- In this edition of ARTEFFECTS, a sculptor's uncommon take on wildlife.

- People instantly have an image in their head of whatever deer they see as a sculpture in their mind.

- Students dance their way to success.

- A lot of things that I've learned from here such as the discipline and the ability to take initiative and being willing to put yourself out there, I have applied in my schooling.

- A map of beauty.

- [Mike] It's repurposing and bringing things together in a way that probably is not conventional.

- And locally, the visual philosophy of artist Jen Charboneau.

- Everybody in my mind is a potential painting.

- It's all ahead on this edition of ARTEFFECTS.

(jazzy music) (upbeat music) - Funding for ARTEFFECTS is made possible by The June S. Wisham Trust, Kate and Richard Kenny, The Nell J. Redfield Foundation, the annual contributions of KNPB members and by... - Hello, I'm Beth Macmillan and this is ARTEFFECTS.

(jazzy music) A passersby might get a surprising eyeful along the Scioto River in Columbus, Ohio, deer, that are not behaving in the usual way.

They are lounging in a human sort of fashion.

Artist Terry Allen is the creator of this visual twist and other whimsical art along this stretch.

(quirky music) - Initially when I came here I'd never looked at Columbus from the point of view of really doing something out in the city.

So I roamed around the city and looked at different sites and proposed different kind of ideas in my mind of things I could do.

But I heard someone say that Scioto River meant hair of the deer.

But that kind of piqued an interest and I started thinking about deer.

It was supposed to be kind of in this area where people lounged around and walked around and took it easy.

I just started thinking about deers instead of people doing the same thing, just kind of lounging around, and that's really where the idea came from.

When I do have a project that's the first thing I do is start drawing and making notes, and just kind of thinking, getting it out of my head onto a sheet of paper.

It can go any direction kind of.

So there's several proposals that I made, not just the deer.

I proposed for Spring and Long Street, neons of springing and longing that would be on these tunnels that people go in and out of.

There's one called the Columbus Stump which is a huge tree stump with carvings in every conceivable language that says wish.

Some of them are absolutely impossible.

That's where the possible, impossible.

Some of them were made, others are just wishful thinking, you know, whatever.

So it's really more of a thought process I think, that happens on paper.

(lively music) Did the drawings and had ideas of what they might look like.

I got forms from a taxidermist in Louisiana, and they're actual styrofoam forms that taxidermy guys use to put the, you know, after they skin the deer they put it back on.

And I used that as an armature and worked in a foundry that I've worked at for years in Walla Walla, Washington.

So we set up, sawed up these pieces and built it, and kind of constructed them into the forms that you see out there now.

And covered them with clay and modeled the clay and then they made a mold from them.

When you're talking about deer, I think people instantly have an image in there head of whatever deer they see as a sculpture in their mind.

These are really, you kind of have to be there, you have to go look because they've been humanized in a sense that they still look like deer, but they're also human.

As far as a lot of their joints, you would never see joints like that on a real deer.

But I did that to kind of, I think make them accessible.

I think that's what so seductive to me about it, is that it becomes really something that people want to be with, and want to actually touch.

(gentle music) No matter how you think through something, as soon as it's there it's real, and it becomes something else.

It becomes its own life, you know.

And that's really important I think.

That it does something, that it doesn't just sit there and say I'm a politician, I'm a general or whatever.

This one is sitting as a deer, and it's not saying anything (chuckles).

It's just sitting there.

And I love it when somebody responds in a way I never anticipated, or says something you never anticipated.

It makes you think about it in a way you never thought.

But I think that's what happens with public work.

That's why I think they're so important.

Because it really is something, that even though it's public it's so personal to each viewer, each person who looks at it.

I think it's resistance people will have to public works is usually because they encounter it and they're used to passing, the habit of passing the place day after day after day, and then suddenly there's something different there.

And almost immediately for some weird reason, different means wrong, it's bad.

It's blocking something, it's doing something, whatever.

But I think over time people get comfortable with it.

(birds chirping) - And you can discover more (jazzy music) about Terry Allen's work by visiting terryallenartmusic.om.

Up next we take you to Rochester, New York, where the Borinquen Dance Theatre aims not only to provide students with the skills to thrive on the dance floor, but also in the classroom.

In this segment, we meet the founder and director, Nydia Padilla Rodriguez, who explains how the program's discipline and rigor helps gear students towards academic success.

(gentle rhythmic music) - Dance is almost like connecting with your inner spirit.

It involves you really focusing on what's happening with you, from within.

And many of our young people, they may not be very good with expressing verbally but when it comes through the arts and using dance as a form of expressing themselves, spiritual development is the way I like to describe it, it helps them build that sense of self-esteem and confidence that because of their personality or even challenges that they may be facing in the home, this becomes like a safe haven.

And I've seen so many young people come through this dance group where they have blossomed just because they've been able to express themselves through dance.

(singing in a foreign language) If you come to one of our performances you're gonna see choreography that reflects the Taino Arawak influence, the Spanish influence, the African influence, and then modern dances to show that we have the capacity to embrace all different styles of dance.

Borinquen is the original name of the island of Puerto Rico.

