(upbeat percussive music) (upbeat electronic music) - Go plein-air painting with Joe Klockowski... (upbeat electronic music) Chat with Heather Hutchison from Create Community Studios... (upbeat electronic music) And catch a performance from Opera Saratoga.

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

(upbeat electronic music) - [Narrator] 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.

(upbeat funk music) (upbeat funk music continues) (upbeat funk music continues) (dramatic whooshing) - Hi, I'm Matt Rogowicz, and this is "AHA!

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

(upbeat electronic music) Joe Klockowski is a graphic designer who loves to get outside and paint landscapes in his free time.

(upbeat electronic music) We met up with Joe at Gallery 5 in Schenectady before heading out to do some plein-air painting at Sanders Preserve in Glenville.

(gentle guitar music) - My work primarily consists of landscapes, I am an oil painter, I tend to work on small landscapes that are a bit more of an impressionistic style.

I also do small plein-air studies.

(gentle piano music) I like to work small because it creates a sort of intimacy of the landscapes, I've always liked this idea of trying to show a grand, large sort of scene in a small object.

(gentle piano music) I've worn, like, a lot of different art hats, like, I've been into figurative work, I dipped into an airbrushing style at one point, and landscape is something that always brings me back to it, and I think part of that is just for my own interest in nature.

You know, hiking and climbing, it's something that keeps me tethered to it, so naturally, it just becomes the subject matter that I'm interested in working with.

(gentle piano music) I normally like to paint from photographs, so a lot of my oil paintings are sort of revisiting of memories.

(gentle orchestral music) My most recent painting I did was of the Grand Traverse Ledge at the Gunks, which is a climbing destination in Catskills.

(gentle orchestral music) There's a lot of emotional investment in the Gunks, you know, a lot of fear, and accomplishment, and adventure, and so, this painting is a perspective from one of the belay ledges in the middle of a multi-pitch climb there, which is a perspective not a lot of people get, which I think is...

Adds an interesting element to the work, as well.

(gentle orchestral music) But then, when I do plein-air painting, obviously, it's on site, there's an immediacy to it.

(playful piano music) (car door closing) (playful piano music) There's a lot of artists who paint in plein-air very well, and a lot of them will use them as studies to go on later into the studio to inform in larger painting.

That's not something I do.

The way I do plein-air is primarily as a meditative practice.

(playful orchestral music) When I first started getting into plein-air, I was painting from a very rudimentary setup, I had an Altoid tin that I would pre-squirt four colors in and tape a little scrap of paper to the top of it, and I would walk out with an Altoid tin.

Since then, I have a little bit of a better setup as I've been doing more of these, and I have, like, a proper portable kit.

Sort of undo it and either scoop some water from a nearby stream or force 'em out of my own personal water and, you know, frame it up and sit down, and just paint what I see.

(birds chirping) Often, I'll paint certain trees or objects that I have a bit of an obsession with.

(birds cawing) This sort of open clearing of hemlock trees, I've always found quite beautiful, a lot of moss and pines.

(birds chirping) Yeah, I paint from a gouache setup, it's just a very forgiving medium.

For plein-air, I work very small, sometimes, you know, one by two inches, mainly so I can do them quickly.

(gentle guitar music) Most of the time, it's not a great painting, but it's not really about it being a good painting, it's about just sitting down and staring at something for 15 minutes.

(gentle guitar music) Color is primarily one of my focuses in my work.

I like to...

I over-saturate, I tend to exaggerate.

When I first started getting into landscapes, I was into this idea of digifying the landscape.

Coming from a graphic design background, I wanted to bring in this idea of, you know, the digital world in a very traditional subject matter, so over-saturation is definitely a part of that.

(gentle orchestral music) Paintings are usually finished when I decide to stop or when they failed.

(gentle guitar music) I don't bring them back into the studio or produce any other work from them, and I don't retouch them.

They kind of are what they are.

Oftentimes, when I make them, I will just leave them where I painted them, and someone might find them.

(gentle guitar music) (birds chirping) I have sort of departed away from landscape painting every once in a while in my life where I'll get into a different interest, but I think just from my own interest in being active outside, you know, with hiking and climbing, is something that keeps me tethered to the landscape and makes it so it's something I will always come back to and I'm always very rooted in.

(gentle guitar music) - Heather Hutchison is the executive director of Create Community Studios.

We had Heather on the show back in 2021, and since then, Create has expanded their offerings and footprint.

Here's Jade Warrick with more.

- Hey, Heather, welcome to "A House for Arts."

- Thanks for having me, Jade.

- Ah, no, I'm super excited to talk about everything mental health and, like, how Create fosters an environment for that.

So to begin, I know Create is your typical art organization or space, you really center mental health, wellness and wellbeing in your model, so what inspired that and why?

- That's a really important question.

(laughs) It goes to the core of our mission.

