(bright music) - [Matt] See the textile collages of artist, Francelise Dawkins.

Sonia Sandoval builds community through her work as DJ RVMBA, and catch a performance by The E-Block.

It's all ahead on this episode of "AHA!

A House for Arts."

(bright music) - [Announcer] Funding for "AHA!," has been provided by your contribution, and by contributions to the WMHT Venture Fund.

Contributors include, the Leo Cox Beach Philanthropic Foundation, Chet and Karen Opalka, Robert and Doris Fischer Malesardi, and The Robison Family Foundation.

- At M&T Bank, we understand that the vitality of our communities is crucial to our continued success.

That's why we take an active role in our community.

M&T Bank is pleased to support WMHT programming, that highlights the arts, and we invite you to do the same.

(bright music) - Hi, I'm Matt Rogowicz, and this is "AHA!

A House for Arts," a place for all things creative.

We begin today with a trip to Saratoga Springs, to visit with textile artist Francelise Dawkins.

- I am a collage artist, a textile collage artist.

Well, the first thing you would see is a lot of colors.

I like colors, but you also would have an illusion, from a distance that this is a painting.

You have to come closer to see, "Oh, it is fabric."

(bright music) Over the years, I developed an attunement to feeling like I'm painting.

I'm painting, dancing with my scissors, or painting using a collection of fabric from all over the world.

I was born in Paris, France.

My mother was from the French Caribbean island, the one called Guadeloupe.

My mother came to Paris, and she came as a seamstress, a protege.

She was excellent at it, plus she was doing costumes.

But as a little girl, I saw all the fabric, all the shimmery fabric, and it was the time of Cuban dances.

So dancers would have all this Hispanic flair, and wonderful colors.

She traveled a lot, so she sent me to a place, a boarding house.

There were no more than 60 kids there, and they were all children of artists of various discipline.

We were exposed to a lot of art there.

I came to the United States at the age of 26, and I followed an American I met in Paris, and he said, "You're very talented."

I made all kinds of things for him, and he thought it was wonderful.

And he said, "You're very talented.

I have a good job in the United States.

Follow me and you can do your art."

And I did that.

That's how my adventure started in America.

(bright music) Okay, so I'm going to select today some colors that I feel would be fun to start playing with.

The colors that I really like would be, I'm going to say it in French, so... (Francelise speaking in foreign language) So that's yellow, blue, green.

Those are my, really one I go to.

But I really like the magenta colors, and everything that's derived from putting a little bit of, red and blue and creating nuances with those colors.

They call it a fat quarter, just a little piece like this.

I discovered fusible web, which is a glue, that you apply on the back of fabric.

You heat fuse it with an iron.

So the glue is, when I peel it off on the paper, you can see this web.

So it's called fusible web.

So I'm going to leave the whole thing here, and I'm going to apply the blue side.

So again, attached to make sure I don't put the blue on the side of the iron.

And I'm choosing the part that I want to use as collage on that.

And I go for it, making sure that my corners are well taken into account.

So at first you do like this and then patiently.

(bright music) So what is interesting is when you touch the fabric, how soft it is.

But then when you have the glue behind, then it nearly behaves like paper.

I'm going to take a part there that I like.

I'm going to leave the paper behind.

I will peel it after, but then I start and I start cutting.

So if I want a shape that's sophisticated, and I'm listening to the music, or sometime I'm even dancing, and I'm cutting and, here it is, and then I take off the paper.

Once you cut something in itself, that one piece is already art, 'cause it's cut, but then placed in where I'm going to put it, I will create a whole landscape or whole language, because collage is a language.

Looking for what the piece wants to say.

So that's the part that becomes exciting.

(bright music) I can see dancing in beautiful costumes.

The work is like poetry.

Same thing when you have poetry, you make it yours.

When you have a piece of artwork, there you are in an exhibit or somewhere, and suddenly its, "Oh!"

I've seen people cry.

They look and they go, "Oh, that says something to me."

And it's abstract.

So I'm looking and I'm waiting to see what they're going to say.

But they have a relationship with the color, with the shapes, with the atmosphere created by the piece.

So the piece is alive.

So my goal is really that.

That I could, with my work, touch more people who need this work.

It's food to the soul.

- A multimedia artist born in Columbia, Sonia Sandoval has traveled the world exploring music and culture.

Currently, Sonia is focused on introducing Latin artists to the capital region through her musical curation as DJ RVMBA.

Here's Jade Warrick with more.

