- In this edition of ArtEffects, a South Lake Tahoe harpist who connects people around the world.

(soft music) - I didn't seek out the harp.

I think it found me.

I really enjoy playing music that people just don't expect.

(soft music) - [Beth] Conservation photography.

- [Justin] My love is wildlife.

I show that love through education and I educate through visual media and storytelling.

- [Beth] The art of fish printing.

- [Lisa] There's a lot of different stages and ways you can do this fish.

Every time you pull that paper off, it's like a big surprise.

- [Beth] Creating art to celebrate volunteers at the Food Bank of Northern Nevada.

- Our team helped fill out the words that are used to describe our appreciation for volunteers.

It was just a very organic but natural process, and it's just incredible.

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

(gentle upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funding for ArtEffects is made possible by Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pearce Motors, Meg and Dillard Myers, the Nevada Arts Council, Heidemarie Rochlin, in memory of Sue McDowell, and by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

- Hello, I'm Beth Macmillan, and welcome to ArtEffects.

The harp is a string instrument capable of creating beautiful harmonies that create emotion and memories.

For Anne Roos of South Lake Tahoe, the harp is a way she can connect with people around the world.

Let's meet Anne and learn more about her harp music, which ranges from Celtic, Renaissance, and classical to Nirvana and The Beatles.

(soft music) - Playing the harp for me is just a way of focusing in such a way that everything else takes a backseat.

My name is Anne Roos and I'm a harpist that specializes in playing the Celtic harp.

I started playing the harp with Sylvia Woods and in the harp world, she's very well known now.

She said, if you wanted to learn to play, she could teach me how to play.

I said, great, I really need this.

Because at the time, I had a very stressful job.

So I didn't seek out the harp, I think it found me.

The Celtic harp is the historic predecessor to the modern pedal harp.

I would say it was most popular during the Renaissance period during the period of Queen Elizabeth I, King Henry VIII.

Celtic harp comes in all sizes.

The largest one I have has 38 strings.

Your hands are floating in the air.

They are not resting on a fretboard or a keyboard.

You don't use your pinky 'cause it won't reach, so that one's useless.

So we've got eight fingers to use.

The Celtic harp is smaller and it has levers instead of pedals.

The levers at the top of a Celtic harp allow you to make for accidentals, which are notes outside of a key.

I play all kinds of music.

(soft music) Some of the music I really like playing personally is Celtic music, Early music, Renaissance music, because it's kind of a blank canvas.

You can make them sound more modern.

I can create different harmonies to them that maybe they wouldn't have done back in the times when those tunes may have been played or were popular.

My favorite thing to do is to surprise people.

I love playing music that they go, "Is she playing what I think she's playing on a harp?"

(soft music) I really enjoy playing music that people just don't expect.

When the pandemic happened, I had to find a way to continue to connect with my audience and to bring music to my audience.

So I turned to livestream and that's how I developed Insomniac Harp Concert Time.

Good evening, everyone.

I'm so glad you could join me.

I'm Anne Roos, this is my Celtic harp, and I'll be playing some Celtic music for you.

Insomniac Harp Concert Time is a live stream.

It's about 30 minutes long.

And what I do is I play soothing harp music, and I also read a meditation so people can meditate to the harp music.

And it's very soft, it's very soothing, and I air it live at 11:00 p.m.

So it's truly Insomniac Harp Concert Time, especially for people who may be viewing who aren't in our time zone.

It was just wonderful to make a connection with an audience that is continuing to be your audience.

(soft music) When I'm playing music, I'm a conduit for the music.

I'm not the doer of the music.

I become the audience and I'm listening to the harp music just like anybody else would be listening to it.

I don't feel that I'm, like, it's under my control.

So I think that when I'm playing in that sphere, I know I'm playing my best because that music's just flowing through me.

- To learn more, visit harpistanneroos.com.

Justin Grubb specializes in wildlife and conservation photography.

