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

>> Eric: The sculptures, in a lot of ways, aren't really complete until they find their way out.

And whether it's in a gallery space, or on the street corner, I'm trying to make the objects in such a way that it, they garner a response.

The thing that's most frustrating is when you see someone walk by your, one of your sculptures and they don't even look at it, you know, then it's like going, "Oh, I failed".

>> Teaching is so much fun, I love being around the kids.

I love being an art teacher, but having that little thing, that's all mine.

I hadn't really had that as a mom, and a wife, and a teacher, and a volunteer.

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

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

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

>> I predominantly carve birds okay, and realistic birds.

I don't really want ever wanna do the same bird twice, 'cause there's always a different bird that I think would be a challenge in some cases.

Sometimes the challenge is not in the carving, it's in trying to paint 'em.

So, the painting then becomes sometimes a greater challenge than the carving.

>> 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.

>> Announcer: Support for programming 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.

>> Presenter: "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.

(welding machine popping and hissing) (upbeat rock music) >> The way it all started is I'm a son of a sculptor, fifth generation artist.

Apparently, my pyrotechnic fascinations came out in an early age when I was about four or five years old.

My father came into the basement, off the garage, and saw a flickering in the furnace room.

And he comes in and finds this little kid, you know, sticking the broom handle into the oil furnace, and sitting there just watching it burn.

And so, he started taking me to studio shortly after that.

And so, I was always around in that environment.

He's a ceramic artist and sculptor.

It gave me that impetus of like, yes, I could play with fire but let's be creative about it.

So, it certainly started off in ceramics.

I've dabbled in glass, but really, my fascination is working with metal.

The is balance between fabrication, welding, grinding, cutting with generating patterns and casting, transforming those objects into cast forms.

Predominantly bronze, but some aluminum and cast iron as well.

My brain works spatially.

There are times where I'll draw and try to, you know, sketch things out a little it, but it's all trying to, you know, deal with illusion and kind of faking things to make it look like it's three dimensional.

I'll start off working in clay as my way to sketch and or a combination with doing VR sculpting.

And then, it's basically the idea of working in maquette and scale.

One of the great things that's, you know, come about in the last few years is working in VR.

And so, now I can actually draw something and I can pick it up and then move it around.

Or my VR space is big enough that I can set up a piece, blow it up to life size and I can physically walk around it.

Now, I'm in that three dimensional space and I can rely on the body mechanics, the muscle memory that I've spent 30 years developing down here in the shop, translates directly into the computer space now.

The reality, especially when you start going large, is that you're dealing with physics, chemistry, engineering, you know, structural aspects, you know, so things aren't falling over and killing someone.

You really kind of have to have a grasp on every aspect.

I love working big, but at the same time, trying to launch into something, that's gonna take several months and tens of thousands of dollars to do.

I wanna work out some of those problems working small.

And then that actually allows me to present that to a jury situation or the funders.

Different designers, stuff like that will design something, but then they take their design to a fabricator.

And then, you know, that fabricator is gonna give them exactly what they want.

I can certainly work as a fabricator, but by being the designer and the fabricator, there are a lot of really cool creative decision-making that I can do during the process that allows my pieces to evolve from the beginning point to the ending point.

And that's a lot of what keeps it exciting to keep your attention and focus through the entire process.

The large stuff, that's all fabricated outta plate.

And so, I'll work in cardboard, draw out, you know, different designs, lay 'em out onto the sheets of, typically, stainless steel.

And then I'll use a plasma cutter, slice those out, clean it 'em up, shape 'em, and then weld those into the existing sculpture.

The bulk of my work is fixated on the body and ultimately the idea of body language.

And so, between that and a combination of the fact that I'm basically a child of sci-fi.

And so, I've always been really interested in technology and how do we perceive ourselves through that technology?

And so, I do work with models and different dancers, rock climbers, circus performers, contortionists, and ultimately I'm interested in people that are, you know, speaking with their bodies, but also taking their bodies outta context.

Those are the ideas that are generating my forms and whether they're hanging off the wall coming off the ceiling, or in a balanced pose out on a pedestal, as I'm watching the viewers come up and react to it.

It's my way of kind of my social experiment of seeing how people deal with that communication, that body language.

The sculptures, in a lot of ways, aren't really complete until they find their way out.

And whether it's in a gallery space, or on the street corner, I'm trying to make the objects in such a way that it, they garner a response.

And you know, whether that forces you to hate 'em, or love 'em.

I don't care, you know, but I want you to think about it.

And you know, the thing that's most frustrating is when you see someone walk by one of your sculptures and they don't even look at it, you know, then it's like going, "Oh, I failed."

You know, it's like, I didn't do something that at least made them take a second look.

I just want to change people's perception of their space, of their surroundings.

I was never comfortable talking in front of groups.

And so, it was always easier for me to retreat to the backyard, or the garage, or ultimately my dad's studio and speak through my materials.

So, when it came to expressing ideas or more specifically really processing my life experiences it was always easier to do that through generation of objects.

