Coming up next on Art rocks, a Baton Rouge couple making simple beads into distinctive jewelry.

I'm always very inspired by where I am culturally, physically, and I happen to be in Louisiana, a man who is bringing musical meaning to life behind bars.

Either they're going to be rehabilitated to some degree that art and music can provide or they're not.

An artist opening doors to the miniature magic of dollhouse design.

They started out very angsty, but they've evolved to be more of a whimsical sort of thing.

And a visit to the Shenault Museum in Monroe.

We have his first wings as stars.

We have the largest collection of Asian art memorabilia than any place need on its date.

That's all right.

Now on Art rocks.

Art rocks is made possible by the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and by viewers like you.

Hello, and thank you for joining us for Art rocks with me, James Fox Smith of Country Roads magazine.

Let's start in the studio of the Baton Rouge woman behind the thriving jewelry business.

For Madeline Ellis, sales have gotten so good.

Her husband, Dawson, has come on board as partner to meet Madeline and Dawson Ellis, the owners of mimosa, a jewelry making business in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Both of them got degrees at LSU in landscape architecture while they pursued their careers in design.

Madeline took up the hobby of creating her own jewelry.

Many of her designs came from her work environment.

To my core, I'm always very inspired by where I am culturally, physically and I happened to be in Louisiana.

I have the monstera leaf here.

It's more of an interior plant can be outside in New Orleans, but it's part of the philodendron family, so I'm always very inspired by plants.

I have a river cuff, so I call the river cuff.

Harold Fisk made these maps in the 1940s.

The Mississippi River, as it came down, all the different routes that it took in the different, sediments there, beautiful maps and all all the different routes or different colors.

So I took and carved, a piece that kind of represented that.

The more jewelry Madeline created, the more she saw that people liked her work.

So she completely gave up landscape architecture and devoted her time fully to jewelry.

The artist soon discovered that her background in design was helpful in her new career.

The way I, tack a new piece of jewelry is very similar to the way I would attack a master plan, or any kind of design and landscape, looking at all the different layers of it.

So when I communicate on a custom piece with a customer, it's almost exactly.

And it's kind of crazy how I would do a consulting for a landscape design.

I want to get to know your story.

I want to know what is driving you to get me to design something for you.

Same thing I would have done to create a space specifically for them.

As the demand for her jewelry increased, Madeline had trouble keeping up.

That's when her husband decided it was time to join her full time, coming from her hobby maybe two years ago, which was a profitable hobby.

to me, selling my business last year to joining her about three quarters of a year, we've probably doubled sales since then.

Now our goal is to just keep expanding and make it as big as we can.

A quick survey of mimosas inventory reveals the Alices are now making bracelets, bangles, necklaces, ear rings, cuff links, and more.

Just what goes into making a piece of jewelry?

Madeline describes the process of coming up with this be happy pendant.

There's quite a bit of drawing and quite a few renditions before I finally hone in on that.

That the final piece that I'm going to be carving.

Madeline then chisels her design into wax.

It's a really plastic kind of wax, so you have to carve it with like a Dremel tool type thing or exacto knife.

There are different tools to use for it, but it's very hard.

It's Dawson's job to convert the wax carving into metal.

We will make a silicone mold of it.

So, making a mold to where you feed, metal like veins.

And they call them sprues.

That's what feeds the molten metal into the calf.

So to set that up into a mold, would be the next, process.

And then once we do that, then we can recreate as many as we want.

Even after the metal jewels are cast, there is still more work.

The polishing and the grinding and cutting the sprues loose.

And, the finished product is, probably, I'd say.

And each one's, our, I guess once you start to finish.

But you're also doing hundreds of them at the same time.

Madeline and Dawson work with a variety of metals, giving customers options on just how much they want to spend on any specific piece.

It's like a little baby, the silver and bronze and gold.

So we worked in all three metals so far, and it just comes in a little Ziploc bag, and you measure it out to where the metal, without the specific gravity of the wax and the metal equal each other.

