- In this edition of arteffects, Teaching in the Amazon - I really believe that the arts can really improve an economy and make it sustainable.

- [Beth] An innovative music collective.

- We don't take training for this, we literally just know what we wanna do.

We invite other people to do it with us and we all figure it out together.

And we just get better together.

- [beth] From chairs, to tables, to labs.

- Furniture can be art.

It's not, you know, the functionality people would think, "Oh, well, if it's functional, it's not art."

But I really think it is because it changes people - [Beth] And Plain air painting in Tahoe.

- I've lived in Tahoe 23 years and I still get blown away with the colors and the beauty of the Lake.

It never gets old.

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

(instrumental music) - [Announcer ] Funding for aRTeffects, is made possible by Sandy Raffealli, The June S Wishaman Estate, Carol Frank Buck, Merrill and Lebo Newman, Heidemarie Rochlin, Meg and Dillard Myers, The annual contributions of PBS Reno Members.

And by.

- Hello, I'm Beth McMillan and welcome to arteffects.

In our featured segment, we learn about the incredible journeys of Reno artist, Tia Flores, who travels to the banks of the Amazon River in Peru, where she teaches the local river people, how to diversify their economy through craft making, using natural materials from the surrounding jungle.

Here is her story.

(tribal music) (bird chirping) - What brought me to the Amazon jungle was a friend of mine by the name of Barbara Land.

And she was doing some research in South America and fell in love with that particular part of the country.

And she was working with a group, a family group, in this village called Ayacucho village, which is in deep in the heart of the Amazon jungle.

And as she was working with them, she noticed that they wanted to perfect their craft so that they could bring a sustainable income to their economy.

So she reached out to me and asked me if I would be willing.

And after several years of declining, I finally agreed to go.

(soft music) My desire to go there was to work with the women there and help them perfect the craft so that they could bring some more money to their economy by selling natural wares, that they were able to create there in the jungle and sell to tourists coming by from all over the world.

And that was a really enticing thing for me because I really believe that the arts can really improve an economy and make it a sustainable.

So it was right there where, where my belief system was.

So I was very excited to venture into the jungle.

(tribal music) We're actually in the Peruvian side of the Amazon.

So how we traveled there was from the United States into Lima, took another flight into Iquitos.

The only way to get to a Iquitos is either by boat or plane and we took a boat.

And it takes about 3-4 hours as you travel up the Amazon river with a motor boat and then we're able to get into Ayacucho village and the environment and the people were just amazing.

(tribal music) You're surrounded by this abundance of beauty and life.

And you see life cycle in its natural form.

How everything has a purpose and a reason and timing.

All the fruit that's produced by the different trees.

A particular monkey eats that particular fruit or it drops into the water for it to particular fish.

And I'd have to say the people are just as amazing because they love that environment.

They cherish that environment.

They're stewards of that environment.

(tribal music) The majority of the people who actually live in the river villages, like Ayacucho, are residents of Peru.

And what they've done is they've chosen to you know, venture into that environment and to live that lifestyle there.

Basically they're just three four generations old in there and they're still figuring out how they.. what they bring to that environment and how they can be good stewards of that environment.

And it's really exciting to see them bring their own style to that craft making.

Because of the diverse natural materials that everybody has access to in the Amazon, you're able to make all different kinds of crafts, from a simple thing as a bracelet by using pom and corgi nut and, you know decorating it with seeds to a beautiful elaborate necklace.

Basketry is just amazing there as well as, you know, necklaces and bracelets that, you know, might use the spine of a particular like snake or a piranha, you know, the piranha teeth, that's really popular.

(tribal music) My first trip to the Amazon was in summer of 2018.

I was able to return in the spring of 2019.

And again in the spring of 2020, right before the pandemic hit.

(dramatic music) The president of Peru had put a mandate that no travel could take place.

So to get home was basically was in two parts.

Our first main objective is to get out of the jungle.

Boats were prevented from traveling.

So how do we get safe passage out of the jungle and to the city of a Iquitos.

In fact, the minister of tourism and the police, the federal police met us to guide us to Iquitos.

And then once we got to Iquitos, that was the next step.

We knew the only way to get out of Iquitos was by plane and we needed to get to Lima.

And at that point we needed permission from the embassy.

