>> Announcer: This week on "Eye on the Arts".

(jazzy piano music) >> Billy: If you go to a live performance, in a way, you're a participant, you can actually feel the music, the vibes of the music actually come into you, so you really are part of the performance.

>> Susan: A lot of people have some sort of a memory associated with cloth, mostly their grandmother's or great-grandmother's drapes, or sofa fabric, or something like that.

Or maybe it was an old quilt that was made from some of these garments they remember, there is some sort of sensory memory associated with that.

>> Jackson: Experimental animation is what we were really interested in when we went to school.

And that's about setting up a sort of experiment and seeing if it will work or not, seeing if it will make something exciting or completely flop.

We get really excited when we take those chances.

(bright violin music) >> Luke: I don't want my instruments to sit on a shelf and get dusty somewhere.

I want someone to play it, and then and pass it on to their kid, and their child plays it, and then their child plays it.

That to me would be the best thing that could happen to my instruments, want them to be loved.

>> Woman: Doing as much as you can as quickly as you can is important to me.

Life is short, and the earlier we get started helping our community, the better off our community will be.

(upbeat music) >> I have a very strong connection to other students.

Everyone makes an effort to help each other.

I'll remember the feeling of being here, the feeling that I was a part of a family.

(upbeat music) >> Announcer: Support for programing at Lakeshore PBS comes in part from a generous bequest of the estate of Marjorie A.

Mills, whose remarkable contribution will help us keep viewers like you informed, inspired and entertained for years to come.

(bright music with humming and whistling) >> Announcer: "Eye on the Arts" is made possible in part by South Shore Arts, the Indiana Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Additional support for Lakeshore PBS and "Eye on the Arts" is provided by viewers like you.

Thank you!

(jazzy piano music) >> I had a godmother that actually gave us a piano, and I could keep the piano as long as I played it.

And so when we got the piano, my mother signed me up for music lessons with Dr. Granuel L. Whittemore, who was really well known in the community at that time.

I was seven years old, and I've been playing ever since.

I grew up in Gary, Indiana.

We always had music around the house.

My folks bought me a record player when I was about five, and some Nat King Cole children's records.

And then I would play their records, they had Count Basie and Duke Ellington.

And around that age, they would take me over to Chicago to the Regal Theater or the Tivoli Theatre to see the live shows.

And I saw a lot of people when I was very young.

We always had people coming by the house, and they would sit and play the piano, and they would say, "Boy, I wish I had never stopped my lessons."

I would listen to that and I'd say, "Well I'm not gonna stop."

Each year, we would have to play a recital.

I can remember this like it was yesterday.

When I was 14, I had a piece that I played, and it got lots and lots of applause.

You know, they stood up and gave me a standing ovation.

When I got home, I said, "That's what I wanna do."

(laughs) This is fun.

(jazzy piano music) (soulful piano music) (soulful piano music continues) (energetic soulful piano music) (energetic soulful piano music continues) (energetic soulful piano music continues) (energetic soulful piano music continues) (energetic soulful piano music continues) I played classical music until I was 22, I kind of fooled around with jazz when I was in college a little bit.

It remained a mystery until I was able to get outta college and start going to some of the clubs, and meeting people who actually played the music.

I already had the technique, and theory, and knowledge, but I just didn't know how to apply that to jazz.

Well back then, the early '70s, there are about 30 some clubs here in the immediate area, right here in town.

And so, I used to go to all those clubs, and when I became able enough, I played in all those clubs.

Sometimes we'd be playing at one club, and then on break time, run down the street to another club to listen to somebody else's band.

It was really a great situation.

And the guys were free with their knowledge, and what they knew, and so it made a great atmosphere for learning and listening to the music.

Nobody would be at home on a Friday night or a Saturday night.

Everybody would be out in the clubs and stuff.

(gentle jazz music) If you go to a live performance, in a way you're a participant, you can actually feel the music, the vibes of the music actually come into you, so you really are a part of the performance.

(gentle jazz music) One of the differences is when you're playing by yourself solo, then you have to cover the bass parts and keep the time, (audience applauds) and everything is on you.

If you have a trio, then I don't have to really play the bass parts, and the drummer can help keep the time.

With a trio, it's lighter duty on me than when I'm playing by myself 'cause I have to do everything and make it sound full.

I was just gonna say though, that's the great part about being a piano player is that you can play by yourself.

So that's an advantage, also.

