- In this edition of Arteffects, child-like creativity and wonder in meaningful paintings and murals.

- That element of child-like wonder and the imagination has been really strong in my creative process.

- [Beth] A screen-printed poster show.

- [Jess] To be able to put a poster from a local business by a local artist on your wall is something that's pretty unique.

- [Beth] And see how a local artist creates a sense of magical realism with her unique vision of the Sierra Nevada.

- For me, I get something from being on location that's vital to my process.

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

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Funding for Arteffects is made possible by, Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pierce Motors, Meg and Dillard Myers, Heidemarie Rochlin, in memory of Sue McDowell, and by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

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

When artist Matt Kaufman of South Lake Tahoe creates artwork, it's more than just putting paint onto a canvas.

Each piece has a story and deep meaning behind it.

Sometimes that's creating a sense of awe and imagination with bright colors.

Other times, it's designing powerful children's storybook characters with big emotions.

Regardless of the subject, each one of Matt's pieces of art shares great creativity and colorful wonder.

My name is Matt Kauffman with Tree Fort Design, and I create art that transforms environments.

I would say that like my stuff is contemporary and modern.

It has a graffiti element to it.

Letters are really prominent and a lot of my work.

I think if you look closely, there'll be elements of letters woven throughout either like direct messages that is part of the piece or scripture, or just a lyric from a song.

That element of childlike wonder.

And the imagination is something that has been really strong.

in my creative process.

I've seen how important it is to tap into that imagination that honestly, I think society kind of scrubs out of us, that as we get older, we become less brave to be creative and tap into that imaginative spirit.

And I think it's really important that we not forget that exists in all of us.

The process for creating canvas work typically starts with just a random idea.

Inspiration can hit in the most random times.

I really enjoy cycling and so in the summer I've just been on my bike listening to music or just being present one with nature.

An idea will come out of nowhere if I'm listening to music at the time.

Sometimes a lyric will just resonate with me and I'll do a sketch based on some image that came out of nowhere in my mind's eye.

I like to work with reference images and so once I have a sketch, I then go back and begin an image search and I just start gathering images and I kind of create this digital collage.

I just arrange things very roughly, but not to create a polished piece of digital work, simply to get the proportions correct.

If I'm weaving and various elements, for example, flowers have come up in a lot of my work recently.

So if I've got a subject, sometimes I'll use one image for the face and I'll use another image for the pose of the body, and then I'll scale up flowers or a bird or some element, and from there I transfer it to the canvas or whatever medium I'm working on at the time.

I have two kids, a five year old and a nine year old.

We are a big reading family, so books have been a very big part of our daily lives and their childhood.

My wife and I noticed that so often children's books are not as imaginative as they could be.

And I had this idea on multiple occasions that, gosh, I could do better than I could write a children's book.

And so my son and I began working on sketches and ideas around a children's book.

I had the opportunity to participate in a solo exhibition this past December down in Palm Desert, and in creating work for that.

This idea was put on my heart to really explore this children's book concept and began creating works with the idea of the story of a series of characters that are gifted, unique superpowers by a spirit bird.

So some of the characters in the recent series that holds these unique superpowers include Mahina Moon, who is the overseer and protector of waters specifically in the ocean.

There's another character, Neon Knight, whose superpower is to inspire hope through song, through her gift of singing.

There is another character.

Her persona isn't necessarily a superpower.

It's more of just like a commentary and awareness on mental health and how we approach depression and cope with feelings of a lack of self-worth.

All of these characters are gifted, these unique powers, through this fictitious bird that lives in the story.

It's been a lot of fun.

I guess I'm going about it in kind of a backwards way in that I represented the characters as adults.

I do have many of the characters represented as children that will be used in the book, the first series.

It's just kind of interesting seeing the older representation of those characters and the little backstory that each one has and kind of the commentary on adult issues, but that you're all strong and not to forget that you're uniquely special.

Our mantra at tree fort is just to create art that sparks joy.

