(drum roll beating) - [Mark] In this edition of "Artistic Horizons".

(symbol clashing) - [Katherine] Women's stories might at most be a footnote in standard history that you might study in school, so it's important that these stories are told.

(gentle music) - Painting to me, in some way, saved my life because it truly gave me a new perspective in life.

(gentle music) (bright music) - [Tameka] I would love for people to just be able to come into this space and feel a connection to the human experience.

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

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

The National Votes for Women Trail is made up of over 2,400 sites that tell the untold story of women's suffrage.

In this segment, we travel to Ohio to Sewah Studios, a manufacturer of roadside historical markers, to see how they're helping spotlight this important part of women's history.

- [Narrator] Suffragists were instrumental in laying the groundwork for the human rights we have today, many of which go beyond a woman's right to vote.

- Women of the past can be models for us today, their words speak to so many of the events that are happening in the political arena in the United States right now.

When we think about art and the suffrage movement, we need to think about two different eras, the era before we have the technologies that enable us to mass produce and mass distribute pictures, and photograph, and even to record and share music.

One of the more important artists for the women's suffrage movement in Ohio was Cornelia Cassady Davis.

Davis was a Cincinnati artist, she was a member of the Cincinnati Women's Suffrage Party, she participated in a competition in 1912 for that year's campaign, when Ohio women were widely expected to succeed in getting the vote.

Davis created a work that was later reproduced in postcards and posters, "Let Ohio Women Vote."

It became iconic for the Ohio campaign.

It's modeled after the state seal and uses elements of that.

One of Davis's competitors in this campaign was Nina Allender.

Allender becomes perhaps one of the most influential suffrage cartoonists of the era, through her work for the National Women's Party publication, "The Suffragist".

If I think of art in the women's suffrage movement, there are three stories about the impact of art that come to mind.

The first is from the early 1850s, and it actually has to do with a sculpture by Hiram Powers called "The Greek Slave".

This sculpture of the Greek slave toured the country, and Lucy Stone, who became a national leader in women's suffrage, saw the sculpture and was moved to spend more of her time focused on women's rights.

A second story has to do with theatrical professional, Hazel MacKaye, and she's the mastermind behind many of the pageants that the National Women's Party produced.

In connection with the famous 1913 Suffrage Parade, MacKaye created a pageant at the front of the treasury building, called "The Allegory".

A third story has to do with the Portrait Monument, which suffragists commissioned and gave to the country in February of 1921, it's a bust of Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

The thing about the portrait monument is it spent exactly one day in the rotunda, and then was relegated to the basement for the next 75 years, and it took an act of Congress to get it restored to the rotunda.

Women in history in general are overlooked, women's stories might at most be a footnote in standard history that you might study in school, so it's important that these stories are told.

- In 2016, we started a volunteer grassroots effort, and we populated a database with sites of importance to the women's suffrage story.

- [Katherine] There are more than 2,020 sites on the online map for the National Votes for Women Trail.

- Along the way, the William G. Pomeroy Foundation in Syracuse, New York recognized the importance of this project, and offered to fund over 200 historical roadside markers, so that made our virtual trail into a physical trail.

The Sewah Studios has been really terrific to work with, and we're so grateful for their expertise.

- Sewah Studios is America's premier cast aluminum historical marker manufacturer, located here in Marietta, Ohio.

Sewah Studios was founded in 1927, it was really a man's dream to mark the byways and the highways of America with cast aluminum historical markers.

Sewah is really the only known large manufacturer of historical markers in the nation.

This is a niche business, we make nothing but historical markers.

Sewah's process is really kinda locked in time, there's really four really core processes.

First, we typeset the patterns, where we individually lay out every letter, and then we glue them in place just long enough to make an impression in the sand, which is our next process, which is the sand foundry, and this process dates back all the way to the Egyptians.

The sand comes from the Ohio River, the Ohio River has a perfect silt and clay mixture for the casting process.

We make two molds, put them together, and then in the void, we transfer the mold aluminum.

After the casting is made, we bring it into our finishing department, where we work down any of the imperfections, or the pouring gates, and we try to clean it up from a metal standpoint to get it ready for the painting process.

After that, we take it into our electrostatic powder coating process, puts a very hard durable finish on it.

Next, we then roll on a liquid enamel on all of the letters to get the contrasting view to where you can actually read them, and then we do the beautiful hand-painted seals.

The Votes for Women's Trail markers' design comes from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation, and they're really kind of a neat combination of a white and the pink, and then some of the more delicate, more feminine looking colors, and we really think it's a nice grouping of colors to go on our marker, and they've been well received nationwide.

(crowd cheering) - Another mission of the National Votes for Women Trail was that we wanted to shine a light on underrepresented women.

We're telling the stories that we don't know about of women of color.