We were very lucky because through our conversations and working through local officials here in Reno and Senator Cortez Masto, we were able to secure a seat on a repatriation flight through the US embassy, to fly out of Peru and get back safely to the United States.

(upbeat music) As an artist, I could really tell from this experience how much it influenced my artwork and how much it really wanted me to take a deep dive into my own craft making and to utilize the natural materials that I have around me and how I can incorporate that into my art.

So that was exciting part to experience that.

- Learn more at tiaflores.com.

Tribe is a collective of artists dedicated to art and activism.

Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, this talented group brings together members of the community through music and events.

Have a listen.

♪ Look at the stars ♪ I guess really is not that far ♪ - Well, we were originally called Black Sage Tribes.

So tribe has always been here but once we changed our name from Black Sage Tribe, we wanted to keep tribe because tribe is just that whole inclusive family field.

And that's what we always want to bring in the city but then it's an acronym as well.

So we mapped it out as true representation of intellectual individuals and vocal black excellence.

It's three I's and there is three of us, of course, which is symbolic.

And then tribe overall, like that's just our staple.

We operate as a tribe, you know and we reach out to people and look to make them our tribe so.. - I think what surprises people most from my perspective is that we haven't been together for a long time.

We've only been doing this for honestly a year as tribe and only two years of us really knowing each other, diving into what it means to create.

- I think the dynamic of us like being one male, two women showing how we could work together.

I think that that's not always often seen so people are not surprised, but yeah, they are surprised when they are able to see like how fluid we are able to work because you really don't often see it that much.

We're not professionals at all.

We don't take training for this.

We literally just know what we want to do.

We invite other people to do it with us and we all figure it out together and we just get better together.

And that's powerful for people to see, just to know how easily attainable it is to make your community better.

♪ Take heart, take things every time, every time, ♪ ♪ Take heart, take things every time, take heart, take.. ♪ - Its a book club, that's every first Monday - There's an event called Indigo vibe and flow and it's for like, an intergenerational group of people that are interested in learning how to communicate.

There's also solstice, which is yoga meditation, mindfulness mixed with food.

- We got raising the bars every first and third Thursday, that's downtown.

And we talked to the children in the Cincinnati Public Library and we are challenging them to, you know, express themselves and be able to put it in a different way.

- What else?

There's politic with the people every last Sunday of the month - Urban gardening classes, fitness classes.

- Okay we have fitness classes on Sundays (indistinct) Daniel from Burst out.

Workout fitness is a part of Cincinnati peace movement as well.

- Seeing all the different kinds of people that come out to the different kinds of things that we do.

There's this range, wide range of ages, wide range of backgrounds that comes out to speak their truth.

- So over here, this is the Art Academy of Cincinnati, students get together and decided to be a part of this event by giving people the opportunity to express themselves through art.

I believe that this is a awesome thing that they're doing because as you can see people getting a chance to not just eat and get clothing and stuff like that, it's fellowshipping and getting to know people, getting to know your neighbors, getting to know the community, people in the community.

You know, we're not all bad people, you know what I mean?

So I think it's a good thing.

(instrumental music) - We wanted to drop a album for about two years now.

So and then had to recreated as now.

And when you say.

- We recorded like 40 songs.

- I mean its.. - There's like so many songs.

That have not (indistinct) - It was almost 22 tracks.

- Right.

- There are songs that we've even forgotten.

There are coming to mind right now that am sure we've recorded.

That we're going to be honest.

- But it started off as just us writing a ton of material, us recording a ton of material, different places looking for the right sound.

- Right.

- Different people - For this album.

I feel like we spent almost, probably like a solid a year and probably spending three days out the week.

We were doing something with the album whether it was writing something together, whether it was listening to something together, whether it's playing something, even if that was being played and it wasn't on the album.

Just us getting together, building that chemistry it all started to create everything that we was doing.

- The concept for "I am what I am" is all that we are.

All that we are right now.

Truth, speaking, that true storytelling.

- Your truth.

- Yeah.

- Like "I am what I am", like take that everybody just not like as tribe but like as a listener, you are who you are.

(rap music) - We took a roles like really well.

Peace is a muscle(indistinct), he gets it done.

Like he's an executioner.

I already know that Zee honestly keeps us going.

She maintains us.

And then again, I'm just kind of bossy feel, ooh.