When I started Borinquen Dance Theatre it was to acknowledge that information and I felt that it was very important for our younger generation to understand their history, their roots, and a sense of their culture.

- I knew I was a Latina but I didn't really start feeling it until I came to dance.

I would learn what it really means to be a Latina, to be strong and powerful and independent.

When you start dancing you feel that, once you're on stage and you just command presence.

- Before I joined the company I didn't feel like I had a place in the Latina community.

When I came to Borinquen I wasn't just searching for a place to dance, I was searching for a place to find out who I was as a Hispanic woman, because being Puerto Rican is a huge part of who I am and Nydia really taught me to be confident in that.

- It takes a lot of discipline to learn how to dance.

It is very precise, it's very meticulous, you have to pay attention to a lot of things that you are doing both physically and mentally.

So, when you do that, it just automatically engraves itself in you and it's something that you don't even notice that you carry over into the other aspects of your life.

(gentle music) - The classes that I have is about rigor, it's about discipline, it's about being the best that you can be.

You may not be the greatest dancer but if you work so hard and you're diligent with trying to build your skill set, whether it's technique or presenting yourself in front of the public or just becoming more comfortable with who are you, to me that's success.

You transfer that over to your school work.

You have no business being here if you're not taking care of your homework and you're not taking care of business at the school site.

In order for them to be part of Borinquen Dance Theatre, they have to maintain a GPA of 2.5 and above and also school attendance.

Because I do work for the Rochester City School District as an administrator so I have access to data.

And what I see happening in our community, Latino population and African American right now, we're in a very crisis situation.

So, if I can have an impact through the arts then I want to be a part of that mission.

- A lot of things that I've learned from here such as the discipline and the ability to take initiative and being willing to put yourself out there, I have applied in my schooling.

So, by doing so I feel like the experience that I have in school is more enriching because I'm willing to grow and I'm as open as I am for my education as I am in dance class.

(rhythmic music) (singing in a foreign language) - Say if I have a pretty rough day at school I would just come here and I just dance and I let it all out and then feel better about myself because I worked so hard.

I like to encourage any young dancer, if they want to learn more about their history and their roots and learn more about dance and grow as a dancer, just come here, it's great.

I love it here.

- Borinquen is really an extraordinary company.

Not many dance companies make it to 35 years.

We're dedicated, we're motivated dancers, the people here have inspired me, they've given me faith in myself and in my community.

We support each other here, we support our goals, we work together.

And with Nydia as a leader I don't think we can go wrong.

- You can find out more (jazzy music) about Borinquen Dance Program by visiting borinquendancetheatre.org.

And now let's take a look at this week's art quiz.

What artist created a series of 32 cans of Campbell's soup?

Is the answer A, Andy Warhol, B, Roy Lichtenstein, C, James Rosenquist, or D, Claes Oldenburg?

Stay tuned for the answer.

- Paper maps are essential to portrait artist Ed Fairburn who uses them as a canvas for his detailed work.

His thoughtful integration of human portraits and topography make it appear as though the two have always belonged together.

In this segment we head to Denver, Colorado, where Fairburn recently created a series of new pieces for the Mike Wright Gallery that add even more depth to his work.

(upbeat music) - The idea of harmonizing a portrait with a map, suggests that we are a product of the landscape.

- Ed's got incredible talent.

He also has great creativity.

- Different types of map produce different results, different patterns.

- He's taken an everyday item and creating something else from it.

What he happens to create is beautiful and thought-provoking and emotional.

- [Ed] It's repurposing and bringing things together in a way that probably is not conventional.

- He's got quite a bit of international recognition, already in a very short amount of time.

- I'm generally more concerned with the aesthetics of the map rather than the location.

Friday we had the show opening here.

It was great to be able to talk to people about my work.

It's a railroad map of part of California.

- [Woman] It's beautiful.

- [Ed] It's the first full figure piece that I've produced.

- [Mike] The reason his work really resonates so well with just about everybody that sees it, is the first impression.

- It's just neat.

You're on the ocean and you've got the blue of the blueprint.

- And when they realize it, wait a minute that's on a map.

- Oh it's the California coastline.

You know, it's nice the way it kind of reveals itself.

- Then they take a closer look and that's when the real skill of, of what Ed is doing starts coming through.

(gentle guitar music) - My main muse is my creative partner, Bobbie, Bobbie Jo.

And who, we work together quite a lot.

She's one of my key models.

My main concern is the idea of beauty in a very classical sense.

The female form is beautiful, just as it is.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

(woman laughing) Saturday I was in the studio at the gallery here.

And that's a contoured map that I am working into.

It will be a little while until it's finished.

It's a particularly large piece.

- What we asked him to do when we signed him on was to maybe produce some pieces that were more related to the area, Colorado, Western US.

(gentle music) - You have a very beautiful landscape here in Colorado.

I like the changes, the extreme changes in topography.

I think one of my favorite types of map to work with show lines of elevation, so the contoured maps.

They're the very free flowing organic patterns, almost like a kind of marbling effect.

The formula is always there, it's already there, it's just the case of bringing it out.

- Maps are an interesting medium to choose.

