>> Narrator: This week on Eye On The Arts.

>> Adam: Digital technology, it gets better and better every year.

And it makes it easier and easier and more accessible.

The avenues are endless to just make your art.

If you can pick up a crayon, it's the same thing as if you can pick up a Stylus.

>> Margie: We need that creativity.

I believe all people need some form of a creative process, and everyone, I truly believe, has a story to tell and something to offer.

(upbeat music) >> Drew: Creative thinking is something that's so pushed and important.

I think a lot of folks forget that art making is really one of the best tools to learn how to problem solve with.

>> I really want people to have a really profound experience of the world around them.

I want them... That's my hope and goal with most of the work is to get people outside, and be like, "This is an amazing place, I am just gonna sit under this apple tree.

I'm not gonna pull my phone out (laughs)."

>> 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.

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

Everyone makes an effort to help each other.

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

(upbeat 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.

(light music) >> Man: 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.

(light music) (energetic music) >> I've been drawing since I was a kid.

When I was four, I saw Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark as a double feature, and it kind of blew my mind, and from there I just wanted to like scribble and tell stories.

(energetic music) After childhood, I mean, it's sketchbook all the way to adult.

Ended up going to Columbia College in Chicago for animation.

Ended up in Chicago working for an advertising agency and then everywhere else in between.

So a bunch of local shops in Northwest Indiana doing everything.

And all the while, still just kind of plugging away at my own stuff and my own art.

(energetic music) Humalien was seven years ago, when I started the kick-starter.

2000, I came up with a concept, self-published a book, went and got rejected by every publishing company in the world.

It took me a good 14 years to kinda rethink the whole thing, put the thing back together in a process book.

And in a way I thought it would work and launched a kick-starter, successful kick-starter.

And it helped kinda open up a lot of doors that I didn't have before.

(energetic music) It's what I would want to read as a comic book fan, and it's really a hero's journey.

This guy's out of place, and he's the only human on the planet and hangs around with these aliens and weirdos and just tried to overtake the villainous evil trinity that runs the planet.

(upbeat music) I wrote Skeleton Boy and The Moon Balloon as an antithesis to the kid's books that I was reading to my daughter every night.

Like a lot of children's books are great and I'm influenced heavily, like Dr. Seuss and Where the Wild Things Are.

Maurice Sendak's like pen work is so beautiful in that book.

And I'm like, "I can do this."

So I started writing it, and published it, and put it out there, and it was surprisingly a huge success.

And I'm like, yeah.

It's a Halloween themed kid's book.

It's kind of like, "Hey, everybody's got weird friends.

Let's embrace out weirdness.

And let's embrace the fact that not everybody's the same.

And the only time these kids can play together is if the moon's out, and yeah.

You wanna stay with your friends and hang out forever in a weird graveyard?

Cool (chuckles).

(upbeat music) With meeting up with Smugglers, it came about in a couple different ways.

Grindhouse Cafe in Griffith messaged me 'cause there's this coffee company called Smugglers.

At the same time, Dave from Smugglers got ahold of me via Instagram, and it just worked out.

I was like, "Hey, you need art?"

And he's like, "I need art."

And I'm like, "Let me make up a label."

And I did the plus one for charisma label for him, and it's been an ongoing relationship.

Dave will say, "I've got this idea, what do you wanna do?"

And then I'll go and I'll sketch something up really quick and then he'll...

Cool, done.

(chuckles) And it's a lot of hands off.

It's like, "You're the creative.

Make sure it says these things or has these things on it."

And we get to do fun things.

Like we did a play on the Dragonlands books.

And when you get the author of the original Dragonlands books to kind of like retweet your art you just think, you know, we did something right.

We did something really cool.

(upbeat music) I was doing a comic book called Dark Echo, and it's my love letter to like RPGs and just the fantasy world.

And I did two mini books and we released them at C2E2.

And there were many 8 1/2 by 11 folded hand-stapled like old school zine style indie books, and it's very much punk rock, right?

