>> Narrator: This week on "Eye on the Arts-" (mellow digital music) >> Cesareo: We define our culture as Cultura sin Fronteras, which means it's a culture without borders.

Political borders have no restraints on culture.

Wherever the community gathers, their culture follows.

>> I took an animation course, and we did some 3D stuff and we used Maya.

Learning to use Maya was a whole paradigm shift for me, 'cause it's like quite actually like a God machine.

Like from infinite nothingness, you can create like anything.

>> Mark: The experiments are really based on exploiting the qualities of watercolor, and just letting it do what it wants to do without trying to manipulate it too much.

And when you do that, it does some explosively cool things that no other medium could even touch.

>> Denise: It touches my heart, because I really feel like I'm communicating with these ancient people.

And even though I don't really know what they meant when they carved it, that's part of the mystery of it.

>> Dale: 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 pop music) >> Narrator: Support for programming on 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.

(cheerful indie music) >> Narrator: "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.

(lively salsa music) >> The National Museum of Mexican Art is an institution that's been a part of Chicago for over 30 years.

And really, it was founded through education.

Educators from the Chicago Public School System saw that there was something missing in the curriculum, and decided to take it upon themselves to add that for the large growing Mexican community in the Chicagoland area.

The Mexican community that was here embraced the museum, because there was such a thirst for Mexican culture at that time.

The museum started by doing many exhibitions in the beginning, doing catalogs, and started with a very basic collection of artwork from Mexican artists.

Now the museum has over 80,000 objects in its collection, from ancient Mexico and Mesoamerica to colonial popular art, or folk art.

And of course, a lot of works by artists on this side of the border.

In other words, Mexican American or Chicano artists.

We define our culture as Cultura sin Fronteras, which means it's a culture without borders.

Political borders have no restraints on culture.

Wherever the community gathers, their culture follows.

And then the other thing that we always consider is that we are a first voice institution.

In other words, nobody can tell your story as well as you can.

So although many of our artists should be in various collections and museums across the country, we feel that our exhibitions really do have a unique way of presenting our culture, because it's in a first voice setting.

I think all of our exhibitions really illustrate the depth of the Mexican culture and history, as well as an understanding that we are a very, very multicultural and diverse community.

Many times, people think that we're sort of a monolithic group or monolithic culture.

And that's far from the truth.

We have African presence.

We have a lot of indigenous aspects in our culture.

We are very contemporary, and we're very ancient.

We have had exhibits here that have pieces that are thousands of years old, literally, and others that are, you know, very contemporary and new.

So I think that as people walk through our galleries, they will hopefully understand the diversity in the Mexican culture, but then also understand that it's 3,000 years or more of culture and history, And we bring all of that together so that there is a deeper appreciation of where we come from and what we bring.

In Mexico, we have had many influences, be they European, or from the Americas, or from Africa.

And they all come together in a way that is very, very Mexican.

Mexicans have really incorporated, whether it's music from Germany and Poland in the polkas, or whether it's a religious painting from Spain and the Mediterranean, or a lot of the indigenous rituals and traditions that were part of the Americas.

And so when you look at Mexican art, you really are looking at a global fusion of different traditions and different styles.

(cheerful salsa music) Part of our mission is to remain free and open.

So we are one of the only museums who is still free.

And I think it's important that we remain free, because I've seen many times teenagers walk through the exhibitions in the summertime, when they're off school.

And I think if there was a charge, they wouldn't come in.

I've also seen large families walk through our galleries, who again, if there was a charge, maybe they would not necessarily come into the museum.

And so art, and culture, and all these beautiful things that we present are almost always free to the public.

And I think that there's reason to not come through our museum, and then afterwards go have a great meal somewhere in the Pilsen neighborhood in Chicago.

You know, I think all of us want our visitors to walk away with a better understanding of the arts of the Mexican culture, but also of themselves.

Art really has a way of letting you stand in somebody else's shoes for a moment and look at the world through their eyes.

And I think that when you do that, you realize how much we do have in common.

So we do want our visitors to understand the Mexican culture and history and community much better, but also as it relates to them and their life.

Otherwise, you're just kind of being a voyeur.

(cheerful salsa music) (otherworldly alternative music) >> New media is basically anything that involves like newer technology, digital artwork that's either done on a computer or a tablet.

There's 3D, VR, virtual reality, augmented reality, all these like new technologies and formats, basically.

I took an animation course, and in that course, we had to do stop motion, stop animation, traditional hand drawing, and then we had to do 2D, and then we did some 3D stuff, and we used Maya.

Learning to use Maya was a whole like paradigm shift for me, 'cause it's like quite actually like a God machine.

Like from infinite nothingness, you can create like anything.

And I just am still really into everything that it has to offer.

And it's just one of those things where I can just sit down and learn like a new thing, that's either like a physics engine, or a new process for doing something that I was doing slow and clunky before.

But it's just something that's just endlessly fascinating, and has so many, so much potential.

