- In this edition of ArtEffects, portraits that embrace feminine abstract realism.

(gentle music) - [Braighlee] I try to include a lot of symbolism and a lot of like authentic moti from each person and each woman.

- [Beth] Exploring the human soul through sculpture.

- It happens to me every time, whether it's a drawing, whether whether it's bronze, it's like I'm faced with a soul.

- [Beth] Writing stories and building connections.

- When you read fiction and you become that character, you kind of see the world through that person's eyes, you understand, you empathize.

So I think that's a really important part of what I hope the reader will get.

- [Beth] And celebrating women o through representation.

- [Kelsey] I got to a point where I was like, I can just paint my representation that I want.

It kind of serves as filling gaps in places where I think they need to be fi - It's all ahead on this edition of ArtEffects.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Funding for ArtEffects is made possible by.

Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pierce Meg and Dillard Meyers.

In memory of Sue McDowell.

The Carol Franc Buck Foundation.

Chris and Parky May.

And by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

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

Flowers, bright colors, gold lea and powerful feminine figures ar just a few of the key elements in the artwork of Braighlee Rain Working in her studio in Sparks, she creates abstract realism por that she calls a safe space to embrace self-love, divine femininity, and the power of the female voice.

(gentle music) - When I'm diving into each pain it's like this puzzle to solve.

I think colors really excite me.

I think the way people's faces and the way the light hits your face is really interesting.

There's something about painting that there is no limitation between colors and values and compositions.

And it is all really exciting and you can create anything that Hi, my name is Braighlee and I am an oil painter and arti living and working in Sparks, Ne I like to say that I paint abstract realism feminine figures and portraits.

I do love like the puzzle piecin putting a portrait together, but I also love the freedom that abstract painting allows me and kind of dive into larger bru and kind of have this ethereal v alongside the portraits and the that bring everything together.

I'd like to think that I create but based in a series.

I love to have pieces that all work together to create a larger storyline.

So the series that I'm currently working on is a collection of 10 paintings showcasing women in my life that are inspiring to me, my friends that have beautiful yet traumatic stories and showcasing a lot of themes and motifs in their life that are reoccurring as women.

All of the paintings together are going to be the entire color of the rainbow, and I'm doing black, brown, whit This one is blue as you can see.

I'm hoping that all of them toge create this harmony of voices of each woman individually.

(gentle music) I try to include a lot of symbol and a lot of like authentic moti from each person and each woman that I'm painting.

- Hi, my name is Ren and I was a model for one of Braighlee's artworks.

I haven't been painted before or been part of something like this so closely.

- I did not have this series in mind at all when I painted her.

She was the first and she had this beautiful blue hair and I put her in a beautiful blu I took her outside and there was a beautiful blue sky behind her and it kind of all came together in a way that those ideas don't really come from me.

- Blue is very significant to me Blue being everywhere in nature, reflected in the sky and water that's all around, but also really hard to find in like finding blue flowers or foo The idea that two things can be true at the same time is I think, necessary for finding p - The blueness is a representati the vastness and the beauty, the but it's also this like such a soft element in our day t - Another significant element of the painting is butterflies.

That's something I connect with.

And having them in the painting makes it a little more personal, a little bit more symbolic for m (gentle music) - The reason I choose art every day is because it's a place where I can feel sa it's a place where I can explore Be curious about like what if this color and this drip, you know, meet each other?

What's gonna happen?

- It's an honor really to have that image of me preserved by ha It started out as a photo, but has evolved into so much mor It becomes not just me.

It's super fun and it makes my heart happy.

- I paint womanhood and feminini because it's something that I'm still processing.

There's a duality in men and wom You know, there's this duality of trying to be like a soft feminine figure and also be this strong, courage My voice as an artist comes from a place of balancing the boldness and the s and you can be both at once.

That's what I'm trying to do is marry the two in a way that is not coming from the masculine point of view, it's coming from a feminine eye.

- I find that subject matter imp especially as a woman myself, having this feminine perspective a little bit different from what's been done in the past.

It's a little bit rebellious and also something that I'm not sure there's enough of yet.

- And it's not that I don't want to paint men.

I do, I think I'm still just processing being a woman.

I love my husband so much and I wanna paint him eventually.

And I wanna paint the wonderful men in my life and people, 'cause I do love painting people It's like a little puzzle that I get to put together.

But I think for now I'm focusing so that their voices can be hear so that my voice can be heard so that we can kind of speak col - See more of Braighlee's artwork at braighlee.com.

When artist Natalie Plasencia cr she makes the spirit visible.

With her sculptures, the human soul is given a voice.

We head to the Florida Keys to visit Plasencia in her studio and find out more about her proc (upbeat music) - The inspiration can be overwhelming sometimes.

I don't know if that makes any s (upbeat music) Sometimes I could be so overwhel by a desire to create something that it's like I need to take a like I need it to settle in.