My first teaching experience was teaching elementary music, which I did for 35 years.

Where I taught was Drew Elementary School here in Gary.

And then I also taught at Valparaiso University, jazz piano for 34 years.

And then I came to IUN.

I've been here since 2014 teaching piano.

I see quite a few of my students on Facebook, also.

And they have really nice things to say, and that makes me feel good that they got something out of it.

And there's several of 'em that went on to be musicians.

My thing with teaching is getting as many people as I can involved in the arts.

They all, I realize, won't wind up to be professional pianists, but at least they'll know what that's about.

(upbeat jazz music) One of the things that I like about learning to play an instrument is that I think you learn an intrinsic value.

It's not something that somebody's paying you to do, and you're making money, it's something that you get something out of that you did, you know, through your own efforts.

And I think that's valuable.

Everything's not gonna pay money.

There's some things that have more value than a buck.

If you're in a musical group, one of the things that you have to learn is how to get along with others.

And I think that's a pretty important lesson, especially now.

(upbeat jazz music) I was a cancer patient, I still am a cancer patient.

And I think music has a healing effect.

I did some reading, and it actually has some medical effects like lowering your blood pressure, and it helps with your attitude.

There's several ways that music can help you outside of just being a musician.

The arts add a sensitivity of sorts to a person.

I think we all are in need of that.

(upbeat jazz music) (gentle guitar music) >> Like my earliest memory of that whole textile thing was being in a fabric store with my grandmother, and just being like blown away, overwhelmed, and I was pretty young, like four or five, and just being, you know, super excited about what I was seeing.

And that's probably kinda where it started.

And then the one grandma would always offer to help me with all my projects and things.

Both of my grandmothers have like fabric and textiles in their DNA.

My dad's mom put together quilt tops.

And my mom's mom was a very skilled seamstress, she made my mom's clothes, and her siblings' clothes, and made clothes for my sister and me growing up too.

So it's just kind of, you know, part of my biological makeup, I think.

So I work in a textile mill, and we turn raw fleece into yarn or roving, depending on the fleece.

So there's a lot of scrap that comes off the machines and things, so I'll take it home, and wash it, and either, you know, repurpose it into yarn, or today I'm gonna use some of it for felting.

That's one resource.

There's different ways of getting that fiber, and different fibers from different animals have different qualities.

(gentle music) Wet felting is different than needle felting in that we're using soap and water, agitation, and temperature change to make the fibers kind of interlock.

It helps kind of open the fibers, like when you're washing your hair, you know, the follicles on the hair.

And then when you start the agitation and the temperature changes, it will clamp 'em down, and that's when they grip, and they become kinda permanent.

The felting is done by hand, I'll roll it up, and then unroll it, and do it again.

So it takes several minutes, and it's kind of physical.

And then it gets pulled out into this flat piece very slowly.

And with the printing, it's the same thing.

You're brushing or rolling the ink on the object you're printing with, and just, it's kinda like painting with recycled objects in a way.

You know, like sometimes recycled fabrics, pieces of garments that I've cut off, or I can start with a piece of white fabric, I can start with a piece of dyed fabric that's not doing too much on its own.

And then I will pin it to a foam board that I've got going, and roll my ink onto my object I'm gonna be printing with, and then just start printing, and see how it goes.

And just, it's all very intuitive.

One thing leads to another, I really don't have an idea of what I'm gonna do.

I just kind of react in the moment to what I'm doing.

If I know what it's gonna look like, I don't even wanna do it, I'm bored already.

It's the whole process of let's see what happens when we do this.

You know, and that's why I think I like using objects that already exist to print with.

I don't like to orchestrate my own marks too much.

I just wanna use whatever is already there.

That whole improv thing is a big deal for me.

And it's being outside too, 'cause you're stuck inside all winter, you know, in your house, in your same space.

And this is my happy time I get to come out, and enjoy the sun, and get messy, and do this part of the process.

A lot of people have some sort of a memory associated with cloth.

Like either it was their grandmother, mostly their grandmother's, great-grandmother's drapes, or sofa fabric, or apron, or something like that.

Or maybe it was a old quilt that was made from some of these garments they remember their aunts or uncles having.

Things like that, there is some sort of sensory memory associated with that.

For me, it's just about the process, really more than the end product.

I just love getting into that groove, and getting my hands dirty.

You're watching magic kind of happened through you in a way.

You know, you just get engrossed and time just doesn't exist.