With Dawson taking over production, it gives Madeline more time to focus on designs that I love, highlighting things that people don't necessarily see as unique to Louisiana.

I work with cane River Baking Company.

The owner sifted through thousands of records to find the perfect bacon for me to take a mold, and we took an actual mold of that bacon and created some jewelry from that.

I like to create pieces that help people kind of tighten their relationships around it.

One of my most popular pieces of the year are My Sunshine.

I like it never, ever gets old to hear somebody come in and say, oh, my grandmother's saying that to me, or my mom saying that to me.

and then, oh, my mom did too.

While the Alyssa's so much of their work online, they also set up booths during major activities.

Madeline says she loves the opportunities to interact with her customers.

I'm hearing the whispers of like, oh, this piece is kind of off, or I'm hearing, oh my God, I love this so much.

So I take it all in.

I like to sit down and digest it and then put it out into like I need to do better at this.

I need to hone in on this over here.

so it's really great for feedback.

Yeah.

I wouldn't trade it for anything.

it's, kind of a dream to wake up and say, I can't believe this is our jobs.

No matter where you roam in Louisiana.

Opportunities to connect with the arts are everywhere.

The trick is knowing where to look.

So here's a list of some cultural adventures coming up around the state in the week to come.

To learn more about these and other events in Louisiana, visit lpb.org/art rocks or pick up a free copy of Country Roads Magazine LP's.

Art rocks website also features an archive of previous episodes.

So to see any segment again, just log on to LPB dawg.

Going now to Los Angeles, California, where Wayne Kramer, former prison inmate and guitarist for punk band MC5, is the driving force behind the nonprofit organization Jail Guitar Doors USA.

Named for a 1978 song by UK band The Clash.

Jail guitar Doors supplies musical instruments and opportunities for expression to inmates serving time in California and beyond.

Based on his own experiences, Kramer says that he is convinced that music can help inmates pick up the pieces of their broken lives.

I was, terrified.

And everyone that faces the prison experience, certainly for the first time, is scared to death.

because you're going into a world where you're not safe, all those, fences and all those big, tough looking prison guards and those concrete walls, they're not there to keep you safe.

Life fell apart in 1975 for Wayne Kramer, musician and co-founder of MC5.

You're convicted and locked up for selling cocaine.

Federal agents.

In 1977, the first recorded jail.

The Tigers opening line.

Let me tell you about Wayne's deals.

In 2007, UK rocker Billy Bragg, one of the 900 jail guitar tours, provided musical instruments for rehabilitation to prisoners in 2009 2010.

Because states Rock had a concert to benefit from, and musicians have always, I think, identified with people that are marginalized, people that slip through the cracks, outsiders, rebels, reprobates, malcontents, ne'er do wells and, yeah, and my experience has been that, if I ask someone to come and help us help prisoners, they almost always say us.

One of the reasons why is for jail guitar doors a cappella is because I support Wayne Kramer.

And, when he asked me to do something, the answer's always immediate.

Hell, yes.

So I'm very happy to do it.

but I believe it's a tremendously worthwhile cause, you know, the statistics show that recidivism rates are dramatically affected by programs like that.

stay within memories of, wants to be heard.

And I want to appreciate everybody wants to feel good.

And I think music does that, you know, embraces people to where we can come together.

And I think it's the collective human being that really is our greatest asset, you know, not defined by color, race or clean room.

And as cliche as it sounds, that's impossible to to make a monster nothing.

You go through the this building, you know, and you say to me, it's really interesting that this work is being done.

It's really we need it.

We really need a way to reclaim these lives and to and to, you know, the amount of people who are incarcerated is really shocking, you know, and I've never felt like that answer is more jails.

I wish that side was more school.

So but we really can't forget about those who were in there who are, you know, and, who need a way out know or a way into an authentic life like that that they, you know, feel and experience this life and positive change.

And I feel that that music has been the most rewarding thing in my life, and it's the most valuable thing I could pass on to anybody.

