- This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

- Funding for WEDU Arts Plus is provided by the Community Foundation, Tampa Bay.

- In this edition of WEDU Arts Plus, a cafe serves up imagination with their coffee.

- We want our customers to become the focal point of our art on the wall.

So when you take a picture, it is you inside this comic book that we created.

- Interweaving music with paintings.

- We listen to music of the time and try to find the right rhythm for certain paintings.

- An artist's inspiration and practice.

- I think any field, any art, it has to give hope a sense of living to the person who is seeing it.

Not depress them, but encourage them.

- And the art of the contact sheet.

- People who work outside of the world of photography normally didn't see them, because they were part of the working process.

- It's all coming up next on WEDU Arts Plus.

(lilting music) Hello, I'm Gabe Ortiz.

And this is WEDU Arts Plus.

Walking into the 2D cafe in St. Petersburg is like stepping onto an animated page that hasn't been colored yet.

Thanks to the talents of local renowned artist Chad Mize, this coffee shop has been completely transformed into a space built for the imagination.

(contemplative music) - When we expect people to feel when they come in here is that wow effect.

Our slogan is Be the Art, because we want our customers to become the focal point of our art on the wall.

So when you take a picture, it is you inside this comic book that we created.

- So when I first walked into 2D cafe I stopped at the door and I'm looking.

I said, oh my God, it was amazing.

I felt like I was inside of a cartoon.

Yeah, it was really awesome.

My job duties here consists of being a barista.

I make all of our drinks here and we have lattes, teas, matcha.

I've had matcha all over the city.

We have the best matcha.

- We saw this concept first, a couple years ago in a Forbes magazine article.

The first 2D cafe originated in Tokyo, Japan and it blew our minds.

We started thinking that how cool would it be to bring that amazing concept and experience to us here locally?

Chad Mize is a very well known artist here in the community in St. Petersburg, Florida.

And we wanted to commission someone that was gonna make it very unique in his own art and also make it very St. Pete.

And he did an amazing job with that.

- I've been a self-employed artist for 20 years now, recently probably in the last eight years I've been doing mural work.

So I do large scale murals for corporate and interior clients.

And so that has really opened up a world for me, where it's more about people's general seeing my art, you know, they don't have to go into a gallery to see my art.

They can be in a restaurant or walking down the street and seeing a mural on the side of the street, which is really powerful.

So for so long in my career, I toyed with other styles of work and kind of put this in a little bit of a backseat, like the, the free flow doodle style.

And probably in the last five years I've realized that it was my strength.

It was something that was natural to me.

And I feel like when I put that out there that's when my career really elevated because I was doing what was most natural to me.

And like, you could kind of see that, you know you can see like, that's what he's, that's what he should be doing.

And so I worked with Disney this past year, did a piece with them, which was awesome.

And then Coach, they all hired me for this type of style that I'm doing and I'm call, I call it my free flow style.

- When we started collaborating together with Chad we wanna give him free range and for him to go with his own unique, amazing style that he has.

However, we wanted our cafe to be a European bistro.

Therefore we wanted to incorporate European elements in the design.

- When you add these personal touches to it you can do little Easter eggs and hide things.

And I did add my dog Cookie in here, she's in the piece.

Then also the owners, the Marias, gave me a couple things to add that are personal to their life.

And that was kind of cool too.

- We wanted to make it unique and also bring some of our own cultures and families and the things that are important to us personally to the design and the art.

My wife is from Greece..

Her name is Maria.

So we're both Maria's.

- I love humor as well.

So there's a lot of humor and like tongue in cheek in a lot of my work.

- It's playful where you can almost get the sense of you don't know what's real or not.

- Typically when I do like a restaurant I'll have like just one wall.

So to actually give free range of a whole space and cover every surface, that was a big undertaking but it was exciting at the same time.

To date this has been the largest interior piece that I've worked on.

- We had to come up with ideas to really bring the 2D effect to life.

So we actually created this columns and arches and the keystones that make the 2D effect even more complete.

- It totally transformed the space, adding those arches.

And then, you know, because it's so tall you wouldn't typically have like a clock go all the way to the ceiling based on the size of these ceilings.

So we kind of did the patterns and stuff to fill in the top portions, which kind of gave that another element of the type of work that I do, which is pattern based work.

