adult and then having like, coming into this beautiful relationship and having children come up right beside me.

I hope that I'm showing them like what it means to follow something they really love to do.

- You're back is really sweaty.

(Sav laughing) - There's so much about my childhood that I just miss or wish I just I got to spend more time on, and so I think this is also homage to little Sav in just making sure that she's good, and she feels good and she's being taken care of now because that's also a really important piece of this.

(mellow jazz music) (static crackling) (gentle playful music) - [Casey] Art and community is really what we're all about here.

It's like a home away from home, where they can come, and this is where they make art.

- I'm Robert Brosnahan.

I do knitting because of my grandmother's generation.

- My name is Tim Gavalakis, and this here is a picture of Superman.

- I'm John Katula.

I'm a member of Out of the Box Gallery.

There's a lot of literally thinking out of the box about what art can be or should be.

- We are at Out of the Box Studio and Gallery in Jamestown, Rhode Island.

We are a vibrant community arts hub that is really made up of artists with and without disabilities who have a passion for art.

My name is Casey Weibust, and I am the Art Director at Out of the Box Studio and Gallery.

Around 2006, Out of the Box was formed, and we renovated the space in 2018 just to be a space where community could gather and connect through art.

When you open the drawer, (drawer rumbling) I feel like it's a great way for people to communicate without words.

(marker swishing) - My favorite color is ultra marine blue.

- [Casey] Some of our arts members that comes to Out of the Box is Tim Gavalakis.

Tim also really likes superheroes so it's kind of cool when Bob and Tim are in the space together.

(Superman theme song) - [Narrator] Superman.

Faster than a speeding bullet.

(bullet pinging) - Bob really enjoys watching "Superman" when he's making art.

"It's a bird.

"It's a plane."

- [Narrator] It's Superman.

Yes, it's Superman, strange visitor from another planet.

- [Casey] Bob likes to use the oval, circular shapes.

(drawer rumbling) - [Superman] I'll be back soon with everything.

- [Casey] So, he uses the stencil and draws with a permanent marker or sometimes a pencil and just kind of very orderly goes down the whole map.

He then goes in with either watercolor or acrylic and paints.

He likes to use a variety of color.

They're like all colors of the rainbow.

(gentle piano music) - [Mary Jo] I have had my solo show here.

A lot of it was farm animals and flowers.

- [Casey] And then, there's Mary Jo Roberts.

- I got introduced to this gallery because of my brother Chris, and he attended this gallery when it first opened.

Chris eventually had congestive heart failure and eventually passed away from that.

But because of this place, I have fabulous pieces of artwork that I can look at and think of him every time and smile.

(gentle piano music ends) (mellow acoustic guitar music) (fingers snapping) - I'm Nick Shapin, and I'm an artist.

- [Casey] Nick really came to me and said, "I wanna try clay."

Do you usually go through the front door?

Nick really walks everywhere.

He lives in town.

He will walk to The Secret Garden and get a batch of flowers.

- There you go.

- Oh, those are nice ones, huh?

Nick will then promote their shop, The Secret Garden, on his social media.

You wanna put some in this one?

So, Nick, we're gonna take a picture of all of them, right?

Does that sound good?

You want that?

Do you want the whole vase?

- Yeah.

- And then we're gonna put 'em on your Instagram, right?

We had known here about this Rhode Island Developmental Disabilities Council that does business classes.

So, if you complete the whole entire course, you can apply for a grant that will give you money, like starter money for your business.

Nick often will go to the Jamestown Art Center.

- [Will] Hey, Nick.

- [Casey] And work alongside Will Simons.

- So, Nick, we got a bunch of stuff to work on today.

Get this heavily textured slab that we can build with to make bowls or cups or vases.

- Uh huh.

And statues.

- And statues too.

You got a good eye for composition.

- [Casey] When you have a good community, it allows artists to be able to take risks and really build their confidence.

- [Will] This looks good, Nick.

I like it.

- [Casey] We want the artists to be seen as artists.

- This is a picture of a black angus bull.

This is a picture.

These are three pictures of American buffalo.

- I love this gallery.

It's always been an incredible spot in my heart.

- [Casey] Say it louder.

Susan Maccarone.

- Maccarone.

- [Casey] Which side are you trying to show?

- This side.

- [Casey] Oh, the pink side.

- It's a nice portrait.

(gentle playful music continues) - [Narrator] Thanks for watching, and we'll see you next time on "Art inc." (static crackling) (mellow music) (mellow music continues) Watch more "Art inc.," a Rhode Island PBS original series now streaming at ripbs.org/artinc.