- [Mark Cernero] In this edition of "Artistic Horizons."

A classical approach to portraiture.

- It's just so beautiful and connecting to look at other people, and comforting.

And as you look into their eyes, you're always wondering what they're thinking, what their story is.

- [Mark Cernero] An award-winning flutist.

- Often I get asked the question, "What is your favorite composer?

Who is your favorite composer?"

For me, it's whatever music I'm playing at the moment.

(Brian playing the flute) - [Mark Cernero] Sculpting rats.

- [Alexis Ellis] It's very relaxing, it's very meditative.

It's just sort of you and the clay working together to make something neat.

- It's all ahead on this edition of "Artistic Horizons."

(upbeat jazz music) Hello, I'm Mark Cernero, and this is "Artistic Horizons."

Miriam Baranov is a fine art painter who specializes in portraiture, having studied at an atelier program, she practices figurative realism, seeking to capture the likeness of her sitter.

We travel to Ohio for the story.

(gentle music) - I just love looking at people and I love looking at portraits and just different stories and just creating something timeless that will be there forever, 'cause when I create a portrait, I'm always thinking of longevity and how it will last many years.

It's just so beautiful and connecting to look at other people and comforting.

And as you look into their eyes, you're always wondering what they're thinking, what their story is.

So I'm trying to create an illusion of painting from life.

It goes back to how we visually see.

You focally look at me, the first thing that you're gonna look at is my eyes.

That's kind of what I'm trying to create, like a conversation, my painting, where I'm looking into your eyes.

And eyes are, to me, the most telling of the person.

And that's just visually how our eyes work.

And so literally I'm painting what I see.

I always myself think of how do I best describe what I do.

Figurative realism.

When I think about it, to me it's a classical approach to rendering the human figure.

I'm also a math major, so I graduated Ohio State as an actuary.

But really how math factors into, for me, classical realism is that there's a true craftsmanship approach and stages.

So the way I paint, it's very engineered and thoughtful, just in a way that you would approach math per se.

I have been working with models for many years now.

There's two avenues.

One is I have a client coming in for a commission.

I try and get them to sit for me first so I can learn more about them.

So they're inexperienced about posing.

I love to have the reverend lighting where there's a nice balance of shadows and light on the face 'cause it gives you that beautiful 3D feel in the painting.

And then they'll sit on the chair for me and maybe we'll talk about life, or how their day is or whatnot for a little bit.

As we're talking, I'm really tracking their pose and just seeing which angle will tell the best story for that specific commission, 'cause I have commissions that are like a governor position, you want a power pose, or maybe a child and you just want something cute and innocent and precious.

And that's the one.

And the second one is a model comes in, so you guys met Eva today, but that's the model that I'm working with for the long pose right now.

So once she comes in, first I need to decide how long is the pose gonna be.

And if it's a long pose of 50 hours, then it needs to be something that they can hold for those 50 hours.

It goes back to what the model can hold.

When you're looking at a painting in a museum, there's something so very different than looking at a painting that was done from a photo.

And essentially that is because back in the day they would sit with a model for 20 hours, 50 hours, and just have these conversations and paint them as they go.

And the model would come in one day, maybe happy or sad, and you can always see these feelings.

A person never looks the same the next second.

Then you can kind of choose which element you want to put in the painting that represents them best and which one you wanna leave out.

So working with a live model takes out the element of you being in front of a person, having a camera on top of them because as soon as there's a camera that comes out, people are not them in the beginning.

They play as if they wanna be someone, especially now with all the hyped social media and it just makes it very difficult to capture someone with a very true essence of who they are, if you're not working with them from life.

I actually just started teaching for the past two years.

Passing down this methodology is truly my dream.

I think as I've moved here, what goes the best is paint and sip.

I do have quite a few private students that I teach, so I do one-on-ones and that's great.

And I just now got my studio and so I've been able to teach a few workshops, but my future goal is to just continue with the tradition and sharing it in Columbus, Ohio.

When I was maybe a teenager or in high school, I always had the love for art, but I didn't have that guidance.

And when I completed my education in high school, I still had the dream of becoming an artist, but I went to all these art schools and I saw their methodology, but I couldn't specifically find a program where they teach you methodology on how to paint classical portraits, it's just not very common.

And so atelier program, which is part of what I was, is actually a new wave coming back.

