(lively music) - On this edition of "ARTEFFECTS," an eye for watercolor.

(gentle music) - [James ] Watercolor lends the itself to spontaneity, flow, and expression.

Capturing the spirit of a person is the main thing that I'm striving for.

- [Beth] An illustrator sharing folklore for future generations.

- [Dinara] Art should make you feel happy, or like I would say like provoke reaction.

(lively music) - [Beth] The vision of an artist.

- [Bryan] For me, lifting up other people within the community through my work, I would say it's a very critical part of what I do.

- [Beth] And art that glows.

- [Belinda] Our idea was to create a kind of journey, should we say, through the site, with surprises around every corner.

- [Beth] It's all ahead, on this edition of "ARTEFFECTS."

(lively music) - [Narrator] 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."

In our featured segment, we explore the world of watercolors with James Gayles of Reno.

For this artist, the creation of a watercolor painting comes from the heart.

It's a way for Gayles not only to express his creativity, but also to teach others about important people in history.

(gentle music) - [James] Watercolor lends the itself to spontaneity, flow, and expression.

I can do my type of style for the shadowing and the highlights.

(gentle music) My name is James Gayles.

I do watercolor portraiture.

I work here in my studio on Dickerson Road in Reno, Nevada.

My subject matter is a lot of times, it's African American, and I like to show positive images of that segment of the population, to give the people pride in themselves.

(jazz music) I was born on the east coast in Newark, New Jersey, which is right across the bridge from New York City.

As a teenager, I snuck a lot across the bridge out to New York, to jazz night clubs.

New York City is great, you know, 'cause everything's there, it's the center of everything, fashion, music, art.

So it was great for me, I loved it.

As far back as I could remember, I liked to paint, and draw, and do art.

(gentle music) My mom was one of my biggest encouragers.

I kinda always knew that I was gonna be an artist when I grew up.

I started out in oils when I was a teenager, but I discovered I was allergic to the oil, so that's when I switched to watercolor and acrylic.

I graduated in 1970 from Pratt Institute.

Basically, I'm self taught, with every long before I went to school.

School just enhanced it more.

(bright music) I start out with the eyes.

To me, the eyes are the most important thing that can convey the person's spirit.

I break up the face, into shadows and highlights, cheek bones, the nose, the lips.

Watercolor is very good for that.

I go through a lot of paint, a lot of color, because my paintings are saturated with color and paint.

So, I go through tubes very quickly.

(bright music) Capturing the spirit of a person is the main thing that I'm striving for.

A lot of people find watercolor hard.

I find it easy, because, well as you're painting, there's bound to be mistakes.

But I like to use those mistakes to work on 'em, they create a better end product once you solve those mistakes within the painting.

(blues music) It's kinda hard to explain how I do it, because I kinda go by feeling.

It's kind of like a spiritual-type thing, you know?

Relate to the subject, and you kind of try and bring out the the their spirit, you know?

I do a lot musicians, Nina Simone, Miles Davis.

Miles Davis is another favorite, 'cause he has very intense eyes.

John Coltrane, and, you know, a lot of icons that they look up to, like Maya Angelou, Martin Luther King.

It's a good feeling, yeah, that I've accomplished something.

Reno's kinda growing on me.

It's a lot different than New York or Oakland, 'cause New York and Oakland are very diverse, you know, very multicultural, you know?

So, I kinda made it my mission to bring African American art to Reno.

My advice to young struggling artists who struggle with their work, I say don't be discouraged, if things don't work out the first time, you know, stick with it.

They must love it, because there's long hours, and a lot of work they gotta put into it in order to be successful.

So you have to love it, and you have to kind of like be a sponge to absorb any all the artwork, you know, look at art whenever you can in the museums, the galleries, magazines, you know, see what the other artists are doing, and, you know, so you can kinda gauge yourself where you're where you fit in to the whole art scene.

- To learn more, visit jamesgayles.com.

Memories and stories from childhood make their way into the art of Dinara Mirtalipova.

Whether she's illustrating children's books, or designing colorful patterns.

Let's step inside her studio in Sagamore Hills, Ohio, with Ideastream's Carrie Wise.