>> Teaching is so much fun, I love being around the kids.

I love being an art teacher.

And so many teachers just, they teach, they fall into that rhythm of teaching and they don't really do their rewarding part of their life because they're so involved in what they're doing in the classroom.

(bright triumphant music) The way I got started was probably, you know, working with my mom.

She always sat down and put puzzles together, and we'd paint, and we'd draw.

And then, my high school art teacher that I was introduced to as a freshman, I fell in love with her.

She was amazing, she taught me new things.

It was so much fun.

That's how I decided I wanted to be a teacher.

And so, now I'm going into my 29th year of teaching and I've loved every year of it.

So, the Prairie Arts Council, you know, kept asking me, do a solo show, do a solo show.

So I decided, you know, I'm gonna challenge myself to just do my own art.

I tried to put my money where my mouth was so to speak.

'Cause I'm always telling my kids, "You should put it in this show."

or "I'm gonna take your work and put it in that show."

Or, "You should enter this competition."

And I spent so much time developing their needs.

So, one day I just sat down and said, "I'm gonna start with a 100-day challenge."

I really doubted that I'd make it to 100 days, but I thought, "Ah, I'm just gonna give it a try."

So, I started and it was so much fun.

I mean, it was such a release of anxiety, and stress, and everything that goes on in our daily lives.

And I just kept going, I got to 100 and I'm like, you know, I can't even believe I did it.

But then I just kept going and I thought, "I'll just see what happens."

And I ended up doing a piece of artwork every single day on an index card for 365 days.

The name of the show is Record, Repeat, Release!

So, I'll tell you how I came up with that title.

First of all, my alter journals, which are old library books that I daily journal in about my life in general, those are my recordings.

My index cards become repetition, or that repeating, because I'm making marks that repeat over and over again, around my borders and on the cards.

And then the release is kind of that emotional release, or getting into the zone of forgetting about everything around you and just creating art.

In the exhibit, I knew I could fill up the gallery with just the index cards, but I thought it would be pretty boring seeing the repetition, even though it's a lot of pieces.

So, the rest of the things that are in here are the business cards, which are literally the size of a business card.

There's about 100 business cards that are framed individually or in groups.

My alter journals, which are made of old library books.

I carry those with me, but I also have junk journals.

They are hand bound books that are made completely of trash.

Old folders, you know, index cards, tags, stationary, my kids' homework that are all bound together.

So, the show is pretty much comprised of those main four elements.

I have a student, graduated 17 years ago.

Her aunt brought her up here to see the show because she knew she was one of my students.

She sent me this long email, she goes, "Here I am a mom with two kids, art used to be everything for me."

"I spent four years in your classroom."

and she goes, "How did I let 17 years go by?"

"I am so inspired."

She goes, "I am going to be making art soon."

And it was like, oh my gosh, that had to have been the most of amazing email.

She probably doesn't know it, but I'm like, "Wow."

You know, "She's where I was a year and a half ago."

The mom with the kids, not giving myself permission because I'm always doing something for somebody else.

And to have her say, "I walked in this room and I'm a different person, because I saw what you're doing."

I'm like, "Wow."

You know, you think you're inspiring as a teacher.

But when someone says that about part of your soul, like my artwork is part of my soul.

And to have her say that, that was the coolest thing.

I am inviting my students.

I'm letting my students know that they can come.

I'm giving them an invitation.

You know, I've let some of my past students know.

They always saw me doing demos.

They didn't really see me doing a piece of artwork that I always finished.

And that's something new that they saw this year.

So, I hope that I'm inspiring to my kids.

Not only in how I teach, and hopefully, how excited I am to have 'em in my room, but also now a new thing to bring in of, now I'm making my own artwork, and showing them that I'm not just teaching it, I'm preaching it.

You know, I'm doing it, I'm making it.

I discovered my joy.

You know, I've always loved art.

Teaching is so much fun.

I love being around the kids.

I love being an art teacher.

But, having that little thing that's all mine.

I hadn't really had that as a mom, and a wife, and a teacher, and a volunteer, having that little bit opened up something inside of, it ripped a hole in me.

And I don't think it's gonna close.

I don't think I'm gonna stop.

(somber mariachi music) >> 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.

(singing in Spanish) Mariachi Sirenas actually translates to directly, which is mermaid, sirenas is mermaids, or sirenas is 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 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 to have fun with it.

(upbeat mariachi music) In the beginning, it was pretty rocky trying to figure out what we wanted to do, and how we were gonna do it, and being able to execute it.

Back then, we were still trying to figure out who we were, and what mariachi really meant for every member in the group.

We all came from different mariachi backgrounds.

We all played in different mariachi groups.

So, it's just a matter of, you know, just because you're 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 else.

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

It's its own genre.

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

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.

We're able to do the ranchera, which is pretty much what everybody remembers when they hear mariachi, which is like the Vicente Fernandez.

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 just sing 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 is like they approve of what we're doing out there.