One of the things that also captivates people about maps is they can feel connection to a place when they look at his work.

(lively fiddle music) - There's a map store around the corner.

It does feel right, yeah.

The crops really unusual, isn't it?

Maps are obviously still used but now it's becoming rarer to purchase a map.

People, if they want to know how to get somewhere they pull out their phone.

So actually the art of reading a map is kind of becoming lost as well.

Well, there's a certain aesthetic, something tactile about being able to handle a map and examining it and studying it and seeing where you have to be.

It's very serendipitous that here at the gallery there's this shop around the corner.

It's a very exciting space for me to be in.

In many, many areas of the portrait, I kind of let the map, you know, just do what it wants to do.

Some of the more important areas, yeah I'll have more of a hand at actually kind of altering the map.

Roads and streets are obviously manmade, but the patterns, the way in which roads are arranged, particularly in the UK for example, London, I often describe being, it's like spaghetti on a plate, the roads just going in and out of everywhere and that can be quite of organic.

(lighthearted music) There's something about ink.

It's a real commitment.

That kind of brings out a different kind of skill set to be able to show tonal range on a map with a positive negative media.

- [Mike] He also does work on other substrates.

He uses blueprints, star charts.

- I like a challenge, so I like to work with a real variety.

- [Mike] He's now getting into doing cutouts.

He'll do a drawing on a map and then cut away pieces of that map and then he'll lay that map on top of another map.

So, we're getting actual dimension out of the work.

That's what I like.

I see him moving in new directions.

(gentle guitar music) - I've got many things that I would like to do in my lifetime creatively.

My work is a constant evolution just like many other artists.

I do have certain messages that I get across, and particularly with the relationship between the human figure and the landscape.

But ultimately I know that when something hangs in somebody's home they're gonna take what they want from it and that's fine, that's the beauty of it.

- And you can see more (jazzy music) of this artist's collection by visiting edfairburn.com.

Now let's review this week's art quiz.

What artist created a series of 32 cans of Campbell's soup?

Is the answer A, Andy Warhol, B, Roy Lichtenstein, C, James Rosenquist, or D, Claes Oldenburg?

And, the answer is A, Andy Warhol.

In our local segment, classically-trained artist Jen Charboneu has always had a nomadic sense of place with her work, until she passed through Reno and found a place to call home and share her visual philosophy throughout the community.

- Everybody in my mind (lively music) is a potential painting when they offer me that certain pose or posture or moment of complete composition.

My subject matter is across the board anything that I am observing in day-to-day life that is unique or interesting or inspiring.

Sometimes it could be from being out on the streets and sketching people doing their daily routine and noticing or observing who's out and the uniqueness of them.

I am classically trained so I'm into the figure and studying the figure.

A lot of my work, starting from university, was based off of being influenced by Impressionists and sublime painters.

I worked within the expressionist and impressionist style.

So, my work is very gestural and quick brush strokes and a lot of action in it, I guess we could say.

I went to school in Wisconsin and after that I traveled extensively for almost eight years.

But, when I finally came back and I was thinking I wanted to settle within the US, my end place was actually supposed to be San Francisco.

And, it was just coincidence.

I knew someone in the Reno Tahoe area.

They mentioned they had a project for me here and I saw the arts vibrancy in this town and I was like why am I going to the Bay?

This is the Renaissance here.

So, I stayed.

With my paintings I go across the board.

I'll start with charcoal and with ink and I'll use oil, pastels, a little bit of spray paint.

So, I'm a full on mixed media artist.

(ethereal rhythmic music) Being in Nevada with the expanse of endless landscape and open landscape, anything is fair game with me as far as subject matter.

I'm out there almost every weekend camping and painting.

You're going to places where not many people even know exist and then you're existing in it.

And, that gives a lot of inspiration to my work.

Another big part of my work is making people kind of think about what they're experiencing in front of them.

So, there's a lot of philosophical puns, I guess you could say.

Those red squares or the blue squares that are going across the horizon lines in all these landscapes are the idea that we're currently a society who's embraced technology to a point where a lot of our experience with these big epic endless landscapes is behind a panoramic phone shot.

So, it's almost bringing that familiarity to the viewer just to remind them, like, this is where you usually pay attention because we're looking through our phones so frequently now.

We've trained our eyes to have that still shot of repetition across a space or across a moment.

With artists, we have to face rejection a lot.

And, the biggest thing I think is vulnerability and putting yourself out there.

And, once you get to a point where you're in front of everybody and you just don't care, that's a point when your creative expression can take its full leap.

And, you're not conscious of the viewer, you're only conscious of their experience once you're finished with it.

- To learn more about Jen (jazzy music) and her work, visit jcharboneau.com.

And that wraps it up for this edition of ARTEFFECTS.

For more arts and culture and to watch past episodes, visit knpb.org/arteffects.

Until next week I'm Beth Macmillan.

Thanks for watching.

(upbeat music) - Funding for ARTEFFECTS is made possible by The June S. Wisham Trust, Kate and Richard Kenny, The Nell J. Redfield Foundation, the annual contributions of KNPB members, and by... (jazzy music)