>> This week on Eye on the Arts.

>> Eric: When I look for a box, I'm trying to look for what I might be able to build out of it and how it might look.

And there is no real rules for how to do it or what to do.

You're only held back by your own imagination.

>> Heidi: The spectrum of the harp is like at a different level from all of your voices.

So I'm not competing with the voices.

I'm just adding to it.

So you can still have a conversation but yet there's music on it's in the background.

>> Rachel: So I wanted to make him a gift.

And so I made him a brown trout and posted it on my Instagram.

And it pretty much blew up pretty fast.

People were like, how can I get my hands on one of those?

>> Ibet: Mariachi Sirenas actually, it was an idea that felt right.

It was such a, a feminine idea to such a masculine genre.

It's pretty, it's fun, and that's what our goal is.

(upbeat music playing) >> Eye on the arts is made possible in part by South shore arts, The Indiana Arts Commission, The National Endowment For The Arts of federal agency, and viewers like you, thank you.

For the support provided by the Legacy Foundation.

(enthusiastic guitar music playing) >> Support for programming in 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.

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

(jubilant music playing) 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 and a book versus physically doing it and seeing results.

(upbeat music playing) (bouncy upbeat music playing) >> Eric: Cigar boxes started off, I think around the 1840's it was a homemade instrument made to be easy to play easy to, to, to have it tuned.

(lively instrumental country music playing) >> When I started this, it was kind of back around 2013.

I've been talking to my brother about cigar boxes because he had just started to learn how how to play as a slave goodness guitar.

And I had to have my foot operated on and I was off work for about three or four months.

And about a month into it, I was getting bored.

And I thought, well, I'll just give a try.

It's something I could actually kinda how we'll add onto to the workshop and just, you know sit on a stool and try to build.

On the first one, when we first does a plug in the guitar I was amazed how much it sounded like a normal electric as a guitar.

So that's how I got started into it.

And then it just was after you make one then you say, well, okay, that was fun, but I bet you I could make one like this and then you just keep us going.

So that's part of the fun and just trying to see what else you could build in, you know trying to explore the art.

The box can (inaudible) turn with what you can do.

The sound you get out of a box is gonna sound unique for a cigar gearbox because we've got the, the types of wood.

We don't have a tone wood almost all Cigar boxes are cedar.

It's a little bit soft.

So you're gonna get more of a mellow sound from, from them.

when you make them, you can either have it so that the body will add to the sound or you can make it so that it's just simply the shape depending on the bracing, and how you build it can influence the sounds.

A cigar box lends itself very easily to blues.

Just the way that it's tuned, the way it's played a lot of your mountain songs, your folk songs stuff like that will lead mostly because of the sound.

It's going to sound a little bit more like a banjo as opposed to just a standard guitar.

And I'm still trying to find out what sound I like and on what, and there is no one true sound its depending on what the player wants.

You want a darker blues guitar something bright to play more as a country stuff on, you know, what is it that you want?

And then you gotta try to figure out how to get there.

So each box, kind of you have to kind of stare out and go, what kind of story can I tell with this?

So it's a lot like even trying to do a painting.

It's what's what's the current story and what does that box?

What can it tell?

When I look for a box, I'm trying to look for what I might be able to build on and how it might look.

And there is no real rules for how to do it or what to do.

It's a fun thing to build because there aren't any constraints you can kind of build it however you want.

I mean, I've seen them build with the soundboard being a saw blade.

It's whatever you want to do.

And how, you know, you're only held back by your own imagination.

Nobody can say you, you did it wrong.

I've got a few at the art art barn.

I was hesitant in trying to show them mainly because after you build them, you put enough work into them.

They become your babies.

So my wife, as a kind of she was the works with the art and the art art barn and has kind of talked me into saying, okay let's take a few of them and show them and see what kind of views we get.

You never view yourself as being good.

You're always like, you know, well, okay, I'm only a hat.

Well, when you hear somebody, you know, going, "This looks cool, this sounds amazing!"

It, it takes a while for you to be able to accept that.

I am hoping that when I finished one of these that it'll say that they, at least they were made with care and, and I on both the music and the appearance of it.

A lot of people home realign just the appearance that they've they want to make a cigar box guitar.

And really didn't go into the actual sound of it and what it might do.

I'm trying to kind of go onto both sides and say I want the sound.

I want the looks.

And I want you know, just the kind of the curb appeal.

(lively instrumental country music playing) (harp music playing) >> Heidi: I've been playing in Northwest Indiana for a long time, at least 20 years.

And I play are all over the area, mostly for weddings the ceremonies, receptions, senior living communities popular memorial services, things like that.

Just, you know, anytime someone wants to add something special, you know, to their special occasion.

Yeah, I'm a cover band.

You know, I'm going to play the tunes that you will want to hear, things you'll recognize.

You know, whether that's a classical, popular piece you know, Clair De Lune , you know, things from musicals or popular standards.

And then I'll also play things written for harp.

