(bright upbeat music) >> Simply, I can say I like to everybody enjoying and interested for Japanese calligraphy.

(folk music) ♪ Life lingers when the soul ♪ ♪ Goes better when you're there ♪ ♪ At the bottom ♪ ♪ And you can't pretend you care ♪ ♪ That you're a dead ♪ ♪ Ringer for the ghost in your chair ♪ >> Maxwell: I absolutely love sharing music and this instrument with other people.

It's one of my like great passions.

And it is an instrument that only has nine notes.

But the way you approach those nine notes is limitless.

>> Fred: Well I was in the Navy for 21 years.

I spent five years on the USS Theater Roosevelt.

Probably the first things I built were the flag holder shadow boxes for my grandfather and father's flags.

From there, I expanded to other shadow boxes and then other items in general.

>> 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.

(bright music) >> 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.

(bright music fades out) >> Narrator: Ivy Tech offers more than 70 programs with locations in Michigan City, LaPorte, and Valparaiso.

New classes start every few weeks.

Ivy Tech, higher education at the speed of life.

To get started, visit ivytech.edu.

>> Narrator 2: Family, home work, self.

Of all the things you take care of, make sure you're near the top of the list.

North Shore 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, North Shore will help get you centered.

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

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

>> Announcer: 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.

(soft Japanese music) >> My name is Hekiun Oda.

And I was born in Kobe, Japan.

And I've learned Japanese calligraphy since five years old, with bold contrast since eight.

And then I have the Japanese calligraphy experience is about the more than 40 years.

Then, after I moved to the United States, at Chicago, I've been in Chicago more than 30 years.

Then I started the Chicago teaching, the Japanese calligraphy, and the performance demonstration, and everything about the...

Since 2009, since Japan's established a country, they didn't have writing characters.

So at that time it, our Emperors for what people sent to China, to learn the writing characters.

So that's why we are using the Japanese language, we are using Chinese character, and the two style Japanese alphabet.

So that's why the Japanese calligraphy creating Chinese characters, a lot.

And then, we are using the material that we call bunbo shodo, bunbo shodo meaning, in Japanese, the four treasures of studies.

One for the blush, and the paper.

And the swimming ink, and the ink stopped.

That is everything come from China.

That through Chinese monk had bring to Japans, about the seventh century, through Korea.

Then that is a beginning.

So Japanese calligraphy is a beginning to add, a lot now, that they have a lot of kinds, traditional style, and then also the Akana style, meaning the Japanese small sentence.

So, and also now, after 1950, coming at the avant garde, abstract style too.

So, that's why to my understanding, Japanese calligraphy is a wonderful art.

(bright whimsical music continues) So everything originally basically came from my heart, and the mind.

So, for example, if I am the feeling is not well, or if we have a bigger stress, and it's that time that I create the artwork.

It'll be very, show up there, that art work at the shop.

And then, that feels like so busy art work.

And then, that day if I feel so good, time, that they show up more graceful.

So we cannot lie, for that once.

Okay that is an odd art, and then that's why I'm thinking of art, Japanese calligraphy.

And then, it's a very deep areas.

And then, everything come from that, we can see what type of the people, who are their characters, yes.

(bright music continues) Well first I am a Japanese calligraphy artist.

I know no doubt how beautiful Japanese calligraphy.

So that's why I like to teach them.

The feelings that are calm, and then everything that Japanese calligraphy, artwork show up, that they're inside their heart, their mind.

So that's that they can see, they feel that, that I like them feel like that.

So that's why I like to teaching them, yes.

(gentle music) But anyway, simply I can say I like to everybody enjoying and they're interested for Japanese calligraphy.

(soft folk music begins) ♪ Light another cigarette ♪ ♪ If it helps you soldier on ♪ ♪ I'll sit by your side ♪ ♪ In this garden 'till dawn ♪ ♪ Where the tulips start to bloom ♪ ♪ We'll begin to bloom ♪ ♪ You said good bye ♪ ♪ You can get good and gone ♪ ♪ I'll give you a ride ♪ ♪ To Fourteenth and Aberdeen ♪ ♪ You'll meet a friend of my cousin ♪ ♪ She goes by Eileen ♪ ♪ She'll get you to shelter ♪ ♪ It's as warm as it's clean ♪ ♪ You can get back to being ♪ ♪ The best you've ever been ♪ (gentle music continues) ♪ Life lingers when your soul grows bare ♪ ♪ When you're there at the bottom ♪ ♪ And you can't pretend you care ♪ ♪ That you're a dead ♪ ♪ Ringer, for the ghost in your chair ♪ ♪ Life lingers when your soul goes bare ♪ (gentle music continues) ♪ Without you around ♪ ♪ Things just won't be the same ♪ ♪ But if you don't leave tomorrow ♪ ♪ Nothing's gonna change ♪ ♪ You'll always wonder ♪ ♪ What would've happened ♪ ♪ Had you taken the reins ♪ ♪ And every single regret ♪ ♪ Is gonna drive you insane ♪ ♪ Life lingers when your soul goes bare ♪ ♪ When you're there, at the bottom ♪ ♪ And you can't pretend you care ♪ ♪ That you're a dead ♪ ♪ Ringer, for the ghost in your chair ♪ ♪ Life lingers when your soul goes bare ♪ ♪ Life lingers when your soul goes bare ♪ ♪ When you're there at the bottom ♪ ♪ And you can't pretend you care ♪ ♪ That you're a dead ♪ ♪ Ringer, for the ghost in your chair ♪ ♪ Life lingers when your soul goes bare ♪ (gentle music fades) (microphone hissing) >> We'll developed a language, that is our own.