When he takes a picture, he highlights the threatened species in need of assistance.

Up next, we head to the Grange Insurance Audubon Center in Ohio to see an exhibition of his work.

(gentle music) - I grew up in Worthington, Ohio, and I think it was a great place to grow up to connect with nature.

You know, with the metro parks being so prevalent in the city.

The Columbus Zoo being right there, that's something that I really think shaped what I do now, is being able to go out and find wildlife and explore.

(gentle music) My name is Justin Grubb, I am a science communicator.

So I do wildlife filmmaking, wildlife photography, I write articles about wildlife conservation, I do photo galleries, and that's always been the focus, conserving wildlife.

(gentle music) So my background is in wildlife biology.

Going out and taking data, doing population viability analysis, but while I was doing all that, I sort of realized that there was another element to conservation as well.

And that's the storytelling, that's the connecting with people, you know, working with the general mass public and getting them to understand how they impact the environment and these species, because conservation really is a people problem, you know?

The animals didn't do anything to get themselves in this situation, it's what people have done to the environment and in order to change that environment for the animals, you have to go to the root cause which is the people.

And so by doing that, you know, I really got into photos, I really got into video, I really got into writing.

My love is wildlife.

I show that love through education and I educate through visual media and storytelling.

So we're sitting at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center and on the walls here is a photo gallery called Conservation Through A Lens.

(gentle music) - Having Justin who is known for his work with National Geographic is just, I think it's a surprise for Grange Insurance Audubon Center to have him here, and we're very excited about what his artwork does and how it connects to the bigger stewardship in conservation.

- When you look at the center, you'll see photos along the walls that all depict animals that have very unique, interesting conservation programs, initiatives, strategies associated with them.

There's the hall of a threatened species which each photo depicts its own conservation initiative.

But then we've got, you know, the forgotten wolf, which is an entire sequence of photos that describe a single conservation initiative from start to finish, and then there's the planet Indonesia gallery which talks about how an organization in Indonesia is doing conservation work through community development, which is a really unique strategy that I think should be adopted more around the world.

(gentle music) People really connect with a good story, and so with these photos, they all kind of convey their own little story.

You know, you're getting a snapshot of the animals life through their eyes in the moment, in their environment behaving naturally and as a photographer, I live for those moments.

It feels like everything just is still on earth and the only thing that matters is you and this animal and you're just trying to capture the moment as it happens.

One of the most exciting things I'd say about the gallery is its interactiveness.

Each photo has a little card next to it that explains its range, the conservation project associated with the image, but also as a QR code that allows you to connect to a website called Conservation Through a Lens that has more details about that animal.

You can read more about the initiative, and you can even donate to the initiative if that's your thing.

But there's also other really cool elements at this gallery as well.

There is a section where you can draw an animal, and contribute to the gallery.

We also have a couple film screenings, and there's something that I built called beyond the lawn.

It's a biodiversity survey where people can learn how to, like, convert their lawn into usable wildlife space.

- No matter where we are in this world, we live on this world with animals, insects, plants, and other things.

And what we do affects how they live and often times we don't make that connection and so I'm really excited for people to see the beautiful work and how he captures it and learn about how they can help make a difference in what we do as humans to help not have those animals become extinct.

- Bringing my work back to Columbus is really exciting.

This gallery brings in a very global perspective on conservation, and so, you know, you're seeing animals from all around the world burying conservation initiatives to help protect them from various threats, but everything that you'll learn about, is applicable to what goes on, on a small scale like Columbus, Ohio.

And so that's one thing that I want people to walk away with is everything is very interconnected, and what you do locally has a huge effect on global biodiversity.

(gentle upbeat music) - Columbus is an art-rich community, and I'm just excited to see what else is down the pike, 'cause I think there's a lot more Justin's out there.

(gentle upbeat music) - For more information, visit runningwild.media.

Now, it's time for this week's art quiz.

What is the price tag for Lyon & Healy's extravagant Louis XV Special, which is among the world's most expensive harps?