So you won't know these tunes and you won't be able to ask for them, but they will highlight the harp.

And it'll just mix mix in with the, the music you do recognize.

I'm Specializing in background music.

So I'm not front and center.

I'm not the highlight.

So yeah, I don't really get a lot of applause.

Occasionally there will be.

But I think that's, you know, the niche that this is, and, you know, you're going to, you know enjoy the music, it's going to add to the event but it's not the highlight of the event.

The spectrum of the harp is like at a different level from all of your voices.

So I'm not competing with the voices.

I'm just adding to it.

So you can still have a conversation but yet there's music on it's in the background.

So on the piano you have you have about seven octaves, you know, you have, you know the white keys and the black keys, and then on the harp you have about six and a half octaves.

Pretty much the same range.

So, but on the harp with my strings, if you think of it I have say all of the white keys.

So, but with my pedals at the feet I can get the black keys so I can get the sharps and flats.

So that's what's unique about the harp is that with that one string, I can get the sharp and the flat.

With the pedals, I can, in effect, cancel out some of the tones and come up with more of a chord.

That's why the glissando's on the Harper are so beautiful.

What I have to watch out for is during the piece, the accidentals.

So during the piece, you know if I have to change to a sharp or flat while I'm playing or even a natural, you know, I have to do that while while I'm playing, with your feet moving, your hands moving, you have to be multitasking.

And the way to do it is just through practice.

So in my music, I'll make a plan for when I'm going to make that pedal move I'm going to do it on a certain beat.

That way I practice that in and then it just becomes automatic, just like with the fingering.

(harp music playing) My voice is really with my music.

You know, I'm not the loudest one with the joke or the the loud voice, but I want to be heard.

And I think when I play the harp, that's my voice.

And that's, you know my way to be heard.

playing the harp is it's like it touches like mind, body, and spirit.

So my mind's engaged as a challenge, or maybe, you know maybe I've just having the reward of playing the perfected phrase but I'm active, you know, with my body.

And then my spirit I'm, I've created something, you know I've created this music that wasn't there, you know 10 minutes ago, you don't feel like reading or, you know watching TV or something like that.

Just go and play the harp because, you know, playing you you really can't think about anything else good or bad in your life, you know and you just get to kind of focus on creating something.

(harp music playing) (upbeat inspiring music playing) >> Rachel: My name is Rachel Lubarsky.

I am a driftwood artist.

I got started about five, six years ago.

So I grew up fishing with my dad.

My brothers never really liked fishing as much as I did.

So I would be the one who grabbed the rod and got and grabbed the bait and go fish for bass and bluegill.

And then I met, I met my boyfriend in 2015, (upbeat music playing) and started fly fishing.

So I wanted to make him a gift, and so I made him a brown trout and posted it on my Instagram.

And it pretty, it blew up pretty fast.

People were like, how can I get my hands on one of those?

Will you be making more?

What do I have to do?

How can I get one basically?

So I started taking custom orders and pretty much that's all I do now.

I don't really ever have anything ready to sell.

It's all just like custom, people will give me dimensions of fish they caught, send me some reference photos and I'll kind of like go off that.

A lot of people give me free reign, you know do whatever we, we trust you, trust the process.

(upbeat inspiring music playing) I've been drawing since I was a little girl.

Like, as soon as I could hold a pencil, I was drawing.

And I always keyed in on animals.

I have like this really special attachment to animals.

When I started my driftwood, I just wanted them to come life.

And I thought it was really cool that the driftwood came from the water.

It was shaped from the water and I was making fish which also came from that same water.

And I wanted them to be as realistic as possible.

Obviously it's not perfect because it's driftwood, and there is texture and there is imperfections but that's kind of why I'm drawn to it.

I just really like, I liked the idea of conservation and I just don't like fish mounts.

They're not my thing.

You know, I'd rather just have a different way of you know, showing your, your favorite catch of your lifetime or whatever the case may be.

So that's kind of details is my thing.

I love details.

I think it makes a piece.

I think it, it makes things interesting.

And especially if it's not like cookie cutter details and you're adding your own special touch to it.

(upbeat inspiring music playing) I think there are a lot of people especially in the fly fishing industry that, you know, they practice catching a release and they really try to respect the fisheries.

And obviously people go out and then catch fish to eat like salmon.

But when you're fishing for, you know, a species like steelhead, which is ginormous, and they're going from the ocean to the river you really want to protect that species.

And I think when people see my artwork they think, you know, that's a great way to commemorate this awesome fish that I caught up in Alaska, you know, on a spey rod or however they may have caught it.

So it's just a really great opportunity for people to do that.

But I think they know that they're not going to get like an identical, you know, replica of their fish.

Like it's going to be as close as possible but I do my best but it's not going to be perfect, but they know that.

And I, I think that they appreciate that, appreciate that too.

Because it's a really unique way to show that fish.

(gleeful music playing) I pull up to Alaska pretty much every summer.

