- [Mark] In this edition of "Artistic Horizons," (percussion emphasis music) a memorial that brings people together.

- [Jes] I hope that it serves as a sacred ground for healing, for life.

- [Mark] A fashion designer who wishes to inspire.

- I think it's about bringing people from different walks of life.

You know, different faces of what being Asian means.

It's a true celebration.

(upbeat music) - [Mark] Stop motion animation.

- You are the entirety of the crew.

So stop motion has really given me the ability to uplift myself.

- [Mark] Jewelry created from nature.

- A sense of home, a connection to a place that they've enjoyed visiting.

The river glass jewelry that I make, or the beach glass jewelry, it is something that really appeals to people.

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

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

On August 4th, 2019, a mass shooting occurred in the Oregon District of Dayton, Ohio.

In response, four local artists came together to create a public art memorial for those affected by the tragedy.

And with help from the community, their vision was realized.

In 2024, the memorial was completed.

Here's the story.

- Well, it was a tragic night, and the first thing we thought was, how can this happen here?

- A young man opened fire in the Oregon District.

He killed nine people and injured dozens more in 34 seconds.

- In that moment, everything changed for the worst.

As I watched the shooter walk down the side of the building, fully armored, as he entered onto the curve, he just started shooting.

So I'm like, this cannot be real.

He walked where we was at, me and him was face to face as he had the gun, as my father was right here, my father was shot five times, and not one of those bullets hit me.

Never knew that would've been my last night with my father.

- I know that many of us are hurting right now, and are uncertain of where we go from here.

- Nan Whaley, who was mayor at that time, she pulled a few of us together and said, "We need to do a memorial, not to mark the tragedy, but to help heal our community.

And we felt like we needed to do a national search because we wanted to get the best that we could.

- I knew that being community-based is that, it's gonna take some special talent to put this together.

- Terry called me.

He had a vision of a way we could contribute to healing, and being an artist that believes in frontward-facing work to serve community, he was talking my language.

- I had worked with Terry and Sierra separately on different projects, and they are amazing artists, and they also are community artists, and so I felt like we aligned in our overall artistic mission.

- As we started on the project, I brought to the team's attention that I really do think that we should add James Pate.

And from the moment we met with him, he jumped right in and began to contribute to the process.

- So he's got a unique outlook and history and understanding of our local culture, much as anybody.

- I was sort of like, what was it, Ringo that the drummer that came to the Beatles after they was, yeah, so I was like, Ringo Star, you know?

Yeah, I wasn't the original drummer, you know what I mean (laughs)?

- Out of 61 applications and a national call for art, which included designers, architects, public art firms, our winning design is awarded to these four Daytonians.

So they are Terry Welker, Jes McMillan, Sierra Leone, and James Pate.

Thank you.

- So I felt like we had the dream team.

We're all very different from each other, but we all love and respect each other as well.

- We each bring something different to the table creatively.

My part was to lead the mosaic that the community would create.

- Day one.

- [Jes] We modified the seed of life to represent nine seed shapes for each of the victims, as it is a symbol that represents all life and death as a cycle and as an idea that there's more than just us.

- We begin by taking two inch by two inch ceramic tiles and breaking them into three or four pieces, but the tiles get put back together.

So it's, when you think about the analogy of a broken community being put back together, it's like sometimes we get broken, but we can get fixed.

Having the mosaic events where we have over 5,000 people participate, created that bonding, sharing opportunity.

In the end, it's not just for artists, it's for artists and 10,000 hands.

- The message I was sending, if you lost anybody to violence, come and place a tile down in honor of your loved one, because I didn't want 'em to make this seem that it was just about us.

I had people that came from all over the state of Ohio, some from outta state to come and place a piece in honor of their loved one and just in the support of the families.

- While we were doing it, we had to take it one day at a time.

It taught me more about grief than I've ever known, and how grief is the universal language.

From the moment we're born, we experience loss.

It really is a glue that binds us all together.