(happy music) - When we develop our menu, we wanted to incorporate both of my wife and I's culture in it.

So we have a few dishes that represent her culture and I was born in Uruguay in South America.

So we have in our menu, for example, 60 different kinds of empanadas, which is something that I bring from my culture.

And our 2D mocha is very popular.

It's actually white and dark chocolate with a coffee.

So goes with the theme - It's very welcome and cozy inside the 2D cafe.

You just walk in and you're kind of, you just see all the sites at once and you kind of wanna explore and see all the bits of inspiration of where this cafe might be.

I just think that it's a really fun addition to downtown St. Pete, and it's a fun place where people can come and hang out.

- Well, if you go down Central now and you see all the development and it's just so filled in, this is definitely part of the mix.

It definitely stands out on its own, but it also is part of the whole creative culture that is in St. Pete.

You know, we're inundated with color so much.

So to come into a space and it be very stark and black and white, but also very busy.

You know, there's a lot to look at in here.

And I would hope that someone that came in here would leave with an inspiration of their own.

- Working with Chad Mize, it was great.

It was, it was a breeze.

He did an incredible job of making a 2D cafe so unique, so St. Pete and so ours at the same time.

- It's just really cool to like, leave your mark and help a business with its artistic vision.

And it's, it's been awesome for me to be part of that.

- For more information, visit 2dcafe.com At the Denver Art Museum in Colorado art and history come alive.

Impressionist painting and music join together in a special exhibition focused on the work of Claude Monet.

- You know, the arts at the time, sort of, they had cross pollination.

The same time when the impressionist movement was happening, there were impressionistic tendency in poetry.

And so in music.

So artists at the time were not in a vacuum and the music because it, it responds to the same sort of stylistic tendency.

We do believe that it helps our visitors immerse more in, in a time and go back in time.

- My name is Angelica Daneo.

I am chief curator and curator of European art before 1900 at the Denver Art Museum.

As we often do in exhibition, we actually include music throughout our galleries.

And we did the same this time with our Claude Monet exhibition.

We listen to music of the time and trying to find the right rhythm for certain paintings.

(Bolero plays) You might have something that is very slow and and sort of with a, a slower cadences, which doesn't go well with the scenes of Bordighera, which are an explosion of colors and an explosion of brilliance.

So we do look at the paintings and we do listen to the music and like any visitors really, try to look, does this help me when I look at this painting?

- My name is Lawrence Golan and I'm a symphony orchestra conductor and I'm the music director of the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra.

We have this wonderful partnership with the Denver Art Museum.

The partnership revolves around the Monet exhibit.

Obviously they'll be having many wonderful paintings by the great French impressionistic painter, Claude Monet.

And we will be playing this French impressionistic concert.

The impressionistic movement and music took place primarily in France around the turn of the last century, so around 1900.

One thing the impressionistic composers were very concerned with was what is the emotion that the listener will feel.

(orchestra plays) Debussy's Prelude To the Afternoon of a Faun is perhaps the quintessential impressionistic piece.

It starts out with just flute solo by itself with no accompaniment.

And even the notes that Debussy chose for that opening solo are very chromatic.

Meaning it, it doesn't establish a key.

It doesn't establish any one note as being more prominent.

It just sort of meanders around through, through different notes.

(orchestra plays) That is emblematic of impressionism both in music and in art, where we're not exactly sure what we're looking at or what we're listening to.

It sounds very nice, but what exactly is that?

With the French impressionistic painters, similarly they weren't trying to be very realistic with them.

They were, it was more like alluding to an image.

- The painting behind my back is Boulevard des Capucines by Monet painted around 1873.

And it has all the qualities of this particular movement.

And Monet does it with great effects, giving really the impression of a busy street.

It doesn't define every single top hat.

He doesn't define every single gown and, and, and petticoat.

And so this was the criticism from the intellectuals that were favoring the academy.

They said the critical (indistinct), who was the one that gave the term, the derogatory term impressionism, really criticized this, this black figures.

In fact, he called them black tongue lickings.

This was looked unfinished.

It looked too sketchy, but this was not the point of the impressionist.

They wanted to give the impression, the feeling of that scene in that moment.