It's DIY.

It's like, "We did it, you can do it, like just keep it going."

(upbeat music) I teach high school art and really like animation and game design, and these are things they're gonna learn in college, they're not gonna learn these at the high school level, and Portage High School's been amazing to give me the opportunity to bring that to those kids.

(upbeat music) Over the past three years that I've been there, numbers have grown.

The amount of kids who wanna learn graphic design or to learn how to set up a YouTube channel or to create this things, it's overwhelming.

I have students who are sophomores who are getting logo commissions.

And I'm like, "This is impressive, like you're a professional.

You got paid for work that somebody else can't do.

You're a professional logo designer."

(upbeat music) You have to have that kinda childlike sense of wonder, if you will, just to kinda keep pushing you to say, "This is what I wanna do, this is why I do it."

I do it because of the four year old who was sitting up playing with Transformers or He-Man toys, and it's all for that kid.

It's always in service of younger me.

And if 16 year old me knew that like, "Hey, you get paid to draw robots and monsters."

I'm like, "Yeah, that's pretty cool."

(upbeat music) (light guitar music) ♪ It's the small things all around us ♪ ♪ Seen as beauty unspoken, beauty unspoken ♪ ♪ Could it be the small things ♪ >> I've always been into music, working on different projects all throughout my life.

You know, pop music, popular contemporary music, that type of thing.

Latin jazz, you know?

In that venue, that genre.

So this particular DHM music came about a few years back when Henry, my brother from another mother, that's the H in DHM, approached me and said, "Margie, now's the time."

He wanted to focus on the good principles of life.

More positive ideas, that type of thing, so I said, "Okay."

We used to have a group, a full-fledged group.

We don't have that anymore.

So we had to just come to terms with that and find someone who can fit the bill, and so I said, "I know someone."

Who happened to be my physical therapist at the time after my accident.

That was a blessing, and I know I'm going all over the place, but things happen for a reason.

It's not by chance.

It's not by happenstance.

In fact, there's a song entitled, "It's Not Happenstance."

♪ It's not happenstance, no ♪ ♪ Not a chance ♪ ♪ It's not happenstance, no ♪ ♪ I said it's not happenstance, no ♪ ♪ No, it's not ♪ ♪ It's not happenstance, no ♪ ♪ Not a chance ♪ (upbeat music) So anyway, we all met and so hence here comes Doug.

That's the D in DHM.

The M is myself, Margie.

Music.

>> At that time, Henry, the H in the name, and Margie were trying to maybe put together an album of original songs, and so they were trying to get this project going, and I had just met Margie.

And Margie said to Henry, "Hey, I know this guy.

You know, maybe we get together with him, and just kinda see."

So they came over to my house, and we kinda just hit it off.

Again, wasn't a happenstance.

>> It gave a lot of creativity because the experience was really starting from ground zero.

When we incorporated, for example, Jerusalem off of a CD, that song started super, super wrong.

With his technique and his style, and as we listened to that song begin with his style of singing, his style of playing guitar, Margie and I kept saying, "We've got to add more."

There's something that was missing.

And what was missing we found was meshing.

Incorporating our style, our technique, our rhythms with his.

And hence that's how we got that beautiful sound on Jerusalem.

I mean 'cause it is...

The vibe and the feel is in essence kind of pure, in my opinion.

And it just worked out super well.

♪ Oh yes, I've lived ♪ ♪ And I've seen so many wrongs ♪ ♪ And I'm wondering and I'm crying ♪ ♪ What's going on ♪ ♪ When does all this end ♪ >> It is a great way to be creative.

And you marry those thoughts up with a note, which is pretty neat.

And the note has its own way of expressing itself, positive, negative, upbeat, relaxed, whatever, with these words that you come up with.

And try to marry that together.

And so it's creativity, and so it's really neat to be able to step out of yourself and create this thing that other people can hear.

Now, will they like it?

It really doesn't matter because it's my expression just like other people, but you know, whatever.