(crowd cheering) - [Narrator] One of those women was Jewelia Galloway Higgins, a highly influential woman in the Dayton community.

- Jewelia began going to the meetings of the Dayton Women's Suffrage Association.

It was a segregated organization, she would be referred to within the minutes as, "The colored woman was here today.

The colored woman was back again."

Well, the colored woman built a booth, and she took it to the Dayton Courthouse on Mondays, and she began to give speeches on women's suffrage and the women's right to vote.

At that time, she invited women from the WCA, the Women's Christian Association Number Two, she invited women from the Dayton Women's Suffrage Association to come and give speeches as well.

So, what began as a segregated effort, it was through her efforts that it became an integrated effort.

And likely, because of the amount of racism that was endured and faced during that time, she left that organization, and it was very evident that her work for suffrage never stopped, she was able to do that work through the WCA.

And, it was later that we found, within our family handwritten archives, that she organized the Montgomery County Equal Women's Suffrage Association.

Would the Dayton community be different had there been no Jewelia Higgins?

Absolutely it would be.

Voters' rights, the support of women's rights, the support of women's right to choose, all of these were things that Jewelia worked with and towards within her lifetime.

And here we are again.

So, we pass torches, they are not extinguished.

What was done generations ago is relevant today, learn from it, augment it for today's world and society, and keep up the fight.

(lively jazzy music) - And now, for the artist quote of the week.

(lively jazzy music) Faced with pain and struggle, art has given Melvin Gomez hope.

In his paintings and drawings, he examines the human condition, our emotions and feelings.

We take a trip to Florida for the story.

(gentle music) - Since my childhood, I was supposed to be creative, by making my own toys with the material that I found in nature, including wood, clay, rock.

And, since then, I have been really interested in art, and one of my neighbor, he's a painter, and I always looked at him, he's working.

At some point I ask him if he was willing to teach me, because he don't teach, and he say, "Yes."

So, I started having classes with him, with my neighbor, and that's how I start getting truly into painting and drawing.

(gentle music) And in 2014, I got the opportunity to study visual art in an international school in Norway, and I met Kimberly White, Associate Director, International Mission from Ringling.

And I knew about the fine art program and I say, "I want to go there."

- As department head, I look at all the applications, and when Melvin arrived, he came from the school in Norway, so I thought he would be Norwegian.

And then he showed up on campus, and obviously he was not in Norwegian.

(bright upbeat music) He's a really gifted painter, he's expressive, he's got great content that's there, he's trying to deal with the human condition and bigger issues.

But just in the general way of applying paint, I just love his surfaces and a sense of color and composition and form and the brush marks.

(bright upbeat music) - He knows that his hand can make certain marks that no one else's can.

This kinda mark is more appropriate for the horse, this kinda mark is more appropriate for the figure, this kinda mark is more appropriate for the landscape, or the light source and the clouds.

That ability to grasp that, and to organize it, and then to adjust it continuously is like, I think everyone who has worked around Melvin knows that like his trajectory is like superstar level, like, and we're all glad to just be part of it.

(Michael laughing) I would say it's incredibly rare, and the level of sophistication goes into not just, like, great technical skills, as far as rendering, but seeing some of the compositions, you start to see right away, oh, there's dynamics of interaction, social, political, and historic as well.

- There is really a strong composition to see children shooting a horse, but I grew up in El Salvador, around that social context with guns.

I don't want to glorify violence, at the same time, I want also the viewers to have their own interpretation when they confront my painting.

Because, for instance, the painting in the back, it's a concert of life and death.

(gentle music) - Like, you can talk about philosophy with Melvin, you can talk about like political things, you can talk about like really deep, intellectual associations of subject matter that oftentimes you never get to that point in a conversation with students.

- My art has some classical approach in my artistic process, but at the same time, I am trying to pursue and find my own voice.

- He knows what he's doing, and we're just here to help along with like technical advice, conceptual advice, maybe some references or historic context.

But the subject matter, the themes, what he's creating and venting and transferring to the surface, that's entirely his, and it's beautiful.

- That is my main inspiration, to express human condition, emotion, feelings, and desire, and I use my personal experience as an inspiration.

(gentle music) In 2009, my life changed forever.

(gentle music) I was a victim of gun violence in my country.

(gentle music) I saw art, in a way it was, it gave me hope and motivation to move forward in life.

I wake up happy to pursue my passion, and I'm so happy to come to my studio, because there is a painting waiting for me.

- There's been times where I've come in here, like there's been a Thursday class, and I come back in on Monday and I'm like, "How did you even do all this work?"

Like, "Did you sleep?"

(gentle music) - I'm gonna graduate in May next year, my goal at the moment is to teach.

Also, I want to go back to my country and share what Ringling taught me.

