Coming up this time on Art rocks, will visit with artist James McDonell in his New Orleans studio and get a glimpse into his creative process.

A Grammy Award winning bassist explains how music played a big part in his life long before he was born.

These stories right now on Art rocks.

West Baton Rouge Museum is proud to provide local support for this program on LPB, offering diverse exhibitions throughout the year and programs that showcase art, history, music, and more.

West Baton Rouge Museum culture cultivated Art rocks is made possible by the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and by viewers like you.

Hello.

Thank you for joining us for Art rocks with me, James Fox Smith from Country Roads magazine.

Musician, painter and sculptor James McDonnell believes that it's by creating art that man illuminates his path.

McDonnell maintains that it's the sacred duty of the artist to be both shaman and alchemist, in order that his works might serve as signposts, markers, revelations along the way, guarding against our course in nature and encouraging us towards compassion.

In his first solo museum exhibition, titled Safe Passage, the artist invites viewers into an examination of their lives objectively and subjectively.

And challenges us to explore how art and life intersect.

Here's his story.

Effectively, in not giving.

My name is James McDonnell.

I'm from Lafayette, Louisiana.

I I've been living in New Orleans for over 20 years.

When I started my studio practice here.

I retired from the music business after a 20 plus years in New York.

A lot of my artistic career has just come naturally from a lot of the things that I experienced as a musician, because I got to travel a lot and I got to see things that still influenced me, so that, you know, we open for Keith Richards, we open for Paul Simon, we open for Talking Heads.

I played on a lot of records.

All this article bands really are in Louisiana.

So we were the only zydeco band working out in New York, but it was good for us and it was good for them because when the zydeco guys couldn't come to New York, they had a built in place to to shoot, and it featured the Whiskey spill.

You gotta pay.

Well, one day I was working with my friend Chuck Perkins, who's a local character here, a great poet, spoken word guy, and he was making an album.

I'd been playing accordion for him.

I just sat down on the floor one day I had a charcoal and some drawing paper, and Chuck was here, and I said, Chuck, I. I don't think I want to play music anymore.

I think I just want to draw pictures and work with my photographs and paint and make sculpture and just become that kind of artist.

So I just don't know if I can go on playing music at this point.

I had a revelation that day.

I said, you know, I can do this.

I'm getting a late start, but I know I can.

I can be successful.

It'll take me 20 years and it's been 20 years.

So here I am.

I wanted to be around my family and, be close to the culture that I was raised.

And.

And I decided that New Orleans was a really good place for me to explore, work as, as a fine artist in New Orleans is just not for everyone.

It's not for the weak.

It's not for the impatient.

But I love it here.

And I'll always be from Louisiana.

I'm fortunate enough to have my studio right across the street, so I wake up in the morning.

I have my coffee, I feed my cats, I go to work.

If I couldn't take it all away, if I could take your pain away, you know I would.

There's things that you can learn on the road that, that influence you as you, as you grow older.

And I like to think that that's that's what's going on in my work right now.

And as I'm, I've reached a point in my life where I remember a lot of things from when I was younger and, and I put them to work for me, sometimes photography is a, a voyage of self-discovery.

You don't know why you're attracted to some of the pictures you make, or it's a very personal, private, and mystical kind of thing in a way.

And so I take photography to a different level.

I, I still love my photos, but I cut them all up and, and mix them up and, and put them back together different ways.

Believe it or not, the 70s, was a lot bigger influence on me as an artist than the artwork.

In the 80s.

I was more influenced by Rauschenberg's work in the 70s, and I was a family friend of Bob Rauschenberg.

I was very lucky that, one of my best high school buddies.

So, was Bob's nephew, and, we needed high school jobs.

Every high school kid needs a job.

And Bob's studio was in Captiva, Florida, and, Rick invited me.

He said, look, I'm going down there for three weeks.

He needs help in the studio.

Why don't you come down and we'll get you a job?

And that was the beginning of a really great experience for me.

I went back many times to Florida, but I think I've always.

You know, been a photographer.

I, before I became a musician, I was working with my camera, and, And I've always admired plant making.

And, you know, Rauschenberg worked with a lot of found objects which I incorporate in my work.

I love the way that he collected things.

And his eye was not average.

So by spending time with him, I. I did learn to see things differently and take a second looks at things that other people might pass by or discard.

And that's been a big influence.

That's stuck with me with my work through the years.

I like things that are obscure and reconditioned or, you know, reappointed in some way, or else sometimes they don't have to be and they just stand for what they are.

I've evolved into a little more of, sculptural presentation and less of a less of a traditional painter.

I hope people find that my work is relatable on that topic because I'm still into experimenting.

I'm not.

I don't consider my works to be all that experimental.

I'm not doing science experiments, but I will image anything.

I think if something stands still a long enough, maybe I'll I'll paint it.

I also like, layering.

And when I first started, I, I, I work with a lot of fabrics.

I liked soft edges, softer geometrical shapes, color fields, things with soft and blended edges.