- That has translated into the music in a similar way.

You, you get the impression of a certain structure or of a certain harmony, but it's, it's not crystal clear.

- When nowadays we visit exhibitions, we are seeing paintings that were not intended to be shown together in a in an exhibition space.

And so we are mindful of creating some sort of context.

We try to allow discreetly ourselves to immerse into a different era that had different perspectives and different experiences.

So that will give a glimpse for a visitor into the time, into what have been the Paris that Monet particular would've known.

- In Paris at this time, the musicians would read the poems of the poets and they would go to the art exhibits of of the painters and, and vice versa.

So they were very much integrated.

There's connection between art at the museum, between music at the hall and in our entire community.

We're all connected in many ways.

And, and in this case specifically through the arts - To learn more, visit denverartmuseum.org and denverphilharmonic.org.

- Whether she's applying henna, using fluid based acrylic on her canvases or practicing calligraphy, artist Lydia Hannah Wilson explores many different art forms when creating.

Head to Detroit, Michigan to find out more.

- I think, any field, any art, it has to give hope a sense of living to the person who is seeing it.

Not depress them, but encourage them.

I grew up in a place called Hablis in Karnataka, South India.

In India, that's not really common that people study fine arts but for me, I always loved design and empty any empty space.

Me designing was my thing.

Nature taught me so much more than what textbooks taught me the way how wind moves, the way how actually Samas describes nature really well in the Bible.

And that really moved me.

I mean, if he was able to make songs out of it why was I not able to do something with paint that really triggered my brain?

Henna is an ancient art form.

In Indian culture all the brides apply that like up till here.

It's really crazy, but it takes about seven to eight hours just to work on their hands and their feet.

The reason why they do it is they think it's, it enhances the bride.

It it's just like an, adornment to yourself.

And it has a lot of health benefits too.

It cools down your body temperature.

And it's more like a spa treatment because of the oils and all the beautiful aromas you get in the henna.

There's a chemical reaction that happens in the paste.

After five, 10 minutes the stain starts releasing.

So it, it reacts with your skin which is perfectly normal and organic.

It's nothing to be alarmed of.

So the longer I keep the henna paste on my skin, the longer the dye releases.

So I started doing henna when I was 10 years old.

My neighbor was a Muslim and it was her wedding.

And she got her hands all decked up with henna up till here.

And that amazed me.

And after two days, her stain was still there.

And I was like, oh, this is cool.

I mean, this doesn't go off.

I wanna do that too.

There are different applications also.

People use a needle based tube to do henna here.

I prefer cone.

Cone is nothing but a plastic roll that you roll.

And then you tape it with a pin.

So the pin gives an proper diameter, like for the thickness and thinness.

I like to work with a fusion of thin and thick lines.

So it gives a lot of depth.

I feel.

There are a few traditional designs.

For brides especially we do a lot of portraits in henna like the bride with a dupatta on her head.

The rich heritage and the rich culture, which is in India, many people don't know in Detroit.

So when I do those designs, they're like, oh, what is this?

What kind of design is this?

What kind of an art form is this?

So when I explain them, they're aware of the culture.

They're aware from where it came.

Other forms are like the Arabic forms more like contemporary forms.

When I do brides, I use the embroidery, which is on her dress.

So I use those as my inspiration and the love story of the bride.

I mean, how the bride met the groom, where did they meet?

What is the common thing between them?

I sit with them for eight, nine hours and they explain me their entire story.

And as they explain their story, I on the, on the spot I build their story up in the henna.

I think that lightens them and they, they feel good about it.

It For me, the time has to stand still when I paint.

I want people to see hope when they see my paintings.

I've recently learned this fluid based acrylic art.

So I wet my entire canvas and I play soft music.

This is therapeutic to me.

I just put a lot of water on the canvas and just release a little bit of paint and let the paint move in the way it wants to move.

It creates its own form, and it's not bound by any thought or any imagination or something.

It just moves freely.

And I love the freedom of it.

I like painting faces of people just to capture that emotion, just to capture what they feel at that moment, capturing that story.

It, it's challenging to me and I love to take that challenge.

There are a lot of news things I've seen, and that really saddens my heart.

I was inspired by the persecution that's happening in China.

So that's like a lady, she is tired.

