(light music) - On this episode of "Curate".

- [Brian Kreydatus] When I think about people viewing my art, I would hope that they would take the time to see the shared humanity in it.

- [Michael Marquart] I have an interesting relationship with music.

A lot of times I can't stand it, but then sometimes I know it's the reason that I'm here.

(light music continues) - [Derek Savannah] If I'm able to make someone feel better with my talents, I'll do it every single time.

(light music) - Hi, I'm Jason Kypros.

- I'm Heather Mazzoni.

And this is "Curate".

- Now the work of Williamsburg painter and print maker Brian Kreydatus focuses on the human condition and the search for our deepest truths.

- As a professor at William and Mary, he balances educating his students on how to master their craft, along with how to become keen observers of their subjects.

- His art is simple, yet sophisticated, often portraying the vulnerability and pathos of the world around him.

(light music) (light music continues) (light music continues) - I always knew I wanted to be an artist.

I never had my fireman stage or anything like that.

I didn't actually know what being an artist was though.

I didn't know anyone who was an artist growing up.

But I did know that drawing things that I saw or I felt was what made me feel most alive.

(light music continues) Even though I didn't grow up with people who consider themselves artists, I did grow up surrounded by lots of craftsmen, people who wanted to make things by hand, and people who wanted to make things beautiful.

(light music continues) The craftsman knows where his end goal was going to be.

Making something that's utilitarian, you know what it's gonna look like at the end.

And I think the artist, while you have an idea of where you're going to go, if I knew what it was going to look like when I started, I wouldn't do it.

I think I know what I want to do when I begin.

But along that journey of making the painting or drawing or print, it always changes in an unexpected way.

That's really what's exciting about it for me.

(light music continues) I've been at William and Mary since 201.

The two areas that I teach primarily are printmaking and life drawing.

What you're really trying to teach maybe is an of visual acuity to get people to look at things, to be visually in tune and visually aware.

(soft music) One of the things that always comes up in life drawing, for instance, is the shock of actually looking at something.

We make assumptions constantly about visual phenomenon.

That's the way we're able to get through the world.

But to take that time to slow down and really look at something specifically and try to see what's really there without a preconceived notion is a big thing that I think my students get out of visual arts.

And it's something that is applicable to many other aspects of their life.

Making or viewing art is really an act of empathy.

You know, you can't be in figure drawing for a whole semester and look at other figures and contemplate them without thinking about what it means to be human.

I don't think that's possible.

And I think maybe particularly at a liberal arts school, that's sort of the secret ingredient to arts education.

That's something that isn't necessarily spelled out on the syllabus that I hope all of my students get.

(soft music continues) I knew I wanted to be a figurative artist.

You know, when I think about things that I wanted to look at, it was always the figure.

I was a little kid who was always sort of open mouth looking at anything I was interested in.

And my grandmother was always telling me to stop staring at people 'cause I was always doing that whenever I saw someone who was interesting.

(soft music continues) My work, both in painting and printmaking, is really based in direct observation.

So typically when I work, I'm standing right in front of it.

I'm having a direct interaction with that.

Nothing gives me that surprise, that, that shock of recognition where something is there that I hadn't imagined before, the way that direct observation does.

And that's why it's really held my attention.

(soft music continues) That representation of the figure of the human condition of these universal truths that we all have.

that's really the thing that has sustained me, that keeps me going back again and again.

(light music) I think it's that interaction with the person too.

It's not only that making it on the canvas or making on the paper or the etching plate, but it's that conversation with that person.

That slow unfurling of meaning through looking, through talking with them, and contemplating them that's really kept me interested.

That's what keeps me going and keeps me coming back.

(light music continues) When you make artwork for decades, it has to be an obsession.

It has to be something that you're willing to put hours and hours on by yourself.

(light music continues) When I think of experiences that all humans have, birth, the knowledge of their own mortality, search for meaning in life, want of companionship, anxiety, these are things that all of us share regardless of who we are in the world.

I always want that to be there.

(light music continues) When I think of how to show that, I think of it as being as specific as possible to my own.

I believe that you get the universal through the specific, (light music continues) that idea of having someone or something right in front of you and investigating that firsthand and being as specific as you can about it.

(light music continues) When I think about people viewing my art, I would hope that they would take the time to slow down like I have, to really look at that person being portrayed and maybe see the shared humanity in it.

To look at a portrait or a figure, and to realize that they're not alone, that someone else thought the way that I feel, that someone else had that shared experience.

