female announcer: On "Studio Space," Laura Muñoz has a free, expressive dance style that is inspired by nature.

Her pieces are evocations of verdant life and the cycles of creation and destruction.

Colleen Clifford makes colorful stained glass windows; watch her create and assemble pieces of glass into functional art.

"Studio Space" explores Northern California's vibrant art community.

CC by Aberdeen Captioning www.aberdeen.io 1-800-688-6621 [gong rings] Laura Muñoz: I dance 'cause I cannot help but dance.

So, I dance here at work, I dance in the house, I dance.

And then I create dance and theatre.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Rhynell Mouton: Can you give us a little background info on yourself?

Laura: I just say that I'm a dance and theatre maker, and that even though I've been doing this all my life, I feel like I'm just starting, I'm just getting started to know something.

Though the older I get, the more I realize I know nothing.

So, I just show up every day in the studio, in the theatre, in nature.

That's my studio of late, and just keep at it.

Rhynell: When did you first figure out that you fell in love with dance?

Laura: I don't remember a time where I was not in love with dance.

So, even my grandma used to tell me they used to call me Pinito del Oro, who was a circus trapeze artist back in her day, because as I was a little girl in the crib, I would always climb and do physical things too that were not common, I guess.

Rhynell: What inspires you or who inspires you?

Laura: It's corny, but it's life inspires me.

You know, you inspire me if you're here.

Just like talking to you makes my lungs open, my heart.

And like ah, my cells start to, you know, bring me somewhere.

You know, everything inspires me.

You know, nature, of course, is the source.

But just this, being alive in this body inspires me.

The beauty and also the suffering both inspire me too.

It moves me to do something or to express something.

Rhynell: How important are connections in the art scene or just in the performing arts just in general?

Like how important are making those connections?

Laura: Well, it's so important.

I mean, theater is an ensemble medium.

And so is dance really.

I am, by nature, a shy person.

I'm not one that goes to parties and, oh, let's meet this person because it's gonna be good for my career.

No, my networking has to do with this.

You know, we talk.

Rhynell: Do you often create your pieces knowing which direction you're going, creating a story?

Or are you kind of at a base ground, you like to freestyle the performances?

Or do you like both?

Laura: I like it all.

So, sometimes I like to improvise, sometimes I like to start improvising, and that will take me somewhere for creating something, and then I will set something.

Rhynell: Are there any other artistic mediums that you wanted to explore that you never got the chance to explore?

Laura: I would love to keep finding projects where I have to learn new things.

I still do learn new things.

One thing that I want to do is sing more and make more music.

So, it's not new, but it's something that intentionally I want to spend more time doing.

Rhynell: What's some of the projects you're working on now?

Or what's some of the work that you have going?

Laura: So, I am working on outdoor pieces.

I'm also working on different pieces around trees or on trees in the area.

I did one for my one-minute dances show.

We've done 10 years of that.

And this past year, I did a piece that was on a tree.

It's called the gong tree for a minute.

So, I want to do a series of tree pieces.

They might be solo, so it might be that I get some friends to play with me.

We have so many beautiful trees here, and I love some of the urban trees that we have in town, and also outside in the forest, at the beach.

This one, the gong tree is at the Ma-le'l Dunes Beach.

So, that's my most immediate project.

Rhynell: How important do you think dance is to society and the world?

Laura: If you are alive, you dance.

It's so embedded in being alive that that's why I think I have a hard time separating those.

To me, they are not different things.

It's almost like separating something that is natural to the human being.

I believe that dance and music, art, we carry that with us.

It's not apart from us.

Dance has many aspects to it.

You know, like you dance--for dancing, you don't need a theatre, you don't need anything but yourself.

Even if you can't walk, but if you can just do like this, you know what I mean?

So, I keep learning all kinds of things.

As I age, I keep learning to dance in different ways.

As I age, I see more.

I can see more of myself and the world.

And that, because I respond to the world, dancing or making dance, making theatre, then that is new.

Rhynell: What are your hopes that the audience takes away from?

Laura: I want the audience to kinesthetically respond to what I'm doing so that they are not sitting back watching, but that they are slightly forward and a little bothered, you know, like, moved.

That is how I want to connect with audience is that what I'm doing means something.

Even if it's not clear what it is, but that there's a stir, something that moves here, here, yeah.

Rhynell: I'd like to thank you for having us here, gaining insight on you and your art.

Can you explain the performance that you'll be showing us?

Laura: Yes, it's called Red Roominations.

It was developed as part of Outer Roominations, which was an outer--outside museum and performance space that was created by Leslie Castellano.

And many artists, we were just taking that space, it was outside in Table Bluff.

So, I was just spending time there, like, so who's here and what is this?

And so, every day would be something.

I feel like things were revealed, you know?