And so that is kind of the intention that I've tried to infuse in all of my work.

Hope is so powerful and important in life right now that processing things through creating something beautiful is really important for me, as well as if I can help in someone else reflecting or processing some experience in life.

And if it brings a smile to their face, then I'm mission accomplished.

Learn more at TreeFortDesign.com.

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

Acrylic paint is well known for its bright colors and quick drying time.

It's a common medium for artists to use today but wasn't commercially available until the 1950s.

In what year did Otto Rohm invent the first iteration of acrylic paint?

Is the answer, A, 1911, B, 1925, C, 1934, or D, 1946?

And the answer is C, 1934.

Up next we take a trip to Ohio to hear about the screen-printed poster show Prints and Pints.

This annual event pairs 12 local artists with 12 breweries to create special posters that are then sold to members of the community.

(upbeat music) - We're here at Upright Press, independent screen printing shop in Columbus on the south side preparing for our fifth year of Prints and Pints.

- Prints and Pints is a screen print poster fest.

It's a collaboration between The Daily Growler and Upright Press.

And then we bring in 12 breweries and 12 local artists to create unique posters.

- So the artists treat this project kind of like a gig poster, where they have an idea for a beer that the brewery makes and they work with the brewery on what that imagery will turn into.

And I think it's worked out really well that the breweries have given a lot of artistic license to the artists and that's why these posters have been so amazing.

The posters are limited edition, there's only 30 and they're numbered by the artist, one of 30, two of 30, so on and so forth.

And that's it.

So I think that's contributed a lot to the excitement about the event.

- Which is just a one-day event every year, so only available in person, no like online sales and it's just a really special event for us and for the the community and the artists and the breweries.

- [Jess] Once they had agreed to it, then I let the artists choose which brewery they wanted to work with.

- My name is Dustin Brinkman and I'm working with Seventh Son Brewery.

Yeah, for Prints and Pints.

(gentle music) I have a really kind of soft spot in my heart for Seventh Son because when I first moved here, I didn't know where anything was and I just kind of a bit overwhelmed by like one way streets coming from a really small town.

So I lived down the street from Seventh Son but I had no idea it was there and I stumbled upon it, and I would just go there every night after that.

Loved their atmosphere that they kind of cultivate there and the drinks and cocktails are always absolutely amazing.

But yeah, I think I just really wanted to kind of in some ways like give back to them like by working with them I wanted to kind of participate in that way because I had such a warm experience there from the get-go.

Talking about the brewery, it's not just Seventh Son, they have the two other breweries the Get Away and then they have Antiques on High.

And so I tried to take little components from each sort of location taking the airplane from the Get Away, 'cause it has this sort of like plane and travel theme to it.

Taking the Seventh Son cat, which is Horatio also known as the assistant manager, the Antiques on High van, and all those sort of different things.

Really wanted to try and culminate all those different things into one poster that still centers around like that specific brewery which is Seventh Son.

Yeah, my process, it feels like there is like a lot of steps in it and it takes quite a bit of time.

So normally I start off with like a very, very generalized sort of like gesture sketch.

The digital collage comes from either photographs I'll personally take or things I'll find on the like internet.

And then from there, I print it off at scale like the exact scale I want to print and carve that at.

Transfer that on to the linoleum block that's cut down to that exact scale as well, So that is fully at like the 18 by 24 like what our poster's gonna be.

And then from there it's just the sitting in the kind of process of carving which usually takes quite some time.

And then I come in here and I use the the presses that are just behind me and then I'll pull that first relief proof.

Once that's dry, I'll scan that in and then do a sort of photo merge and Photoshop, transfer that into Illustrator for a live trace and then come back to Photoshop and do all my like brushwork and tools and do all like the color layering and stuff like that.

Then what I'm gonna do for the poster like when we go layer wise is like start off with this like super intense, very bright yellow that'll get like dulled down a little bit in the shadow areas and stuff.