(playful music) - I call it folk art, because folk art means art of the people.

- [Carrie] Dinara Mirtalipova paints from her heart.

She draws influence from what's familiar, whether it's old scary fairy tales, or the flowered patterns her grandmother wore.

- I grew up in a culture that like had lots of those like mixed cultures.

Uzbekistan is the place where I was born, it's like a crossroad of so many different cultures.

It has like a very interesting history all the way from Genghis Khan, to being under the Soviet influence for such a long period of time.

- [Carrie] Living in the US as an adult, Mirtalipova turned to art from sketching to painting.

- [Dinara] So I work mostly in gouache, and gouache is a water-based paint.

My scale is very small, and with gouache, it's possible to get those tiny details with a tiny brush.

But sometimes when I paint larger, I go with acrylics, because acrylics is more like water-resistant, and it stays longer.

- [Carrie] For years, she's been sharing her art online, initially through blogging, and more recently through Instagram.

Her online posts have led to all sorts of collaborations.

- [Dinara] So I've been been like mostly sharing my work, and my personal work, and to my surprise, I started receiving some requests to illustrate a book, to like everything, like from little projects like stationary, to wallpapers and murals.

- [Carrie] For her latest children's book, due out in 2023, "Woven of the World," she's illustrating familiar Uzbek customs, such as how her grandmother wore clothes with multiple patterns.

- Everything mismatched, and it was totally okay by her.

Like, she liked to just wear things that are colorful, and she didn't really care like if this color goes well with this color, and I kind of find that cute now.

- [Carrie] In "Woven of the World," she's illustrating the craft of weaving through a variety of cultural traditions.

- [Dinara] So it's not just about weaving as the craft, it's about how we are all like, woven one culture into another.

- [Carrie] Mirtalipova is also currently working on a book project, with her own young daughter writing the poems.

- [Dinara] So it's a book about the North Pole village, like what is happening in the North Pole.

It involves characters like Mr. Claus, Polar Bear, and his little helpers mice, who do all the charming work of wrapping up gifts, and preparing, and creating, and painting toys.

- [Carrie] Mirtalipova says, "Making art is like yoga for her fingers, providing relaxation, and a way to separate from the stresses of life."

Self-taught in her practice, she encourages others to create too.

- [Dinara] If the process brings you peace, and you enjoy it, like, you call yourself artist, and anyone can become one.

So, art should make you feel happy, or, like I would say like provoke reaction.

Like sometimes, the reaction may be that you have to wake up, and realize what's going on in the world, but sometimes it has just to bring you peace.

And I guess it just depends on the person, what is it that you are seeking in life, what is it that's missing?

And if you find art that somehow communicates that, that's awesome.

(playful music) - To learn more, visit mirdiniara.com.

And now it's time for this week's art quiz.

Reno's McKinley Park School, known today as McKinley Arts and Culture Center, was built in which year?

Is the answer A, 1889?

B, 1899?

C, 1909?

Or D, 1919?

And the answer is C, 1909.

(jazz music) Bryan Moss is a visual artist based in Columbus, Ohio.

From comic books to large scale murals, Moss' art takes on many forms.

Up next, we meet the artist, learn about some of his projects, and find out how he became the full-time caretaker for the home of the late artist Aminah Robinson.

- [Crewmember] How many comic books do you own?

(Bryan laughing) - Okay, let's put it like this, how many comic books do I own?

(playful music) I own 20 bookshelves of graphic novels.

(Bryan laughing) I think I might open a library one day.

(playful music) So I was born in 1981, on the south end of Columbus, so born and raised.

Now that I reflect back on it, I grew up really poor.

When you say it, it sounds pretty triggering, but actually, I learned a lot, that's how I like figured out how to do art through like a grassroots process.

Like, I signed up for art classes at Schiller Park, that's when I discovered and understood that I was gonna be an artist.

After that, it was more just like drawing, drawing, drawing.

So just nonstop, just obsessed with it.

So, when I was like 10 or 11, that's when I discovered comic books, and then that's when it shifted, so that I was just drawing comics all the time.