- My work came in with interviewing families.

They were quite grateful that we were all present at some of those sessions, that they could talk to us and see us.

They could see that we cared and that we remembered, because that was the one thing they said.

It seems like people forget.

They'll forget our loved ones.

They'll forget.

They won't remember.

And that's why my piece was entitled, "Re-member The Seed."

For them, that was their word they said over and over.

- The bench itself, we call the Unity Bench.

Instead of having a number of individual benches, this was one bench that we all sit together on.

The Unity Bench really became a key element.

- The featured component of the memorial is nine growing seed shape structures that represent the nine people who were killed that morning.

And all together, when it comes together, it took on a different appearance.

It looks like an eternal flame to me now.

- Today is the fifth anniversary of the tragic event that is burned in our hearts and minds.

And so it is only fitting that today we dedicate this sacred space.

- At the unveiling for me to just see the parents, the relatives, did they have peace, and was this a place that they would come to and sit and remember their loved ones?

And also for our survivors, did they feel seen?

It's been five years, five years.

That's a long time to hold something and bring it across the finish line for peace and healing.

- I kept saying that this marks the end of the process, but I soon realized the completion of the memorial was just the beginning.

- The memorial to me, it shows the resilience of Dayton, Ohio.

- I hope that it serves as a sacred ground for healing, for life, and I hope that people love it and cherish it.

- There's a lot to discover, all the symbols, all the words that are in the mosaic, the poetry that's engraved in the steel rings, and knowing that there's 5,000 people that did it.

My big hope is that it causes people to pause and think, what can I do to change the world moving forward with a tragic event like this?

To know that it's possible to move on and make your life better.

We can reclaim our joy and our happiness.

(upbeat jazz music) - And now for the artist quote of the week.

In 2009, fashion designer, Prabal Gurung, launched his collection and since then has made a significant impact on American fashion.

Up next, we find out more about his aesthetic and his work with the nonprofit Gold House whose Los Angeles Gala, he creative directed.

- The dreams that you have, regardless of your race, regardless of your size, or whether your age, and this is what we want to represent, what American's passion represents, you know, is the possibility of being your impossible dreams coming true.

- I'm one of the co-founders of Gold House, and I'm on the board also.

We wanted to let the majority know that we are all things colorful and powerful.

I mean, it is not just one idea.

We have different shapes and sizes, colors, I would say careers, you know, and so it feels exciting.

You know, I've been working with Bing from day one, who was our idea to like bring this celebratory moment.

So I was one of the co-founders and when we started, we did the New York salon, me and Michelle Lee, who was editor in chief at Allure at the time.

It was a small thing, and she just texted me, look at this, how much we've grown, you know, and you know, I've been behind it since directing it.

And then I was like, all right, let me just like put all my might, all my thing, and let's make it a little more like people who want to be here, who want to celebrate.

I've learned this from going to Met Gala for, I dunno, maybe like 10-plus years, I've learned that.

And so I was like, lemme just bring the things that I've learned here.

Met Gala is an out-of-body experience, even after going out for such a long time, that you still feel that way.

I'm always grateful to Anna, she's been the biggest supporter.

It was really amazing because I did a table, and I had like Demi Lovato, Laufey, Simone Ashley, Gayle Rankin, who's a Broadway actor.

Radhika Jones, the Vanity Fair editor in chief, and Maria Sharapova, really amazing group of women, and they all send me in the most beautiful text saying like, you curated the most wonderful women.

They felt so comfortable, and they enjoyed themselves.

And that's what you want to do, you know?

It started this with this one mission of asking people to see us, but not begging people to see us.

Letting them know that what we've done and what we've contributed is not a new thing.

We've been doing it for centuries and decades.

And what we were creating was a space where we can tell our own stories for our own people, different kinds of people.

And being Asian means various shapes and sizes and continents.

And so I think it's about bringing people from different walks of life, you know, different faces of what being Asian means.