And seeing them dance, and seeing 'em having a good time, and, you know, raise their glasses if they're having a drink, it's the biggest salute.

(somber mariachi music) All of our members 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, 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 not just putting on the makeup.

It's not just tightening up our skirts.

It's a lot more than that.

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

(Ibet singing in Spanish) 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's just, we are, as cliche as it may sound, we are as sisterhood.

Like, we do see each other almost every single day.

We just keep doing what we're doing, because we share that passion and we share the goal, and I think that's the important thing.

(Ibet singing in Spanish) It's a beautiful, beautiful chaos hurricane that we love, love to be in the middle of.

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

(Ibet singing in Spanish) (soft upbeat music) >> Wood carving is basically sculpting in wood, is really what it boils down to it.

It's creating, in some cases, a picture, a figurine.

Some people do something, they will get a figurine from, that they picked up in a shop and they say, "Can I", you know what I mean?

"Can I carve something using this as my model?"

So, it's really more what interests you and what you wanna carve.

We are a club that was started in 1973, by just some people that were interested in getting together to carve.

We currently have around 50 members.

We meet every Tuesday, as of right now, at Woodland Park.

Our sole purpose really is to get people interested in this as a hobby.

Okay, it's a fun hobby.

And, everybody has a different thing in what gets them excited, or what gets them motivated.

>> I gravitate toward the birds.

I do spoons and a lot of other things, but I will do anything.

If I see somebody doing something and it interests me, then I will pick up on that.

>> I do a lot of faces.

I carve a few, I carve a few bears.

I carve a few animals.

I go in spurts.

I kind of like, I'll have a, I'll go, you know, I'll get bored with it and I'll put it down for a while.

And then all of a sudden I'll come to club and somebody will do something that I like.

And it'll trip the trigger again to get me going, get the juices flowing.

>> For me, the, I predominantly carve birds okay, and realistic birds.

The beauty of birds is, there are so many different birds in the world.

I don't really want ever wanna do the same bird twice, 'cause there's always a different bird that I think would be a challenge, in some cases.

Sometimes the challenge is not in the carving, it's in trying to paint 'em because if you're trying to carve, you know, get it to look as if it was real.

So, the painting then becomes sometimes a greater challenge than the carving, depending on the bird you're doing.

I have no background in art, none, zero.

I got started by an adult education class years ago, okay.

Just sounded curious, you know, and then as you, as, or at least for me as I got into it and got better at it, I just, the interest kept getting deeper and deeper.

And then about 10 years ago, 12 years ago, I started going to a guy's house on a Thursday morning for three hours.

And he taught me how to do bird carving.

Everything from the carving itself, to painting, to you know, and that really got me excited also again.

And it started out as a simple little hobby, if you will, and then it became more of a passion.

I can sit for two or three hours and carve, and let the world go by.

>> I found this club in August of 2003, prior to that knew nothing about carving.

After the first three hours, it still looked like it should have stayed on a tree.

It was a piece of cottonwood bark.

And I thought, "Maybe I can't do this."

So, after about, oh, six months, I was doing what they called whimsical houses, which are little hobbit houses.

That's how it started.

And I would ask the old timers, "How do you do faces?"

'Cause I wanted to do the American Indian faces in the cottonwood bark, they said, "Oh, faces are hard."

Well, it probably took six months to figure out the proportions.

And once I figured that out, it wasn't that hard.

It's always fun, and you learn a lot while you're doing it.

>> No, I don't have any training or anything else.

I just picked it up from YouTube, mostly, and these people.

Retired nine years ago and was looking for something to do, you know, 'cause you end up with a lot of time on your hands.

I was at a visitor center on the Blue Ridge Parkway and there was an old timer in there, he was carving walking sticks.

And I said, that looks like that would be fun.

So, that's how I actually got involved in it.

And I found the club through Hobby Lobby, and I've been with 'em about (clicks tongue), oh jeez, been about seven or eight years now I think.

>> I enjoy their company, I think they're a great group of people.

If anyone wants to come, they're welcome.

If they don't know too much about wood carving, someone will be here to help them.

>> So, it's whatever, you know, excites you.

So, the ideal is to find people that wanna learn.

We do have people with a lot of talent.

We're happy to teach anybody, show 'em anything, from how to sharpen knives, to how to carve.

I don't care what it is you wanna carve.

And, it's the friendships you develop.

And you know, I've rarely if ever run into a wood carver that wasn't more than happy to sit and talk, and show you anything you wanna know about carving.

>> There's a great bunch here, and they're always willing to help, and show you how to get started.

But it takes some initiative on your own not to give up and just keep plugging along, and figure it out, keep working on it.

And pretty soon they'll say, "Oh, this isn't that hard."

"We can do this."

But it's whatever you dream, hopefully you can carve it.

If not, it makes good bond fire.

>> 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.

>> Announcer: Support for programming of 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.

>> Presenter: "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.

>> [Lakeshore PBS Presenter] Did you know that you can find all of your favorite Lakeshore PBS shows online?

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