So, I wasn't imposing things on the space, or I didn't feel like I was imposing things on the space.

And it was developed like that.

You know, spending time and oh, oh, this is what's happening here, oh, that.

And then what you're going to see, that's the final result of spending time there and listening.

I don't want to talk about what it means or what it is, I just want to show it.

Rhynell: Okay, well, I look forward to seeing it.

Laura: Thank you so much, and thank you for being here, spending time with me.

[birds chirping faintly] [wind blowing in trees] [rustling] [birds continuing] [rustling] [shuffling feet on leaves] [birds continuing] [rustling] [Laura chirps] [Laura chirps] [rustling leaves] [water flowing] [shuffling] [water continuing] [birds continuing] Colleen Clifford: I love puzzles, they're definitely my favorite thing.

And I found the art, the craft that works best for me.

Putting the pieces together just helps you feel like you're creating something, literally.

You're putting it together, engineering it, thinking through all those lines and how they all have to come together in the end to make whatever it is you're trying to say with your piece.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ David Ferney: Today on "Studio Space," we're gonna explore the creative world of stained glass artist Colleen Clifford.

She's known for her beautiful designs and detailed works.

David: Hi Colleen, thanks so much for joining us.

Colleen: Well, thanks so much for being here, David.

David: So, what it is about the glass in particular that you are drawn to?

Colleen: I like working with glass because it's a medium that's--it's fragile, but it is so beautiful.

And it has a lot of texture in how you look at it and how it feels, so you can really find a lot of ways to turn it into something beautiful, and make the light kind of express itself and have a different kind of feeling just through the glass than you would with any other medium.

David: Interesting; can you tell us a little bit about the process of creating your stained glass work?

'Cause there's so many different elements in that process.

Colleen: There are, and the steps are actually pretty defined, so it's really important to come to your piece with a working pattern, that the lines are clearly defined, and drawn, and ready to be divided.

Once those pattern pieces are all cut out and I've chosen my colors, I transfer the pattern onto the glass itself.

This is a nice, deep purple that I just love.

So, that gets traced on here before I cut.

And as you can see, they are kind of all scattered in there, kind of quilted in there to make sure I use the right place and the right part of the glass.

And so, just the surface has that line in it.

And then I use pliers or pressure from my hands in order to get it to cut the way it actually should.

Whoops.

And there's those pieces cut out of there.

So, I'll come over to my right here.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Colleen: Well, I actually learned in high school, which was an incredible opportunity.

And we had a class called art metals, where we did different kinds of work with different metals, piercing and sawing copper, and lost wax casting, all different kinds of ways to work with metals, and that included stained glass.

And I loved the stained glass portion.

It was definitely my kind of art.

I love the colors and the textures.

So, I bought the materials and did it as more of a hobby in the background of my life for awhile.

It kind of ebbed and flowed, it came in and out of my life at different times.

But I got a job working with stained glass lamps after college and did that for a long period of time.

And that's when I really honed my skills as a stained glass craftsperson.

David: Did you have any particular influences or memories that, you know, helped you evolve as a creative artist or a creative person?

Colleen: Yeah, I think so.

I wasn't a natural born artist, I don't think.

I definitely have the kind of puzzle mind, engineering mind.

But my parents were really supportive of art, and they would take us to the Chicago Art Institute.

Maybe as a young kid, you don't understand the importance of it.

But as you get older, you start to see the brushstrokes, or you--you know, a sculpture, as you get bigger, you kind of see the work that's put into it.

One example there was Marc Chagall's America windows, those beautiful blue windows.

They were illuminating just a walkway.

So, as you're just wandering this museum, you walk through this beautiful blue--it was a very blue window, a very large, but all blues, and really intricate patterns.

Hadn't learned stained glass, didn't know much about it, but I think that opportunity to see it and absorb it literally was really a good opportunity.

David: Yeah, your work is obviously very influenced by-- or at least by my outside eye, by the natural world.

Can you talk to us a little bit about that?

Colleen: Well, we live in such a beautiful place.

It's hard not to want to incorporate those elements that we have, the redwoods, the ocean.

I grew up in the Midwest, so those elements of being here are definitely a draw and a reason I'm here.

So, I incorporate them in my pieces for myself.

And clients, people that want a stained glass commissioned, they definitely ask for those things too because that's what we all love, the egrets and the pelicans, things that have drawn us to where we call home.

David: You do do a lot of custom work, and there's some great, you know, records of it out there.

Can you tell us a little bit about how that process is different, that it's a collaborative process obviously.

Colleen: Yeah, it's a really fun relationship to develop with someone.

A lot of them are just strangers who contact me 'cause they know I do stained glass.

And it's been such a fun kind of dance to work with because they come with an idea, but most of them will say, "But I like your art.