I just like being able to play, that's the big deal.

Sometimes as adults, we forget to do that.

(gentle guitar music) (upbeat music) >> Megan: AppleButter Animated is our collaborative studio.

Jackson and I make animation, art installations, and art robots.

>> We make work collectively, and we're really interested and excited about all things motion.

>> Megan: We actually met back in college.

We were both studying animation, and we met in a computer lab, and we were both working on 3D animation homework.

So we kind of already started knowing each other by working on animation together.

And we'd just share things that we liked, videos, different artwork, and kinda talked about what we liked, what we didn't like, and started making projects together in school.

>> Jackson: We kind of have different backgrounds.

Megan's does a bit more drawing, and has an art background.

And I did more of 3D and technical stuff within animation.

Really just enjoyed our collaboration, and we worked really well together.

We started dating, and continued to make work together throughout college, and after college, we weren't super excited by the job prospects for junior positions in animation.

And we thought we'd give it our own shot.

That's when AppleButter Animated started.

We had some side hustles at the beginning.

It wasn't always easy, but after a few years, it really started going, and we were able to do that full time, and having control over our own time gave us the space to explore ideas outside of animation.

That's where projects like this start.

(gentle electronic music) >> "Away From Keyboard Residency", which is this artist residency that we set up at Wonder Museum in Chicago.

Basically it's three art robots that we program.

And we collaborate with local artists to program artwork on those machines.

Each machine runs over 60 hours a week and makes a print each week.

>> We didn't have a robotics background.

We didn't study anything near this technical.

It was really just a passion project that we found fun.

Megan paints with her hands, and we have other friends that do the same, and I just really wanted to join them, but I didn't think I had the time to learn to paint, and do all this animation work, and that was where the I idea of, oh maybe a robot that could paint, started.

As we automate and optimize our work, we tend to just pack in more and more work instead of giving ourselves maybe more space for leisure and life outside of work.

So we worked with local artists.

We ask them to come with work for the machines to paint.

And then at the same time, ask them to explore a small leisure practice connected to that work.

I think with "Away From Keyboard Residency" we are really interested in this idea of getting away from the keyboard, and hopefully, it kind of serves as a reminder to people to maybe step away (laughs) and enjoy life.

>> Some of our animations are more installation-based.

We have a film called "Shorthand Stasis" that we made to be exhibited in a gallery show.

"Shorthand Stasis" is more meant to be an animation that is kind of ambiently enjoyed.

You walk around in a space, and you might come back to it later, and you kind of experience it in a way that you might not experience it in a theater.

I think for us, for that film in particular, it's not really about seeing the whole film from start to finish, it's more about inspiring a mood, or a feeling, or an idea.

>> And we've also been lately exploring just really short tests with 3D animation.

We really are trying to smear, and make a sort of very expressive, 3D look.

3D's often very kind of tight, and robotic, and you don't mess with the model too much.

We're trying to really push how far we think 3D can go and how expressive it can be.

Experimental animation is what we were really interested in when we went to school, and that's about setting up a sort of experiment and seeing if it will work or not, seeing if it will make something exciting or completely flop.

We get really excited when we take those chances.

>> Megan: We wanna make more art installation projects, and think outside of the box of what's possible in animation.

I think we kind of touch on it with our art robotics.

You can't necessarily call it animation, but to me it feels similar.

>> Jackson: I think at the end of the day, animation and robotics aren't that different.

You build something, and then you make it move.

So there's a lot of similar principles to explore.

A lot of our work goes in lots of different directions.

I think one thing we're really about in the next coming year or two is kind of bringing everything back together.

How can we use a painting machine, and morph animation imagery, and put those together?

Can we create a sequence of images with the machine, and a sort of unified universe between painting work, and animation work, and installation work?

I think that's something that really keeps us going.

We also build a lot off each other, so passing work back and forth, and, oh, I love this little thing that you added, or I hate this little thing that you added, let me make it better.

(laughs) That sort of back and forth really gets us excited and makes it a lot more fun.

(upbeat electronic music) (lilting violin music) >> My parents let me take this job after school that was in a cabinet shop, and I started working there, and anything that was detailed and kind of immaculate, I really liked that kind of work.

Then I started at my brother-in-law's violin shop.

I just wanted something that would challenge me a little more, and repairing violins, and I did really well at it.

And pretty quickly, I was doing the majority of the repairs in the shop.

And then, I've been here now eight plus years doing this stuff, so.

