- On the season finale of "Curate."

- [Mia] It's usually an emotional state, something I'm working through.

I get more and more connected as the painting comes to life.

- [Tony] I was looking at the guitar that I had, and I realized this thing is made out of wood, and I think I can make one of these.

- [Ariannah] I knew I have a purpose, and now I'm gonna take the time to find it.

- I'm Heather Mazzoni.

- And I'm Jason Kypros.

Virginia Beach abstract painter Mia Guile finds her passions play out in a visceral way that she describes as "an emotional explosion."

Utilizing her art as a way to discover, connect, and heal, Guile is in tune to the importance of the process as much as the final product.

- Combining color, texture, and shapes, she paints to find emotional freedom and express her innermost self.

(tranquil upbeat music) (brush whisking) - It's usually an emotional state, feeling something I'm working through, and that gets displayed in both color and what takes form on the canvas, you know, whether it be very abstract.

Or I still consider this abstract, but it's a little bit more planned.

I get more and more connected as the painting comes to life.

I don't always know what I'm gonna start with.

I mean, that's the beauty of it.

Sometimes I'll have a huge canvas and just start throwing paint all over it.

And sometimes I'll do something like this, where it's a little bit more planned, but I don't know the end result.

All I know is that I want a circle.

What's funny is I'm drawn to circles, and I think they sort of have a spiritual significance.

And then as my feelings or mood or something I'm grappling with come to light, then I base my colors on what am I feeling internally.

Sunlight is important to me, period, and to my work.

It really helps me with the colors.

I get to visualize the painting itself when I meditate, and then I have to think about, "Well, what is this about?"

I've learned that when people are buying a piece of art, they're buying it for sometimes just aesthetic value, and sometimes it's because they feel a connection.

Part of my art is, as an abstract painter, it's not a spoon-fed thing.

If you're looking at my art, I would like you to decide what you see.

So I try not to get involved in when somebody's asking me too many questions.

If they say, "Well, what was this painting about for you?"

I'll say, "Well, what do you see first?"

(tranquil pensive music) The title that I wrote down while I was meditating is "The Whole Is the Sum of Its Parts."

And as a person who is becoming whole, I've got this, like, half circle, quarter circle, and then I've got these parts.

I think these are my life experiences, some parts darker than the others, some parts lighter than the others.

I'm made up of all these pieces.

(tranquil pensive music continues) Born in Chicago.

My father got his PhD in linguistics.

When he got his PhD, he did his studies in Amsterdam, in Holland.

So I think that kind of created a leap of like, I'm going to be traveling.

At some point, we ended up moving to South Africa, and my father was a teacher there for the men that worked for De Beers Consolidated Diamond Mine, teaching English to the Africans that were living there.

We were not allowed to socialize with people outside of his work, but he did it anyway.

We did it anyway as a family.

He was actually advocating for human rights at the time, and that was not welcome.

I think he had done that several times.

The government said, "You're out, deported."

That threw my family into turmoil.

Our first landing spot was a family that took us in in England, close to London.

It was trauma.

Didn't know what was gonna happen to us, so it was a very difficult time.

Well, I didn't come back to art until, I would say, 15 or 16 when I was enrolled in an art class.

Absolutely loved it, could feel the difference between living in a state of fear or a crisis or stress versus being taken away from all of that.

So the catalyst for getting back to me was really that one point in my life, that moment of clarity.

What am I doing?

What am I actually doing in my life?

That was the ultimate reflection, right, of, who am I?

What do I wanna be?

What have I been?

What do I wanna do with the rest of my life?

Opening up about myself has been a process.

I refrain from a lot of (laughs) very personal things and experiences, but I do share some.

And some of the things that I share are obviously about my life because that is what I paint about, and my feelings and my expression about what is happening, and sometimes that can be difficult.

This mural that I was doing for the Virginia Beach Housing Resource Center, I proposed my idea, and I said, "These are the reasons why I'm doing what I'm doing, what I'd like to do."

So the abstract trees were layered with colors, and they had a root system.

They didn't have leaves.

They had arms that kind of connected each other to each other.

It is because of the mission statement of the Housing Resource Center.

We wanna help our clients find roots so that homelessness is temporary and brief.

And I said, "I am strongly connected to what you're doing.

I have been homeless as a child."

I wanted the kids to be involved so that they felt some sense of agency, some sense of self-worth.

For me, that is the point of art.

That's why I do it, because it is transformative, art as medicine.

(tranquil upbeat music) (tranquil upbeat music continues) - Wanna submit an artist, organization, or event to be featured next season on "Curate"?

Email us at curate@whro.org.

A luthier is defined as a maker of stringed instruments.

Although there aren't quite as many as once existed, one of the best resides right here in Hampton Roads.

Tony Whitford is a firm believer that building guitars saved his life by giving him purpose.

His attention to detail ranks only second to his dedication to the craft.

(file rubbing) (tool tapping) - I love everything about guitars, the way they make music and the way they look.

And when I was younger, I got into building things out of wood.

(gentle guitar music) One day I was looking at the guitar that I had, and I was playing it, and I realized this thing is made out of wood.

Every piece of this thing is made out of wood, and I think I can make one of these.

So time went by, and that stuck in my head, and I kept thinking one day I would like to build guitars.

And finally I got to a place in my life where I could build guitars because I had a place to do it, and I had the right tools to do it.

And so I just decided now is the time I'm gonna do it.

I'm just gonna start building guitars.

I told my wife, "I'm going to build custom guitars."

The magic of working with wood is you have to imagine that this piece of wood that you have in front of you, you've chosen this piece of wood for one reason or another because of the ease of its, the ability, the ease that it lends toward making things or the beauty of it.

You were just fascinated by the beauty of this piece of wood.

And then you look further into it, and you see that this piece of wood, you have to know that this thing was growing in a forest one day.

And so you've taken something that was alive, growing in a forest, and you've created something that's very functional and is art and makes music.

Wood, to me, is just a fascinating media that art can be created with.

What I think sets our guitars apart from other guitars in the marketplace is the one-on-one personal touch that we give to each guitar.

You can buy a number of guitars that are all great guitars hanging on shelves and hanging on hooks in music stores.

But those guitars have been decided, this is what that guitar will be for you.

But as you progress as a guitarist and as a person who wants something a little more, you're gonna want something that has your own personal touch on it, something that plays the way you think it should play, not the neck that some other guitar company wanted you to have.

So we sit down with each player, and we talk to 'em about what it is that they want, and we listen to what they say.

And that may be something that they want to have on their custom build, custom inlays, something that speaks their voice out apart from the music, the color, the touch of the guitar, and most importantly, the way it feels in their hands.

We make sure that that comes across in each one of our guitars.

(tool tapping) Most of the challenges come in guitar builds from the wood that we choose to use.

Not all pieces of wood lend themselves well to just being shaped any way you would like for it to be.

You have to wrestle it into submission, so to speak.

Cross-grain structure in the material that won't file right, or it won't sand right, and it won't cut right, or it'll warp out of shape as soon as you cut it, and you have to start over.

So, generally, it's the wood itself and the materials itself that create the tension in building.

- My experience playing a Worth guitar, you know, Tony's got a great attention to detail.

He picks up...

He's got his own thing going on, but there's also some things that are kind of a nod back to other manufacturers and just other luthiers and other things that people have done making guitars.

You know, I like the...

It's got a little volute back here.

I like that.

You know, some guys hate that.

Some guys hate that, but I like that on the back of the guitar, you know?

Yeah, it's just a, it's a great instrument.

I mean, the thing that he did for me, I kind of wanted something a little more bare bones than what he normally does.

He builds some guitars with some beautiful tops and beautiful figuring of the wood.

I just went with a gold top thing to keep it a little understated.

But it's definitely, it's a workhorse guitar.

I mean, it sounds great, and like I said, it sustains.

You know, it's got an amazing sustain.

I'm not gonna do the Spinal Tap thing 'cause I'm sure every guitar player you're talking to is gonna say, "It's sustain."

- When I was a child, I had a little bit of a rough childhood, much like a lot of other people did.

And I was a pretty lonely kid and I spent a lot of time, you know, by myself just trying to figure out what to do and how to be and what to be.

I was in a situation where I didn't know what to do, just like a lot of kids.

But because I discovered a guitar because my cousin had a guitar leaning against the wall in a corner, covered in dirt, covered in dust, and he allowed me to take it home with me and pluck on it and figure out what to do with it, you know, I had something now to focus on.

Because the guitar was there, all of a sudden, I wasn't lonely anymore, and all of a sudden I had music now.

And I could share that music with other people, and people would come and share their music with me.

Music saved my life.

The guitar saved my life as far as I'm concerned.

Mark Dunn's guitar is gonna be a beautiful guitar.

It has a quilted maple top that I had that piece of wood sitting around for a long time, man, and I knew one day I'd use it on a cool guitar.

And as soon as Mark saw it, he was like, "Oh, that's mine.

That's the one I want.

I don't wanna even look anymore.

That's was my piece of wood."

So I was like, "Okay, well, there you go."

So that worked out well.

And we came up with a cool inlay design for him, Stellar, first time we've done that and did a great Pau Ferro fret board with some binding on it.