Like this layer is just meant to only purposefully be like for shadows to give stuff some depth.

Then red I'll go next with the sort of background sort of tone that like makes it not as just flat in there.

And then the last color will be that blue that kind of transforms like all that, that yellow into a green.

I think by the end of this week I'll be done and I can send the images to Jess to get them ready for printing.

(gentle music) - I'm Natasha Wheeler and I'm working with Yellow Springs Brewery.

I wanted to work with the Yellow Springs Brewery because I grew up in a neighboring city so I was really familiar with the Yellow Springs area and it was just a place we'd visit, you know with my family.

As I got older it was just like the place we'd drive to to you know, hang out for an afternoon at the shops and things like that.

Lots of natural trails and hiking and it's just one of the more unique spots in Ohio.

When I was paired with Yellow Springs Brewery they already knew they wanted to have a poster for a beer.

And the beer is Creative Space, one of their, I think any NEIPAs.

Kind of had a few ideas about how we might represent Yellow Springs.

My process for creating the print, I usually like to start with just a messy sketchy thumbnail to try and get out the idea and how I kind of want the eye to move throughout the piece.

And then once I kind of establish that flow, I like to bring the sketch to the iPad.

I wanted kind of a loose freehand approach to it.

So with the iPad I could really get in there and just touch up all those details.

And then, once I kind of have that really nice refined sketch, I'll bring it to the computer and I'll use a program like Adobe Illustrator to actually separate out the colors into layers and really refine anything that didn't translate well.

One of the ideas was representing this idea of a free spirit.

So I wanted to use kind of like flowing lines 'cause you think beer it flows, ideas flow, creativity flows, to then help tie all these different scenes together.

A lot of outdoor elements because the brewery itself is kind of a hub for outdoor enthusiasts.

Hiking obviously is a big one.

Cycling, the brewery itself is positioned right on a bike path.

We've got some repelling hidden in there, there's skateboarding, kayaking, there's a river.

Got somebody bird watching, butterflies, flowers, just more natural elements that you might see there.

I would kind of say Jess is like a master printer.

I'm always really pleased and surprised when I see like the actual print, it's really cool.

There's just something about that ink on paper and like the matte quality to it all, when you've been looking at it through like an illuminated computer screen.

It's just so cool to see those colors and it come together.

- What I see from people who come to the event and buy the posters is kind of a general excitement.

I think it, it speaks to people's relationship with the the breweries themselves and the scene.

- This is a big beer city, you know, there's over 60 breweries in this city, so it's an important thing to people.

- [Dustin] People love beer and people love art and so it's nice when they come together like that.

- I think it makes artwork kind of approachable.

You know, it's very affordable.

- [Jess] To be able to put a poster from a local business, by a local artist on your wall is something that's pretty unique.

- A lot of the artists that have done this have gone on to be kind of mainstays at that brewery, designing cans, T-shirts.

- Being able to participate in Prints and Pints is like really opened up my like, sort of circle of artists and designers and things to work with.

And I think being able to bring in those different types of artists within that community and see how everyone's kind of taking on these designs a little differently also broadens that horizon to like what poster printing is or what sort of graphic work and imagery kind of really can be through different sort of lenses.

- [Natasha] If you're into the local craft beer scene in Columbus, I definitely think it's an event worth checking out.

- Again, just like uniquely positive and good vibes abound.

- [Dustin] It's the most relaxed sort of event art exhibition I've like been to in quite some time.

- I'm looking for five more years.

- Discover more at uprightpress.com.

Artist Phyllis Shafer is a plein air landscape painter who lives and works in the Sierra Nevada mountains and Great Basin area.

Let's take a journey with her, through beautiful vistas into Reno's own Stremmel Gallery to see how she engages with her surrounding environments to create a sense of magical realism that is unique to her work.

(gentle music) - My name's Phyllis Shafer and I'm a landscape painter, and I work plein air, out of doors, here in the Sierra Nevada mountains painting the landscapes around us.