And so, it kind of is its own little world, inside a world.

And I know that sounds a little goofy, like we're sittin' inside a snow globe or something.

It's not that.

It's not restrictive, it's the opposite.

It opens everything up, because, I hope you're gonna edit this.

I'll go on for a while.

I don't know, it's the fact that we've been doing this together, and rehearsing and recording for 25 years, every Tuesday night.

It's a part of my life that I can't extract from the other bit.

>> You know, you used the word commitment.

And that's what this is.

Everybody has committed to this, you know?

And, because of that, we know we have each other's backs.

It's kind of like a marriage, you know?

>> Yeah.

>> It- >> A really good one.

>> Yeah.

>> Not that ours, again, our marriages are wonderful.

But, it's a really, really good marriage of humans who get along with a language of their own.

And we don't fight, we don't have problems, we don't have backstabbing, we don't have any of that stuff.

And so it's a very, very welcoming, safe, and a creative spot that we find ourselves in, which is again, an amazing thing.

>> It is.

And it's crazy fun.

We laugh all the time, we just have so much fun.

And to be able to, again, this is all relative, right?

But, to feel like we're getting better as we get older and things come quicker and we're more open to ideas and we let things that are mistakes happen and those things become part of it, that is very rewarding to me.

That it is so of the moment anymore without, you know, we're not The Grateful Dead certainly, but when we play live, some things happen that don't happen otherwise.

>> John: Because of the amount of time that we've spent together, and the comfort level that we have with each other, it just seems very natural.

You know, everybody has total input, on really on everything, you know?

>> And the really great thing about when something's going sideways, we don't have to say anything.

It's all in eye rolls.

(John laughing) Everything's in eye rolls.

>> Yeah, yeah.

>> It's like, mm-hmm.

>> So we know, it's okay let's move on.

♪ Come on Carolina ♪ ♪ Come on Carolina ♪ ♪ Come on Carolina ♪ ♪ Come on Carolina ♪ (bright curious percussion) (bright percussion continues) My name is Maxwell Edison, and I'm a Midwest based percussionist and multi-instrumentalist.

I've been playing percussion since I was in fifth grade.

I have since been really compelled by these instruments called the handpan, that have really kind of taken over my life and reignited the passion for music and creativity.

There was something about the handpan that just spoke to me.

Like literally the second I saw it, I was immediately like I'm gonna play that, you know?

I think it was like 3:00 AM at a friend's house, and I was like, I'm gonna play that instrument.

And here we are 10 years later, and this is what I do, this is what I'm passionate about and what I'm sharing with the world.

(gentle music) So, I think there's something about it that combines melodic and musical storytelling, and that kind of primal, percussive nature.

You know, I've always been, I was always the kid tapping on the desk at school, doing the pen drummin' thing.

And it just kind of made sense to me when the handpan finally came into my life.

I was like, this clicks, this makes sense.

(gentle music continues) Its ancestors is the steel pan.

Most traditionally people think of like Little Mermaid, as being played on a steel pan.

But the company in Switzerland was building steel pans during the late '80's and '90's, and they started to explore the sonic capabilities and ended up discovering the handpan.

(gentle handpan continues) (handpan continues) (handpan music intensifies) I absolutely love sharing music and this instrument with other people.

It's one of my great passions.

I just love letting people unlock the musicality and creativity in themselves.

And, you go throughout the world and there's so many people that say oh, I don't have any like musicality, I don't have any rhythm and stuff like that.

Which isn't true, you know?

We all have this kind of innate sense that we can find a little something, and it just takes a little bit of effort.

And these instruments kind of make it easy.

I've been teaching a workshop over the past few years, three, four years now, called a handpan flow state and the music within, where I talk about how the handpan, it can be used as a tool to kind of unlock your flow state.

And if you don't know what a flow state is, it's an altered state of consciousness that allows us to access more capacity of our brain, than we may have thought possible.

So, the handpan is a perfect tool to kind of symbolize and represent the simplicity of the instrument, but also the infinite complexity.

And it is an instrument that only has nine notes.

