New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME-TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts and Viewers Like You Inspired by the Chicano movement and ancestral memory, Pola López uses symbolic murals and paintings to reclaim identity, honor feminine strength, and remind us we are all one people.

Reimagining vintage pulp fiction book covers, artist David Butler, honors black womanhood, and sparks deeper conversations about beauty, value, and cultural perception.

A journey of discovery, photographer Jeff Ross biked the Trans-America Trail, capturing portraits of people he met along the way.

Its all ahead on Colores!

Shards of our Stories [Music] >>Pola: I think art should make a statement.

It should have some meaning.

On one level or another, they have to connect with the viewer.

[MUSIC] >>Faith: You talked about the Brown Berets being an inspiration for you.

Can you talk about how that experience in high school inspired you?

>>Pola: The Brown Berets in 1972 came and took over my high school, West Las Vegas, and they brought muralists along with them and they were painting murals in our courtyard of our high school, and they told us, do not come to school.

We've been taken over and stuff.

So, of course I had to go see what was going on.

And they were painting these images of like the Vietnam War and Chicano images that were like Mexican heritage images, like the pyramids and the farm workers.

And they were using these brilliant colors.

I was immediately drawn to them.

I didn't understand the imagery, and that's when I first heard the word Chicano, and I never had a clue what that meant because we were always told we were Spanish-American, or Hispanic.

So, it piqued my curiosity and I saw that day the power of art to inform people and educate people and move people.

And I walked away that year saying, "that's what I want to do."

[Music] >>Faith: Then you went on to make your own murals, and one of the murals I wanted to talk about was "Shards of our Stories".

Can you tell me what was the inspiration behind that mural?

>>Pola: "Shards of our Stories" was a mural I just recently did here in Santa Fe, and it was commissioned by the Three Sisters Collective and it's the corn-mother storyteller.

So, on each shard, there's one of our stories of the culture in this area, of Northern New Mexico.

Corn-Mother, which is our mother, carries all the stories and she's got all the children around her.

So, each shard had a story of our mixed culture being both Native American and mixed European.

It was all painted in red, white, and black because I called it a stop sign mural.

Because I wanted people to really stop and pay attention because it's a Chicano mural, right?

[Laughs] [Music] >>Faith: I want to move on to your paintings, and this one is "Who Wins This Game 2.0" Tell me a little bit about what inspired this painting, and what stories you're trying to tell through this?

>>Pola: This painting is based on a tic-tac toe game, and in each square there's a label of identity.

So, I noticed that I was being labeled many things.

I would be called Spanish-American or I'd be called Mexican-American, or I'd be called Hispana, you know, there's so many labels and I was confused.

I was searching for my identities.

So, I can be Latina and I can be Chicana, and I can be Indo-Hispana, I can be all of those.

So, I think the labels helped me to discover my identity and that was a good thing.

because you should always know your roots and where you come from, and that gives you strength.

But today, I think that knowing that now we have to rise above that and realize that we're all one tribe, we're all one people, we're all connected, and that we really need to work together.

And culture can be secondary to the one big nation of who we all are as one people.

>>Faith: So, then who does win this game?

>>Pola: Well, I leave that up to you to answer, and my answer was always whoever identifies themself, you have to identify yourself.

Don't let anyone tell you who you are.

[MUSIC] >>Faith: This one is titled "All One People".

What does that title mean in the context of this painting?

>>Pola: It's about the world being one and that we should all get along.

But this was my first, Virgen de Guadalupe painting, and she's surrounded by flowers and beauty and this little -- square that says all one people, and with the picture of the planet.

And I really care about the environment and the Earth.

And so, it's like the mother telling us, "take care of your planet, take care of each other, you're all my children."

[Laughs ] And, because growing up through the Vietnam War and all the strife, and it just seems to be getting worse and worse, and I think we forget that we are connected to each other.

We need to help each other.

So, that's her prayer and her reminder to us.

>>Faith: I noticed there's a recurring theme of like hummingbirds in your paintings.

What does that mean?

>>Pola: They say in Aztec mythology that they're the souls of the fallen warriors.

So, they're warriors and, you know, they're also very beautiful and they're fast.

So, I use a lot of symbols in my paintings.

[Music] I paint ravens a lot because ravens my totem, my spirit animal, they're sacred birds to me.

[Music] I paint a lot cultural things, you know, like a lot of Day of the Dead.

Every October, November, we have to do a Day of the Dead piece to honor our ancestors.

We do a lot of work based on the sacred feminine energy painting that pertain to women and their lives, both past and present and future.

And so, I focus a lot on spirituality.

I always say my artwork is my spiritual path because I see art as a way of healing, and I know that the color is healing.

The colors you choose can be very healing.

It's magic, it's medicine.

[Laughs] [Music] >>Faith: And we were talking about your inspiration of bringing feminine energy into your paintings.

So, I wanted to talk about "La Bailarina" here.

What was the inspiration behind this piece?

>>Pola: Well, this piece is a ballerina, bailarina, but she's also a luchadora.

And when I was in LA, they invited me to be in an exhibit of luchadores.

They were all painting male wrestlers.

