Hello, Oklahoma.

Welcome to Gallery America, where we step into the studio of artists from Oklahoma and around the country.

Today we're in downtown Oklahoma City.

OKC does a great job of promoting local public art like here at the newly remodeled Banc First Tower bake first set out a request for five local artist to create sculptures out here.

One of these artists, Klint Schor, got to work and we had the distinct pleasure of watching him calculate, cut, grind and weld what you're about to see.

Take a look.

My My rote answer which is probably not for PBS.

It's like I just build s*** Youre like “Oh, yeah.

That's the money shot, man.

” So my name is Klint Schor.

Scared you too, didn't it?

I am an artist, sculptor slash custom fabricator.

I often don't know why I do it, other than I just have a desire to do it.

You know, I call myself a custom fabricator.

Because it's essentially what I'm doing.

I'm custom building, like objects.

But these objects are of my own design.

So both hands come out of a square.

So this is a square.

They're taken apart and flipped, and then.

Slid together.

That's the concept of the kiss And it's construction all reinforce the concept of love and community and, you know, together.

This.

That's one of those weird projects where, like, how it's put together the engineering of it.

And I thought of it was very similar to me, and it had to go together a certain way.

There are, when I call them boulders.

They're specifically called glacial erratics they are out on the West River bike trail.

That was a 1% piece, through the Parks Department.

There's a grasshopper sculpture.

It's kind of a jungle gym for kids.

It's up at the ice house in Edmond.

I made up a small version.

I looked at photos and images of grasshoppers for weeks.

I did not come up with grasshoppers one day.

That was, requested.

It's a big piece.

It seemed to enjoy it.

There's a little bump out, I think was affectionately called The Pimple.

Mike Mays reached out to me and wanted an eight foot circumference conference table.

To to be inside that little bump out.

So I, I took the challenge and and made it so.

There' a yellow knot that's on Linwood.

So I, I, I do a lot of stuf and then I'm still doing stuff for private commissions to I try to keep busy.

apparently I can't *** see today like yeah.

Whoopsie.

Are we to Elmo says ****.

There's no recipe.

There's no blueprint.

No one's given me a roadmap to figure this out.

It's it's up to me to figure it out.

I really was desiring to build a large yellow grocery cart.

Because the grocery cart was invented in Oklahoma.

I was like, that's a little farfetched.

I don't know if anyone's going to go for that.

The safe bet might be the Rose Rock and it got accepted over the grocery cart.

There's no grocery cart being built right now.

Ther ain't no recipe for a rose rock Ain't no recipe for a rose, rockNo way.

No recipe.

I still definitely want to build a yellow grocery cart.

I'm gonna be.

N aint no recipe for a rose rock.

Some days it's just a lot of staring it.

You know?

Because I needed some imagery to to to submit with the proposal.

Right.

Using the rose rock, taking a photograph of it and then like making a paper model of it.

And I just slowly scale it up.

David Rainbolt is the president of the banc first.

And his desire was that any of the objects or sculptures that are out there, have an Oklahoma theme, which is how the Rose Rock came to be.

I'm wondering if I want to start over here and cut this and then come over here.

Typically, I'll have all my parts waterjet cut, which make a really nice precision.

Precisio isn't really what we want here.

We want kind of like a rough, kind of like texture here.

I've promised something and I've kind of go go through all my water to make it happen.

“Magnets.. wonderful thing”.

I was purposely cutting out all the parts with the steel, with an Oxyacetylene torch to give it the sort of rough edge I needed a rose rock to sample from.

And, five blocks away from the studio, I can go check out, see what they have.

Popped over there, and.

And Dave was kind enoug to let me, like, rummage through his rose rock collection.

David.

Cool guy.” That's a nice substrate.

We're going to build a home on top of that.

Michelle Mitchell loves the 120 all these the sectional planes.

I'm looking for that sort of match that criteria so that I could, then sort of emulate it, to where I can fabricate it.

Just kind of borrowed examples of of of, you know, how the, the circular planes intersected with one another.

So I'm trying to make something that, you know.

Exactly.

It's that the goal.

I didn't even know what a cleft angle is.

And then now I do.

cleft angle is, is kind of the angle, and to which the, the crystal forms against another crystal.

And I kind of come across this when I. What about it?

This is like a really good example.

I would have told then grab that one.

Kind of seen it.

So that's what I was looking for.

There ain't no recipe for a rose rock.

Everything I do, I try to just challenge myself to do something that I hadn't done before.

I wear all the hats, like Im the guy, I sweep the floor, grinder.

I'm the fabricator, s I need to add another one here.

I'm the guy that fills out the permits.

I'm the accountant.

It's just more than just me being in a studio making artwork.

Okay.

I'm right.

I often worry that, I physically can't cash the check that I wrote, you know?

But the saying goes a little bit different.

Okay.

Checks.

Like I'm usually thinking about the next step.

How do I do this?

It's funny that that the sculpture and that the size of sculptures now are more about choreography.

Okay.

Right.