The last canvas I really was working on, it's been a while, maybe 6 or 7 years ago.

I kind of put the canvas aside and I started working just with transparencies by different metals.

And everything.

The energy assembles mostly just the colors come together first and then the tone.

If I'm going to be using this as a store kind of a story line that extends through these other images over here, which is supposed to be kind of the idea of a waiting room scenario.

People don't get to use telephones anymore.

I've learned over the years about geometry and how good painting needs geometry, and it has to be present.

Sometimes it comes from the back.

It doesn't.

But a painting is like a good piece of furniture or a human body.

It has to have bones.

It has to have something.

Whether you see it or not.

It has to have a means of support, and you have to understand light.

And there's all these things that you have to learn.

And I had to teach myself because I never went to art school.

But it's very real rewarding.

The.

Oh.

Well.

If you enjoy watching the arts on TV, trust me, they're better in person.

The trick, of course, is knowing where to find them for a comprehensive round up, each issue of Country Roads magazine includes a curated list of upcoming events, including exhibits at area museums and galleries printed monthly and always online at country runs mag.com.

Five time Grammy winner Victor Wooten is considered one of the finest bassists in the world.

In this segment, we're off to Virginia to learn more about his illustrious career and the astonishing journey that's made in the artist he is today.

And.

Coming home is always more special, especially when you've been away for a while.

I get to be a hometown hero, and that's not what I'm in it for.

But I'm going to use it for everything I got.

Because I want you to succeed.

I want you to know that you're worthy.

You're enough.

You can achieve your dreams.

And I'm proud.

I'm from Newport News, and I'm the youngest of five brothers.

Music has played a big part in my life, probably before I was born, because my brothers were already playing and they needed a bass player.

My earliest memory of playing was right around two years old, and because I was literally learning to speak music at the same time as I was learning to speak English, music became a very natural.

I was on stage by kindergarten, if not before, but we're opening for war and Curtis Mayfield, The Temptations, we didn't know any better.

It's just what it was.

And my older brothers, who are super heroes to me, they're treating me like an equal.

Yeah, I'm the baby brother, but no one's beating me up.

Instead, they're holding me up, giving me all the credit.

We did a lot of gigs and we caught the attention of a lot of different people.

A guy named Kashif brought us brothers in to Paris.

The rappers big record company with the record deal didn't go so well, and it was the cause of the five of us brothers not playing together at all.

We know his music.

So we find out about Busch Gardens.

And my life has never been the same.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Canadian Palladium.

At this time, we can let you put your hands together.

The love.

A good start with Tom cruise.

They announced was star.

And welcome to the good Tom country show.

And in four black guys walk out cowboy hat.

It's like.

That quiet.

But when the music started oh my goodness it was great to.

At the time I was too young to work in the live entertainment department, but they were about to open in a couple of weeks or so, and they needed a bluegrass fiddle player.

And then one of my brothers said, well, I got another brother who could probably play fiddle.

I never played fiddle in my life, so I researched and found three of the top fiddle songs, and I went in and I won the audition.

For us, music is music.

A string is a string.

We can make a sound on.

We had a lot of people tell us back there, we all need to move to Nashville.

And at the time when I may, I'm going to Nashville.

You never say no to all of us.

Moved to Nashville.

This.

Year.

In 87, my friend introduced me to Ben Affleck and we just hit it off.

They asked me to be a part of a television show called the Lonesome Pine Specials.

They were going to give Baylor a four hour long special to play his music.

He said, I just need a drummer.

And I said, oh, well, you got to check out my brother.

Baylor told me, I met this guy named Howard Levi.

Whoa.

I don't know if I've ever met a musician like this guy.

He can play anything.

But it was definitely Bela Fleck in the fleck tones that put me on the global map.

And I think Bela for that, because Bela understood that the band would be better if we allow every musician to have freedom.

Bass player magazine was just hitting the scene, so I wound up in Bass Player magazine a lot.

We did The Tonight Show five times, Bela Fleck and reflect on.

Everything.

Arsenio Hall is a big bass fanatic, so we get on Arsenio Hall.

We do this song called Sinister Minister, which is a bass feature.

Spinning the bass around my neck.

Our studio hall is going through.

And so things worked out for the second set.

Bela Fleck two and two.

And then these two would make a four bar.

Exactly, exactly.

Then it would be out here.

The.

Two in a. Yeah.

That's nice I think.

So.

Backside of it's a little longer with the four bars.

It's whatever helps solidify that rhythm.

Right.

I'm improvising I'm rarely reading.

Well if I put my head here I start playing this rather than playing this.

It's so flavorful.

That whole section, it's really neat.

Thank you very much.

I have a lot of respect for a symphony.

As a child, I played in an orchestra, but in being asked to write a piece, I have an idea that they want classical, but they want something different.

The main thing that I wanted to do was not leave me as I was writing.

The instrumentation is going to make it different enough.

To hear people playing something that I wrote.

Wow, amazing.

And right now it's my first time sitting out and listening to that.