I'm an art therapist, and what that means is I use art for mental health and wellness, both in a clinical fashion, the way any kind of therapist would work, but also on the Create end of things, thinking about how art is therapy, art as therapy, and that's a really important part of art therapy as a profession, is thinking about how the arts...

When we create art together, that brings us together as a community.

- So I know you've spoken about building a trauma-informed space, and again, building a space for mental health and wellness, but outside of a clinical environment, why do that?

Why is that so important to the mission and the vision?

- So when we're creating art together in a community-based space, it's a more... Coming at it from a more positive standpoint.

It's less stigma-oriented, you're not in "treatment" anymore, you're on a level playing field with everyone, so whether you're coming into our space because you have a disability, because you're dealing with an anxiety disorder, or just stress, we're all coming at creating art together, and it's just a different experience than if you were in a treatment... Quote-unquote, "treatment center," so it's a much more holistic, positive way of looking at how art can be healing.

- Yeah, probably a little bit more freedom too, right?

- Yeah, definitely, and I think that's what... Where the trauma-informed piece comes in.

You know, trauma-informed practice is all about giving people choices and empowering people to feel like they have choices, so sometimes, that can be a little overwhelming, like, sometimes people come in and they're like, "Well, what do you want me to do?"

I'm like, "Well, you don't have to do anything."

You come to our open studio and we may have a few suggestions of projects to try, but sometimes, people don't actually make art the first time they come, they just sit and they might color a little bit on a coloring sheet, and they listen to people, and they realize that they're not being judged.

They realize that everyone is... Has the same intention, and it's also just a really incredibly supportive environment too, where, you know, people who've been coming for weeks, or months, or years are like, "Oh, my gosh, look at what you created," and it really just is a very supportive environment.

- I love that, and we definitely need more and more of that.

- Yeah, definitely.

- This month is Mental Health Awareness Month.

How does that look like through Create's lens?

Like, what does that mean to you guys and how are you guys, I guess, connecting with this month and helping people out?

- I'm really glad you asked that.

(laughs) Every year, we say, "Oh, we've gotta do more for Mental Health Awareness Month," so this year, we're really excited, we're launching this new campaign called "Create Your Own Way," and it's Create Your Own Way 'cause that leads us back to the whole trauma-informed perspective, and just honoring the fact that each person has their own way of self-care, and granted, self-care is different than getting therapy, therapy is a form of self-care, but also, part of our own therapeutic journeys has to be like, how do we integrate self-care into our everyday lives?

So while obviously, we're an arts-based organization and advocate, "Everyone is creative and use art for your own self-care," we also wanna honor that there's other things we do, so for my own self-care, walking is a really important of my daily routine, getting outside, especially in the warmer months, being outside in nature, walking, so my goal is to walk 100 miles over the course of the month... - Wow.

- Which...

It sounds a lot... Like a lot, but when you break it down to daily goals, it's not that much, so it's also kind of looking at, like, what does the month look like and how can you break it down into daily goals?

Which is also a really important part of therapy and self-care too, so we've got walkers, we've got people doing knitting and fiber arts, we've got people doing embodied arts like yoga, one of our ambassadors is doing kindness rocks and creating kindness rocks all over the place, so we're doing all sorts of different stuff, I'm really excited to just talk about that journey and how everyone has their own way of "creating their own way."

- Yeah, and, like, healing, it's like collective healing.

- Yes.

Exactly, it is really collective healing, and yeah, it's really exciting.

- Let's hope that movement keeps going, right?

(laughs) - Exactly.

Exactly.

- So you have some public art projects, you're doing a tile mural and you're also doing the electrical boxes that are coming up, how does Create utilize public art for wellness?

- Yeah, so I think that the public art realm is really important in terms of bringing the community together.

When...

I mean, you know that personally too, that, like, when someone's creating a mural and people walk by, they just have this sense of amazement and it just brings everyone's spirits up, right?

But we have a really special way of looking at public art, and so, every project that we do has some sort of direct public connection, so the Alco Tunnel tile project that we're gonna be working on this summer and fall is actually in a way, like, seven years in the making, we are using artwork that was created in our first public art projects... (indistinct) We're using over 500 individually-made ceramic tiles, clay tiles that people molded themselves, so we're anticipating we'll have well over 1,000... No, 1,500 tiles that will go in this pedestrian tunnel that's gonna be reopened in the next several months, so it's really exciting.

- It's gonna be beautiful.

- Yeah, yeah, and then, the "mini-murals," we're calling them, so that is art on electrical boxes, and a lot of communities have done that, but we're really excited to be partnering with Metroplex...

Connecting Metroplex in creating more than 20 new mini-murals on electrical boxes downtown to just brighten everything up.

We've got a selection of different artists who are gonna be working with us on that project, so we're really excited about that too.

- I'm excited to see that one, and you get to, like, drive around Schenectady and find the boxes, and things like that too.

- Yeah, I know... (indistinct) Yeah.

(laughs) - So I know you have multiple spaces that are, like, new, you have a ceramic studio, and now, you have your third location, which is located in Troy, New York, so what do they offer the community and why are these locations important?