We're kind of ready when you guys are, like, planning that next move, the next step.

All right.

All right.

All right.

All right.

Ready?

All right, hold it.

All right.

It's going to want to roll over to that back side.

Guys.

Whoever's behind that.

Yep.

I'm not sure how I want to work on this.

I prefer to weld horizontallyon the weld, versus trying to weld uphill.

There we go.

The welds will just take a little bit better.

I many years ag I worked for, actually I worked for Randy marks many years ago.

He had a lamp business.

I wasn't the actual welder of those lamps, but I was the grinder.

So I had to clean all those welds.

Randy was very kind to open up his his business in studio.

After hours, I would go in and mess aroun with the welder and the tools.

That's kind of how I developed my skill set.

Multiple novel could be written about, Clinton and his quirkiness.

I'm the, program planner in arts and cultural affairs and the planning department at the city of Oklahoma City.

He approaches things differently than any other artist.

Kind of, yeah.

But he always looks for that twist on whatever it is that he's looking at.

He designed a work that actually, was published in ID magazine, a chair that could be folded up into a box.

The chair was the box, The box, was the Chair, would unfold into this cardboard chair.

You know, it received some notoriety when it should have gotten a lot more than it got.

But he certainly is passionate.

Passion by itself doesn't mean anything in particular.

Competence is what matters more.

We became friends and we learned a whole lot from each other.

It's a different experience if you look at it here, if it's important in a whole lot of different ways.

Hello, sir.

How are you?

Good.

Sure.

Nice to meet you.

But the festival is a place where artists get together.

So you said you sold three this morning?

Of course.

He was probably hanging out to a great extent at the, sculpture garden.

Yeah, I guess I noticed the way they're strapped to the rebar is a bit different this year.

I'm working on a big commission for banc first right now, they wanted to film at the Arts festival.

All the volunteers like kudos and, like, it's such a great thing that everyone does.

Are you in film filming?

Get getting some corn on the cob.

Sure.

When you did it.

All right, I think we get one more.

Okay.

All right.

I'm there to the real test.

Get it vertical.

Oh, I get you.

Oh, and that's something that definitely has to get.

I always have nerves about this stuff.

Rehearsed when it.

Why get in here?

You grab me another, smiling.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Thus far, you know.

It's it's actually, It's the process has has gone smoothly, as one can expect.

All nice and slow.

Right.

So now it is during all of its week.

There you go.

All right.

Because I want this side out.

I think.

All right.

Now lower it.

It feels good to have it up.

I mean, it'll be it'll feel bette to have it installed for sure.

And it looks like the cardboard model, so that's a plus.

And thus far, I'm feeling pretty good about it.

No one's going to care about this little **** that Im doing.

I know it's there.

I love the idea of being like an art ninja in the sense that, like, you'r never really sure who made it, but they'll know it's one of mine.

And you can see the similarity into some other projects that I've done in the past.

I would see people, like move large boulders into landscapes.

When I go on hikes and stuff, I'd take photos of boulders and stuff.

And so I came u with a concept of what I wanted.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

I hope you got that.

Okay.

How cool would it be if you could just like, you know you make one singular boulder, but it's so irregular that like, make three the same thing.

And then, howeve they were placed, you can have, a composition of boulders, you know, so it's the same pattern as the boulders that are out on the West River trail.

The shape itself is a 15 sided irregular polyhedron.

I got the idea at the last minute to, like, cut out all the edges so you could see the light from the front.

All right, so this is one I made for my drummer neighbor.

Thank you.

The laboratory.

I don't want your backwash.

Yes you do.

So every Thursday we get together.

Beer?

Well, I appreciate you guys coming over and supporting the beer.

We got a. That' kind of the culmination of that.

As the fire goes out.

Stay arty Oklahoma.

Oh, I hopefully it should go pretty soon.

It's literally four bolts or just enough screws.

I'll do that every time.

I'd like to take the academy.

I couldn't do this if it weren't for my father.

All right, there.

He.

Hey, brother.

We're being filmed right now, so we have to be careful about what words we chose to do.

Oh **** Always forget something at the last minute.

The payday for me is like to have the ideas and the thoughts and see them all come together.

And to see it in.

I do it because, like, it's it's just how I think.

And to be able to see it is, is kind of the payday for me.

There we go.

Okay.

All right.

Yeah.

Tell them to put it all the way down.

Now.

How you like them apples?

Granted, it's it's a lot more work than, like, a little tiny cardboard version of it, but, will you grab the orange cord out of the back of the truck, please.

It's good.

It's good to see.

It's like, in real time.

Anything that I want to communicate, I can say like this, you know like how I put things together, how I engineer things.

This will move the plates.

Not moving.

Like.

Once it colors in, or rusts up, and, the plants kind of come in and hide the pipe a little bit for it looks like it's really floating about the garden.

I will be let's go.

I think this is my thing.

Like, I just kind of don't know anything else.

It speaks to Oklahoma.

It's a rose rock.

Once the heather grass i behind it and the sage come up, and the rock looks like it's sort of floating above the garden, that will that'll be the thing.