- Hi.

How are you doing Jade?

- Doing amazing.

I'm super excited to chat with you all things music, community and all your passions and your loves.

So first thing I wanna be like, where are you based at?

Where are you from?

How'd you get up to upstate?

- Yeah, absolutely.

So first I was born in Columbia, which is part of my identity, and something that I really cherish so much.

Right now, I live in Schenectady, which I also love.

I think there's a lot of history.

There's a lot of really cool people, trying to make really big things happen there.

And I'm happy to be a part of it.

- Yeah, I've had a couple of artists from Schenectady on the show and the things they're doing out there have been amazing and the art scene is definitely kicking off.

So related to that, what are some of your creative endeavors?

What do you dive into creatively?

- I like to say that I'm a multidisciplinary artist, so it could be anything from DJing obviously, but I get into graphic design, 3D printing, 3D modeling.

- [Jade] Wow.

- Anything artistic.

And actually right now I'm working on, a little bit of projection mapping.

So we'll see how that goes.

I like to intertwine music and art and science, and technology and see what we can come up with.

- So what inspired you to go down such a creative pathway?

- Absolutely.

I think it's difficult because I studied a lot of science, hard sciences, when I was in college, and I tried to go down that avenue and I realized that without emotion, without art, without something to carry that data, and those facts, it really doesn't go very far.

So I started to realize that it's not just about showing people these numbers, and oh, they're gonna understand or this concept, and they're really gonna get it.

But really why do people care?

The art piece brings emotion.

It brings, some character, something interesting, to the projects because I do feel like part of my culture is to be content, to be happy, even in the hardest times.

That's especially when it counts most to be happy.

And without us trying every day to be happy, it can become very bleak.

So I think trying to work on both sides of the coin, understand science, understand data, math, and then also apply it in a way that's relative to humans, and that you and I can understand, that we can share with other people, we can enjoy with other people, that's the way to go.

- I think so as well and I wanna move into your DJing pieces.

So you DJ, that's what I know you for, all your amazing DJ work, and spreading amazing beautiful music, all over the capital region.

Do you think that that mindset impacts how you DJ and how you choose your music and how you mix?

And if so, how?

- Absolutely.

So I love upstate New York, and sometimes it can get a little bit stale.

Maybe it's the genres, or the same types of people that you always see all the time.

And I wanted to create a space that's more inclusive.

So I generally play a lot of Latin music.

I play a lot of, actually Bollywood music, it's super popular here.

- Yeah.

- And just trying to create those spaces, where they haven't been before.

So I think a lot of that has to do with coming to the US.

I came to New York City and I experienced a wide variety of different cultures and traditions, and ethnicities and languages.

And coming up here I realized that we need a little bit more of that, or at least we have the people here, but they're not constantly represented like in New York City, where you can find any restaurant that you want to.

Up here it's a little bit harder to find those places, but not impossible.

- [Jade] Yeah.

- Especially as we're beginning to do the work, and see this is a really diverse place, and we have a lot of different types of people that are coming and joining us, and trying to make our cities greater, and trying to inject our cities with culture and art, and having it be from different places, and different cultures only makes it richer.

- Yeah and do you think your cultural background comes as a strength, with this being able to spread the accessibility and the diversity as well within your music?

- Yeah, absolutely.

Especially as a woman of color.

I think generally when you think of a DJ, it's some guy up there.

- Yeah.

- Unfriendly.

- Yeah.

- I'm the opposite of that.

I'd love to have a conversation, I like to talk, and mostly everyone is there to have a good time.

- [Jade] Exactly.

- When you're up there, I feel like most of the time I'm thinking about everyone's out here and they just finished their job, and they're just looking for a little break, a little space, and time where they can enjoy time with their friends, and dance, maybe do a little exercise.

And it's just important to work hard and play hard for me.

- Yeah.

And I know there's a lot of fostering of connections within your work, specifically music as well.

And I know you have...

I don't know know if it's a group, or how you would classify it, but I know you have the Paradise parties, and I wanted to have the audience get to know what that is, and why is it important to have a space like that.

- I'm sure everyone that's watching this has been in a place where your friend is getting harassed by some guy, and it's uncomfortable sometimes.

And it can be really dangerous to be a woman outside at nighttime.

Instead of trying to tell ladies that, "Oh, you shouldn't go outside," or "You shouldn't do this," absolutely not.

We're gonna create a space where you are going to be comfortable, and if there's somebody who's trying to ruin your safety or your comfort or something like that, then they leave.