Luchador is a wrestler, right?

And so, I said, "well, I'm going to paint a woman luchador."

[Laugh] She was the only woman among all the other men.

So, I put a tutu on her and I put her mask on it, and she's got her silk gloves and she's styling.

But it represents how women are always in the battle.

They're always in the fight.

They're always struggling, but they're always still very beautiful and they grow from it, and they're not defeated.

They get up.

And so, a lot of people think that women are very delicate and that they can't defend themselves.

And I just want to put forth that yes, we can be both.

We can wear our tutu and our silk gloves, but we can also go to battle.

And that's what that was about.

And she's smiling because she knows it.

She's like, boom, bam, take that!

[Both Laugh] >> Pola: But still, she's very attractive.

[Music] I've made many paintings that show the different facets of women and the many masks we wear and the different identities we can portray.

[Music] It's about taking ownership of your femininity and your power and your strength.

It's just to empower women and to honor them, because I don't think they realize how beautiful and powerful they are sometimes because we've had years of subjugation and I think they're finding their power now, especially the younger women.

So, I just want to encourage that.

Women represent creative energy.

They're powerful, you know?

I mean, my grandmother and my great-grandmother survived a genocide.

They've survived so much and we're still here.

So, we have to look to that to remember them and to carry that forward.

So, pass that strength on that inner strength.

[Music] >>Faith: Why do you feel it's really important to explore these themes of identity?

>>Pola: It makes you stronger in knowing who you are.

Like, when I was growing up and I was told all these lies about who I was, it was very confusing.

I did my DNA during COVID and I found out what my true heritage is.

It was shocking, [Laughs] because there's a truth looking at you straight back and then you start to realize, "Well, that's where that trait comes from, That's where this comes from."

So, then you start to make connections, you know, and then to know who your ancestors are so you can honor them because you carry their DNA within you.

So, you bring forth a lot of their experience and everything they went through and struggled for and survived, and, you know, and then you pass it on to future generations.

>>Faith: Something to be proud of.

>>Pola: Yeah.

Something they should own and be proud of.

Uncovering Beauty >> David: My inspiration comes from my existence as a black male in society.

I have a certain viewpoint of the world that was given to me.

And I’m going through a lot of processes of unlearning the things that I learned throughout my life.

I think that, to be better humans, we have to begin to unlearn.

For me, my artwork is always a process of like asking the questions that are hard for me to answer.

And then also, trying to pose those questions to society to see if I’m alone in this pursuit or am I on the right track when it comes to how I’m thinking about this.

Sometimes I get it right.

Sometimes I don't.

This body of work is a group of paintings called "Idol."

They are a series of appropriated pulp fiction novel covers from the 1950s all the way to late '60s, early '70s.

I took those covers that originally had white ingénous on the cover and replaced them with women of color who I knew and also some that I don't know to try to have a conversation about how we see black womanhood within society and whose gaze is the black woman for when it comes to being on display in this type of way.

Most of these covers kind of cover issues of romance, of relationships, but they also were like these propaganda tales to keep you away from the, you know, harlequin women, you know, to keep you away from the jezebels of the world.

And I think that that framing of misogyny is kind of what I was injected with as a young man.

Most of the times when we talk about the creative arts and when we talk about paintings in general, we are always talking about how archivable they are, what they're worth and how you are supposed to sell them.

So, when people see these frail paintings that are on paper, one of the main questions I get is, "How are you supposed to sell these?"

Well, I never intended to sell these until they've had their life span.

So, when grad school started, I created a body of work that was solely for -- not being in the archive.

This is going to be work that actually has a life span, that actually goes through things, that actually gets crumpled up, that actually gets beat up, bent, punctured.

And then at the tail end of it, which would be ten years this year, then I will try to take what is left of the artwork and turn it into something that is archivable for people to possible purchase.

So, when you think about the fact that this art work was created with our gaze of how we see women, like black womanhood and we think about what women have to go through in society, its an allegory for our lives as well, thriving through all these different bends, twists and turns and crumbing by societal norms and the boxes we put them in all the time.

Now, is she worth something?

Is she still important to you, even though she's been through something and had a life span that has a history to it.

So, is there still beauty there?

I think that that creates a larger conversation for the work and allows for us to engage in it in a way where this work is uniquely archived in a way.

It's had nine different provocations since I put the work up in Philadelphia in 2013.

And now that we are ten years and beyond, we now can start to see these characters.

They're still in, but kind of a new story is beginning.

So, when you see something that says too black for heaven, the original black was being too bad, being a bad woman.

But being too black, if you equal bad to black and there is a black woman on the cover, it has a whole different culture context now.

So, that's where I’m starting to toy with the type and text of the covers to build out this idea that, you know, these were original thoughts about just women in general.

And when we place these thoughts into a culture context and we start to think about things in a more intersectional way, then we can have like larger conversations about how those original thoughts that were made for a certain group of people kind of perpetuate themselves through different cultures and subcultures that we exist in today.

[Music] I would say the most rewarding thing for me is the share-out.

It's the exchange.

I’m just in participation with the exchange.

That's the best part.

We make the things, and people come see the things.