I went back to my country after I finished my studies in Norway, and I opened an art school for children with the mission of breaking the cycle of gun violence and providing the tool to create art, three years ago, with my neighbor who taught me painting classes.

And I told him like, "While I'm not here, you are in charge from the art school, and when I come back, I'll take full responsibility."

My main focus is to keep them busy and spending their time positive.

- It'd be great for Melvin to stay here, I think he'd be an incredible asset to the community, and a great leader, and maybe he'll come back.

But I think he could bring all those traits back to his home country and really build something special over there.

- It's truly important.

Painting to me in some way, I would say saved my life, because it truly gave me a new perspective in life, and I don't see myself doing something else.

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

(lively jazzy music) Inspired by Yaa Gyasi's novel, "Homegoing", the exhibit "Home Again: The Embodiment of Africa Through Art and Fabric" features work by local, national, and international artists that link the past to the present, and invoke the idea of home.

From quilts, to sculpture, to photography, the art on display is connected in a variety of ways.

We travel to the Massillon Museum in Ohio to find out more.

(bright lively music) - I wanted people, when they came to the exhibition, to be able to travel through the essence of the book.

The essence of the book is always bringing you back to home, which is Ghana.

The book is all about two sisters who were half sisters, they were separated at birth.

One sister ended up staying in Ghana and marrying a British man who came to colonize in Ghana, the other sister ended up being sold into slavery.

It was really important for me to have the show be a great representation of the story, and so I wanted to have artists that were international artists from Africa, I wanted to have artists that were local artists, as well as national artists.

So, we have national, international, and regional artists represented in the show.

- "River Spirit" is an accumulation of different fabrics that I've painted and embellished.

I make a form out of what would be considered like paper maché, and I cure the paper pulp for about two years.

This happens to be a representation of the struggle of someone that is from the motherland, Africa.

She lives off of the river, her spirit comes from the river, she is the river spirit.

(bright music) - Chepape Makgato is a South African artist, he is a painter who does collage work with fabrics.

I love his work because he's representing oftentimes women.

In his culture, he represents people that are socialites, like this particular one is actually someone who's a royal person in South African culture.

And so, he does work that is definitely inspired by what's happening in culture.

He has a piece over here called "Family", this piece over here, that has the mask on, that was created during the time of COVID.

He wanted to show how family members were still able to be together and communicate even though, you know, they were having to be draped with these fabrics around their faces.

(bright music) When we think about home, typically we think about the curtains in our grandmother's living room, or we might think about the sofa print that was, you know, the floral print that was on the sofa, or we oftentimes think about quilts and our bedding, the things that kept us warm in the evening.

The Gee's Bend Collective has a tremendous history, they started quilting during enslavement times, like around like the mid-1800s is when the Gee's Bend Collective started, they didn't call it that at the time, but that's when the ladies started quilting.

And eventually, their quilts became this international phenomenon, you can see Gee's Bend quilts in the Smithsonian, they have been collected all over the world.

- I drove to Gee's Bend, and met a woman by the name of Queenie Pettway, who was a very, very famous quilter in Gee's Bend.

And these quilts really symbolize what you can do with your hands, and a little bit of something, just a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and it turns into this.

(bright lively music) - This is "Tallulah Beulah", and "Tallulah Beulah" is like my version of what we call a scarecrow, or a garden fairy, that would be placed in the garden, or what would be formerly known as the plantation.

These are mostly a collage of cuttings from art pieces that I have made over the years and designed for what I consider wearable art.

The dream pot next to her is, as a child, I had a neighbor that was down in Selma that used to tell us, "Just tear off a piece of cotton, or tear off a piece of fabric, think about your dream, drop it in the pot, Honey, it'll come to you."

So, that is what that's from.

(bright lively music) - So, Chesley Antoinette, she did a collection called "Tignon", where she created sculptural pieces as well as photography.

And, what I absolutely love about these pieces is that it shows the depth, the richness, the variety that women can use.

And so, in Louisiana there was the Tignon law and women, they had to wear a head covering over their head, it was law, they couldn't leave the house without it.

And so, Chesley's work being almost like a reinvention of what those ladies probably looked like, you know, a long time ago, and the variety of things that they did, how creative they had to be to come up with all of these different styles that they had to wear, you know, as a way to oppress, but really, it became an enhancement.

(bright music) - It is such an honor to be showcasing artists who are local, and national, and international, because it really reflects the extent to which our community has an ability to invite artists and perspectives from all around the globe.

Museums help shrink our worlds by introducing us to how large and vast the world is, but helping unify us around these common themes and these things we have in common.

- One of the things that connects us all as human beings is our use of fabric.

And so I would love for people to just be able to come into this space and feel a connection to the human experience.

(bright music) (lively jazzy music) - And now, here's a look at a few notable dates in art history.

(lively jazzy 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 jazzy music) (lively jazzy music continues) (bright music)