- [Narrator] Funding for Off 90 is provided in part by Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(loon calling) (upbeat music) - [Barbara] Cruising your way next, Off 90.

Cubing in Austin, a model railroading club in Grand Meadow, a Rochester art gallery, and Austin artist Jon Kittleson.

It's all coming up on your next stop, Off 90.

(upbeat music) Hi, I'm Barbara Keith.

Thanks for joining me on this trip Off 90.

You could say these cubers dance to their own algorithm.

The Rubik's Cube, which most of us remember from our youth, has evolved to find its way into competitions where the puzzles are solved with lightning speed in record time.

Cubers from Austin hosted a contest that brought competitors from the four corners of the world.

- I got a Rubik's Cube for Christmas one year.

I think it was like Christmas of 2016.

I don't know, I just learned how to solve it.

I think I got less than a minute on average.

- [Jayne] Our son James got back into cubing after a hiatus of some time, and he got good enough that he decided he wanted to compete.

So I think the first competition that he went to was in South Dakota and we got to meet that organization.

It's called the World Cubing Association.

- [James] The World Cube Association has, I think, 17 official events.

I've been to I think 15 competitions.

- [Jayne] And we found that it's very organized, and there are branches of it all throughout all of the continents of the Earth, and they keep track of everybody's events and scores for everything that they ever do in competition.

- Over spring break, my family went to Arizona to visit some of my mom's cousins, and while we were there, one morning, my mom's cousin's son was solving a Rubik's Cube and I was like, wow.

And I was like, can you teach me?

And he was like, sure.

Over the next like week that we were there, he was able to finish teaching me, just really liked it and I kept getting better and tried to get faster and then eventually I hit a like stop point at about like 30 seconds, so.

- So James started solving when, yeah, when I was like six or something, and then just last year in 2022, James taught me how to solve a pyramid which is a relatively easy puzzle, just corners and sides to put in, you just solve each side until it's solved.

He taught me how to solve a three by three, so then I learned how to solve two by two which is now my main event in most cubing competitions because I learned how to get really fast on it.

- Austin, Turner.

- [James] They call up your group and then you just put your cube into the cube cover with your name, give it to a scrambler, and the scrambler does the scramble for which solve you're doing, and then they give it to your runner and the runner puts it at a station and calls your name and one station per person and there's a judge for the competitor, so like, I'm ready, and then the judge lifts up the cover and you inspect.

You have 15 seconds and then you put it down, put your hands down, and start the timer, and then solve it, and then just stop the timer and then sign the score card.

- Cube itself has six faces, the right face, left, up, down, and front and back, and the algorithms to scramble the cube are all designated by which side they turn and whether it's counterclockwise or clockwise, and there is a formula that comes up on a computer generated scramble that'll say right clockwise, up counterclockwise, and it'll be a string of letters and directions to turn each face to come upon this randomly computer generated scramble.

- [James] This like concept of like a look ahead, you're doing something right now, but instead of looking at the thing you're doing right now, you just look ahead to the thing you're gonna be doing next so you don't pause.

Minimizing pauses is like the thing that brings you from averaging 12 seconds to five seconds.

- [Jayne] Cubers have really strong analytical skills and the ones that are moving pretty fast know over 300 algorithms and they can look at a cube and know which one to apply because they're constantly analyzing the case that comes before them.

- Basically make a cross that also matches the centers on the side.

I just do that and then the cross is solved, and then you solve pairs, which is two pieces, a corner and an edge, and then you repeat that four times until you have the first two layers solved, and then OLL stands for orient last layer, which means get all of the same color on top, which means opposite of white is yellow, so you just do an algorithm, and you get all of the same color on top, and then PLL, which is permute last layer, you do an algorithm and then it's solved.

- Sometimes when I don't solve for like a couple weeks, can't remember it anymore, and I have to pull up another PDF of what it is and it actually takes a kind of a long time to get back into that algorithm and like how it works and what you're supposed to do, and it's just really satisfying in a competition when I get the algorithm.