The guitars aren't, gifts we don't give them as gifts.

The guitars represent the challenge.

If you accept these guitars and you're accepting the challenge to use them to find a new way to express yourself, a positive way to say this is who I am in the world, to send a message to the world about, maybe how you got there or what you can do to make sure you never come back.

a way to process your problems.

A new way to process your problem, make it out of jail are going to be your neighbors.

They're going to be out in the world and either they're going to be rehabilitated to some degree and have avenues to express complicated and often mixed feelings, something that art and music can provide or they're not.

I would love to see them have that opportunity.

And all you have to look at, you know, you know who one of those people was, one of those desperate criminals who, you know, at the bottom rungs of society was Wayne Kramer.

And music saved his life.

And now he's trying to extend a hand to others, help save their lives.

The gift of music.

I'd put it somewhere at 10% of the prison population, maybe 15% that we won't reach.

We will.

We won't get through to them.

They're knuckleheads.

We will not.

They're not interested.

and they may have grave mental and emotional difficulties on top of that, but that leaves, 85% of the 2.3 million people that, if given the tools, would change for the better that don't want to be in prison.

They want to come here.

They want to participate in every know if we don't help them change for the better while they're in custody, they will most certainly change for the worse.

I really admire what Wayne and Billy Bragg have started here, and I would I would do it any time they invited me.

To I love when You Have a dream.

That we've done, you know this has.

Been.

And the groom is a Columbus, Ohio artist who explores the trauma of living with mental illness through meticulously crafted and often disturbing tableaus.

Featuring.

Dan's groom shares with us what's going on in her head and between her hands during the process of creation.

I feel like they're kind of beautiful.

Yeah, grotesque in a lot of ways.

They started out very angsty, but they've evolved to be more of a whimsical sort of thing.

they display a wide array of human emotions.

They are a bit dark.

A lot of people find them creepy.

that I don't mind.

I started very young, drawing.

I've always been inclined to artistic, endeavors.

My mom always encouraged it.

It was a voice for me.

I found that I identified through other people's artwork.

I could really find my voice in other people's artwork.

And I feel like that is a sacred communication with an artist and a viewer.

I start out by sculpting the head, put together the body.

It's all formed around a toothpick.

they're meticulously sculpted.

Then I put them in the oven and fire them.

Then I use an assortment of lace remnants and little objects.

Found objects that I use.

So for all to come together and detail.

they're painted.

the hair is applied.

I construct the outfits.

I think that the act of doing them is very ritualistic for me.

It is very calming and soothing to get involved in a detail.

it acts so much as a catharsis in a lot of ways for some of the emotions that I'm bringing up and showing and portraying in the dolls.

I decide what goes into a piece by my found objects, an assortment of collections, little musings that are inspiring to me.

I scour thrift stores, flea markets, antique shops.

A lot of people even donate little objects to me that they think that I like.

I really like to indulge in my esthetic.

So a lot of the things that you see around me are collected through antique shops and whatnot.

it's very important for me to surround myself with inspiring objects.

I'm represented by the Lindsay Gallery.

it's a wonderful gallery.

they represent folk art and outsider art.

it's my home base.

I feel very comfortable there.

I enjoy the other artists that are shown there.

Duff Lindsay is an incredible representative for my work.

I first brought it to him probably about six years ago, and he immediately saw value and, and had faith in the artwork.

So I'm very happy to be there.

I enjoy showing the artwork and identifying with other people.

I've had a lot of women that particularly identify with the work that I've even come to me in tears.

expressing.

And that's the most amazing thing to me, to be able to touch someone like that with the artwork.

that would be the reason that I do it the most.

And I enjoy it the most.

Back to Louisiana now, where local folks have joined forces with citizens of China to preserve the legacy of General Clash, an old who was instrumental in helping the Chinese defend themselves against Japanese attack during World War Two.