My boyfriend has a fishing guide up there.

And so I kind of just wanted to get out of Indiana and see what else was out there and try some fishing elsewhere.

And while I was up there, we, we mostly it's seasonal work up there.

So we will start in May and then we'll finish up in either September or October.

The first year up there, I was waitressed and fished, and in my off time, I would go exploring some of their beaches but Alaska beaches are more like pebble beaches.

It's not like Sandy beaches.

And I noticed that there's a bunch of driftwood and I thought it was super cool because I was fishing this Kenai River system and picking up driftwood along the fangs and making species like rainbow trout, and dolly varden, and king salmon.

I have the same driftwood that was coming from the river system where these fish swam but everything kind of ties into fishing, you know, Alaska Alaska for me, I really enjoy fishing.

And I really enjoy the fact that I can.

I appreciate the fact that I can tie my art into something that I'm so passionate about.

And so practice catch, and release, and commemorate fish and memories and all those kinds of things.

(guitar song playing) >> Ibet: Mariachi, it's stereotyped as just being pretty much men but women have been part of Mariachi groups way back then, back in our motherland in Mexico.

But here in the United States, it's a pretty new idea.

(Mariachi song playing) Mariachi Sirenas, actually translates to directly which is mermaid "sirenas" as mermaids or "sirenas" as also sirens.

Mariachi Sirenas actually, it was an idea that Jeanette Nevarez, our guitarronera just kinda mentioned and it was one of those ideas that felt right.

It was such a, a feminine idea to such a masculine genre.

It's pretty, it's fun.

And, you know, mermaids are known for singing and killing men with their voices.

So that's what our goal is.

No, it's not, just have fun with it.

In the beginning, it was pretty Rocky trying to figure out what we wanted to do and how we were going to do it and being able to execute it back then we were still trying to figure out who we were and what Mariachi actually really meant for every member in the group.

We all came from different mariachi backgrounds.

We all played at different mariachi groups.

So it's just a matter of, you know, just because you play in one group or another group doesn't mean that we all play the same way or the same or have the same ideas.

So I think now being where we are, we are more open to having that conversation and just being open with one another as to what Mariachi Sirenas will represent to us.

And how we will go ahead and translate that to everybody.

(mariachi music playing) Mariachi music is its own culture.

It's its own genre.

It is composed of different styles and it's, it's, it's everything.

It's, it's, it's a beautiful marriage of what Mexican traditional music is.

It's more than just an ensemble cause with mariachi we're able to play a bolero.

That's more romantic where I wouldn't do that on chat which is pretty much what everybody remembers when they hear mariachi which is like the recent (inaudible) this.

We can do cumbias, where people can dance.

So the emotions that come out of the mariachi genre is amazing.

We can make people cry and we cry sometimes while we're playing or singing songs.

We can make people dance.

And it's just, it's one of those genres that can you can be placed into any emotion depending on what's going on.

And having people like to think back to us, granted it's not our original songs.

These songs have been in our tradition for, you know, years and years.

But knowing that they almost them singing back it's like they approve of what we're doing out there and seeing them dance and seeing them having a good time and, you know, raise their glasses.

If they're having a drink.

It's, it's the biggest salute.

(mariachi song playing) All of our members being under the age of 30 and then on top of that, we are all first generation or second generation Mexican Americans.

It's that feeling where yes, we are young, but also feeling that we're not as Mexican as we should be.

So having to try to prove that to the Mexican culture that yes, we were born here, but we are true to our culture.

You know, we are going to play the traditional stuff that was brought up years and years ago when mariachi first became a thing.

So we practice two or three times a week to be able to get the work done.

It's it's not just putting on the makeup.

It's not just tighten up our skirts.

It's, it's a lot more than that.

And we just hope that that shows when we are out there, performing.

(mariachi song playing) Working with Mariachi Sirenas has been an absolute, it's been amazing.

It's been two years of my life that I would not change for the world.

It's been two years where I have learned a lot about myself.

I've learned about members that I've been playing in groups before.

You know, it, it's just, we, we are as cliche as it may sound, we are a sisterhood.

Like we do see each other almost every single day.

We just keep doing what we're doing because we, we share that passion and we share the goal.

And I think that's the important thing.

(mariachi song playing) It's, it's a beautiful, beautiful chaos hurricane that we we love love to be in the middle of.

And we, we have nothing to do, but just to do what we do and just have fun with them and show our passion through it and hope that people like it.

(mariachi song playing) (upbeat guitar music playing) >> Eye on the Arts is made possible and part, by South Shore Arts, The Indiana Arts Commission, The National Endowment For The Arts of federal agency, and viewers like you, thank you.

Further support provided by the Legacy Foundation.

Support for programing in 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.

>> 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.

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 playing) (outro music playing) >> Did you know that you can find all your favorite Lake shore PBS shows online by visiting video.LakeshorePBS.org, you can stream a large selection of shows, including Eye on the Arts.

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(piano music playing)