I think that art at its highest level does that.

That's what I'm aiming for through trying to be really specific to talk about those universal experiences that we might all have.

(gentle music) - Make sure to follow us online and on your favorite social media platform.

You might remember the 80s band Flock of Seagulls for their new wave hits and unique hairstyles.

However, for drummer Michael Marquart, the opportunity to tour with them was just one chapter in a long story about a musician with roots in Virginia Beach.

(birds chirping) (footsteps crunching) - I mean, I started, you know, playing drums when I was five years old.

You know, never had a job.

You know, I've been a musician, you know, my entire life.

(footsteps tapping) ("Maybe Someday" by A Bad Think) I got started in music, my parents got a radio, I think it was a radio.

I can still remember we was sitting, it was right underneath the window and, and it was kind of the first time I kind of heard music.

And something, I know something happened, you know, ♪ Pack my bags ♪ and something went off.

I don't know what happened, but from then on I was focused on music.

♪ I don't feel I belong here ♪ ♪ It's something I need to do ♪ My dad was listening to all this weird kind of country music stuff that's something like a, you would see on a Rawhide show or something like that.

And I'm listening to this stuff in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin.

It's a very small town.

I mean, it still is a small town.

♪ Moving around ♪ You know, population 10,000.

I think it's probably less than that now.

You know, there's not much there.

People don't, don't normally, you know, move out of there.

You know, you're born there and you die there.

And you know, when we're kids, you know, we're running out through the neighborhood and ma will go, okay, just be home by five.

So we'd be, you know, running through the neighborhood and I heard these drums coming out of the, out of this basement window of this one house.

And so I go down there and I, like, I peek in the window and there's this guy sitting there and he's got a red sparkle drum set, and he's got a record player sitting right behind him and he's, you know, playing away to, you know, something.

And, you know, and I'm sitting there watching this guy and I go, wow, that's, that's, that's pretty cool.

And he sees me on, so, so he, he, he waves me in.

His name was Anthony and he had Down syndrome.

He had a whole mouthful of braces.

And this guy was the sweetest guy.

And he's the one that kind of taught me how to play drums.

And I will go over there every day.

I remember, you know, he goes, well, you know, my mother's taking me, you know, we're a going away on a, on a on a visit next week, but you're welcome to just sneak in that window and come in here and play, you know, all by yourself, you know, and you know when I'm gone.

So that's what I did.

And I went in there every day.

I knew what I was, what what I was meant to do at such an early age, I can't even remember, you know, how young I was.

But I remember just, well, how come I have to learn calculus?

Why do I, you know, I'm not gonna need that.

So I just blew everything off.

I just, you know, barely made it through high school.

Somehow I got, I got in a band and started, started playing.

We were rehearsing every day.

And we moved into this house in Dickeyville, Wisconsin.

And it was an old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere and practice every day, all day writing.

We had a little, you know, reel to reel tape machine.

And, and, and that started it.

But I was really focused on drums, but I was playing more and more guitar and started to kind of write songs in my teens.

And, but it was very difficult because, you know, when you're playing in bands, you know, the guitar player and the lead singer, they don't want to hear from a drummer that's writing songs.

You know, you shut up and do your job, just, you know, you know, play the beats and don't say anything else and don't bother us.

We're gonna write the songs.

It was very frustrating.

(rock music) You know, Tokio Rose, you know, was a very popular band and we made a lot of money, a huge show.

I mean, we had a big crew and we, you know, carried our own lights and our own PA. We had 26 foot truck.

And you know, nowadays everyone just carries all their stage gear around and a like a little trailer and all that stuff.

We carried everything.

But the band made a lot of money.

Most of it went to the expenses of the crew and road expenses and you know, blowing out Fanelle bulbs and blowing speakers out.

And, and so we still didn't make any money.

(rock music) A Flock of Seagulls thing was probably the, the first, you know, kind of big thing in, but you know, they asked me to, to play on one record, which is really just a single that had different versions of it on it.

So I flew up to New York and, you know, I recorded drums on this thing.

And so they, they go, well, we're getting ready to go out and do a tour.

You want to go?

You want, you know, you wanna be the drummer?

It's like a three and a half week tour.

I go sure.

That was back in the day, you know, they sent me these cassette tapes, I learned them from a cassette tape and this is how the set goes.

The first time I even practiced with, with those guys was soundcheck at the Jetty.

That, that was the first gig I ever did with 'em.