But the really, at the end of the day, I do it because I don't thin I could get a real job with it because, like, what I do is just sort of I don't because this is that job.

Yeah.

Why I chose it what's the..., there ain't no recipe for a rose rockThat's pretty much it.

But anybody know this piece?

This piece right here.

This piece?

There ain't no recipe for roserock.

This ain't sculpture.

Let's just move it, you guys, you guys go outside.

whos being dark, paul or you?.

Yeah.

I guess this is good.

This is gonna be it.

Okay?

Okay, okay.

Sculpture is a belly, all right?

You mean a dirt?

There is no recipe to making a rose rock.

Like one of these.

Dooby dooby doo doo.

Do you have any nerves about it?

Really?

You must start with that.

I guess for done gals.

I'm.

You can keep up with Klint by following him on Instagram at klintschor.

And if you want a mini version of one of his pieces, swing by the OKC Museum of Art gift shop.

Now we're going to stick around here at Banc first and meet a few more of the artists that made this possible.

Check it out.

I saw a call for entry for Bank first and I submitted and I was a finalist, presented and was accepted.

They're nice enough to open up, what I call a squat.

A small sculpture park in downtown.

I'm Joe Slack.

I'm an Oklahoma City sculptor.

The piece behind us today is a stainless steel sculpture.

The piece is titled, Seige the Day.

Which is a play on words.

These are three heron and a group of herons is called a siege.

And it's just about, you know, community.

And we're stronger together.

And so the three birds, you know, seige the day.

Banc first, folks, approac this and ask us to do a piece.

And they had an Oklahoma theme that they wanted to address.

My name is Stan Carroll.

I was an architect for a couple of decades, and then 20 years ago, I shifted my practice to public artwork.

The name of the piece is called Scanning Horizons.

We were thinking abou what are the landrunners doing?

Well, they're scanning the horizon.

They're scanning the horizon mostly for water.

And so the base of the piece is, is an abstraction of a water droplet.

So the sculpture is a result of the mapping of that water droplet.

If you cut a section through any place in that sculpture, you get that exact same water droplet shape.

There's only six differen kinds of herons that roost here, in Oklahoma.

So and it's also my favorite bird.

That's that's a big thing for me.

The stainless lines are kind of I mean, they're they're obviously feathers.

But putting al this on was slightly maddening.

It's, extremely time consuming and frustrating but very rewarding in the end.

Once it's done, it's it's worth worth the frustration.

Like, you'll see all these giant herons in these trees.

And it just looks bizarre because the way the branches are, it looks kind of like they're stacked on top of one another, which is how this piece came about.

So you try to develop something that's relevant to the actual position of the piece itself.

It's really just a matter of, you know, asking questions.

What were the land runners really thinking when they headed off you know, after the cannon shot?

So that that's how that one came about.

For this piece, I selected stainless steel.

Stainless steel is one of the materials I work with most often.

Because most of my work is outdoors and it is effectively a 1000 year material on a beautiful, blue sky day.

It'll be blue on a beautiful orange sunset.

Old turn orange.

So it's really these you know, kind of the reaction to its contex that I really embrace the most.

This is the first public piece of a birds that I've done.

And stainless.

And this is also my kind of intro into glass.

So the glass panels in it are fused glass.

Four layers of the sheet glass.

We got two layers of color sandwiched between, two outside layers of clear and then additional layers of these color, these little color lines, which are also a representation of feather patterns, an abstract feather pattern.

And, so there's color on both sides.

So there's a total really, like six layers.

I go in and lay out the composition, and then they are cooked in a kiln, and then I cut them out on the waterjet to fit into those little those nooks.

So all the artists here I'm actually friends with, which is really cool.

We got that on video.

I know it is.

Trust me, there's a whole blooper reel anyway.

Klint.

Obviously.

who you know is, a grea sculptor, a good friend of mine.

A bit of a pain, but still love him.Scissortail bridge, man.

Everybody knows that bridge.

Also just all around badass.

And Jonathan Hills incredible sculpture.

He's got public art all over the state and stuff all over the country.

And he's, professor, I don't know, you.

You.

Have loved these guys to death for decades.

And so it was so fun to actually get to experience the same project together, experience each other's battles simultaneously.

Everybody wanted to do their best work because they were going to be placed side by side.

This particular project i is turned out to be much better and super excited about the result and, just happy to be part of it.

It's just really exciting.

That bancfirst year decided to make a point to put public art out here, because it's for everybody to enjoy.

That that's about it.

Next time you're in downtown OKC, don't forget to stop b the corner of Main and Broadway where you can see these pieces yourself.

That's all the time we have for Gallery America.

Thank you so much for joining us.

As always, you can see past episode by going to our website at OETA.

tv Slash Gallery America.

And don't forget to follow us o Instagram at OETA Art Gallery.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Until next time, stay arty, Oklahoma.

Okay.

Anyone in there should.

Ooh.

Hot.

Or.

Damn it!

Come on.

Hey!