And he's gonna have a very, very nice guitar when it's done.

It's gonna be pretty special-looking, and of course, you know, he'll play the heck out of it, I'm sure.

- What is up with that?

- Huh?

- Dude, (tapping) that's sick.

- The Mark Dunn model.

- Is it the Mark Dunn model?

(laughs) - Yep.

- Wow.

- The MD one.

- The MD one.

Oh, it's light.

- The very first Stellar- - Dude, you nailed the neck shape.

- Thank you, sir.

Put a lot of work into that.

The guitar is a quilted maple cap.

- That I picked out.

- That you picked out, yes, when you first came to the shop.

The neck is Pau Ferro with ebony binding that we spoke about.

- The ebony binding was your idea.

- Yeah.

- The Pau Ferro was my idea because I like it that it's not super porous, and I thought it would aesthetically be cool against the purple.

- Yes.

- The binding is just killer.

- The way that I choose the materials and the design elements in a build is obviously there's the one-on-one first with the artist playing the guitar, what is it that he wants?

What are his aesthetics?

What type of wood does he like?

And we go from there.

There are certain formulas that we use, you know, that are the old tried and true, mahogany backs and maple tops, ebony fret boards and that type of thing that just create this great tone.

For some reason it's the ingredients in the soup that just, man, you just don't leave 'em out, you know?

It's the trinity.

You know, it's when you're cooking, you know what I mean, it's the carrots, the celery, the onion, you know, the garlic, you know.

You have to put those things in there.

And so we try to make sure that we go in the right direction as far as using the correct woods to make good tones and things like that.

But ultimately we have to listen to what the artist wants, you know, and what they're looking for.

So we go that way.

(upbeat rock music) I've thought about what I do and how it touches people's lives.

You know, when you talk about it, it sounds a little arrogant, but, you know, it is something that you have to think about.

You have to think that when someone is playing an instrument that you produced, you know, we already said that I'm part of that music.

Although all I did was create a guitar, and obviously their artistry makes the music, but I'm still a piece of that.

And so that's a big thing, you know, and I look down the road at that, and I look at the amount of music that people make playing the guitars that I make.

And I love being a part of that.

(upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) - On the final "Curate U" segment this season, Ariannah Chaochang speaks about the genesis of her pottery company, Chao Studios, and how the long road to get there makes her success that much more gratifying.

(gentle music) - I always knew that everything that I was going through was happening for a reason.

I just didn't know it at that point in my life.

My mom and dad, they are both immigrants from Laos.

They migrated to the US when they were in their early 20s.

They settled in Sacramento, California, where they had six of us kids.

My mom and dad got divorced, and so my mom became a single mother.

It was never a great neighborhood.

We were a victim to a drive-by.

I witnessed my first murder when I was in elementary.

I just remember being a little girl and just having a very difficult life, having a mom that doesn't speak English, read, or write, and then just having PTSD from her migration from Laos to America.

It was just very emotionally hard.

Like, I kind of carried my mom's traumas and then my own traumas.

And when I became a mom, it was just like, you know, I have a life growing inside me now.

I know my mom says she wanted a better life for me, and now I really wanted a better life for my daughter.

So I was a single mother for about a year until I met my husband.

Like, we had the typical, you know, white picket fence, bought a home, have a dog, have kids, and one day we both were like, "We're not happy."

So we sold our home, left my career then.

He joined the military, and then we ended up here.

We're here today in Virginia Beach.

You know, I knew I have a purpose, and now I'm gonna take the time to find it.

So I took a six-week pottery class, and I instantly fell in love.

I've been hooked on it ever since.

So when I take a ball of clay, I don't plan anything.

It's whatever comes to mind.

And where my imagination and my hands lead me is what I make.

You take a ball of clay, and you put it on the wheel, and you have to center it.

Basically you have to make the clay right in the middle so it doesn't wobble.

If it wobbles, then you're gonna have a very difficult time.

You then open the clay in the center where you have your space.

So if I were to make a mug, I would have to make the distance of how wide I want my mug to be.

And then the next process is pulling the walls up, which requires your fingers to be very steady and consistent.

And once you pull up the walls, then you basically form the shape of the product that you wanna make.

And then comes the patient part, which is the drying process, which can take up to one week or even a few months, depending on how big the piece is.

And then once it's dried, it goes through two firings.

So the first firing is called the bisque firing.

With the bisque firing, you have to make sure that it's completely dried, or it's gonna explode inside your kiln.

The firing can go up to 2,000 degrees for a glaze firing, so it gets very hot.

After a successful bisque firing, you take the piece, and you have to sand it down so that it's smooth and then basically cosmetic touch-up.

So this is the brush stroke glaze.