But we all like we do have these personality traits that makes it easy for us not, I won't say easy.

It makes it possible for us to stay organized.

- We have many things that we're good at and to utilize, like how to really like come together.

That has been like a huge huge phase of growth.

We're always evolving and figuring out how best to work with one another.

Not just in this three that we have but all over the city.

We have not always had the platform or pool that we have now.

So when we first started it was just three young adults trying to figure out the best way to make something happen.

And a lot of people, we would not be here right now if it weren't for a lot of people, giving us chances, investing their time, energy.. - Showing up all of that places.

- Yeah all of that.

- Sharing.

- Taking us places.

Letting us use their cars.

- Our visibility is huge.

And that's something that comes directly from the community.

- To have known tribe as three separate beings.

And for them to just coagulate into this super being of a group, it gives me chills.

The impact that they have on the community is phenomenal and it's glorious.

And it's something you want to hear.

You need to hear to follow through with living a good life or just being a better person.

They have set a bar, without even trying, they paved the way for people to follow.

And that's just that.. - Tribe.

Tri-i-i-be.

- Tri-i-i-ibe.

- Tribe, tribe, tribe.

(phone ringing) - Our message and music is not the usual music and sound that you would hear or at least advertise now.

And that's cool cause it is what it is and we are who we are.

And I think that's important to make that statement is rebellious even, just saying like at the end of the day with all this influence around us, this is who we are.

I am what I am.

And then you just kind of have to deal with that.

- Listen to more of the group's music at facebook.com/tribeworldwide.

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

Where does the Amazon river system originate?

Is the answer A Brazil, B Peru, C Bolivia or D Ecuador.

And the answer is B Peru.

From chairs to tables to labs.

Well, the Cindy wind creates furniture out of scrap metal.

Let's see her works that are inspired by 18th century design and science fiction.

(welder machine rattling) - I'm Cindy Wind, I've been making furniture for the last 30 years.

I build furniture out of scrap metal.

I have probably about 200-250,000 pounds of scrap metal.

My welding studio.

Then I have an idea or the scrap metal gives me an idea and I go out and I start collecting parts.

And I keep at it until I have the whole design.

Usually I design about 10-12 pieces at once.

So there's pieces and parts everywhere that I have a future as furniture, either lamps tables or chairs is usually what I make.

Furniture can be art.

It's not, you know, the functionality people think, "Oh well it's, if it's functional, it's not art."

But I really think it is because it changes people.

You know, when people just because you can touch it and sit on it doesn't mean it's not art.

I first got started in college.

I took all the basic classes, drawing, painting and then I glommed onto ceramics.

For about three years which was six semesters.

At the end of the sixth semester, our ceramics teacher said, "you guys get all your stuff out of here" and I thought, well, I'll just take a break.

And I'll take sculpture too, which was welding.

I learned how to weld really easily.

And I was frustrated because that meant anything creative.

So I just made my partner a chair as a joke.

And it's like my brain lit on fire.

And ideas can come from the materials or it can come from my head and then I squeezed the materials into my idea or vice versa.

But I study all kinds of furniture, especially 18th century.

18th century furniture has really a lot of amazing details.

I use some glass, some wood but mostly it's all scrap metal.

I go out into either, if I'm up North, I go out into a real scrapyard or if I'm down South here I go out into my own scrapyard and I look for parts.

I do a lot of welding, a lot of cutting with a grinding disc and a lot of cuttings of torch.

And then welding is the most fun step.

And then the final step is to put a final coat of lacquer on it and take it down to the gallery.

The grinding is still rough, but the cutting, I love cutting a love welding, I love putting stuff together, I love the hot metal.

Even when it burns me, I don't mind, you know, I feel happy.

I'm working on a number of projects, so what I'm going to show you today is the end of a, it's a serious called a Lynch Chair.

And I've learned a new thing about spring steel.

You can't really weld it.

So I catch it in a little cage.

So that's the final step on this lynch chair.

So it'll still have movement with the spring but it won't be in danger of breaking.

My most recent commission, I did the headboard on commissions.

I have four panels to carve the headboards all complete except putting it together and carving the last three out of the four wood panels.

And for speculative, I usually do pedestals, console tables end tables, a lot of chairs.

Chairs are my favorite 'cause chairs are really where I think the art is in my work.