When I was a kid, drawing, there was so much that I wanted to be able to draw, and was naturally frustrated at my own skill level, and even understanding on a level that I could only get so good at like photorealism, and photorealism takes so much time.

So being able to just delve into 3D, it like changed everything.

I'm currently doing a portrait series called "Diorama" that is 3D scans of other artists and friends, their heads.

And that is collaborative project with myself and the subject.

It's a whole back and forth that I have with them after the initial scan.

And we kind of, it's kind of like dollhouse, where we can, like, what kind of, where do you wanna be?

What do you want to be there?

What are some of the things like you want in a space?

Like the platform itself, the possibilities are you can go in any direction.

One thing that I thought was very fascinating in taking like cinema classes was how much is going on like behind the cameras, and just out of frame.

And with Blender and Maya, when I build these worlds in these scenes, there is a little bit of that, where I'm being mindful of the camera, and there are some stuff that's kind of dirty, rough edge stuff that I kept kind of outta the render.

Very quickly into when I was playing around with that, I found that what's more intriguing is actually seeing kind of like the edges of these sets or these pieces.

So I did a number of renders at the start of some of these projects, where it's like the perfectly kind of curated, framed, lit perspective that's rendered out.

But then I like to kind of take the camera and zoom it back, and show some of like the bare edges, like where the texture ends, or where like it's not even a complete room.

(upbeat pop music) I suppose like the main product of each of these when it comes to the render or the 3D scene that can be viewed, it's equally both.

I definitely put forth the images, because those kind of like circulate easier.

The thing with the 3D scene, like it can only be viewed on like a desktop, and depending on your desktop, it takes a while to load some these scenes, 'cause there's a lot of geometry, and a lot of information.

And so our social media and the current device technology has made the 3D scenes more secondary, more of a bonus, probably, in terms the product side by side.

I would say that that's probably the most interesting piece, but it's not as ubiquitous as photo sharing is.

(mellow electronic music) The technological like limitations of sharing some things, like these large file format, interactable 3D scenes is just right at the crux of what being like a new media artist is, 'cause a lot of it is chasing new technology, and just trying to keep a finger on the pulse in terms of what's newly capable.

Some things that I've already been capable, how much easier they are.

It's constantly grappling with the fact that a lot of what I'm making isn't easy to share on a large enough scale, or a scale that's similar to say like photography, or just drawing, painting, videography, and all that stuff.

It's all a learning experience.

There's definitely lot of obstacles, but it's something that I love, and I'm still just endlessly fascinated by.

(mellow electronic music) (peppy alternative music) >> Got a job offer while I was still in college, and I was down on Michigan Avenue doing advertising.

Absolutely awful.

And so I quit after one year, and I've not worked for anyone since.

Because I didn't get that deep into advertising, I became more of an illustrator, and that's the path that found me, I suppose.

♪ I want you baby ♪ ♪ Baby ♪ >> I always went to current events so that it would have to be something that couldn't be replaced by stock images.

You know, it would have to be some new story that had to be illustrated.

And that has helped me a lot.

Luckily for me, my background was in design, and so I could design logos, and I ended up doing lots of billboards, and ads, and collateral material.

And I really enjoy it.

If I didn't do all that stuff, I wouldn't have survived.

Be it teaching, designing posters, illustrating, or selling commissioned work, you know, fine art paintings, all of those things contribute to my income.

If I just focused on one, would it blossom?

I don't know.

You know, it's the risk I'll probably take.

My favorite stuff that's commercial is certainly like the "Jewish Review of Books," that for like nine years now, I've been doing the covers.

It's important editorial work.

I feel good about it.

It sort of bridges the gap between fine art and illustration.

It's always topical, and it's pen and ink and watercolor.

And I enjoy that, and I get paid well for it.

(gentle string music) I'm not one of those guys that someone will hire for my style and say, "That's a one-of-a-kind style guy."

I'm the guy that has 20 styles.

I approach every scenario like a new project.

(somber string music) Oftentimes my favorite work is when I have no subject matter at all.

It is kind of expressionistic, but it's also, the experiments are really based on exploiting the qualities of watercolor, and just letting it do what it wants to do without trying to manipulate it too much.

And when you do that, it does some explosively cool things that no other medium can even touch.

My favorite pieces are when the watercolor did something really cool, and I just had to sorta coax it, and not overdo it, and leave it alone, and tilt the paper a little bit, and let it do something cool.

That's always cooler than anything I've ever painted.

I like the spontaneity of watercolor, and the ability to just experiment to no end with different, you know, the salt, and spritzing water, and mixing it with acrylic inks, where they repel each other and create this sorta granular effect.

It's really cool, all the textures and stuff you can get outta watercolor.

Get to know it a little bit, and then it's so fun.

And it's a transparent medium, so you can see everything that you've done.

You can't erase.

You can't paint over something in watercolor.

You make the most out of a mistake, is what it is.