When you look at my paintings, I want you to know in what peak you're looking at or if you're in a Sierra Nevada meadow or on the coast.

So there's certainly an interest in describing a sense of place and honoring that sense of place.

You can see from looking at my work that there's a lot of stylizing and tweaking and sort of distorting that's going on in order to what I think of is creating more of a narrative.

Well I think that the brush is my vehicle for getting the forms and the rhythm and the energy that I'm trying to describe in a certain landscape.

You have to really be engaged in process as an artist because it's a very long haul from the beginning of an idea to the completed piece.

When I start a painting, that definitely happens when I'm out hiking, driving, just standing in nature, and finding a place that speaks to me in some way.

And I think it's kind of like a crystallization of an idea.

And if you can hang onto that idea then the labor part comes in by bringing all my gear out there, carrying it and setting myself up with an easel, the paint, the canvas.

And I like to work large by plein air standards.

I think my favorite size is usually in the 30 to 40 inch range or thereabouts.

It gives me the range that feels most comfortable for me.

So there's a lot of labor involved in getting your equipment outside, but for me, I get something from being on location that's vital to my process.

So I begin the paintings very loose, very gestural, trying to pay attention to the essential gesture or the essential feeling, or rhythm, or idea that stuck with me when I first found a place.

And then it's a process of layering and developing and really utilizing the medium and the brush stroke and color.

Color is very, very important to me.

I'm always working warm against cool colors, high contrast, low contrast, light and dark, and the sensations of having colors sitting side by side that creates this kind of vibration and energy that we respond to when we're out in nature.

I have shown my paintings for 30 plus years in lots of different venues, but when I met Turkey Stremmel and everyone at the Stremmel Gallery, I found a home and someone who would be an advocate for my work that has really changed my relationship to the community.

I get a lot of feedback now by showing here at the Stremmel Gallery.

And many people come up to me who have bought a painting.

And they've got tears in their eyes because they feel like this painting expresses something that they've experienced in the landscape.

- Even if it's a painting that I've never seen, I'm intrigued to think of maybe I would love to go and possibly find that location.

There's always something interesting, slightly magical sometimes in her landscapes.

I think she brings the outdoors to you so you can have it indoors.

You know, we all work hard, and you know some of us get beat up during the day, I mean all day long.

And if you go home and you've got something to look forward to and say, okay, I had a tough day, but I can look at this landscape and it'll transport me into another place for at least maybe five, 10 minutes, two minutes.

But you know, maybe it just is a really good thing for you to have in your own soul and your own heart that you've got a chunk of nature that just feels good when you leave it in the morning and you come home to see it in the evening.

- Hopefully one of the ways in which people can connect to my paintings is that I'm talking about something that is a shared human experience.

And even though there's no figures in my paintings, there's very much a sense of self.

And for me, I think it's a subtle thing and I don't want it to be a ham-fisted allegory me in the world.

So much as it is looking to nature and using it as a way to be okay with this process of aging and loving, and losing, and fighting, and caring, and trying.

And there's something about nature that is a lesson because there's always something new being born and something old dying off.

And it makes me feel like it's gonna be okay to die, that everything has a cycle and you're part of that cycle.

So maybe that's what I'm getting at with my paintings, is this is just a way for me to figure out why I'm here and to be okay with it.

(gentle music) - To learn more, visit PhyllisShafer.com.

And that wraps it up for this edition of Arteffects.

If you want to watch new Arteffects segments early, make sure you subscribe to the PBS Reno YouTube channel.

And don't forget to keep visiting pbsreno.org to watch complete episodes of Arteffects.

Until next week, I'm Beth McMillan.

Thanks for watching.

- [Narrator] Funding for Arteffects is made possible by, Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pierce Motors, Meg and Dillard Myers.

Heidemarie Rochlin, in memory of Sue McDowell, and by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

(gentle music)