I go for a session of wing foili I come back home and I can think It almost like cleanses me.

You know, any bad negative feeli the wing foiling just breaks it My name is Natalie Plasencia and I'm a sculptor.

It happens to me every time, whether it's a drawing, whether whether it's bronze, it's like I'm faced with a soul.

And I have to acknowledge the fa that I'm attempting to do this.

It really truly is I feel like an interaction between the medium and myself.

And it blows my mind every time.

Every time I see that moment when the spirit is in that perso it's almost like I've been waiti and you've been waiting for me.

The most basic human desire, I t is to make a connection.

We're social beings, so it happe I just have to be patient.

Sometimes it doesn't happen for (gentle music) Fully dedicating all my efforts and my mind to my art, I really started taking myself seriously in 2013, which is when I left social work and I started going into my art.

I always try to lasso my ideas and concepts back to the idea of what is the viewer getting from this.

And so my figures will have some anguish, some sadness.

But the idea is the hope that you need to have to be able to get you through that hardship, whether it's human rights, whether it's domestic violence, whether it's immigration, we're all in that journey.

(upbeat music) Right now, I'm currently working on a piece that has a female figure and a boat and a sail, so it's very exciting.

It also is site specific.

She's going to be very powerful.

We have a combination of bronze, possibly aluminum, some stainles There's definitely gonna be decorative concrete on the floor some possible brass in the concr And so she's gonna be leading.

Leading the way, that's her job, with very feminine power, but power.

I still can't get to where I want her hands.

So the hands are gonna have a lo My deepest desire is to treat others with dignity.

And so I try to go that same route with my art pieces, whereas I want the viewer to feel compelled to sit with it, even if it's a difficult subject But also, I want the child to be able to relate to the dog like Tabaco in a tender way.

Every piece gets me so excited.

I think I'm like a little kid all over again 'cause it's like all these wonderful things are gonna happe and I get to watch it.

- Learn more at natalieplasencia And now it's time for this week's art quiz.

Frida Kahlo is an iconic female known for her self-portraits that often depict her physical and emotional pain as well as her Mexican heritage.

How many of her 143 paintings were self-portraits?

Is the answer.

A, 15.

B, 55.

C, 85.

Or D, 105.

Stay tuned for the answer.

Born and raised in Northeast Ohi author Jyotsna Sreenivasan write the experiences of Indian Americ As the daughter of Indian immigr Sreenivasan writes stories for children and adults and hopes to build more connections with her readers.

(gentle music) - Even when I was a little kid, I remember before I could read, looking at my father's handwriti and just being desperate to know what it said, like just desperate to know how And I was so thrilled when I learned how to read.

I started writing little stories and poems when I was a kid.

One of my first children's novel was called "Aruna's Journeys" and it's about an Indian American girl growing up in Ohio I don't know where I got that id And I wrote it partly because I love to read and I didn't see any books that represented who I was growing up in Ohio.

I, you know, books about, I would see books that were abou folktales taking place in India, or I would see books about, you elementary kids like the Ramona books which I loved or "Little House in the Big Woods" which I loved.

And I think I almost wrote it for my parents because, you know, growing up we had a lot of culture clashes.

They didn't understand why I thought I was American.

I am American, and they didn't, they were like, no, you're Indian.

And so that struggle, I couldn't I couldn't ever communicate that properly to my parents.

So my parents are immigrants, so they are what I would conside the first American generation.

And I'm the child of immigrants, so I say second generation.

Some people say that I would be the first generation American, but I like to say second generat because that acknowledges that the immigrant generation is also an American generation.

To me, and I'm biased 'cause I am second generation, the transition from immigrant to American is like one of the foundational stories of our country.

A lot of us share an immigrant h yet a lot of us identify as Amer Where does that transition happe And I think a lot of times it ha in the second generation.

We grow up in this country, we have an American accent, we don't have the accent that our parents have from the ancestral country.

We feel ourselves to be American And sometimes other people looking at us say, no, where are you really from?

And I say, you know, I say, I'm no, where are you really from?

And they're curious.

And so trying to figure out, well what makes a person America What does that mean to be Americ And I think that is a struggle that a lot of second generation people go through and that can inform us as we gro and start to contribute to the s So this is my new book, it's called "These Americans."

And it's a collection of eight short stories and a novella.

And again, they're all about Indian Americans.

A lot of the stories take place in the Midwest or in Ohio and they're arranged by the age of the second generation character.

So in the very first story, which is called Mirror, the new immigrant mom is giving to her American daughter.

It's based on the story that my mom told me about my birth.

I love the cover of this.

So this picture of the mom with that is based on a picture of my mom holding me.

That is my mom holding me.

And so then they, the artist flipped it and then the idea is that the baby grows up and she has her own child.

And the other thing that not a lot of people have noticed is that the colors of the mom, sorry, are like, kind of like the American flag.