And I just would love to give back to people who I know really, really want to paint classical portraits.

Honestly, a lot of times there is not passion on a day-to-day basis.

There is just very hard work with a big goal in mind at the end of the day.

And a lot of time when I'm working on my pieces, I hate them or I don't want anyone to see them, or I think to myself, "Why am I doing this?"

But you lock yourself in the studio from morning to night, you're by yourself there and it's just kind of like your head goes into many spaces.

But once you're completed the piece and hopefully you decide to put it out there and other people resonate with your piece and they say, "Yeah, I totally feel your story.

I totally feel the energy, the vibes, the mood of it, it reminds me of something special."

So I think these little elements are inspirational and beautiful to me.

What I'm trying to show with my work and encourage is, capture those beautiful timeless moments that nothing is ever forever and this moment that I'm sharing with you guys that I'm sharing right now, it's just this instance, and we'll never be back here again.

And just cherish life, life is so precious and it goes by so fast.

And if there's anything that you can take away is, I know we all have our commitments in life and hardships that we face, but you better live each day being thankful for what you have, and if you're not, figure out a way to enjoy life.

For me, I always wanted to be an artist and I couldn't afford or be able to do that from the get go, but I had the goal to achieve it.

And for now, here I am doing it and loving every second of it.

And that's just kind of what I encourage everyone else is to pursue their creativity with the opportunities that they have.

(upbeat jazz music) - [Mark Cernero] And now for the artist quote of the week.

(upbeat jazz music) At the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, New York, flutist Brian Dunbar teaches up and coming musicians the beauties and intricacies of his favorite instrument.

In addition, he performs as a soloist, orchestral performer and chamber musician.

Let's take a look at a conversation with the artist from a few years ago.

- My name is Brian Dunbar, and I'm the assistant professor of flute at the Crane School of Music.

I got started with the flute after witnessing my third grade music teacher perform a flute solo recital for us.

I knew at that moment I wanted to play the flute, and I only had to wait three more years until I got into sixth grade to begin.

I was captivated by the flute, by its shape, its shininess, and the great fast music that my teacher performed for us.

As the assistant professor of flute, I am in charge of teaching the undergraduate and graduate flute majors their weekly lessons.

I also lead our weekly studio class and also, I am the director for the Crane Flute ensemble.

I enjoy teaching because it offers me the opportunity to share with students my experience, learning and growing as a musician.

Class, if we're getting the octave higher, what is that telling us?

The advice that I would give to a student looking to begin a career in music is to think outside of the box.

Traditionally, we've thought of music as either a performance field where you can start playing in an orchestra or be a teacher in the education field, but there are so many other options out there, such as nonprofits, music business, flute repair or instrument repair.

And so just know that there's many more options out there for you, and it's not just cut and paste.

I'm very motivated by my students being able to guide and be a part of and witness their growth while in school.

I'm also extremely motivated by the opportunity to create new works for flute and uncover works that have been performed less often than our traditional repertoire.

I really enjoy performing all types of music.

Often I get asked the question, "What is your favorite composer?

Who is your favorite composer?"

For me, it's whatever music I'm playing at the moment, that is my favorite.

I feel that I have no experience as a composer, and so my job is to make connections with composers and have works written for myself or discover new works, play, performing their new works.

I really admire the creative process that composers go through.

And also I feel that it's my job to bring those composers voices to life through the flute.

My latest project includes a consortium commission of a flute concerto for flute and orchestra by the composer Carlos Simon.

I partnered with Carlos last year in the midst of the pandemic to create this work, which will be written for, again, solo flute, and a small chamber orchestra, allowing orchestras large and small to participate in performing the work.

This will be only the second piece written for flute and orchestra composed by a Black American.

And I look forward to bringing the peace to the north country community.

(Brian playing the flute) (upbeat jazz music) - [Mark Cernero] Now here's a look at this month's fun fact.

(upbeat jazz music) Since she was young, Florida artist Alexis Ellis has been fascinated by rodents.

In addition to creating functional art, she finds joy in sculpting rats that are full of personality.

Up next we meet Ellis and find out more about her artistic journey.

(playful music) - Well, hello.

(playful music) I've got three hairless rats and four fuzz butts.

They make wonderful little pets.

Both of those have their own elements that are very helpful to look at as a sculptor.