And we have conversations about those things, or we share in the energy of those things.

And sometimes words don't need to be said.

Sometimes explanations don't need to be given.

Sometimes its taking it in and seeing people take in the work.

That's one of my favorite, most gratifying parts, is seeing people actually take in the work and be in the space and say, "oh, wow, this is something that is affecting me right now."

And I don't know exactly like how or why, but it makes me feel a certain type of way.

And I think that that's the best part of being an artist, just making sure that you are engaging in the exchange with the people.

[Music] New Places, New Faces [Upbeat Music] >> Jeff: Back in 1976, a few diehard cyclists mapped a route off highways, but on paved roads across the country.

From Virginia all the way to Oregon and it's called the Trans-America Trail.

That was the year I graduated high school.

So, I thought, what better way to set off in the world than to pack up my bags on my bike, ride off into the sunset and just do it solo.

But, I had no money, was getting ready to go to college, so, forty-two years later, I'm married to a lovely woman that I loved dearly.

when she heard that I wanted to revisit that idea, she volunteered to go with me and act as my support team.

And she brought along our dog Buddy, a little twelve-pound Rashon poodle mix.

He was with Karen the whole way.

>> Karen: I'm sitting in the van that we drove cross-country.

Now, normally this is a work van for Jeff.

He's a photographer, he's a commercial photographer.

So, usually this fan is loaded with camera gear.

But for our trip, it was loaded with bicycles and it was loaded with every bit of gear that we were going to need to be on the road for three months to accomplish this trip.

>> Jeff: The Trans-America route I followed went from coast to coast.

Starts in Yorktown, Virginia.

and ends up either in Astoria or Florence, Oregon.

We ended up in Florence.

[Music] Riding my bicycle across the country just gave me a different perspective and opportunity to meet people that I would never have met before.

[Music] >> Karen: Before we started our trip, we decided that we were going to keep a blog.

And so, there were a variety of reasons for that.

Because Jeff's intention was to produce portraits of the people that he met along the way.

So, we decided that we would have a blog that explained who these people were throughout the trip.

So, I became the writer for the blog, and he was the photographer.

[Music] >> Jeff: It was just a treat for me to meet -- meet people that were just real.

They weren't models, they weren't pretending to be something they weren't.

But it was a different experience for me because I couldn't bring lighting.

I couldn't bring tripods, or I didn't have an assistant.

It was just me and a little camera and using natural available light, which was so refreshing for me.

Just to see what the light was doing on people.

Using it, hopefully to try to bring out some of their personality.

And when you show up on somebody's doorstep or in front of a business, on a bicycle?

Totally a non-threat, nobody's expecting you to -- be anything other than just a traveler.

So, I wouldn't even take out the camera at first.

I would just start talking and finding out about where they live or why they live there, or who they are, what they do.

And then I would ask them if I could take a few photos of them.

So, people kind of opened up to me.

[Upbeat Music] >> Karen: At the end of each day, Jeff would share with me the portraits he had taken of the people that he had met along the way, along with the story about those people.

And we would jointly decide which were the best shots and told the best story, and then with the details he provided me, I would write the blog.

[Music] >> Jeff: The awesome thing about the Trans-America Trail, it staves off all the freeways and major highways.

So, you're going on these back roads through the small towns, villages.

Some of them are just, you know, there's just a few people.

And you would meet people that were so proud of where they lived or what they did or they wanted to show you things.

They would take you into their store and show you all the baked goods they sold that day.

Or the fish they caught or whatever it might be.

If I was looking at my map, people stopped and ask if I needed directions or they were just so open and welcoming.

What stood out to me most about meeting people on the road was just how generous they were.

Nobody ever brought up politics or, you know, at that point it was kind of a very contentious political atmosphere in the country.

It never came up.

Ever.

People wanted to know what I was doing and why, and -- 'Are you here all alone?'

And people just went out of their way to be helpful.

And it just kind of renewed my faith in humanity.

[Uplifting Music] The tradition for cross-country bicyclist is, whatever coast you start at, and we started on the East coast, you dip your rear wheel of your bicycle in the ocean and the Atlantic.

And then when you get to the West Coast, you dip your front wheel into the Pacific.

[Cow Bells Ringing] >> Beth: On the day that Jeff arrived in Florence, Oregon, I had arranged for a surprise reception committee for him.

And we had cow bells that we were ringing just like a regular bike race.

And when Jeff arrived, he came riding down the road, we were all ringing our cow bells.

[Music] >> Jeff: I could hear it.

As I'm a half mile away, I hear.

"What the -- What is that?"

And they're all ringing their bells for me.

>> Beth: And we greeted him to walk him, at that point, on the sandy beach to the ocean.

And that's where he was able to dip the front wheel of his tire in the Pacific Ocean.

[Woman Off Camera] That looks like the ocean to me!

>> Jeff: Being a cyclist, most of my life and a photographer.

Most of my life, you know, two main passions I have and I thought those were going to be what determined everything about the trip.

But when people wanted to know, if I was going to photograph the scenics and worthy places, and I did a few, but for me it was literally a discovery of the people on the way.

I met some people I'll know for the rest of my life.

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