It's your expression, it's you.

So it's just cool getting together with these folks that want to also create.

>> It was so rewarding, that creative process.

And then a collaboration of the creativity from different, from Doug and Henry, just blending in with my ideas.

That's heaven on earth (chuckles) for me, you know.

We need that creativity, I believe all people need some kind of form of the creative process be it in the kitchen, creating beautiful meals just experimenting with that, it just gives a twist on life, you know?

And everyone, I truly believe, has a story to tell and something to offer.

This is our time of talking about all those that are living now in this time and space.

Are there greater people, people that do much greater music?

Heck yeah, heck yeah, but guess what?

Everyone has a story to offer that can uplift others.

I know it's happened to me and I'm ever so grateful.

I never forget that, and so I do cherish that.

I value that.

>> The beauty of it is that there is so much creativity when you work on a song, you start the lyrics, and then you put a melody to the lyrics.

And then the song begins to evolve, the music begins to evolve, and as you go, you still make adjustments.

You still adjust certain melodies, certain chords, even the singing, the harmonies, you know, and that was something was self-taught amongst us growing up in the church.

I learned how to do all of that, you know, and it's a joint effort with everyone's little touch of special something that helps make a difference in that song, starting with Doug and Margie and ending with me, you know?

♪ Could it be the small things got plans deep within us ♪ ♪ To see this true world ♪ ♪ Love and giving ♪ ♪ Honor and praise ♪ ♪ There's more than we can see ♪ ♪ A spirit's a spirit ♪ ♪ Yes, we can be everything God's made us to be ♪ (upbeat music) >> What started out as just kind of a little hobby in our little one bedroom apartment has, you know, become something that we were able to really branch out with quite a bit now.

It's been really enjoyable.

(upbeat music) Drew & Ashley Art is just a collaboration between Ashley and I of making art that is fun.

It's kind of pop culture related.

And it's a mix of just illustrations and hand-cut paper of like scenes.

They go everything from pets to movies to cars and nature, and it's art that we make together that kind of incorporates everything that we like.

We're kind of in the business, I feel like, of encapsulating memories for people.

I do a lot of family portraits and favorite movie scenes for people.

Or like their dad's 65 Mustang that was really special to them, and things like that.

And you know, Ashley will recreate special locations and vacation spots, and kind of more or little the same thing, just in her paper form.

(upbeat music) >> I take shadow boxes and I fill layers of paper with foam squares in between and kind of create custom homes, or like he said, buildings that are special to people, or pets.

He does a lot of pet portraits, and we'll do pets in the paper cut style if people want more of a minimalistic look to it.

>> So we met at the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis.

She's from up here originally and I grew up in Indy.

And just kinda bumped into each other and started hanging out, and you know, it's eight or nine years later.

(light music) >> Us making art together kinda just slowly happened, like if we would make art for a friend or a family member for a gift.

And then, we would kinda collaborate with each other.

If he was working on a drawing, he would kinda show it to me and we just slowly kinda started to collaborate and build ideas off of one another.

It definitely taught us how to communicate better.

With jumping into the art community, and learning how to do markets, we were both completely knew to it.

We had to learn together and kind of figure out what his strengths were, what mine were, and I think that's where we even each other out.

(upbeat music) >> I mean, I think it's the ultimate form of expression.

I think it's something that teaches you how to problem solve really anything.

Creative thinking is something that's so pushed and important.

I think a lot of folks forget that art making is really one of the best tools to learn how to problem solve with.

For me, it's been like a comfort blanket my whole life, and it's been something that if I feel overwhelmed or stressed, I would draw if I didn't understand something.

It was being talked about in class in high school, I would draw instead of listen, you know?

And it's just has been something that's always been such a huge passion for me and for something that through it I've made a lot of my best relationships in life through art and art school.

You know, if I didn't have art in my life, I wouldn't know most of the people that I know and I wouldn't be married, so (chuckles).