(playful music) The current project I just finished up, and that I'm still working on a little bit here and there, is a comic book called "Eightfold Path," it's a 225-page comic.

The turnaround time for the book was six months.

So it was a team of us, about six to eight people just working around the clock on this book.

I'm the beginning and the end of it, which means that I approve what goes through and what doesn't.

So it's almost as like a director.

(playful music) The idea of converting a script into a comic book is actually a very difficult process.

You start penciling, we go through this process called thumbnailing, which is where you just literally sketch out the idea.

And then after that, you go into like your official pencil, which is like where you're like, okay, this works, now let's do the paneling, and actually draw it in pencil and make that work.

(playful music) After that, we ink it.

The inking part's kind of like the fun, it's kind of like the jazz of it.

And then after that, we scan it in, digitally color it.

They'll make this into this Hitchcockian, like, masterpiece comic.

(Bryan laughing) They're like, alright, we build it while we fly.

So, another project that I worked on that was super awesome, super epic, a dream come true, White Castle and Coca-Cola called me, and was like, oh, would you like to do the art for the 100th anniversary?

Would you be interested in designing a cup?

And I was like, yeah.

And then I was like, we should do like three cups, (Bryan laughing) so it's like a collector thing.

(lively music) Now, I don't know about you guys, but I always wanted to design something like this.

And even from when I was a kid, because what I really have a lot of passion about, is actually like making products cool.

And so, we developed the narrative from the beginning, and the original Billy Ingram, the founder, it shows like the diner of the first location, what the first gift card looks like.

So yeah, this is all my narrative, all my storytelling I came up with.

And then obviously me there, at the end as any great Renaissance painter would do, which is include themselves into the masterpiece.

(Bryan laughing) So, yeah, so if you get a chance, look for those cups online, you know?

(Bryan chuckling) (bird chirping) For me, lifting up other people within the community through my work, I would say it's a very critical part of what I do.

(gentle music) The mural I recently completed was one of the one and only Hanif.

It's actually on a law firm on Miller and Maine.

Hanif is a writer, (Bryan laughing) Hanif is a famous writer.

Hanif and I went to middle school together.

There's a bit of a age difference, but there's this indirect relationship that we've always had.

With Hanif, the cool thing about it, is that he stayed.

That builds up Columbus.

That was my personal goal too.

I could move, but I choose not to, because the idea of building up Columbus.

(gentle music) We end up calling the mural "The People's Mural," because of how the community got behind it.

The process for "The People's Mural" was to show Hanif as a mosaic.

The reason I wanted to really inject a lot of color in it, has more to do with the quote.

"There is something about setting eyes on the people who hold you up, instead of simply imagining them."

(gentle music) The idea of this is, where the characters in the background, and these are people that are in the community too, I put them all in black and white, and I put Hanif in color, because we realize as artists that we're like isolated, in the sense we think we're isolated, and it's actually not the case.

We actually have people who support us, and that care.

But just going through that process, you get kind of lost, and it's pretty exhausting, so, it has a lot of personal meaning why I designed this.

So in the summer of 2020, I moved into Aminah Robinson's home through the Columbus Museum of Art.

(light music) Now what I served as was as the manager, but there's kind of like a duality to it, which was that Aminah Robinson was my mentor.

I met Aminah Robinson when I started at the Columbus Museum of Art in May of 2001.

So, it had a like a higher purpose for me.

It's a curated museum space, so you're essentially inside Aminah Robinson.

The spirit's definitely there, the energy's there.

It was probably the least art productive I was, but the most healing process I've had.

I was able to slow down, and like actually like, (Bryan exhaling) relax, you know?

Because of the residency, not having to worry about, you know, the finances and stuff like that.

It's the only space where I can like really like, fly, where I can like just like do whatever I wanted, you know?

It's like a healing space, I would say.

(light music) The one thing Aminah said to me, that still resonates with me today is, "Keep drawing, don't stop drawing."

And at the time, I'm like, don't tell me that, I draw all the time, like, that's absurd, I'll never stop drawing.

But then what happens is that life happens, (Bryan laughing) life occurs, and then you get older, and drawing becomes harder.