But the way you approach those nine notes is, you know, limitless.

(gentle handpan music resumes) ♪ Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah ♪ ♪ We don't know where we're goin' ♪ ♪ We don't care if we're found ♪ ♪ We don't know where we're goin' ♪ ♪ We don't care if we're found ♪ ♪ Oh yeah ♪ ♪ We don't know where we're goin' ♪ ♪ We don't care if we're found ♪ ♪ We don't know where we're goin' ♪ ♪ We don't care if we're found ♪ ♪ Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah ♪ ♪ But maybe, just maybe ♪ ♪ We'll find our voice ♪ ♪ So we can be heard ♪ (bright handpan continues) ♪ Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah ♪ >> Well I was in the Navy for 21 years.

I went in right outta high school, in 1987, up at Great Lakes.

It was actually to be an electronics technician.

I spent five years on the USS Theater Roosevelt, Aircraft Carrier.

We got to do a lot of travel, got to meet a lot of great people, and do a lot of work on a lot of awesome equipment.

(bright upbeat music) I took a lot of shop classes in high school.

And, when I moved into this house, I bought this house a couple years ago, there was this big, open area that I felt like I needed to do something with.

And like I said, I always loved high school wood shop.

So I started, you know, took it up as a hobby.

Little by little, I picked up a little more tools, more equipment.

And, I just really loved doing it.

In college, I knew so many organizations we were in, and I picked up some equipment.

And I built the sign for, it was a veteran's fraternity.

My father had a lot of tools, so here and there when I had some time and had opportunities, I definitely made.

I made a desk for myself at one point.

I just loved being in here, when there was nothing in here.

And it's, I wanted to do something with it.

And like I said, it was a great opportunity now that I had the time and I had the space, to do, it's like, 'cause you get into woodworking, and I love it.

I'd be out here every day if I could.

Probably the first things I built were the flag holder shadow boxes for my grandfather and father's flags.

You can buy them out at the store, but I didn't really care for what they looked like too much, so I made some for myself.

And that kind of started a lot of the creativity I made, and from there I expanded to other shadow boxes and then other items in general.

People are buying those to commemorate, oftentimes military, but other important aspects of their life.

So, it's also facilitating the stories that they have.

It's an honor.

People specifically set out.

I mean, yes, you can get stuff that's about the same price.

Frankly, I think mine's better.

There's a reason why they're buying it from me and not from a retailer that's been mass produced.

It's very honoring and humbling, that they came to me instead of someplace else.

(bright upbeat music) Well some of the things I make are like the steampunk lamps or industrial lamps, I was a factory mechanic for a couple years when I first got off active duty, while I was putting myself through college.

So I learned a little bit about plumbing.

I'd seen pictures of these lamps, combined with some of the electrical knowledge I had obtained.

So I started building some of those lamps.

I love the fact that it just had this kind of raw, unique look to it.

But it also looked very stylish and cool, even in a regular living room, or office space.

I am not sure why I always wanted to build a chess board, 'cause I'm not big into chess, but it's just fascinated me that the look of them.

Somehow I stumbled across cribbage boards, and I don't know how to play cribbage.

But I also have plans for a mancala board and I don't know how to play mancala either.

It's a fun board to make.

And now it's becoming a thing, where I don't know how to play any of these games, but I know how to make the boards.

And, I like to think people are having as much fun playing the games as I am making the board.

(soft music continues) Well I think a lot of the things I do, it's, they are different.

Some of the stuff may have started off with an inspiration from somebody else.

And first off, they've inspired me.

I feel like I've made it a little bit better, a little bit different.

And I'd like to think that people see my items.

I think it just, sometimes it gives people different ideas of things that they can use this for, or they just like the way it looks in their living room.

I love it.

That's a lot of the fun of having the finished project when someone really appreciates what I did.

And they're getting a good use out of it and hopefully, they also feel a little bit inspired.

(bright curious music) Everybody else hates sanding, but I like the fact that you're polishing it down and getting a nice smooth surface, and then putting that coat of polyurethane on it, where it brings out the color.

So the finishing up process is probably the best, 'cause then you're seeing that finished product.

I just love making stuff.

I, like I said, once I kinda got going with the woodworking and found it so rewarding, I didn't realize how much I enjoyed creating.

That's kind of how, and it just led to the steampunk lamps, the lasering and stuff.

I like making stuff.

(soft whimsical 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 the 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.

(bright music fades out) >> Narrator: Ivy Tech offers more than 70 programs, with locations in Michigan City, LaPorte, and Valparaiso.

New classes start every few weeks.

Ivy Tech, higher education at the speed of life.

To get started, visit ivytech.edu.

>> Narrator 2: Family, home work, self.

Of all the things you take care of, make sure you are near the top of the list.

North Shore 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, North Shore will help get you centered.

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

>> Announcer: 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.

(bright music resumes) (bright music fades out) (audio logo resonates)