In today's Louisiana Treasures segment, we visit the Chanel Military Museum in Monroe to see how art and memorabilia are being used to preserve the legacy of the leader of the Flying Tigers, who called Louisiana home.

Army zoo is very unique in the fact that we don't honor the wars themselves, but we honor the people that served in the wars.

So we have all wars from World War One through our acts of freedom, and we have the story of the people and the servicemen that that served.

And so it's very meaningful to us because I tell people I'm Museum is about the past, the present and the future.

We're about the past because we honor our past and the great history of this country.

We are about the present because we do.

We work very hard with some of the issues that our military guys are coming home with today, and from Iraq and Afghanistan.

And also, we're about the future because one of the most important aspects of what we do here at the museum is to educate our children.

Our children are not being really taught history in the schools.

So we feel like without this, that they're not going to know the history, they're not going to know their heritage, and one day it's going to be up to them to fight for our freedom or we're not going to stay free.

Every exhibit we have here has a name and a face to it so that that actually, let's people get involved with the people that serve.

And we go through here all the time.

We see people with tears in their eyes.

About 95% of our exhibits are about people from northeast Louisiana.

So it really gives us a great pride and sense of heritage.

And, you know, these kids that come through here, they see these uniforms, they see these faces, and they can't help but think these men are special.

They did something special.

They contributed to my life that I have now.

We're really proud of the fact that we have over 11,000 artifacts on display, and we have some very rare artifacts that you won't find in other places.

And we have guns of the weaponry that we have that people have donated to the museum.

The men really enjoy the weapons.

We have something for everybody.

In fact, we have the clothing and everything else that caters to the women.

So we feel like everybody that comes to the museum will find something that they appreciate.

Handed out to Colorado now to meet a man who has been building custom carved wooden doors for 35 years, Danny Ibsen's doors are not only practical, they are also frequently symbolic.

The artist shares the inspiration and the world that exists behind these unique doors.

Well, I'm one of the last master wood carvers left in America.

Now, what I'm doing is 10,000 years old.

Bass relief is carving on a flat surface where sculpture is carved on a round surface.

I carve entry doors for log homes and beam and timber homes, which is my specialty.

I also carve mantles and headboards and wall hangings and balances of windows.

I carve North American mammals and wildlife scenes, and also I carve south to West Indian doors, and I show the beauty in nature.

I have this connectedness to a source that the source moves my arms and I just go with it.

I suffered a very severe traumatic brain injury.

I died in fight for life.

It took me six months to talk, to learn to talk, and eight months to laugh.

I find my inspiration waking up in the morning and being alive.

I'm carving shamans.

I'm carving my in angels.

I'm in a supernatural realm and I believe dying has given me a vision that has no limits.

This is my creative genius.

But I'm self-taught.

I don't know what it's going to look like until it's done, because my work takes hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours, and you need patience to do something as magnificent as what I do.

this is my newest carving.

It took all last summer.

Three months is a flying child.

Angel with animals of the rainforest.

Her eyes.

All the eyes are in a turquoise.

This is stained glass.

So all my furniture I built and everything is carved from my home is a wood carving museum.

My greatest compliment as a friend.

My home is a visual orgasm that works for me.

My greatest joy in the world.

Someone comes up and they touch because there's a magic.

There's a feeling of hand carved.

It's all hand carved and no machine can produce that.

Only this, this and this.

I believe every artist has a duty to be outspoken and be a rebel.

The hardest thing to carve is action.

So anytime I can incorporate action, it's spectacular.

My clients know that I'm a unique individual and they know I love what I do, so therefore they know what ever they're going to get.

This one of a kind.

The only one on the planet that I never carved.

The same carving twice.

I'll be boring you.

Attack me.

I'm not boring.

That's going to do it.

So this edition of Art rocks.

But remember, you can always watch episodes of the show at lpb.org/art rocks.

And for even more coverage of our state's unique arts and culture, Country Roads Magazine is a great source for finding out what's going on all across Louisiana.

Until next week, I'm James Fox Smith and thanks for watching.