Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: Frederick Hammersley Fund, New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME-TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation... ...New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts... and Viewers Like You.

THIS TIME, ON COLORES!

AS THEY EMBARK ON THEIR CREATIVE JOURNEYS, ARTISTS IN THE ALBUQUERQUE PUBLIC SCHOOL'S METRO ART EXHIBIT SHARE THE CHALLENGES, JOYS, AND LESSONS THEY'VE LEARNED ALONG THE WAY.

ONCE A BODYBUILDER CHAMP, JAMES COPLIN TRANSFORMED HIMSELF INTO AN ACCOMPLISHED ARTIST AND DEDICATED TEACHER.

SELF-EXPRESSION AND DISCOVERY ARE AT THE HEART OF ACRO ENSO, A MOVEMENT ARTS STUDIO WHERE PEOPLE EXPLORE THE ART OF MOVEMENT THROUGH ACROBATICS.

IT'S ALL AHEAD ON COLORES!

CREATIVE LEARNING >>Moth Vigil: Thank You.

>>Aaron Sena: APS scene one, Connor, take one.

>>Robert McDermott: Here we go everybody.

>>Connor Swayden: I think the, the piece that I'm most proud of right now is one, it was a, a comic I made.

I really wanted to portray like this really intense mental battle without actually showing what was going on inside their head.

And I also had a lot of fun with some visual effects where I used some clay to make something really creepy.

And it was a really nice contrast and I was really proud of the concept that went into it and how I executed it.

>>Alice Thayer: Probably my piece called Boa.

Uh, it used the most techniques that I've ever done in one piece before.

I found a feather in my driveway and I was like, I've never used the rolling mill before.

I should try it.

And there were a lot of ups and downs in making the piece, but I'm really excited about how it turned out.

>>Moth Vigil: My favorite one out of all of them is actually the one that had meat in the background.

And then two deer, one being alive on the left, and one being dead on the right.

It's not completely realistic, but it kind of almost feels like a process of like life to death.

>>Alyssa Maldonado: The sacred heart, heart of Heaven I made for my mom and I did that my first year of ceramics and it exploded three times <laugh> before I got it right.

So <laugh>, so that was really hard.

Um, it was really heartbreaking, but the last time that I had made it, it came out the best definitely.

And um, I'm just really proud of it cause I made it for my mom.

>>Connor Swayden: The hardest part about creating is starting.

I think you have a mental image of what you want, but it is so difficult to just start because there's, it's just endless possibilities and you don't know what's gonna happen.

>>Alice Thayer: Or when you get in a rut, like you find something that like didn't work out and losing motivation to like fix it or to find something new is probably the hardest part for me.

>>Moth Vigil: It's coming up with ideas that I'm actually passionate about.

Cuz once I actually get an idea, I can just like go and like finish something.

But if I'm not passionate about something, then I can then it can take like forever.

>>Alyssa Maldonado: Definitely the hardest part is making sure you're doing it right.

And waiting.

<laugh>, I hate waiting.

Yeah.

<laugh>.

>>Connor Swayden: I think a lesson that I've learned being an artist has been to not overthink.

>>Alice Thayer: You can never rush.

Especially something that you're passionate about creating, >>Moth Vigil: Kind of to just do whatever you want as long as it's not hurting anyone.

>>Alyssa Maldonado: A lesson that I've learned throughout the year of being an artist is definitely patience.

>>Connor Swayden: I plan to go to UNM to study film and digital arts, uh, specifically digital arts.

Um, but I plan to explore what UNM has to offer.

So art is going to be in my life no matter what form or uh, road I take.

>>Alice Thayer: Yes, for sure.

Um, I would love to be a jeweler someday who sells work and I wanna learn how to paint and do other mediums, but yeah, it's gonna be my future.

Definitely <laugh>.

>>Moth Vigil: I'm not sure I'll ever have like a job with it necessarily because I feel like that might kind of suck the joy out of it for me.

But yeah, I don't think I could ever not have it in my life just because it's like such a big part of me.

It's like my only hobby and like the only way I like express myself really.

>>Alyssa Maldonado: Definitely.

I love art so much, especially ceramics.

I definitely think that I'm gonna continue with ceramics.