So that message, just like keep drawing, has more importance to me now, than when she told me that when I was 22 years old, you know?

I mean, but that's just like a master teacher, right?

(Bryan laughing) So, yeah, so that was pretty cool.

(light music) - Discover more on Instagram, at strangethingsmoss.

"A Light on Mars" is a nocturnal exhibition that celebrates the firefly.

Walking along the outdoor sculpture path, visitors are able to see site-specific artwork that illuminates the night sky.

We head to Gloucester, Massachusetts to find out more.

- [Host] This fall, as the days grow shorter, and night becomes heavier, a Gloucester estate is lighting the way.

- I just love being here at this moment, when it is all about to change.

- [Host] Belinda Rathbone is guest curator of this nocturnal exhibition, featuring 16 members of the Boston Sculptor's Gallery, crafting work that floats, flickers, and tantalizes.

- [Belinda] Our idea was to create a kind of journey, should we say, through the site, with surprises around every corner.

- [Host] Rathbone is also the author of a new, first-ever biography on kinetic sculptor, George Rickey, and says these artists have risen to similar challenges.

- [Belinda] He was very challenged about working with outdoor installations, which is what he's best known for.

And these sculptors here today, are also making work that is alive in the landscape as light turns to dark.

(cricket chirping) - [Host] The exhibition populates the one-time estate of Paul Manship, perhaps best known for his 1934 sculpture of Prometheus in New York City's Rockefeller Center.

Today, his home, studio, and grounds, comprise the Manship artist's residency, a place for artists to gather, find inspiration, and break out of their routines.

Rebecca Reynolds is the executive director.

- People who come here, they refer to it as a magical place.

And to me, that's just what we'd love to hear, because to me that's a just, you know, otherworldly or transformation, taking you out of your every day.

(cricket chirping) - [Host] The sculptures here are inspired by Manship's unyielding fondness for fireflies, so profound that he named his home Starfield, for the twinkling, mesmerizing insects that dance around the property still.

- [Rebecca] Paul Manship didn't mow his meadow until the end of July, because he knew if he did it any sooner, he wouldn't give the fireflies a chance to go through their life cycle.

- [Host] Now, that life cycle has evolved, both in actual literal fireflies, and in their essence.

Here, light captivates, because it places the Big Dipper beneath the sky, as in Jessica Strauss's "Drinking Gourd."

Christopher Abrams piece, "Developing Weather," assumes the form of a portable storm, while Marilu Swett's sculpture "GLOW" floats.

- [Host] Now I know this is meant to be seen in the dark, which we will see in about an hour, (Marilu chuckling) but, what are we seeing here?

- You're seeing a, a collection of multiple figures, that connect with the ocean.

They're in the spiral formation, because that's one of the flight patterns for fireflies, you know?

- [Host] This has been a show years in the making, giving artists time to craft work both site-specific, and leveraging light at its best.

- [Marilu] People started working, and doing their research on light, how to incorporate light into their work.

Really only a few of our members had worked with light in their pieces before, so, it took some digging.

- [Host] But this had already been an area of exploration for Swett, whose work glows with phosphorescent pigment.

- [Marilu] I've come to be interested in through through through the research of deep sea creatures, being more and more interested in bioluminescence, and finding that it's not just in the ocean, it's many, many, even fireflies, of course, and other insects, but mammals as well, fluoresce.

- [Host] Other artists have taken their cues from the property, from the sun-dabbled leaves, a lamp that brightens the home's staircase, and glass fishing floats tucked into a living room basket.

- [Rebecca] Many of these artists have studios, and they're working every day in their studios.

But, it's different if you can get out of your every day, and go into a place where there are no expectations.

- [Host] Not to mention, where you can see the light.

- For more information, visit manshipartists.org.

And that wraps it up for this edition of "ARTEFFECTS."

If you want to watch new "ARTEFFECTS" segments early, make sure to check out the PBS Reno YouTube channel.

And don't forget to keep watching pbsreno.org, to watch complete episodes of "ARTEFFECTS."

Until next week, I'm Beth Macmillan.

Thanks for watching.

- [Narrator 1] 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.

(lively music)