And then the American daughter h inspired by the Indian flag, so the green and the orange like So that there's the mixing of the cultures.

I've written a lot of stories that were based on my life, based on the kind of the cultural clash or melding of, you know, Indian culture, American culture, Indian American what does that m It's hard.

And so I feel like there's been a lot of failure along the way, a lot of learning along the way.

I think the hardest part for me getting myself out of the way 'cause at first I think we're, at least for me, I'm putting it on the page and I'm like, oh, this is so impressive, everyone's gonna be so impressed And that is not what you want as a fiction writer because you want the reader to b with your character.

And so for me to be able to lear who that character is, what they care about, where they are, what they care about in their en what they really want, it took a while to get to that p where the reader was engaged and interested and excited.

And so it's been a long process.

When you read fiction and you become that character, you kind of see the world through that person's eyes, you understand, you empathize.

So I think that's a really important part of what I hope the reader will get.

- Learn more about the author at jyotsnasreennivasan.com.

And now let's review this week's Frida Kahlo is an iconic female known for her self-portraits that often depict her physical and emotional pain as well as her Mexican heritage.

How many of her 143 paintings were self-portraits?

Is the answer.

A, 15.

B, 55.

C, 85.

Or D, 105.

And the answer is B, 55.

Imagine brightly colored backgro with realistic portraits of pop culture icons.

I'm describing the art of Kelsey This young artist who is based i focuses on representation through her work.

(upbeat music) - My name's Kelsey Rowling, I'm a painter full-time right no I do a lot of work that focuses intersectional feminism 'cause of lack of representation.

Basically just like figurative works of women of color I would describe my work as with varying influences depending on what's going on in - Kelsey's a portrait artist, so when we approach portraiture that third wall is completely br So we get to stare at the subjec spend time with the subject, which is the really impactful thing about portraiture work.

And the ability that Kelsey is able to have on her audience, it's just like this profound sen who is the subject, how can I get to know them, how can I do a little more research to understand them, especially in regards to the pop cultural references.

And there are history references that she has throughout her work - I get a lot of my ideas from looking at a bunch of things.

I'm really fascinated by like how saturated our visual world i So I like look a lot at social media things like Instagram and like see cool photos or pain So it starts with getting reference images.

I use kind of mixed media.

I paint with a lot of acrylic paint as base layers and then I use oil paints to do my figures mainly, so I can get like really good detail on them.

I'll pick just like a solid colo that I think is like really beau and just kind of base the whole energetically around that.

That's where I like start with the acrylics and then I'll do a rough sketch of the figure and then I'll paint it in with oils from there.

A lot of what makes something lo focusing on things that you wouldn't wanna include on a face almost if you're drawing it.

I remember when I was younger I would draw things and I wouldn't include certain s or certain blemishes or certain marks under the eyes that like really make something look realistic.

So I try to just focus on the little highlights and different colors and shading 'cause there's just so much vari that goes into a face and like s I look at a lot of references but like painting it as it's see and not how your brain wants to I think that's made me like expa of beauty in a lot of ways too, which was nice.

I just weren't accepting of a lot of different things 'cause it all just looks so beautiful to me.

(upbeat music) - The type of response that we typically get from Kelsey's work comes from a that's more connected with socia So we get a little bit of mostly consisting of young people, just really vibing her work really into the subject matter she's pursuing.

- I know my art isn't necessaril towards a younger audience, but I think having people who lo or can relate to me and like see me as like an artis who's just painting people that look something like them would be really nice 'cause like that's what I wanted when I was younger so I like hoped to kind of have that for people who need that as well like regardless of how old they are.

I grew up in like a different time than it is now.

We all grew up in a time where there wasn't really a lot of pla where you'd see Black people or brown people and things.

That really influenced me a lot because I know like a lot of other people of color can relate to like wanting to look different or act different.

Growing up it's hard when you're just like, where am I in these places?

I got to a point where I was lik I can just paint my representation that I want.

It kind of serves as filling gaps in places where I think they need to be fi People gain an understanding and can relate to people if they like see them.

If you grew up with a bunch of p who looked really different, you don't think that's weird.

If you grow up in like Reno and there's not a lot of brown p like you don't really know how t interact with them sometimes.

And like I experienced that grow It's just people being like confused by my hair or confused about my parents 'cause they're like a biracial c so they didn't know, they didn't understand.

More exposure to different types just creates more tolerance in a way or accepting in a way, or just normalization at least.

I want people to stop for a mome I want it to have enough detail and enough confusion in it that people like take a moment to look at it.

I'm intrigued by like personal understanding of it 'cause I think everybody respond to everything differently given their background and given their opinions on art.

I would like them to just like question like where we see people and like how we see them and like how we interact with th and like recognize beauty in different forms in different - 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 Ar Until next week, I'm Beth McMill Thanks for watching.

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

In memory of Sue McDowell.

The Carol Franc Buck Foundation.

Chris and Parky May.

And by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues)