(bright music) >> McKenya: The people that come through our doors and stay with us, every production, every play, every program, it's all about making the community better.

>> Tom: When you get into pixel art, it's dots.

It's just like paint splotches.

There's not always defined shapes, it's just like swatches of paint.

But you back up and you're like, "Wow, that's like this beautiful pond with lily pads and flowers."

>> Daniel: Inevitably you're creating art for people to enjoy and admire in their own homes.

It's fulfilling, you know, that somebody appreciates what you're doing, too.

My whole family, we've all been blessed with the ability to do what we love.

Not a lot of people get to do that in life.

>> Narrator: The stage is an elevator, a unique space they hope opens doors for their artist, literally.

Here's how it works.

No matter your nationality, ethnicity, social media status, and more, they welcome all an equitable ride to the top.

>> Narrator: 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.

>> Narrator: Family, home, work, self, of all the things you take care of, make sure you are near the top of the list.

NorthShore Health Centers offers many services to keep you balanced and healthy.

So take a moment, self-assess, and put yourself first.

From medical to dental, vision, chiropractic, and mental health, NorthShore will help get you centered.

You help keep your world running, so make sure to take care of yourself.

NorthShore Health Centers, building a healthy community one patient at a time.

(gentle music) >> Narrator: "Eye on the Arts" is made possible in part by South Shore Arts, the John W. Anderson Foundation, and the Indiana Arts Commission: Making the Arts Happen.

Additional support for Lakeshore Public Media and local programming is made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(gentle music) >> There's a poem by Marianne Williamson, "Our Deepest Fear," and in the poem it says, if you let your light shine, you give others permission to allow their lights to shine.

And that's human nature.

(upbeat music) So the Morning Bishop Theater Playhouse is a community theater that uses the arts methodology to address community issues.

So it's rooted in activism, it's rooted in sort of this concept of self-actualization.

And my mother started it in 1984.

She believed that the transformative power of the arts could in fact put you in a position where you become the best version of yourself.

And so once you become the best version of yourself and you are a part of a community, then it's a domino effect, so to speak.

And it could be highly idealistic, but that's kind of how she raised all of us.

I absolutely believe my mother was such a masterful storyteller that she used the arts as a way to build bridges as opposed to erecting walls.

And she saw that people were less defensive when they were in a mode of creativity, when you could appreciate that they could draw, or that they spoke very well, or that they interacted with each other nicely towards a shared common goal.

And so I believe that is why she was so drawn to it.

And then she was just very good at it.

Like, it's a rarity in these days to have someone who's very good at something does it well and is able to sort of impart that or teach that to others.

But I think with the arts, it's a little easier transference of life skills.

It's expression, it's communication, it's language.

We do so many different things because, again, our mission statement is using the arts methodology to usher in opportunities and experiences that will get you to the best version of your yourself in the areas of education, entrepreneurship, and environmental stewardship.

Those are all passions that were my mom's and also mine.

You know, I used to be superintendent of Parks for the city of Gary.

I love parks, people, places, and parks.

Basically, that's the sum of my life.

And so people, I wanna give and always be in the position to have a platform to allow people to express themselves however that is.

We have afterschool programs, which we call STREAM, and that's basically STEM with an emphasis of reading.

Because if you cannot read and you don't read, and, I like to say, actively read, where you are staying engaged and you understand and you comprehend, math will escape you, science will escape you, English, all the subjects will escape you if you don't have that foundation of reading.

So as you can see, we delve into education.

We also do the entrepreneurship because we employ young people every summer since 1996 in the arts and in a way that they are now becoming community leaders.

So we do the service learning projects like with the Martin Luther King community partnerships.

We've done over 8,500 care packages.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but we only do sloppy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

It has to be evenly distributed, because just because you're unfortunate or less fortunate doesn't mean you have to have a lumpy, dumpy peanut butter and jelly sandwich, okay?

And then we make homemade first aid kits and then we write inspirational messages because you don't know when people are down.

They might read that, look at that in that package, and that may be the one thing that will give them whatever they need to go that next day.

This is a passion, definitely, right, for us.

But it's not just a passion of mine.

The people that come through our doors and stay with us, every production, every play, every program, it's all about making the community better.

Period.

Bringing people together, building bridges of understanding, ignoring erecting walls of discontent, and embracing each other for whatever we have to bring to the table.

Because each one of us has something to bring to the table to make our communities better, to make our lives better, to make our world better.

Just simply, simply put, that's what it is.

We're bringing people together, and we're having fun doing it, but we're also having courageous conversations.

We're also pushing each other.

We're also getting on each other's nerves, and all of that's okay because art mirrors life.

And if you can do it in the art form, guess what?

You can tackle it in the life.

>> I wanted to do comics right outta college.

I'm like, okay, I'll do some fan art for like Marvel, DC, stuff like that.

And then I really just hit a wall.

But then I did this like pixel art tutorial and it just really spoke to me.

And I was already always into kind of classic games.

(upbeat music) My art friends, they would never gimme too much feedback, but they actually were giving me like positive feedback when I started making some pieces.

I made like this Legend of Zelda piece.

I did some other fan art for other games and I was experimenting with like bright colors and whatnot, and people were like actually responding to it.

Like, "Oh, okay."

And I'm like, you know, starting to figure out what makes me happy and what makes other people happy, I guess.

And I just kept going with it.

I feel like it's sort of like an impressionism because it's not like I draw a circle, the shapes are really defined on what those are.

But then when pixel art, it's not a real circle.

It's squares on a diagonal, and then a straight line and then a diagonal again.

And when you look at like classic impressionism and think Van Gogh and stuff like that, it's dots.

It's just like paint splotches, but that's an analog way.

It's like paint, it's just like it...

There's not always defined shapes, it's just like splotches of paint.

But you back up and you're like, "Wow, that's like this beautiful pond with lily pads and flowers."

So when I'm working on my stuff, I'm like, if my brain's not really like flowing with the way that structure looks, at that silhouette looks, or if it doesn't really look like Samus, if it's off, like, then just keep working on it and keep playing with like the shape and whatnot until my brain is immediately like I know what that is.

When you get into pixel art, you get into dithering and like different ways that you shape, which is like yellow, brown, yellow.

It's like a checkerboard like dithering type thing.

I try to keep it like if Super Nintendo graphics were like super wide screen, it's kind of like where I'm, like, playing with resolution.

And then I do start off with gray scale, so everything's like within about black, white, in two or three grays.

And then once I have stuff kind of blocked out, then when I have like that kind of locked in, I'm like, okay, so where's the lighting?

Is it purple here and teal here?

And then like, where's like the lighting coming from?

And then I play with that a lot.

And you know that you have to stick to like a little bit of a like keeping your color palette fairly small and then just kind of playing around with it.

But like that layer, I'll do that shading like once, won't like it, do it a third time.

And then maybe I'm like, you know, the shape of the whole leg is like I gotta redo it so that it just chip away at it.

It's a little bit like carving 'cause it's just square.

So I can like pick and pull at, like, the squares and be like, that's the shape I want.

Like that's the shape of the helmet, that's the shape of the arms.

And when I'm doing that stuff, I'm not like, I'm just not thinking that anymore.

It's like going with the flow.

When people see my work from afar, they're like, "Oh, cool, looks like that looks pretty."

And they come up closer and they're like, "Oh, it's pixel art, very cool."

And they're like, "Oh, look at all the little details and squares and whatnot."

So they don't usually expect it to be in print form.

I do make prints and I make stickers and stickers are cool.

I can do like a character.

I try to do like different environments.

I'm a '90s kid and I just started embracing that more.

Nerd culture wasn't like super popular for a while.

So slowly letting myself become who I'm gonna be, who I am, and embrace what you were or what you were into, and then also embracing like what you're becoming.

>> Daniel: Lily Nassau was the biggest Tiffany dealer probably in the world.

She opened up doors for my father that no one else could have opened up, you know, in the gallery world as well as the Smithsonian while he was still alive, which is pretty rare.

We were brought up being around some of the best art ever created in this country.

I mean, that alone was a blessing.

>> David: He started from nothing and literally within two to three years, rose to the very top echelon of glass in New York.

And of course, if you are an artist and you're received in New York, you're received.

Lillian took my dad's glass and she said, this is what I consider to be the new Tiffany.

>> I remember doing a show with my father out on the East Coast when I was 23, 24.

And I met this other artist and he was, "Tell me how long he's been blowing glass."

And he's like, "Well, how long you been blowing glass?"

"I've been blowing glass for about, oh, 14 years already."

And he looks at me, he's like, "No way."

I was like, "Oh yeah."

He's like, "Who are you?"

And it kinda clicked in my head.

It's like, yeah, most people, they don't have that ability.

And I just, me and my brothers, just fell into it because of my father.

My brother Dave, my brother John, we all worked with my father in the shop.

We helped build the shop, we built the tools, we built the furnaces.