It's not your job to leave, because some guy is harassing you.

So the goal of this was to create a safe space for people who don't usually feel included in the traditional nightlife.

- With the space, how is it, I guess, curated?

Who's involved in it?

What does it look like?

If I've never heard of the Paradise parties, what could I expect going to one?

- Sure, absolutely.

So actually we're working with a few DJs, Lovely Candela, we've got Jonesy, we've got DJ Celeb and myself.

And we work together back to back to make sure that all of our nationalities are represented, all different types of music are represented, and different types of identity, because generally they're fem presenting, but we have non-binary people on our crew.

And as you notice, that's not the normal every day that you see everywhere.

- [Jade] Yeah.

- And it's important for us to not only show that yes, we can do this, but that we're creating a space, that's unique and different, that's creating magic.

It's creating something out of nothing.

- [Jade] Yeah.

- And I think that's important for us to all have a hand in, and it's really been a really good space to meet people who needed that space.

- What do you think as a creative is missing in the capital region for creatives?

And if you do have an answer to that, do you have any idea of how we could fix it?

(both laugh) And that's a big question.

- It seems like it's a million dollar question.

Absolutely.

I think the opportunities are there, and sometimes the collaboration is missing.

- [Jade] Mm.

- I do think a lot of our creatives know each other, and there tends to be not as many different places where you can collaborate.

It's really one at a time.

- [Jade] Yeah.

- So trying to stop putting our artists against each other, but really trying to reinforce each other, and create collectives like we have so that we do properly get our artists paid, and make sure that they get proper recognition.

Because art is a job, it takes a lot of work, it's a lot of effort.

Not just physically, but emotionally.

That's the part that's art, it comes out of you, and it takes a lot to really put all of that, either on paper, or on a computer screen, or whatever your artistic method is.

It takes a lot out of you and people should be rewarded for their efforts.

I think that the trouble lies when sometimes, for me specifically, sometimes club owners are like, "Well, I just only paid this guy this much, so how come you want this?"

And then it becomes, "Well, why did you just work for that little?"

- [Jade] Mm-hmm.

- And that can be applied to any.

"Well, why did you paint this mural for that little?"

"Well, now this guy doesn't wanna pay."

- [Jade] Yeah.

- So I think trying to work on the relationship between the artists and trying to push each other forward is really gonna be very helpful.

But mostly, I just wanna say it's important for us to find joy and not just struggle because life is hard.

I think throughout recent history and everything that we've been dealing with, it can be heavy.

And if we don't find those pockets of joy, to really spend time thinking about, "What do I really enjoy about my life?

What do I like to do?"

And spend time cultivating those things, it can be a little bit sad and depressing.

So trying to create community, and find that joy is really the medicine that we need.

- Thank you for highlighting that.

That is something I try to live by as well.

And thank you for joining us for "A House for Arts."

Thanks, Sonia.

I appreciate you.

- Awesome.

Thank you for having me.

I appreciate it, Jade.

- Please welcome, The E-Block.