And, and that was the first time I met 'em was at soundcheck.

Never played with 'em, never did anything.

So I went, went along, did that.

Three weeks was done.

He goes, well, we're gonna do this tour of, you know, kind of small arena, you know, houses, you know, with Devo and Thompson Twins and you know, all this stuff.

You know, you up for that?

I go, yeah, I mean, as long as we keep going up, I'm in.

But if we start going down, I'm out.

It was fun though that, you know, the band was really good.

I sold my recording studio to the Neptunes.

I built this, you know, kind of home studio out and had to kind of start testing everything and, and I had some songs ideas that I've been working on.

So I started, you know, recording songs from start to finish and making sure everything worked out and, and 10 came pretty easy.

And that was, well, let's see, what am I on?

I'm working on my 12th album now, so I've been cranking 'em out.

♪ The passion sober ♪ - But it's, it's been about, it's been about one, one a year.

(soft rock music) I like the process of creating something from nothing.

I, you know, that's, that's, that's what I like, you know, coming up with an idea and then having this whole song that, that people can, can hear and get emotional about and either love it or hate it or something like that.

I mean, at least it, it causes, you know, emotion and people to feel something.

Everything is kind of like my point of view on the way I see things, you know, according to my, my life, my relationship with my friends and my wife and my children.

And I'm telling the story of kind of my life.

And, you know, I told my kids, you know, I go, if you really want to, you know, know who I am, listen to my music and listen to lyrics for Christ's sake.

Not just, you know, 'cause the lyrics are the most important part of it as, as far as I'm concerned.

I want people a hundred years from now to be able to see what I was doing with, with my life instead of just blowing it away when no one will care or remember any of it.

I don't hear the kind of music I want to hear, so I'm playing what I want to hear.

At the end of the day, that's always been my thing, you know.

Every single one of my records sounds great.

You may hate the kind of music it is, but it sounds great.

That's a fact.

(soft rock music continues) I like big chorus and, and you know, so it's a nice lift and so the songs go like this and they go like this and they go like this.

Where a lot of 'em, you know, they just chug along like this until you can't stand anymore and you flip to the next one.

♪ Maybe one day ♪ ♪ We find each other ♪ ♪ And the stars align ♪ ♪ And maybe one day ♪ ♪ Maybe some day I'll know ♪ You know, I'm, I'm asking these questions, you know, in my music that I would ask a, a therapist and I've, you know, I've, I've never gone to a therapist, but I'm sure my family would, would say, I need one desperately.

It's almost like I'm asking advice, you know, well, you know, well should I do that and that?

And then I go, well, yeah, well I don't know.

Let's, let's look, think about that.

A lot of it is kind of therapeutic in a way for, you know, for me, which I'm just kind of just realized is talking about it right now.

(light music) I like the old ways of having, you know, having a real drummer play on this stuff and actually play the guitar parts myself and have some, you know, a little bit of timing issues to give the thing a little bit of a personality and, and not pitch correct absolutely everything to make it sound perfect.

♪ Maybe someday ♪ You want that emotion in life and the, you know, the kind of keeping a real aspect of it.

♪ Maybe one day ♪ (soft rock music) I've had a pretty good run with, you know, the, the creative spurt, you know, being able to create something new all the time.

You know, I have a, you know, an interesting relationship with music because it's a lot of times I can't stand it.

And, and, but then sometimes I know it's, it's the reason that I'm here and the reason that I'm, I'm as I'm supposed to be doing this thing.

Music chooses certain people and, and it's chosen me.

(soft music) - Beginning his creative journey designing sneakers, this week's Curate U features Derek Savannah who has grown into a much coveted artist and muralist because of his ability to relate to his clients.

- I quit my job a year ago and I've been doing full-time art on my own.

It's been cool.

I started entrepreneurship outta high school, doing murals with just like a, a bigger canvas to, to make art.

I was used to doing small sneakers and maybe even smaller size canvases, but nothing as big as a wall.

So I had did my bedroom wall like growing up it was just a bunch of scribble.

And I always imagined like being able to do the big murals that you see like downtown.

18, I was doing sneakers.

I probably didn't get my first job until like 20, but from 18 to 20, or 17 to 20, I was just doing sneakers every day.

And that was like a good lesson on how to manage money and deal with the customers.

- My name is Sterling Lyons.

I'm the owner of the biggest LTD clothing store selling in street wear, height street wear and everything in Chesapeake, Virginia.