I mean, ground up, annealing ovens, everything in our shops we built because they weren't available like they are now.

Our level of quality my father taught us is at the top, you know?

That's what's different between our glass and a lot of other artists.

We never sell seconds.

>> We developed our colors from the ground up and we're still developing color right as we speak right now.

That's probably the biggest difference.

We learned a lot of it, you know, from scratch.

>> Daniel: We feed off each other and we fed off my father and my father fed off what he saw.

>> The weird thing is that, you know what is a lot in style, you wanna make what your dad's making 'cause it's cool and he's, you know, famous and he is making really nice stuff.

But if you're an artist, you have to know that you've gotta come up with your own things.

And I told each one of the boys in the back there that are working, they will start out most likely doing copies of what we did.

Like an eagle kicks the babies out of the nest, I had to kick my boys away from making my stuff.

And they each came up with their own style.

And that's the best way to have a good legacy.

People that are collecting art, they wanna know that the people that they're buying from are artists and they're moving forward.

I'm 61 now, so it's like I'm not making stuff like I was when I was 25, you know?

And I don't even really want to.

>> Daniel: My father would always talk to us and let us know what it takes and don't fall short.

You know, you always gotta recreate yourself so people have something different.

>> The hard thing is that you, you know, you're selling things that people don't have to have another one.

So you have to come up with some ideas that are so tempting that people buy them, you know, that they turn loose of their money and say, "I just gotta have one of them."

And my dad, one of his little lines was, somebody would be sitting there looking at something and he'd say something like, "Now, why would you deprive yourself of owning that when you know you want it?"

>> Daniel: He was sincere about making something that somebody could appreciate and love as much as he did.

>> And he made glass all the way up until he died.

He was like 85, 86, and he really did make glass all the way until the...

He didn't fall over it.

But it wouldn't have surprised me if he did.

>> We thought he was going to.

>> Yeah.

>> Daniel: To be gifted, to go from one thing to another, as a kid, you seeing something like that is pretty heavy on you and to make something so beautiful, you know, for somebody's home, 'cause inevitably you're creating art for people to enjoy and admire in their own homes.

It's fulfilling, you know, that somebody appreciates what you're doing too.

My whole family, we've all been blessed with the ability to do what we love.

Not a lot of people get to do that in life.

If you're gonna put it all together in a glass shop and be an artist, I mean, the hats are many.

>> The old school artists were artists, craftsmen.

And the craftsman part is so that you could replicate the cool thing that you just did, you know?

Because if you did it once, that's one thing.

But if you wanna sell it, you gotta replicate it.

And then the next thing is that you have to be kind of an inventor and you have to be chemist.

It's just a lot of things that go into it.

I had a kid walk into my place when I was at the studio and he was watching me and he's like, "I could do that."

And I'm like, "Well, I'm glad that you feel so good watching me that you feel like you could do that."

>> They're living vicariously through you.

>> Yeah, and I was like... >> 'Cause they watch you do it and it looks so easy.

It's like... (laughs) >> David: Well, we're here to produce something that's gonna bring a little joy in somebody else's life.

>> I mean, my father become a glass artist out of pure desire.

He'd sit there and tell us how beautiful something was and how much he liked it.

And that didn't come out that often though.

And he did it to Dave or me, or my brother John.

He'd sit there and tell us how beautiful something was and how much he liked it.

And I just looked up at him when he said that.

I was like, I said, "Well, dad, we all learned that from you."

>> Narrator: You are now tuned into Elevator Music.

(upbeat music) >> My name is Tommaso Conforti.

I am a DJ from Florence, Italy, based in Chicago.

Elevator Music is a passion project that started amongst friends.

I'm a DJ, traveling, touring, producing DJ.

This project started as a necessity to get gigs outside of Chicago.

>> My name is Mickey.

I am a music producer, manager, and friend to all creatives in Chicago.

I managed Tommaso, he's a fantastic DJ, originally from Florence, eight years now in Chicago.

And we found that this local scene is fantastic, right?

We have a lot of great bookings locally.

I think the issue right now though, especially with managing a DJ, is that how do we break out of our local market?

>> Narrator: Elevator Music, the name says it all.

The stage is an elevator, a unique space they hope opens doors for their artist.

Literally.

Here's how it works.

No matter your nationality, ethnicity, social media status and more, they welcome all an equitable ride to the top.

With support coming from Patreon, the concept is twofold, it's taped with a live audience, giving the artist the feel of a real performance.