- [Jayne] We've been able to get to know the delegates that are in our region and that was kind of our introduction into cubing, and as we got to go to more and more competitions, we pulled our delegate aside and said we'd really like to do one in our town, and we worked with them for several months to get that ready and it's just been a really fun thing to bring to Austin.

There were people that came from all of our neighboring states and then there were also competitors from Vietnam, Mongolia, Ukraine, Russia, Canada, and it's just really neat to see that this kind of universal interest come to town and be able to speak the same language of cubes.

(upbeat music) - The classic toy train circled the tree at Christmas time but model train setups can be much more elaborate.

We visited a model railroading club in Grand Meadow.

(upbeat music) - [Gary] This is the Rail Runners Railroad Club.

We've been here 17 years.

I'm essentially the defacto leader since most of the other original members have retired, left town, and whatever.

We just had an organizing meeting back in early 2005 decided we'd try and get a club started.

We've been here 17 years, we have about 12 full-time members, and we can come in whenever we want, day or night.

We have keys to the building and keys to the room.

(upbeat music) This was a school room in the old Grand Meadow High School.

The rest of the school has been torn down, but this was left and got bought as an office building.

So this is the Grand Metal Business Center.

Most of us are retired, so we've kind of settled on Wednesday mornings for the most part, and so we run trains and enjoy running trains, and we enjoy socializing with one another.

(upbeat music) Four of us are from Rochester and there's one from Pine Island.

There's three from Dodge Center right now, there's one from northern Iowa.

We're the only railroad club for about 90 miles around or more.

- I have been a member here probably about 11 years.

My favorite thing is just to run the trains.

I like to see the trains go and to run 'em, and that's why I've got my engineer's cap.

I've had been model railroading since I was a kid (upbeat music) When I was in college, I know I built car kits, but when I became a pastor, I kind of set that aside because I didn't want it to become a distraction for what was really important to me at the time, which was my work as a Christian minister.

(upbeat music) - [Gary] I got started with the Lionel Hughes, Lionel, old scale when I would've, what they now call middle school, and they got me interested.

I bought my first HO models when I was in college.

- [Dale] Now we'll have to stay and get him back into it again, it was an eye-opening experience to me because all the equipment that goes with model railroading was completely new to me.

We have digital command control, they're called DCC.

It puts 14 volts in the track at all times, and the little computer tells the locomotive what power goes where, how fast it can go, how much power gets in the motor to make it go.

(upbeat music) One of the things we have to do is what we call speed matching locomotive, so they're run together because each locomotive has to be programmed independently, and then they have to be mated, and then they have to be running the same speed.

Most of us enjoy running trains from our youth, or young adulthood, so a lot of the trains you see here are from bygone eras, from the fifties, the sixties, the seventies.

Trains were more colorful back then, and a lot more varied as far as car types, and there were generally paint schemes in the early years.

Every year the manufacturers bring out new paint schemes and new engines, most modelers have a favorite railroad or group of railroads, so they tend to concentrate on cars from those railroads.

Some like Chicago Northwestern, some like Northfolk and Western, some like Canadian Pacific, and some like Eastern Roads.

It kind of depends where you grew up and what you saw when you were growing up.

People have various concentrations and various interests.

(upbeat music) When I'm working with trains, I get kind of a sense of satisfaction.

I am a rail fan and even when I wasn't modeling in the years I was pastor, I would still take every opportunity I could to watch a train.

So when I run trains here, I kind of imagine I'm watching the real thing, and so sometimes I'll get down and watch it go by and I'll count the cars.

I don't know what it is, is I always count the cars.

(upbeat music) And I'll observe the locomotives, what kind of locomotives they are, what are they hauling.

I get the most satisfaction out of just watching the trains go.