I mean, if you can just think about it really simply, like, okay, you want me to do a portrait of you.

Okay.

You want it to look like you, you know, so I've already got some really strict rules.

When you've got those stipulations, it's hard to stay loose, and watercolor, when it's used boldly yet loosely is when it explodes.

(mellow country music) If somebody's timid when they're singing the song, it's like, "Boo."

♪ Like the way it smells in the country ♪ >> If you're painting with that same hesitation, it's gonna look like that.

It's a strange thing.

♪ The rain down ♪ >> Yeah, what does artistic life bring me?

It feeds me in a lotta damn ways, you know?

And if all I had was a paycheck, like a lot of people, like I would, I don't care about money that much, you know.

Like I don't wanna freeze to death, living in a cardboard box.

It's, yeah.

I dunno.

You gotta do it.

You get through life the way you get through life.

♪ Canoe ♪ ♪ On a good day we'll see (indistinct) too ♪ ♪ Or let's go down Lake Gio ♪ >> Certainly my goal is the next 20 years to just paint a lot.

See where...

Call me in 15.

♪ Just soon as I can break free from the lights of the city ♪ ♪ I guess I'm going to the countryside ♪ ♪ Just as soon ♪ >> It touches my heart, because I really feel like I'm communicating with these ancient people.

And even though I don't really know what they meant when they carved it, that's part of the mystery of it.

(intense exotic music) I have been into art since I was probably 9 or 10 years old.

And you know, through the years I won lots of prizes, you know, when I was a kid, that kinda thing.

And then as I got older, I started just drawing and painting, and about six or seven years ago, I went full time.

It's just so much nicer to go full time instead of looking for an hour here or an hour there.

I've been hiking out west for the past 30 years.

And when I go, I hunt for the rock art that's on the canyon walls, which are pictographs and petroglyphs.

Petroglyphs are carved images that were done, you know, between 11,000 years ago up to the present day, and pictographs are painted.

They're painted images on the canyon walls.

And so I've hiked everywhere from the Grand Canyon all the way through all the states, all the way up to central Montana.

And as you look at the art, it changes.

I mean, these people were real artists, and the art changes by the time period, the culture, the geographical area, the environment.

So all the styles have changed.

And in my art, I use a lot of the different styles that I've seen through the past 30 years.

And I use them as inspiration, and what I'm trying to do, and, you know, nobody can really interpret what they really really mean.

So I'm guessing that through the thousands of years that the people did this art on the canyon walls, that the meanings have changed depending on the culture.

And so what I'm doing is bringing those images forward into the present, and hoping that they go into the future with my art.

So I have thousands and thousands of photographs.

Probably a hundred thousand photographs.

A few of the pictures that I've painted that are inspired by the photograph, but don't look really like the photograph.

I don't want to do anything that is still sacred to some of the Native Americans that are still using these images.

And so I changed them a lot just for my, in my own style.

For the past five years, this Hopi woman and I have been traveling together.

She is an elder in the Hopi tribe.

And so I go up to Northern Arizona and meet her at the reservation, and we travel up into Utah, or down to Texas, or down to New Mexico.

And a lot of the images that we see, she knows what they are sometimes, because the Hopi tribe is a very, very old tribe.

It goes back thousands of years.

And so sometimes I'll say, well, you know, can you tell me about that one?

And she'll say, "Nope, sorry, can't tell you about that one," you know, or sometimes if she can, she'll say a few things to me for me, but a lot of times she'll say, "I can't really talk about it."

So I have these thousands of photographs, and I have this friend that said to me, "Dorothy, why are you still going out there, and tent camping, and hiking, and climbing mountains, and going down into canyons?

Why are you still doing all this when you've got all these photographs?"

And I said, well, it's not only the photographs.

It's the site.

It's the place.

It's not even like looking at ruins.

It's not ruins.

They're ancestral homes.

They are ancestral sites for the Hopi people and for a lot of the other Native Americans.

And so some of these sites are really sacred.

And when I go there, for me, it's like a sacred journey.

You know, it's not just looking and taking a photograph, and bringing it back, and drawing something.

It's the whole experience of being there, especially with my Hopi friend, because she has such a deep respect for these ancestral homes.

Sometimes we will just sit and look at a panel for an hour.

She'll pray in the Hopi language before we enter a site, just because she wants to thank the ancestors for these pictures, and to let them know that we're there to respect and honor them.

And so I don't really feel like...

It's like time travel.

I don't really feel like I'm visiting some old thing, you know?

It's like a sacred time travel when we go together, where I'm not just putting paint on paper, I'm reliving these experiences that I've had.

And for me, it's an experience that it's just really hard to explain.

It runs through me, and it comes out, but onto the paper.

(intense exotic music) >> Dale: 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 and a book versus physically doing it and seeing results.

(upbeat pop music) >> Narrator: Support for programming on 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.

(cheerful pop music) >> Narrator: "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.

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