Oh yeah, I can't listen because I'm like, yeah, here.

I've got a package of vocal dystonia.

I hate to even say it, but my hands curl up trying to play it.

So it's just a huge struggle for me to play so many things.

I didn't write anything hard for me in this piece just because of that.

It's gotten a little worse.

So I want to be distracted, and clawing at this whole thing will make me sound good.

Oh yeah.

Oh.

Oh, awesome.

Excuse me.

Over 20 years ago, I just noticed that my hands were slowing down.

I didn't know why.

I just felt I need to practice.

So I start working on stuff, running scales, all this stuff people say warming up and all this stuff that I never did.

It's not getting better.

It's kind of getting worse now.

It is so difficult for me to play.

For one, it's it's kind of taken over my brain and I'm having to do all the things I tell students how to relax, breathe, don't think about that.

Think about this.

It.

As I was saying, I heard we teach what we most need to learn.

So all that stuff, I say I'm working on it.

Right now, I'm playing this concerto that I wrote.

That I can barely play right?

And fortunately, I have a symphony around me that I can hide behind.

It's.

I wanted a bass that I could bow and nobody made me.

So I asked very for the era if he could get a bow bass made.

And he said, I think I can.

And the easiest way to think of it is a cello on its side.

That's fun for me to get to play, because it's a one of a kind.

I think of a concerto as a musician out front, virtuoso, playing a lot of stuff, and the orchestra is back behind.

And I like that idea, but I didn't really want to do just that.

I want the audience to see what a bass does, but also see what a bass can do.

So there are times in the symphony where I'm supporting the oboe, supporting the violins, and doing what the bass does with the bass section.

But then I'll step out front and let you see that the bass can play chords, the bass can play melodies, the bass can solo.

So that is an education for all of us.

As I heard a friend of mine say, playing music is like trying to count to infinity.

It doesn't matter how far you count.

You don't get any closer to the end.

But you do get further from the beginning.

So yeah, I've come a long way with music and I'm satisfied.

It doesn't mean I feel like I'm done.

There's still things I want to do.

My focus has changed to what I can help others to do.

If I can inspire you to do anything is to be the best version of you possible.

If you continue to pursue your dreams and just don't quit.

You will live them.

May take longer than you took.

It may be harder than you think.

But if it was easy, it wouldn't mean as much.

To come.

Music is about sharing it.

You're giving it to other people.

Living our dream with us.

And that's a beautiful, beautiful life.

And now a behind the scenes dive into an annual gingerbread competition coming to Columbus, Ohio.

Hosted by the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Garden, this holiday tradition invites participants to a great construction bake off, flexing creative muscle as they bake and decorate intricate gingerbread houses.

They're beautiful.

I can't imagine the effort that went into these gingerbread houses.

I can't imagine how much time just the thought process of how and what kind of a gingerbread house am I going to make.

And you know, they probably threw a bunch of ideas out at the dinner table with their family.

And then they say, oh, mom, why don't you make a beach scene?

I love baking, I love gingerbread houses.

I love all that stuff that there's sort of like this, like, how did that happen?

So I think from that standpoint, I was just super excited and honored.

I love people give a tribute to their dogs.

So what I'm trying not to include on my judging is the heartfelt stories behind why people built what they built.

They were so sweet that easily could have swayed me, but I really tried to look for is did they follow what the theme was supposed to be?

What did they use?

A variety of?

Medium, I guess is a great word for it.

There was some folks who use cereal in theirs, and some people who use candies, and I love to see just kind of the creativity behind what people chose to include.

Before I started gingerbread thing, I always like to do a bit of, like, research on the side of looking at other people's gingerbread and other people's art and stuff.

So before I start, I always draw a picture of what I want it to look like, or an idea of like the basics of what it should look like.

And then I just go from there and cut out all the gingerbread parts and start constructing it, and then it just sort of turns out one of my favorite ones was one of the original ones I did.

Maybe my first one.

It was a monkey tree house, and it was when I was like a little, little kid.

I took my handprint and traced it.

And those were the branches on the sides.

And I've always loved monkeys.

And I got actual monkey food treats from my grandpa who works at the zoo, and we put them on up on the roof, as tiles.

To me, it reminds me of my childhood younger, you know, mom making gingerbread houses.

What she did, it was very simple.

There wasn't anything fancy about a little white frosting on the rocks and that.

But she did do with the seven kids.

We appreciated that.

And I think that, you look at these things, it's it's a it's an art.

What they've done.

And that is that for this edition of Art rocks.

But never mind, because more episodes of the show are always available at pbs.org.

Rocks.

And if you love stories like these, consider Country Roads.

The magazine makes a vital guide for learning what's taking shape in Louisiana's cultural life all across the state.

Until next week.

I've been James Fox Smith and thanks to you for watching.

West Baton Rouge Museum is proud to provide local support for this program on LPB.

Offering diverse exhibitions throughout the year and programs that showcase art, history, music, and more, West Baton Rouge Museum culture cultivated Art rocks is made possible by the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and by viewers like you.