(energetic violin music) I'm into violin making a lot more as an engineer than a performer, obviously.

I like music, but I like listening to music.

(laughs) We're dealing in a margin of error that's a couple of points of a millimeter.

So it's a lot more engineering than you might think.

You take this piece of wood, and figuring out what it's going to sound like at the end of crafting it into an instrument.

You have to be very, very specific with your measurements.

For the most part, we're copying the greatest sounding violins on the planet.

The violin, as we know it was made by Andrea Amati in the mid 1500s.

And then the name that everybody knows, Antonius Stradivarius, is kind of the one that perfected the violin.

Since Antonius Stradivarius, the violin really hasn't changed.

There are other makers that have made it after Strad that are very, very good makers.

But since he has that kind of label as the maker for royalty, he's kind of captured that title.

And he was alive at a very important era for violin making.

His craftsmanship was very, very clean for the day.

He pushed the design of the violin to an extraordinary amount.

Antonius Stradivarius, they estimate, made about a thousand instruments.

That is a very happening maker in today's terms.

(energetic violin music) There are a lot of other really competent players here.

Every time I finish an instrument, the moment of truth is when you walk out in the main room and have someone play your instrument for the first time.

String it up, all the varnish is dried, you hand it to this person.

(energetic violin music) (bright violin music) When I'm making an instrument, I am tapping on the pieces of wood and tuning them to certain notes.

I'm looking for sound travel through the wood to be very fast.

So we measure the speed of sound.

How you make the arching really really affects how it's going to sound.

How much air mass you make inside the instrument is usually in relation to how big this instrument will sound.

And there's not really one right thing, because I'll have a performer come in here, and they'll play 15, 20 different instruments before deciding what instrument they like.

Everyone's looking for something different.

So it kind of works out regardless of what you make.

Sooner or later, there's going to be someone that really connects with that instrument.

(energetic violin music) Some of of the instruments I make are a commission.

Usually, they'll show me pictures of something they've seen, and say I want the color this or that.

More commonly than a commission job, I just make the instrument however I like, and I kind of like making the instrument just however I like because it gives me full creative license.

And I would say that's really what differentiates modern violins.

We're copying the outlines and the shapes of Stradivarius.

But as far as the aesthetic, and as far as the carving you do on it, it's all in your hand, it's all up to you.

If there's no customer saying, "I want it specifically this way," I try to use my full creative license (laughs) on instruments, pushing myself kind of to my limit on what I can do.

I don't want my instruments to sit on a shelf and get dusty somewhere.

I want someone to play it, and then pass it on to their kid, and their child plays it.

And then their child plays it.

That to me would be the best thing that could happen to my instruments.

I want them to be played, and I want them to be used.

I want them to be loved.

If these instruments that I make are taken care of, they can last three, four, maybe more generations.

It does make me want to make my instruments very, very well because you know that this is going to be cherished and loved by somebody.

And maybe even for more than the fact that I made it, they might love it just because it's Grandpa's.

And you want Grandpa's violin to be something special.

It's kind of an honor in a way.

(energetic violin music) I think there's something special about starting with raw chunks of wood.

And by the end, you have this intricately carved, beautiful sounding, beautiful looking violin or instrument.

And there's no substitute for that.

(energetic violin music) There are a lot of very good makers that have poured time into me.

And that's part of what makes me to the level I'm at today.

I started this when I was 16 years old.

(energetic violin music) I would like to make instruments that have never been seen before, especially in their aesthetic and their sound.

Now that I'm into violin making, I wanna be one of the best.

(laughs) So the pursuit is gonna be, make a lot of instruments, get my name out there, get my instruments out there.

(energetic violin music) >> Woman: Doing as much as you can as quickly as you can is important to me.

Life is short, and the earlier we get started helping our community, the better off our community will be.

>> Almost every single professor I've had, I'm on a first name basis.

By building that relationship with faculty, I was able to get involved with research.

It's one thing to read about an idea in a book, versus physically doing it and seeing results.

(upbeat music) >> Announcer: Support for programming at Lakeshore PBS comes in part from a generous bequest of the estate of Marjorie A.

Mills, whose remarkable contribution will help us keep viewers like you informed, inspired, and entertained for years to come.

(bright music with humming and whistling) >> Announcer: "Eye on the Arts" is made possible in part by South Shore Arts, the Indiana Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

(upbeat music) (resounding piano music)