I've been drawing these goofy little mouse cartoons for pretty much as long as I can remember.

And I don't have a single paper from a childhood that doesn't have a little mouse or rat sketched on it.

And so I took that and my first one that I made, I actually threw the components on the wheel 'cause I wasn't quite sure how to start the sculpting process, and so I just started experimenting more.

I went from doing the wheel-thrown components to doing hand-built ones, and then I started doing little chubby fat rolls.

So I had a pet rat at the time.

I started looking at the anatomy and the structure, thinking, "Okay, I can do this, I can copy this."

So that turned into creating all of these really playful, whimsical little figurines of rats, and I can tie them into my regular pottery by having them interact with them.

So little rats climbing onto bowls, little rats sitting in bowls.

And surprise, surprise, people really liked them.

- I really enjoyed speaking with Alexis Ellis today.

I did not realize that we had an artist of her caliber right here in Inverness and in Citrus County where we live, but the creativity that she has, particularly with her little rat sculptures is amazing.

(bright music) - The Inverness Festival of the Arts has been going on for over 50 years.

We do get artists from all over the United States, but we have a great representation from Florida, from Central Florida, and quite a few artists from Inverness.

Last year, Alexis won the Judges award and we were really excited to have her win an award in this show, because she's a Citrus County native, she went to the local Arts Magnet school and she's also a teacher in Citrus County.

And she provides a little bit different of work than you normally see in a show.

She has some beautiful traditional pottery, Japanese pottery, but she also sculpts rats.

And people love it, it's really great to have her here.

- To get them to move and to have flow and and movement and showing personality and the character of the piece.

She's mastered it and she's just phenomenal at that.

And I said, "Alexis, you have found your niche."

So I hope she continues in that path.

- One of the great things about arts festivals is you do have the opportunity to speak directly with the artist, and you get a chance to learn about their passion, what it means to them.

and then the best part of it is we often get to take a piece of it home.

- I grew up around art, my mom's an artist, my dad is an archeologist.

He would be cleaning artifacts at home and he would have examples of prehistoric pottery.

It was just amazing to be able to pick up something that was formed by human hands, thousand year old thumbprint in a piece of clay.

And there's something just so eternal about that.

Something that lasts way after the artist is gone.

I went to University of South Florida.

I took that first pottery class, Beginner Ceramics.

One of the first things we did in there was we watched a video of Hamada Shoji, while he was working at the wheel.

And something about that, the way that the clay just moved and transformed under his hands, and just the elegance of the movement and the functionality of the pieces once complete.

I'm sitting there going, "Okay, that's it.

That's what I wanna do rest of my life, right there, that is exactly it."

So after I graduated, I was able to move to Japan.

I was there for about two years, and I was in the town of Mashiko, which is Hamada Shoji's hometown.

It's like the center of the folk craft revival movement that took place in the '60s and '70s.

So the whole town had several historic kilns, kilns that had been in operation for hundreds of years.

And so that was really where I got a lot of my style and technique from.

(bright music) It is very relaxing, it's very meditative.

It's just sort of you and the clay working together to make something neat.

I love the idea of making something that could be useful to someone, something simple, something elegant, something that's workable, something that you can incorporate into your daily life.

(bright music) What I like to do most is atmospheric glazings.

I really like when the control is taken out of my hands, where the atmosphere inside the kiln is what gives it its surface texture and its color.

So at those kind of temperatures that those things get to, the wood that is being fed into the kiln, it gets so hot that the ash kind of vaporizes.

And wherever it hits on the pottery is where it sticks.

So each piece then tells the exact story of where that was sitting in the kiln and what happened during the firing.

And so it's really neat to get all those cool organic textures and colors.

(bright music) Sometimes it's very hard to part with them because I spend so much time holding it in my hand, getting used to the feel of it.

So much work that has gone into each individual piece that it is very easy to get attached, but at the same time when someone else picks it up and they have that same reaction, seeing somebody else fall in love with it is just amazing, and that's a very satisfying thing.

(upbeat jazz music) - [Mark Cernero] And now here's a look at a few notable dates in art history.

(upbeat jazz music) And that wraps it up for this edition of "Artistic Horizons."

For more arts and culture, visit wpbstv.org.

Until next time, I'm Mark Cernero, thanks for watching.

(upbeat jazz music) (bright music)