Why don't you bring something to the table?

And let's make sure that we're both happy at the end of it."

And I think that's the most important thing is that my art and their ideas kind of merge together to be something that they're comfortable with for years to come.

That sits in there.

This project was brought to me by someone who had this designed 35 years ago.

And I redrew the lines off of an old, old design pattern.

And now, it is coming together as lead came.

This is a different version than the copper foil.

This is the channel that the glass will sit in, so that has to be cut around every single piece.

First, I'll show you how this will work on the pattern.

It's a lot of candle parts.

So, I can peel off my pattern pieces when they are-- after they are ground.

You'll see me cutting the lead came to fit in between.

I've got one piece cut right here.

I get to use these nice horseshoe nails to keep everything in place as I go.

Okay, the next one slides in.

And you can see that it really just wants to sit inside that channel.

And after everything's all put in their channels, they will be puttied or cemented so that it's very tight and weatherproof.

This is pure lead, so it's very soft material.

It can cut really easily, it can bend really easily.

And that makes it ideal for this kind of process that kind of--you can't--you have to make every piece unique and fit around even curvy pieces, okay.

The process of stained glass really, it's actually pretty simple once you have the tools.

It's, you know, the cutting, you need your glass cutters.

The grinding, you need your grinders.

Soldering, you need a soldering iron.

But beyond that, there aren't too many fancy gadgets that you need to make your own stained glass.

I like using the human form, specifically female forms, because I feel it's a great placeholder for myself as the artist.

It's also a great way to kind of invite the audience in to being in that moment that you've created, whether it's an emotion or an action.

Different poses will create a different sensation and a different feeling in the viewer.

And for a long time, I did poses that were more at repose and calm.

But a few years ago, there's kind of this more momentous need for action in the world, and I felt that I needed to start making my poses a little stronger, a little more in action mode, so that's been a change in my figure forms.

But it's something that I really--I've enjoyed a long time.

And I think it automatically creates a certain mood when you show people work with figures in it.

So, that's why I keep doing it.

David: Do you have any special dream projects that you've always thought, "Oh, I just really want to do this"?

Colleen: I have a few ideas, and they usually require more space.

The idea of making large panels that are freestanding is something I'd like to do.

And maybe put a show on somewhere that has the space and the lighting to kind of make it.

It kind of--something you can walk around.

David: Right, yeah.

Colleen: That would be fun.

David: Interesting.

Ooh, I like that.

Colleen: Yeah, oh, don't tell anyone, they might steal the idea.

No, it's tricky.

David: It's our secret.

Colleen: Yeah, turn the cameras off for that.

Stained glass is a really--it really is a three-dimensional art, even though it--you know, you look at it as a two-dimensional art.

So, it's fun to kind of think about what's going to be seen from all directions.

Things indoors, for example, you can see as you walk up to it, or from the inside.

So, you think about the glass you choose depends on what kind of privacy a person will want in their home, what kind of light they want to be shining through.

And we work out all of those details.

So, there's some--there's some basic pragmatism involved in selecting colors and textures that it's kind of an interesting part of the process that I think many of the customers I have don't think about that ahead of time.

But it's an important thing.

David: And also the other idea that things-- it's not always going to look the same.

Colleen: Absolutely.

David: It's gonna look very different at different times of day, different, you know, cloud cover, different bright light or almost no light.

It's gonna have a different feel.

Colleen: Different seasons, different times of year when the light will shine directly through it, or just be, you know, coming through the side.

So, it's neat to think about all that.

One of my favorite things is what I call--I call it the sun shadow.

I think the technical term is the refraction of the light.

The sun shines through it, and it will cast the sun shadow onto the opposite surface.

And that will move through a home throughout the year.

And that's where I feel, you know, that kind of godly moment, where you feel-- you feel the warmth of the sun because that's there.

But then you also see and feel the color kind of shining on your--if you walk through it on your body, or on your chair, or your floor.

And that part of it is just--it's so beautiful.

And the textures of glass will look different on the floor.

And you think about a church that has old windows that light up the interior of the church as the sun moves throughout the day, and how that might've been kind of an otherworldly experience at the time.

And without screens and other kinds of lighting devices, that was a really important way for people to feel empowered and kind of a spiritual moment.

So, I like working with the glass and seeing how different times of day will work with the glass.

Different seasons will light it up differently.

And so, I love to think about where something is gonna be placed in someone's home as far as incorporating the light and the aspects of illuminating the pieces of glass itself.

David: Thanks, Colleen, so much for having us in your house and showing us your wonderful work.

It's been really a pleasure.

Colleen: Well, thank you, David.

David: And thank you for joining us on "Studio Space."

Rhynell: For more information about these artists, visit studiospace.tv.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ [Laura speaking Spanish] [Laura speaking Spanish]