It's a true celebration.

The work is far from done.

They restarted this.

We need more people to continue on, you know, and I feel they feel inspired to be their unapologetic gold selves.

That's what I hope.

(upbeat music) (lively jazz music) - Now here's a look at this month's fun fact.

Jace Wertz is a stop motion animator from Hudson, Florida.

In this segment, we learn more about his creative filmmaking process and hear from other stop motion animators living across the globe.

(playful music) ♪ Saved by the king ♪ - Hocus quackus!

(duck quacks) - I started doing stop motion when a friend of a family introduced me to the medium.

We had a little VCR camcorder, and we'd set up some of our toys and do a little toy-mation.

Life got away from me, and I put it aside until I was about 27 years old.

And then I started picking up a camera again.

I started doing video production.

I would do short films, be live on set with actors, focused directly on knowing how to edit, how to set up a shot, how to light a scene.

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia last year.

It causes pain all over my body all the time.

It restricts me from being able to venture out and be part of a group.

It's something that helped me transition into stop motion and move away from the live action.

You are the entirety of the crew.

So stop motion has really given me the ability to uplift myself.

Stop motion is very difficult process, but it's not something that you want to run away from.

You don't have to study in a classroom.

There is a plethora of information out there.

Any kind of forum base will be your best bet.

You can search straight on Google for stop motion forums.

- That's the beauty of it for me is just you're constantly learning.

You're constantly getting to do and figure out new things, new ways of doing stuff, and seeing it all come together is really awesome.

And beautiful.

- Creating a stop motion, there are many elements.

First materials, there's so many that you can utilize.

Whether you wanna use felt, paints, foam board from the Dollar Store.

- I'm always like hauling like giant bags from the Dollar Store.

Like I just spent a hundred dollars on craft supplies.

Like I'm the reason that craft aisle is there.

I just love the Dollar Store.

I just like being like, I made this wizard out of a chicken nugget box and like some sheets of felt and some beads, and now he's like real.

- Hi there, I'm a wizard, but I only know dumb spells about ducks.

- I used to like really like playing with like tiny things.

If it makes sense.

Like I remember making like houses for bugs out of like match boxes and like that kind of stuff.

(playful music) - What's your story?

Even not having a fully mapped out script is okay.

Having just words on paper is great because it helps you get direction, the route you want to go.

Once that script's finished, storyboarding is the next step.

- I start with the story, then I create a script, and then I usually work with other artists, like for storyboarding, I create an animatic, I make a shot list, I divide it into sequences, and then I start just filming shot by shot.

- I didn't have storyboards, did a quick little breakdown of what I imagined would happen and I got to go ahead to go just with that.

- I feel like for me, my creative process is just to kind of just sit and let things come to me and doodle at the same time.

- Once everything's laid out, then you can bring out the camera.

I recommend grabbing a phone.

There's free software out there.

The fun begins there.

You would take a photo, move the camera a little bit, adjust your set or your puppet, take a photo, move the camera, adjust your set and puppet, and so on and so forth until you finish out your scene.

Once the puppets are animated, there's a process to remove the rigs.

The rigs are gonna be the ball joint sockets or the metal armatures that are connected to the back or the front or the side of the puppets.

I use After Effects to remove all of the rigs, you just make a layer and another layer, and then you overlay the image of the puppet with the rig, and then you're able to just remove by highlighting around the rig.

It will show the animation as it should look.

To remove all of the rigs, I started in Photoshop, but the process is it takes much longer.

- I feel like people keep telling me that there's easy ways to do it in Adobe After Effects, but I'm just never, never satisfied with that.

So I end up just photoshopping each individual frame myself.

- CGI has helped stop motion abundantly.

It's provided the ability to not have to have such a large elaborate set, utilize blue or green screens, and then be able to just build off of it.

- CGI, I think can compliments any animation story.

And you know, it's the future, and it's technology is always gonna be pushing further and further until we reach like a singularity.