- [Gary] One of the benefits of being in a club is you can learn from other modelers, and I've been at this long enough I'm more of a teacher than a learner, but we help new members get their cars and engines running better and smoother.

(upbeat music) - [Dale] The thing I wanted to say was just the different strengths of each club member here, and they would work together as a team, so there are things that I help them with and things that they help me with and that's what's made it valuable.

I'm thankful personally to have this place that we can come to here and that really is a blessing for us.

I love the guys, you know, I value them very highly, and as a pastor I find myself praying for them.

- [Gary] My favorite part is actually building something.

I enjoy building things.

I enjoy doing it.

When I'm modeling, I just usually feel calm, I feel engaged.

There's an accomplishment for getting kits together, and it's a pleasure to show to other people.

(upbeat music) (soft upbeat music) - After moving to a new space next door, Gallery 24 in Rochester celebrated its grand reopening on a cold winter evening.

The event coincided with an opening of a photography show by a local artist with his series on the Whitewater River.

(soft music) - [Ivete] Tonight we having a party, a block party that is G-24, Gallery 24, Kismet, and Tulips & Truffles, so we three going to make a big party together because we want to celebrate our reopening.

- [Sarah] Well, we moved to this location from next door and just a nice way to invite people in and celebrate it with our neighbors.

Just a nice reason to get together.

I met someone last time who had all these different connections I'd never thought of, and you kind of realize how small Rochester really is, but just meeting new people and giving them a chance to look around and I don't know, be inspired by something maybe.

- [Ivete] We are very happy that we interact very well with our neighbors and that's our whole goal is to work with the community.

You know, that's important to us, you know bring the artists to the community and bring the community to the art, you know, so our galleries, I think has a future of being an active agent in our community, so we are very happy with that.

- [Sarah] I was pleasantly surprised.

We have several customers who have come in numerous times specifically just because they like the local art, and outside of Rochester, a lot of visitors come in, and they really like to spend time here, and whether they're here, you know for a couple weeks or days or whatever for Mayo and stuff, we see a lot of people in both realms, so it's nice.

- [Ivete] This year we are renovating everything.

We have periods of different exhibition, like team exhibition.

This year we are going to have mystical paintings and all this kind of weird stuff.

We are also going to have feature one artist which doesn't belong to the gallery, but we want to promote the artists in Rochester, so we invite them and they come on Saturday and exhibit, and also we participate with Med City Festival too to do some innovations in the teaching area, so we have different projects, a lot of new projects.

We are very excited about this year.

(soft music) - What we try to do, it coincides this time with one of our members, Curt's opening in the back, we are going to have the monthly exhibitions.

We'll do that at least once a month.

- [Curt] The series is of the Whitewater River.

The project overall is Waterways in Minnesota, and with a focus and kind of a message about preservation.

I decided to do a series, basically a study of the river.

The pictures though that are on display here are all inside the state park, so it is a place that people can visit.

There's one that when you look, there's a rock that's embedded where the water is flowing, and you can see the light reflecting on it.

The water is all blurred, but the rock is perfectly sharp, and it gives it a sort of a three dimensional look.

There are 18 on display, and I shot about 9,000 frames altogether, and some of those will be turned into stop motion video that I'm gonna release to put in social media and stuff.

My favorite thing is, is talking to people and answering questions, whether they're technical, or just where did you shoot it or whatever, socializing and talking to people, that aspect.

I was looking at the grant application and I needed to have a site to have this show.

I needed to have a fulfillment, and it's part of the contract that they have you agreed to and we have a thriving art scene.

It could be hard to find a place, so the fact that Gallery 24 was able to help me out was instrumental.

(soft music) - [Sarah] We really are welcoming to everybody.

We would love to see new artists and we're a nonprofit so that's kind of a rare thing for the art in town, but we're proud of that, so.

- [Ivete] We renew a lot, so as we do the art, we change the art in the walls.

Some people change every three months, some people change every six months, some people change every month.