So there's dipping glaze, and there's brush strokes.

I did three layers, and then I put it through the kiln for the glaze firing.

Yeah, this is one of my favorite glazes.

You do the second firing, which is a glaze firing, and then you get your final product.

In between, you just hope and pray that it doesn't mess up.

(laughs) And then I take it to my markets, and I sell it.

With the markets, it's very tedious.

I have to reach out to these markets, reserve a spot.

I have to pretty much pack all of my items into the car, so, tables, chairs, tents.

And I go, and I just set everything up, then enjoy the best part of it, which is interacting with the customers and the people that I get to meet.

It's very rewarding.

A lot of my pieces are inspired by the Japanese aesthetic called wabi-sabi, which essentially means imperfectly perfect, which is a resemblance of my life, basically.

As I become older, I'm getting to know myself a little bit more each day, the person that I am meant to be or I am.

Growing up, I didn't really have much head space or the emotional ability to discover who I was as a person or even as a child.

And now as an adult, I feel like I'm learning to walk again.

(inspiring music) - So that'll do it.

Season eight of "Curate" is in the books.

- It's truly been great.

We've seen so many different types of artists and heard so many intriguing stories.

- You're absolutely right, Heather.

You know, we've also added some new things like "Curate Presents" and showcasing local music videos at the end of each episode.

- That being said, we are signing off with Virginia Beach MC Intalek and his song "Bigger," and ode to perseverance and achieving your goals.

- A perfect theme as we bring season eight to a close.

♪ I always knew that I could be bigger ♪ ♪ Bigger, bigger, bigger ♪ ♪ No matter what they told me ♪ ♪ I always knew that I could be a winner ♪ ♪ Winner, winner, winner ♪ ♪ I couldn't let them hold me down, down, down ♪ ♪ Whoa, whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Whoa, whoa, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ I always knew that I could be bigger ♪ ♪ Everything's what you make it ♪ ♪ Sacrifices in life can lead you to some devastation ♪ ♪ As long as you believe in you ♪ ♪ Don't worry about the hatred ♪ ♪ In time the ones that worry till the day you make it ♪ ♪ I represent for all my dream chasers ♪ ♪ I aspire to be your inspiration ♪ ♪ I'm on that footrace too ♪ ♪ Just trying to practice patience ♪ ♪ Keep the negative energy from around your spaces ♪ ♪ And watch a story unfold amongst the blank pages ♪ ♪ From rock bottom just motivate to the top ♪ ♪ Speak it into existence even if you cannot ♪ ♪ And fly amongst the stars ♪ ♪ Don't worry about the drop ♪ ♪ 'Cause when they catch wind ♪ ♪ That's when you'll never stop ♪ ♪ It's a war going on outside no man is safe from ♪ ♪ Doesn't matter if you're three feet or 8'1'' ♪ ♪ We gotta keep up the fight despite the scars ♪ ♪ So when one life to live, we just go twice as hard ♪ ♪ 'Cause, ah ♪ ♪ I always knew that I could be bigger, bigger, bigger ♪ ♪ No matter what they told me ♪ ♪ I always knew that I could be a winner, winner, winner ♪ ♪ I couldn't let them hold me down ♪ ♪ Everything's what you make it ♪ ♪ Sacrifices in life can lead you to some motivation ♪ ♪ As long as you believe in you, just watch the funny faces ♪ ♪ They soon turn into frowns when you start winning races ♪ ♪ More blessings, more fire with determination ♪ ♪ In time that last place turn to first place, man ♪ ♪ Crack a smile for the ones who try to keep you caged in ♪ ♪ Feed the body, watch the soul, follow the arrangement ♪ ♪ See, the old heads tell you the world is bigger ♪ ♪ Than the box you live in ♪ ♪ It's hard enough just trying to dodge the prison ♪ ♪ Let alone corrupted school systems ♪ ♪ Chase dreams, that's how we're all living ♪ ♪ Remember, you ain't gotta eat the plate they always givin' ♪ ♪ No matter how many times you fall flat ♪ ♪ Dust your ball cap ♪ ♪ Brush your flaws back ♪ ♪ We gotta keep up the fight despite the scars ♪ ♪ So when one life to live, we just go twice as hard ♪ ♪ 'Cause, ah ♪ ♪ I always knew that I could be bigger, bigger, bigger ♪ ♪ No matter what they told me ♪ ♪ I always knew that I could be a winner, winner, winner ♪ ♪ I couldn't let them hold me down ♪ ♪ Whoa, whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Whoa, whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ I always knew that I could be bigger, bigger, bigger ♪ ♪ Whoa, whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ I always knew that I could be bigger, bigger ♪