Is the answer, A, $99,000, B, $149,000, C, $199,000, or D, $249,000?

And the answer is C, $199,000.

Artist Lisa Lee Herman engages in the traditional Japanese method of fish printing called gyotaku.

We take a trip to Florida to learn how a fish becomes a work of art.

- You can live anywhere on the planet and do this style of art.

He's gorgeous, yup.

(man speaking faintly) Yeah, looking down.

My name is Lisa Herman.

I'm a marine artist here in the Upper Keys and I'm the owner and operator of Gallery of the Arts.

The Keys is definitely an influence on my art hands down.

I mean, you can't ask for a better color palette than what we have here.

I really like where the horizon line, I'm just in love with it.

I mean, you get to see it so often here and not being in the Keys, whenever I leave the Keys, I don't realize how rare it is to see that horizon line, you know?

And it's just so comforting to see that.

So whenever I feel like painting, I feel like that's got to be there for me.

It stabilizes it.

And when you look at the horizon on the ocean, it never looks the same.

There's something simple and, you know, primitive about it.

It's cool, and I think that's what brought me into the gyotaku process.

It's very straightforward.

It's very clean.

Gyotaku is very interesting.

Originally, it started back in the 1800's in Japan, and it was a way fishermen could record their catches basically before cameras existed.

And because of this interesting layout and how they recorded it, it started to turn into its own form of art.

That's neat, he's cute.

Each fish has their own little characteristics and personalities.

For like this guy's little character, he's missing a little part here and little part there.

So each time I do it, I get a little bit more familiar with the fish and I make sure I pull up all those little different dorsal fins in there to make sure their tails like as fanned out as it can.

I try to capture the fish like as lit up and excited as it is in the wild.

This one's perfect size.

I like to get a picture of the exact fish that I've printed.

So when I come back to the gallery, I can make sure all of its little spots, all of its eyes are exactly the way this one looked.

Some of the mutton snappers have really, really cool, teal like blue around their eyes.

I always wanna make sure I wanna get it just right.

It's like their little signature.

Each fish that I do gyotaku prints of, 100% will be something that everybody can share and eat.

I'm not ever gonna take a fish that has just the purpose for printing.

It has to be utilized beyond that.

So when I am doing that, I'm thinking about, you know, this fish, we're going to eat it afterwards.

So I only use very non-toxic water-based acrylic paints.

I do it traditionally where I use a very, very black acrylic paint and I always do the fish in black.

And when I pull it off, after that, I do the embellishments.

Some clients want just the eye embellished, some clients want the whole fish embellished in color.

Some want it just black and white as is.

So there's a lot of different stages and ways you can do this fish.

Every time you pull that paper off, it's like a big surprise.

Yup, perfect.

As I was exploring doing the gyotaku on fish, I thought, you know, it'd be really cool to do it all on other nature.

One of my friends has a big, beautiful butterfly garden.

So I asked her if she ever finds any of the butterflies that passed on, didn't make it, let me, you know, see if I can somehow make them live on forever.

And I got my hands on a couple of butterflies and they turned out magnificent.

I do use different inks instead of the paint.

The paint was a little bit thick on the butterfly.

So I use, just Sumi inks.

And now it's, I mean, I've tried dragonflies, bumblebees, different leaves, different seashells.

(gentle music) I'm always experimenting with different style canvases.

Like I love my stretched white canvas, but there's something exciting and challenging about painting on oyster shells.

I've painted on sand dollars, the swordfish, and now doing the gyotaku, it was very, very interesting where it's not your basic plan.

You know how to go about it.

Some different shells, some different bills, they kind of tell you what they want and you kind of explore what that shape is and what that can house for that specific piece of nature.

(gentle music) - Discover more at galleryoftheartsislamorada.com.

The Food Bank of Northern Nevada feeds thousands of hungry families each month.

Volunteers are the heart of this non-profit organization, spending countless hours packaging and delivering food to those in need.