When the elevator doors open from the front, there's the crowd and they are live.

This is a way the artist can showcase their work, put it online, expanding their audience, and stay home based right here in Chicago, >> Back in the day, I think it was like the 20s or 30s, Otis elevators built elevators in some of the first skyscrapers.

So they included elevator music to help the sway of the elevator ride going up.

I think as a distraction, mostly, for people.

The roots are in Chicago.

It kind of gave me more of a vibrato for doing this.

You know, we take this elevator every day and one day Tommy and I were just walking through the building, looking for a space, literally a corner of the room just to shoot.

And we thought the elevator was nice, it was well lit, it had this tone to it.

And then, you know, the idea kind of kept expanding after that.

>> The beauty of it, we saw how well it worked for me.

So we kind of just started doing it more and with the intention of, let's get some of these local artists that we love so much and see if we can put 'em on a platform where they can shine too.

(upbeat music) >> Narrator: Similar to how elevators transition people to different levels, their platform is helping artists do the same.

>> Zack Fox is a fantastic human.

I mean, honestly, one of the best people I've ever met.

Really kind, really generous, but also he's more known, I guess, commonly as a comedian, writer, actor.

He DM-ed us one day out of the blue.

Funny enough, it was a week where we were definitely like, what's next?

And truth be told, at that point of time, I respected him as an artist in other theaters of creativity, but didn't really know him as a DJ.

So we booked him.

His episode literally went from a couple hundred, a couple thousand, to now over a million.

>> Well, we've had many beautiful success stories through Elevator.

I mean, a lot of the artists that you see on Elevator Music, you may not know.

And yet, for them, their performance on there is, you know, historic.

And you're not going in there to get to point A to point B.

You're actually going in to perform.

And for many people that actually is off-putting, to many people that's enticing.

That's the beauty of Elevator itself.

It's interesting to think about our successes 'cause I think every episode is a success because that means that it's out there and that artist has a platform where they can express themselves and potentially reach other markets and other people.

>> Narrator: This ride is one they hope can open the right doors for artists to find success and still stay anchored in the city.

>> One of the themes I've found in Chicago is because we don't have that industry, that's stable industry, like we do in New York or LA.

We kind of had this sense of community that come together and create something special and come together and work together and put ourselves on the map that we wouldn't really have naturally around us.

I think the charm is that it's a city that fosters a bunch of insanely incredible talented individuals who are willing to collaborate and work with each other.

It's a big city, small town.

I think that grit, that level of understanding, that feeling is truly what makes Chicago creatives unique.

>> We can elevate so much that it's fun.

My main focus is DJing.

This is a beautiful side hustle, and it's gonna help so many other DJs here in Chicago that I'm really happy with this project and I think it will help a lot.

>> Narrator: Doing 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.

>> Narrator: Family, home, work, self, of all the things you take care of, make sure you are near the top of the list.

NorthShore Health Centers offers many services to keep you balanced and healthy.

So take a moment, self-assess, and put yourself first.

From medical to dental, vision, chiropractic, and mental health, NorthShore will help get you centered.

You help keep your world running, so make sure to take care of yourself.

NorthShore Health Centers building a healthy community, one patient at a time.

(gentle music) >> Narrator: "Eye on the Arts" is made possible in part by South Shore Arts, the John W. Anderson Foundation, and the Indiana Arts Commission: Making the Arts Happen.

Additional support for Lakeshore Public Media and local programming is made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.

>> You really have to think about how do you support a child through all the developmental aspects of life.

>> When we have those positive relational experiences and we learn that we're worthy and it's a safe place to be and that there's hope in the world, but we take that with us.

>> It is really a learning process between two people.

And that's what building a relationship is all about, that's such a satisfying and bonding thing for you and your child.

You feel it and your child feels it too.

And if a child receives comfort, support, nurturance, and protections, then they learn safety, security, trust, and hope.

And think about what a world we would live in.

>> Narrator: A $100,000 matching grant generously provided by the Legacy Foundation will double your contribution today.

Building Blocks, a community investment with everlasting returns.

>> Narrator: Across Northwest Indiana, stories are told, shared, and sought after.

Tune in into Lakeshore Public Media 89.1 FM to hear these stories about Northwest Indiana and your community.

Streaming online at lakeshorepublicmedia.org.

>> Narrator: Did you know that you can find all your favorite Lakeshore PBS shows online?

By visiting video.lakeshorepbs.org, you can stream a large selection of shows including "Eye on the Arts."

>> To me, it's always about music.

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