So it's fun.

Being an artist in that time and age is absolutely fun.

(soft music) - [Sarah] It's a collaborative, so anytime you come in and see somebody working, it will be one of the artists.

- [Ivete] And that's good because then we socialize, we kind of want to explore, so this interaction with other artists make our collaborations is very good, because then we get inspired for each other.

- [Sarah] I think it already is successful, because there's people here gathering and celebrating art and I mean, I'm sure there's some people who haven't been here before so it's just a way to celebrate, so I think it's definitely successful.

(soft music) (upbeat music) - Jon Kittleson is an Austin artist who has found success with his impressionist paintings that use dabs of color.

Lately, he's been using felt tip markers to make his beloved pet portraits.

(soft music) - [Belita] I first got to know Jon's artwork when I visited a neighbor across the street, and there was a picture of her poodle on the wall, but it was all in pinks and purples and greens.

Dogs aren't pinks and purples and greens, but it looked just like her dog.

- [Mark] Well, Jon is somebody I've known for many, many years, and when I first met Jon, he was a pretty fit athletic guy but he's been suffering from a debilitating disease and it's a version of Parkinson's.

He's turned to this art as a, you know, it's a passion of his, and it's become a nice occupation for him.

It's a good money maker for him, and it's something that fits well with the lifestyle that the disease has forced him into.

- [Jenelle] Jon is quite a special person, you know, limitations physically and how he makes all those nice neat marks and, you know, it doesn't show that he's got any limitations at all.

- [Jon] I use markers intentionally because my hands they don't, they're just not smooth, and so I have to have something bigger to hold onto, and so I just, that's what I use.

I really try not to let it stop me from doing things.

- [Jenelle] Jon works from photos, and he has his desktop full of all of his oil pastels which he uses and just starts scratching away at the paper.

- [Belita] Jon's artwork is surprising.

He uses colors that don't make any sense for the picture that he's drawing, but it works.

- I enjoy it.

It is fun for me, but it takes a lot of creativity, it takes a lot of ongoing work, takes a lot of like marketing skills.

I do it because I feel like that's what I'm supposed to do in my life, and luckily, luckily I was able to, you know, find enough success as an artist, but it's not like it just comes easy, you know.

It's definitely a work in progress.

- [Mark] I like the way he puts himself into these things.

You can really see his passion come through.

He takes a picture that's really nice to begin with and puts his own stamp on it.

The way he uses colors, the way he uses detail.

I mean, when you hear it all the time, you can appreciate the painting from a ways away, the closer you get and examine the detail.

His, for lack of a better term, craftsmanship really comes through in what he's doing.

- Jon's colors are almost all bright, intense.

He uses like an oil pastel and real often it's strokes of color, not shaded necessarily, but just individual, full power color, so I love his artwork.

Very impressionistic, I think.

- I would almost like to say it has to do with auras, the way that he uses color in an impressionistic way, just splotches of color, but it create, embodies the soul of the animal or the person that he's drawing, so it's almost electric.

- The way I see creates something a little different.

You're not gonna find a blue dog in real life, and I just create, so it is more like a impressionist image, but it is something I just enjoyed the look of it and I just have people cry.

I was like, so it must have been something that the dog meant a lot to them, and I just created the art for them and then they just have a big memory of them, of the dog and I'm glad to be a part of that.

- [Belita] If you were interested in Jon's artwork, I would just go to his website.

It's very complete.

Lots of pictures on there of things he's done in the past.

It's easy to find.

- [Mark] He has videos on his website, time lapse videos that show you know, him at work, but it's pretty fascinating watching him work.

- [Jon] I hope I can inspire someone who has difficulties but they have this ability over here.

They can still do things.

Shoot, if I can do it, then you can too.

(soft music) - We've reached the end of this trip.

Thanks for riding along.

See you next time, Off 90.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Funding for Off 90 is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.