Since April is Volunteer Appreciation Month, the food bank wanted to celebrate its volunteers, so food bank leaders tapped local muralist, Bryce Chisholm, for a collaborative project.

(gentle upbeat music) - I'm Nicole Lamboley and I'm the president and CEO of the Food Bank of Northern Nevada.

We are a charitable food distribution organization serving 90,000 square miles throughout Northern Nevada in the Eastern slope of the Sierra.

(gentle upbeat music) Today, we're standing in the warehouse out here on Italy Drive in McLaren or Sparks, Nevada.

This is our warehouse where we receive inventory and distribute food to our 147 partner agencies throughout our service area.

(gentle upbeat music) Where we are actually standing is our volunteer area.

And volunteers are the lifeblood of our organization.

They provide over 30,000 hours annually.

- They have their hands in everything that we do and they help bring so much inspiration and passion even to the staff who are here doing the job alongside them.

We literally could not do this work without them.

- Our team of marketing and communications professionals brought this idea forward about how do we really reflect our appreciation to our volunteers.

And so they went through a process and contacted several artists throughout the community who have done work in the Northern Nevada area.

They submitted proposals.

And then we went through a process of evaluating who really could capture a message that we wanted to share with our volunteers.

(gentle music) - I'm Bryce Chisholm.

I paint under the name AbcArtAttack.

I'm an artist and muralist around the Reno area.

My style is somewhat graffiti-inspired, very colorful and bright.

And it's got that high contrast pop.

One of the things I like about when I do with my colors, I call it color therapy.

I free my mind and it's just coloring, you know, as a kid would.

And I feel like that's how people should go about art, is that free minded creation.

Don't overthink it.

Just let it go.

The food bank reached out to me and they had an idea of they wanted to do, something that would incorporate volunteers and bring it all together.

- We're so thrilled to have the opportunity to create a mural that really captures the heart of the food bank and the service that our volunteers provide to us.

(lively music) - [Bryce] The mural is a little girl biting into an apple and everything behind her, the words and everything, are different positive words for food health.

I fight hunger, nourishing hope, themes that the food bank has incorporated into their model.

- All of the employees are getting the opportunity to choose a word from a list that we put together as a staff.

And I chose to paint the word together.

When the community comes together, the smallest acts makes such an enormous difference for so many people in our community.

And so to me, togetherness really sums up what this work is for me.

- It's really special to have the employees come about and like be able to put their artistic touches into the mural.

It creates that sense of ownership where they can come back and be like, look, I painted this right here.

And I was part of that.

I was there that day when we did all that.

So it's a great feeling for them as well.

- Having the opportunity was a little nerve wracking to be able to get up there and say, particularly as a lefty, can I actually paint words with penmanship that's legible, but it was really fun.

And I felt inspired by being able to participate.

And I think that's what is so great about Bryce as an artist is that he has the trust in people to also contribute to his masterpiece that he is doing for us.

I painted indispensable because our volunteers are truly indispensable.

- I think the mural is gorgeous.

It's really just a beautiful piece of art that signifies what goes on here.

It's a place that's just alive.

And it says what needs to be said about the operation of this whole facility.

- Volunteers are members of our community.

And together as a community, we can lift up people needing nourishment through food bank services, through the the arts, and celebrating the contribution of artists.

So volunteers are just part of the American culture and of who we are as a community.

And so we are proud to be able to provide the opportunity for people to serve their fellow neighbors.

- To learn more about Bryce Chisholm, visit abcartattack.com.

To learn more about the Food Bank of Northern Nevada, visit fbnn.org.

And that wraps up this edition of ArtEffects.

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

Until next week, I'm Beth Macmillan.

Thanks for watching.

- [Announcer] Funding for ArtEffects is made possible by Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pearce Motors, Meg and Dillard Myers, the Nevada Arts Council, Heidemarie Rochlin, in memory of Sue McDowell, and by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

(gentle music)