But then again, it doesn't because it's an art form.

You know, I specifically wanted to use textures that were very hard to mimic in CGI, so that somebody knows that it's a real thing.

Like clay, you can see my fingerprints, you know, you can see the imperfections in it, and you can feel like you can reach out and touch it.

- That's what where stop motion kind of shines for me is like knowing that it's a real object.

It's a real thing that's moving through space and how cool it looks.

- Stop motion has this kind of childish like curiosity, playfulness, you know, using whatever they have and like improvising with the stuff that we have.

- I love stop motion because it's frame by frame.

You have to build the sets, find a little space to do it, have a camera and some software, and just have fun with it.

Become a creator and find your passion.

Whatever you choose to do, you're capable of it.

Just have fun, and, you know, the sky's the limit.

It's all about imagination.

(lively jazz music) - And now here's a look at a few notable dates in our history.

(lively jazz music continues) In New York, Ruth Varley fashions jewelry from nature.

For over 20 years, this jewelry artisan has been designing wearable art, inspired by the natural world and made up of metals, gemstones, river glass and other materials.

Take a look.

- And you can find it pretty much anywhere.

There's a piece right here.

- [Reporter] Early mornings are perfect for the search.

- [Ruth] Get another piece of here.

- [Reporter] Jewelry artisan Ruth Farley seeks out colors and textures that will make her next piece of jewelry pop.

- A sense of home, a connection to a place that they've enjoyed visiting.

The river glass jewelry that I make, the beach glass jewelry, it is something that really appeals to people that are from this area.

They have a sense of home from having something that the river has created over time, and it just seems to be something that attracts them.

And they get all excited about having a piece of glass from the river.

- [Reporter] Her love for creating began as a child, and it evolves to this day.

- Jewelry making is an easy creative outlet.

I've always been a maker since a small child.

Always had something that I was crafting.

So jewelry is just, it's portable, it's affordable, and it's a process that you can develop.

You can stay at one level and continue like that, or you can just keep learning and enhancing your skills.

And I really enjoy that part of it.

(uplifting music) They're pretty basic tools.

To create copper jewelry like I make, I like to make a dome shape, and I use a dapping block, which is wood.

And this is a punch, also wood.

And this is a chasing hammer, which you would use with the wooden punch.

And so for that process, I form the shape, and then I heat it with a torch.

So that process involves a butane torch and a torch head, or a butane canister actually, which you can buy from like a restaurant supply store.

And a long pair of needle nose pliers, a fire block so you don't burn anything, and a vessel that's heat resistant for water to quench the metal when you heat it.

And the process is basically heating and cooling and heating and cooling and heating and cooling till you get the colors that you like.

And then once you cool it, it stops changing colors.

What I do with the flame painting is pretty basic, so you can do it quite easily.

- [Reporter] To keep it interesting, she takes risks and colors outside the lines, if you will, to create pieces that are truly one of a kind.

- Risks I have taken creating jewelry have been investing in materials and tools, not knowing if what I'm gonna create with them is going to be sellable.

At one point, I decided that I was going to redesign everything that I made and invested in a lot of equipment, a lot of pieces, and just kind of went for it.

And that's where the copper flame-painted jewelry came from actually.

One of the pieces that I'm most proud of is a set of earrings and a necklace that I made for a girlfriend for Christmas.

She admired it, and I gifted it to her.

And when I see her wearing it now, I take a second look, and I am surprised that I made that, and it makes me really proud that I created that and that she's proud to wear it.

- [Reporter] For aspiring jewelry makers, Ruth says go for it and find the time and the tools to begin creating.

- I would advise an aspiring artist to invest in tools that do the job that they wanna do.

Don't try to do something with a tool that's not made for that.

And I would invest in good quality materials and just keep practicing and honing your skill and just keep trying new things, learn new techniques, watch a lot of YouTube videos, and just have fun with it.

(lively 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.

(lively jazz music) (gentle music)