(upbeat music) (light music) >> Narrator: Andrea Peterson is the paper side of Hook Pottery Paper.

Walking side by side in nature with her husband, Andrea strives to keep a connection to the land she hopes to share through her work.

>> That's what I want humans to have in nature is that magical connection that there's so much out there that they need to recycle, they need to respect, they need to feel really a part of it because they are a part of it, they are affecting it so much.

We are such about what's around us.

The human relationship to the environment, I mean, that's where everything stems from.

And part of my own passion is living with a space where I'm really reducing my carbon impact.

So this line of papers that I created are really about fibers that are either one, a byproduct from the agricultural industry, or I'm growing them myself.

I like that.

I like having a serious connection to everything that I touch just because it seems to have much more impact for me.

It has meaning.

(light music) Drawing has led me to everything that I do.

It's the basis of where everything comes from.

When you pick up that pencil and put it to paper, that's where you can actually have those ideas pour out.

I work in many different forms.

I'm a print artist.

I make paper art, which is a form of using pulp as a drawing medium.

I do a little bit of painting.

The idea dictates where the work is going to go.

(light music) I've been doing this a long time.

I think when your creative process starts, you start to understand it through the years.

And you're like, "This is what I like, this is what I don't like, this is where I see this going, and it's gonna be easy, or it's gonna be interesting for me."

Not necessarily, I don't mean it to sound easy.

It's not that it's easy, it's what you wanna do, so it seems easy 'cause it's like, "That's where I wanna go with this."

So it seems natural.

When I started this series of prints on botanical ideas, they were gonna be prints because they needed to have this sort of rigid shape.

It needed to have this sort of individuality that comes with print making.

So, you know, when I look at what the subject matter is and kind of how I wanted people to really take it in, if I want them to have an intimate experience, I'll make it into a book, like this should be taken individually and it really should be something one person looks at a time and then closes, and then the next person can approach it, or this needs to be shown on a wall with like a huge panel and it should go beyond your peripheries.

(light music) In the arts field, besides making paper to work on as a substrate, there's also using the pulp itself as a drawing medium.

And it really just takes a mastery of the material.

It's just a different look, and it's also a different method process.

It's kind of a cross between drawing and painting.

It's very fluid like paint maybe, but it's also very graphic in the way that it appears.

And you also are kind of almost one step away from that material because you're using a plastic spoon, and you're using a squeeze bottle and some of those tools aren't very comfortable.

I mean, most of us use a squeeze bottle with ketchup and mustard and that's about as good as we are is putting it on our hotdog.

So when you're trying to actually make a flower or an image, it's gonna be tricky.

So it's a medium though that I really love because of those characteristics.

Because it's so fluid.

(light music) I wanna be outside because that's what brings my ideas.

When I am outside, I wanna be wholeheartedly exposed to what's going on because I think that's the best place to learn.

I think it's the best place to discover because that's what's happened for me.

I mean, I seem to think, or I think everybody thinks clearer when they're out digging potatoes, but you know, I think just being there makes us see things that we hadn't seen before.

(light music) I really want people to have a really profound experience of the world around them.

That's my hope and goal with most of the work is to get people outside, and be like, "This is an amazing place.

I am just gonna sit under this apple tree.

I'm not gonna pull my phone out (laughs)."

We are a product of our environment.

We are part of it, and I don't think we're separate, so I think we have so much to learn from it.

I feel like I spent my childhood like most kids do, I think, understanding how to sit well, and you know, not talk out loud, and do all of these proper things, but not really engage in the world about us as much as we could.

And I feel like that's what I'm trying to unlearn.

(light 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 in a book versus physically doing it and seeing the results.

(upbeat music) >> Narrator: 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.

(light music) >> Man: 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.

(light music) Additional support for Lakeshore PBS and Eye On The Arts is provided by viewers like you, thank you.

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

Visit video.LakeshorePBS.org.

You can stream a large selection of shows including Eye On The Arts, In Studio, and Friends & Neighbors.

Missed last night's episode?

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