She's fed up off all the chaos of this world and all the disappointments and heartaches everywhere.

And she's longing for a place which is, which is serene, which is pure, which she's not finding it.

And she's just wondering one day, will there be one day?

So I like to capture that.

Will there be one day on her face?

In India not many people know about fonts.

And so in my fine art college, I came across this beautiful handwriting and it was calligraphy.

That, that's when I thought I would say, it's so gorgeous.

I would wanna learn that, but I never found the supplies to learn how to do calligraphy.

When I moved to US, I found the proper techniques of calligraphy and the Thailand calligraphy, the thin and the thickness.

It's more like pen and ink dancing.

Calligraphy and handwriting is a ballet for me.

I mean, it's just beautiful, the way it curves when perfect sleek lines, and then the way it's elaborated.

I, I just love it.

If my paintings are hung anywhere, even in the window or somewhere on the street, if one person is walking by, and if he's having a hard time in his life, and if my painting could speak life or hope to him, that's all I need.

(serene music) - Up next, visit the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio to learn more about contact sheets.

An important component of 20th century photography, these sheets display all images from a roll of film and allow a glimpse into the artist's mind and method.

- For much of the 20th century, photographers worked with contact sheets to develop and select their images.

- Even when contact sheets were essential and an everyday part of photography, people who were outside of the world of photography normally didn't see them because they were part of the working process.

- Contact sheets provide a peek at how photographers work, like in this proof of photos by Larry Fink captured at a New York gala.

- So we have the finish prints from this sheet, both of which are less than the full negative, but also both of which are the same square shape as the full negative.

- It's interesting that both of those are so tight on the emotion and action.

- Well, and he's, he he's feeling that he can make an expressive picture without basically having to have the expressions of the people's faces.

It can be done through their physical gestures.

- Proof, photography in the era of the contact sheet features many familiar faces, including images of Marilyn Monroe from early in her career.

- Philippe Halsman who was one of the leading magazine photographers at the time went out to Hollywood to photograph her.

It was a large studio apartment, but it was still one room.

And then this is the picture that he chose.

And you see at the top, there it's the hinge on the door.

It's such a great picture.

It looks like one of the great Hollywood studio portraits made in the, with controlled lighting, it's in her apartment.

And then of course, when it appears on the cover of Life, they airbrush the hinge away.

- The exhibit includes around 180 proofs and other works collected by the late Clevelander and museum trustee, Mark Schwartz.

- As far as I know nobody has ever made a collection like this before.

- Schwartz's wife Bettina Katz says her husband's collection began with one contact sheet in 2002.

- And that image was Deanne and Alan Arbus.

I don't think the artist was of particular significance but it was a shoot for Vanity Fair.

And I remember when he bought this and as many things in my husband's life, you know, when he gets an idea in his head or a collecting idea, and then it just took off.

- Did you ever think that this collection would become an exhibit?

- I knew he was onto something.

You know, he was a really smart man and he started to pursue artists to create images for him, not just those that were used in the dark room.

He had an idea about this.

So, no, I'm actually not very surprised that it's an exhibition.

What is surprising to me is the interest around this kind of nostalgia, look back at film photography.

- One of Schwartz's special requests of an artist was for Richard Avedon to enlarge a contact sheet from his photo shoot with the actor, Groucho Marx - After Avedon had agreed to make these for Mark Mark proposed to him.

Well, would you consider making a big one like six feet tall, and eventually Avedon agreed.

- Was that a common thing?

- No, completely uncommon.

Although, you know, Avedon had been one of the people who pioneered very large prints, but of individual frames, not of a contact sheet, even though he included contact sheets in his exhibitions but not that size.

I think it was part partly the reason he said yes was because he was interested.

He was interested in the contact sheet as a, as a trace of the photographer's process, working process.

So he did agree, but there's only one of those.

- Yeah.

And then it's right there.

The end of the yeah.

End of the show - To find out more head to Cclevelandart.org.

And that wraps it up for this edition of WEDU Arts Plus.

For more arts and culture visit wedu.org/artsplus.

Until next time I'm Gabe Ortiz.

Thanks for watching.

(frenetic music) - Funding for WEDU Arts Plus is provided by the Community Foundation Tampa Bay.