(bright music) ♪ Got sleepy eyes slipping in and out of your life ♪ ♪ Baby it's about time you let me see in from outside ♪ ♪ 'Cause I've been in and out my cage ♪ ♪ I thought I left you all alone ♪ ♪ Is there something I should say ♪ ♪ Would I leave you on the floor ♪ ♪ But all I see is I just let you walk on over ♪ ♪ Come on over baby ♪ ♪ And I might just ask you walk all over me ♪ ♪ But all I see ♪ ♪ I just let you walk on over come on over babe ♪ ♪ And I might just let you walk all over me ♪ (bright music) ♪ Sleepy eyes slipping in and out of your life ♪ ♪ Baby it's about time you let me see in from outside ♪ ♪ 'Cause I've been in and out my cage ♪ ♪ I thought I left you all alone ♪ ♪ Is it something I said ♪ ♪ Would I leave you on the floor ♪ ♪ All I see is I just let you walk on over ♪ ♪ Come on over ♪ ♪ And I might just let you walk all over me ♪ ♪ All I see is I just let you walk on over ♪ ♪ Come on over baby ♪ ♪ And I might just let you walk all over me ♪ (gentle music) (bright music) (bright music) ♪ I'm falling deeper and deeper ♪ ♪ Standing on your porch in the pouring rain ♪ ♪ I'm falling deeper and deeper ♪ ♪ Can't believe that I'd leave you ♪ ♪ But I know it just the same ♪ ♪ And I'll never pass you down ♪ ♪ That's why I'm sending all my love to you ♪ ♪ And I know you're not the one ♪ ♪ That's why I'm sending all my love to you ♪ ♪ I'm falling deeper and deeper ♪ ♪ Standing on your porch in the pouring rain ♪ ♪ I'm falling deeper and deeper ♪ ♪ Can't believe that I'd leave you ♪ ♪ But I know it just the same ♪ ♪ And I'll never let you down ♪ ♪ That's why I'm sending all my love to you ♪ ♪ And I know you're not the one ♪ ♪ That's why I'm sending all my love to you ♪ ♪ My my my my ♪ ♪ All I see is all I see is all I see is ♪ ♪ All I see all I see is all I see is ♪ ♪ All I see is ♪ ♪ I might just let you walk all over ♪ ♪ Might just let you walk ♪ (singer vocalizes) (bright music) ♪ Might just let you walk on over ♪ ♪ Walk on over babe ♪ ♪ And I might just let you walk all over me ♪ ♪ All I see is might just let you walk all over me ♪ ♪ And I might just let you walk ♪ (gentle music) ♪ The constellation that lies upon her face ♪ ♪ While she's lying to my face all says ♪ ♪ All just for the chase ♪ ♪ But I still put your necklace in the book ♪ ♪ That you would send me way up on my highest shelf ♪ ♪ Where I can't find it now ♪ ♪ Why do we sleep on love little did I know you switched up ♪ ♪ Tell me why I've been giving on ♪ ♪ Little did I know ♪ ♪ And why do we sleep on love ♪ ♪ Little did I know you switched up ♪ ♪ Tell me why I was never enough ♪ ♪ Little did I know ♪ (gentle music) ♪ Said just had to see me ♪ ♪ And how was I supposed to feel I found your face ♪ ♪ In astral plane's but it was so damn hard to see you ♪ ♪ So I said go on farewell my friend ♪ ♪ I hope you had fun lesson will I learn ♪ ♪ I'll be looking onto the next ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm never over you ♪ ♪ And I'll be on my way but I'll thank you for the time ♪ ♪ Worth wasting and I hope you don't mind that I ♪ ♪ Put your necklace in the book that you had sent me ♪ ♪ Way up on my highest shelf where I can't find it now ♪ ♪ Why do we sleep on love little did I know you switched up ♪ ♪ Tell me why I've been giving up little did I know ♪ ♪ And why do we sleep on love little did I know ♪ ♪ You switched up tell why I was never enough ♪ ♪ Little did I know ♪ (gentle music) ♪ Say that's all that you wanted ♪ ♪ Say that's all that you wanted ♪ ♪ Say that you love me then you leave me down ♪ ♪ For all to make believe in ♪ ♪ It's all that you want ♪ ♪ Well you're never gonna get it ♪ ♪ It's all that you wanted are you ever gonna get it ♪ ♪ Say that you love me then you leave me now ♪ ♪ For all to make believe ♪ ♪ It's all that you wanted ♪ ♪ Say that's all that you wanted ♪ ♪ To say that you love me then you leave me down ♪ ♪ For all to make believe in ♪ ♪ It's all that you wanted ♪ ♪ It's all that you wanted ♪ ♪ To say that you love ♪ ♪ And why do we sleep on love ♪ ♪ Little did I know you switched up ♪ ♪ Tell me why I was never enough ♪ ♪ Little did I know ♪ ♪ And why do we lean on love ♪ ♪ Little did I know you switched up ♪ ♪ Tell me why I was never enough little did I know ♪ ♪ Why do we sleep on love little did I know ♪ ♪ Little I did know little did I know ♪ ♪ The constellation that lies upon her face it washes ♪ (gentle music) (bright music) - Thanks for joining us.

For more arts, visit wmht.org/aha.

And be sure to connect with us on social.

I'm Matt Rogowicz.

Thanks for watching.

(bright music) - [Announcer] Funding for "AHA!," has been provided by your contribution, and by contributions to the WMHT Venture Fund.

Contributors include, the Leo Cox Beach Philanthropic Foundation, Chet and Karen Opalka, Robert and Doris Fischer Malesardi, and The Robison Family Foundation.

- At M&T Bank, we understand that the vitality of our communities is crucial to our continued success.

That's why we take an active role in our community.

M&T Bank is pleased to support WMHT programming that highlights the arts and we invite you to do the same.