Because I make them so that people are very trepidatious when they see them.

And then when they sit down, I can see for an instant everything kind of evaporates and they're back into a childlike state and they start laughing cause it moves and it's comfortable and it's usually down here (indistinct) school.

I just liked that moment when they changes their perception of what furniture is about you know, it makes them feel differently about furniture and the way people interact with furniture changes when they see my stuff.

- Check out more of wind's creations at iamfurniture.com.

Next we head above the shows of beautiful Lake Tahoe, to meet Incline village based artist, Monica Piper Johnson.

And see how she creates beautiful plain air paintings of her surrounding environments.

(guitar music) - I live in Incline Village Nevada and I'm a planner oil painter.

I love painting Aspen trees and I love mountains.

I love big wide open meadow, scenes have mountains in the distance.

(gentle music) Most of my plainer painting is around the Lake Tahoe area.

Some of my favorite places are up at the Mount Rose Meadow.

Any of the East shore beaches that you can hike down to.

I also love the Mount Rose lookout because it's just easy.

You can pull right up.

It's right there on the side of the road.

It's just a great vantage point in all different directions.

And it's never the same.

Some days the winds up in the lake's really blue, deep blue and then sometimes it's calm and it's like a total glass reflection.

When I paint the Lake, I wear polarized glasses.

Some I can see the color more intense because I can see through the glare.

(gentle relaxing music) When you are painting outside of on location, you know, obviously you're dealing with, you know, the weather's doing its dance and the lights changing in the shadows are moving.

So you really have to work quickly.

So you've got to seize the moment (indistinct) just get up.

You can't mess around.

And that lends itself to having kind of a looser painting because you're working under just a quick impression of it.

The progression of my painting is normally as I start from the back or either work top to bottom or back to front, I start with the thing that's the furthest away.

And then gradually get closer and closer.

And I like a spot where I can have something that's in the foreground and the middle ground and the distance because one of the challenges of painting is getting that right relationship between the sky and as first couple of layers of mountains.

And then once I have that, I just kind of gradually keep getting darker and warmer and of course, bigger, the mountains get bigger as they get closer.

And then the trees get bigger and the trees get greener and your eye starts to see color more and more as it gets closer.

And I'm always trying to get as much depth in the painting too, you know, kind of pull you in and make it feel like it's 3D.

Like it's actually going to back.

(gentle soothing music) I paint with a palette knife.

And painting with the pallet knife allows me to get texture in different ways that I use it.

It lends itself to the water having moved me, you know, get a little more choppy and if I just don't smooth the pain as much and I leave the pain a little rougher, it also makes the water look a little rougher.

And then, you know, putting little bits of white here and there also kind of helps it look like it has more movement to it.

As long as I don't overwork it or overmix it, if I just put it on and leave it and I get some really great texture marks.

So that the skill really to get the texture is to stop yourself.

It's kind of like if you were buttering your bread if you spend a lot of time, it's going to be all perfectly spread.

But if you just put it on quick, you're gonna get lumps chunks of butter.

It lends itself to a looser, more impressionistic side.

It's hard to get too perfect.

I mean, I've managed to get some skill and some mastery so I can get a little more precise with some detail but you're never going to be too perfect, you know.

And so this just helps me to, I think, loosen up and I love thick paint.

No one's gonna look at my paintings and wonder like, is that a print or is that a declare or that like it's a painting you, it has paint.

I feel like if you're gonna have a buy a painting, you should have some paint.

I've lived in Tahoe 23 years and I still get blown away with the colors and the beauty of the Lake.

It never gets old.

Being out there painting on location.

It just, it's very relaxing.

It's very soothing.

It's very calming.

There's a time flies by.

The closest thing I could maybe equate it to be maybe the experience some people get when they meditate but there's a zone that you get into connecting with nature.

And it does feel like a spiritual experience for me.

- For more information, visit monicapiperjohnson.com.

And that wraps it up for this edition of aRTeffects.

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

Until next week, I'm Beth McMillan.

Thanks for watching.

- [Announcer] Funding for arteffects is made possible by Sandy Raffealli, The June S. Wisham Estate, Carol Frank Buck, Merrill and Lebo Newman, Heidemarie Rochlin, Meg and Dillard Myers.

The annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

And by.