- Yeah, so we opened our Troy location just over a year ago at the beginning of 2024, and that was a beautiful gift to us, we weren't necessarily anticipating expanding into Troy, but were offered this beautiful space, and it's just been really amazing seeing how the community of Troy has really welcomed us.

The residents in the building where we're located have really been excited to see us every week when we're there, and we're really expanding in that community just based on community need and requests, and our ceramic studio, we're looking forward to opening any day now.

(laughs) Any day now, yeah, within the next month, and that is gonna be in the...

In an adjacent space to our Schenectady studio, and that really is...

It started kind of as a COVID project, when we reopened after the COVID shutdown, the first classes that people were asking us for were clay classes, 'cause that's hard to do.

- Let's do something with your hands.

- Yeah, let's do something with your hands, but also, like, it's a hard thing to do on your own, like, it's easier to look at YouTube tutorials online and do that in your own home, but clay is really a specialized medium, and... That you need a little more guidance with, and so, our ceramics instructor, Christie, really took that on, and we've... Yeah, for the past four years, have been working towards this goal of a dedicated ceramic space, we're gonna have six ceramics wheels, more space for hand-building, we already have two kilns up and running.

It's really exciting.

- It's beautiful, and accessible pricing, I'm assuming, for folks?

- Yeah, absolutely, there's gonna be memberships, but then, also, people can kind of do a drop-in just like all of our programs do.

- Awesome, that's beautiful.

Thank you, Heather, for joining us.

Appreciate you.

- (laughs) Good to be here, yeah.

(no audio) - Please welcome Opera Saratoga.

(gentle piano music) - "Dear friend..." ♪ "I am so sorry about last night" ♪ ♪ "It was a nightmare in every way" ♪ ♪ "But together, you and I" ♪ ♪ "Will laugh at last night someday" ♪ ♪ Ice cream, he brought me ice cream ♪ ♪ Vanilla ice cream, imagine that ♪ ♪ Ice cream, and for the first time ♪ ♪ We were together without a spat ♪ ♪ Friendly, he was so friendly ♪ ♪ That isn't like him, I'm simply stunned ♪ ♪ Will wonders never cease ♪ ♪ Will wonders never cease ♪ ♪ It's been the most peculiar day ♪ ♪ Will wonders never cease ♪ ♪ Will wonders never cease ♪ Oh, where was I?

(gentle piano music) ♪ "I'm so sorry about last night" ♪ ♪ "It was a nightmare in every way" ♪ ♪ "But together, you and I" ♪ ♪ "Will laugh at last night someday" ♪ Huh.

♪ "I sat there waiting in that cafe" ♪ ♪ "And never guessing that you were fat..." ♪ Oh!

No.

♪ "That you were near" ♪ (person laughing) ♪ "You were outside looking bald..." ♪ What?

"Dear friend..." ♪ "I am so sorry about last night" ♪ ♪ Last night, I was so nasty ♪ ♪ Well, he deserved it, but even so ♪ ♪ That George is not like this George ♪ ♪ This is a new George that I don't know ♪ ♪ Somehow, it all reminds me of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ♪ ♪ For right before my eyes ♪ ♪ A man that I despise has turned into a man I like ♪ (person laughing) ♪ It's almost like a dream, and strange as it may seem ♪ ♪ He came to offer me vanilla ice cream ♪ (person laughing) (gentle piano music) ♪ The flowers, the linen, the crystal I see ♪ ♪ Were carefully chosen for people like me ♪ ♪ The silver agleam and the candle aglow ♪ ♪ Your favorite song's on request ♪ ♪ Each colorful touch in the finest of taste ♪ ♪ And notice how subtly the tables are spaced ♪ ♪ The music is muted, the lighting is low ♪ ♪ No wonder I feel so depressed ♪ ♪ Charming, romantic, the perfect cafe ♪ ♪ Then, as if it isn't bad enough ♪ ♪ A violin starts to play ♪ ♪ Candles and wine, tables for two ♪ ♪ But where are you, dear friend ♪ (gentle piano music) ♪ Couples go past me ♪ ♪ I see how they look ♪ ♪ So discreetly sympathetic ♪ ♪ When they see the rose and the book ♪ ♪ I make-believe nothing is wrong ♪ ♪ How long can I pretend ♪ ♪ Please make it right, don't break my heart ♪ ♪ Don't let it end, dear friend ♪ (gentle piano music) ♪ I make-believe nothing is wrong ♪ ♪ How long can I pretend ♪ ♪ Please make it right, don't break my heart ♪ ♪ Don't let it end, dear friend ♪ (upbeat piano music) (person singing in foreign language) (upbeat piano music) (person singing in foreign language) (upbeat piano music) (hip-hop piano 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.

(hip-hop piano music) (hip-hop piano music continues) (hip-hop piano music continues) (hip-hop piano music continues) - [Narrator] 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.