I chose Derek because I saw his work.

His work was very good, his lines are very crisp and everything popped every time I looked at all his artwork.

His mural means a lot.

It's basically the main focal point of my business.

And also at the middle of it, it has the Boondocks representing my two sons.

So I mean it has sentimental values as well.

- [Derek] He hit me up, said he was having a clothing store that he was trying to put together and he wanted to collage a bunch of different street wear brands that a lot of the teenagers and young adults are wearing these days.

He gave me full creative control.

So the thought process in this one was just taking all the brands that he would have to offer and making a bunch of art pieces that are represented by those brands and making one big piece that would all go together.

- Well, I really wanted to be is a marketing piece.

I really would like it to be a good piece people can come in and see where they are.

Staple for us, you'll know when you see that mural, you have to be at this place to see that because it's a 101.

- I met Derek in school.

We went to high school together and we pretty much just kept in touch over the years 'cause he did like art and shoes and stuff like that.

So we met through school.

Ivy was five when she passed, so I had her for five years.

This is not even how the mural was supposed to be originally when we planned it out.

When he had did my first room, which was my business room and he did a cloud mural and then after he did that I pretty much was like, okay, I want my whole house to be done.

So we kind of started thinking about ideas for the living room and the bedroom and stuff like that.

But I knew the living room was like the next thing I wanted to do.

Originally I thought like, okay, I wanted like a rose wall, a flower mural.

And that's pretty much what he had came here to do.

But at the time Ivy had passed.

So when he had came to originally do the project, I was kind of like joking around with him and I was like, you should put a dove on the wall, like something just to kind of like represent Ivy, like put a little tag with her name on it, something.

He basically was like, okay, I'm gonna come up with something and this is what it was that he came up with.

- Once I got there, her dog had just recently passed and I had met her dog from the last project I did with her and we had just got to talking about the dog and all the memories.

As I was doing it, she mentioned the dog and how she would love to add a dove in to maybe commemorate her dog, but the size of the flowers I had for me to do a dove would've had to have been huge for it to be proportional to the flowers.

So I thought it would be better to just add the dog's face, maybe peeking through the flowers.

And when I did that, she loved the idea and it just all came together.

I'm a dog person so she was there every day.

Every time I was painting it, she was getting yelled at to get out of the room so she wouldn't bother me.

But she kept making her way back every single time.

And when it was finally time for me to finish and pack up and I left, she was telling me that Ivy was upset that I was gone 'cause she enjoyed my company.

So it was sad that she had passed.

- Honestly, the mural is enough of me like this make me think of Ivy every day 'cause I see it in front of me every day.

So I feel like that was really the main reason why I wanted to do this too 'cause like I told Derek my whole, my whole goal was really to bring peace back into my home.

Because after Ivy died, like I said, that was really my everything.

It was me and her.

So I just wanted to feel like home again because without her I just felt like it was just something missing.

So now that I do have the mural, like I do feel a lot better.

I do feel like I'm at peace now, so.

- Art, it touches people in different ways and it's viewed in different ways.

So if I'm able to make someone feel better about a situation with my talent, I'll do it every single time.

- Michael Marquart recently released his 11th album with his band, A Bad Think, as well as the music video for the single, "Maybe Someday".

- You got a glimpse of it in a segment, but here it is in its entirety.

- And make sure to catch us next time for our season finale of "Curate".

- Thanks for watching.

("Maybe Someday" by A Bad Think) ("Maybe Someday" by A Bad Think continues) ♪ I've packed my bags and I'm leaving ♪ ♪ Gonna find somewhere new ♪ ♪ I don't feel I belong here ♪ ♪ It's something I need to do ♪ ("Maybe Someday" by A Bad Think continues) ("Maybe Someday" by A Bad Think continues) ♪ Moving around always searching ♪ ♪ For a place to call home ♪ ♪ The city lights never been for you ♪ ♪ It's time to be on your own ♪ ♪ Maybe one day we find each other ♪ ♪ And the stars align ♪ ♪ And maybe one day ♪ ♪ Maybe someday I know ♪ ♪ And on that day we stay together ♪ ♪ Like we're meant to be ♪ ♪ Maybe one day ♪ ♪ Maybe someday ♪ ("Maybe Someday" by A Bad Think continues) ("Maybe Someday" by A Bad Think continues) ♪ Maybe some day ♪ ("Maybe Someday" by A Bad Think continues) ("Maybe Someday" by A Bad Think continues) (no audio)