I'm thinking of being an anaplastogolist, which is facial prosthetics for people.

So I wanna help people but do art at the same time.

I still am keeping my options open, but I'll definitely wanna like sell my stuff and hopefully donate to charity and everything.

>>Moth Vigil: I'd say it's like the best form of expression and it's like an amazing way to find community.

Like I could literally just meet someone else who draws and we can like form a connection just based off of that.

>>Alyssa Maldonado: Art to me is a way to connect to yourself and to be able to express how you really feel or how you really are.

>>Alice Thayer: Art means freedom, expression, and community to me.

>>Connor Swayden: Uh, I think art is a little morbid, but I think it, it keeps me going.

I think art is something that I know I love and it's something kind of steadfast in like a really turbulent world.

So I think art is just something that I can rely on and something to be like, I'm kind of done with the world.

I'm just gonna do art.

LIFTING WEIGHTS AND LEARNING TO PAINT First day of class, they come in.

I've got paper on the table, we're ready to rock and roll from the very first minute that they come in and the bell rings and then we'll start drawing.

"Right in the middle of the page, that line, I'm going to put a box.

OK. Now this box, that corner of that box, is right here."

And then as we're drawing, I'll start telling them about the class, try to answer some questions "I'm not going to grade you guys hard.

This is an intro class."

This isn't going to be something to where you need to feel any kind of anxiety about in my class.

You know, if you turn in all your work, you're going to be great.

You're going to do fine.

"We're going to learn some stuff, we're going to have some fun in here.

I'm going to go straight out, straight out again..." If it's fun for me, it's probably going to be fun for them too.

So that's the main thing.

"Are they still saying that in grade school?

I don't know (laughs)."

I'm James Coplin and I've been teaching here at Santa Fe High School.

I've been teaching art here for the past, uh, 28 years.

And I love this school.

This is a great school.

It's my home and the people here, I'm very close to.

I'm a realist, uh, for sure.

I can delve into doing more of an impressionistic-type piece here and there, but most of the time it's just realism.

Every day during the summer: black shirt, blue jeans.

I don't want to have to think about what I'm gonna wear the next day or that day.

I just want to get up and do what I'm going to do anyway.

I always try to find the right shot.

Looking off to the side.

I try to look back in the woods too sometimes.

You might see something and pull over.

Something you didn't expect to see.

A lot of places everywhere... My process for finding a place that I want to paint is usually fairly spontaneous.

So as I'm out driving around anywhere, I'm constantly looking over the bridge.

Does that look like a good spot?

So in the morning or the evening are the best times, all the colors are a lot more vibrant.

I am seeing a painting happening in front of me.

You got this breakup of space here, where this river is going to go... And you want that to leave a little bit of mystery around that bend.

I can add water, I can take it away... put in an extra tree, take it out...

I love looking at rivers anyway, and I paint a lot of rivers or pathways - paint a lot of pathways, a lot of rivers.

They lead you into the picture anyway.

And then I'm always looking at those things and going, I wonder where that leads Yeah, I work up here a lot, uh, during the summer.

This is sort of the second home for me and it's, it's a nice setting to where I don't have too many distractions at home.

I'm pretty methodical once I've decided what it is I'm going to paint.

I chose this particular scene here.

I like the breakup of space in it, the lighting was good, got a great reflection of clouds above.

I work on a tinted canvas, um, and that's so that when you put your paint down, it's a neutral color.

And so if I put down a light color on a tinted canvas, it looks light already.

So here's where I'm breaking up the space and that's going to go there.

So the process right now is I'm just getting this sketched out, getting everything laid out where I want it, darkening up some areas, breaking up this space more, and just getting a more finished product before I start doing my underpainting.

Just to make sure I've got everything down exactly where I want it before I jump in with any paint.

It goes all the way back to kindergarten.

I was, um, there and a kid came in for show- and-tell and he had, uh, a painting that his grandmother had done.

And he said, "well, she did this painting.

And she looked at this photograph that she had, and then she painted it from that."

I thought for some reason that just clicked for me.

And I said, well, I think I can do that.

I did art on my own.

I mean, I didn't have any art training at all until, uh, I think my junior year they offered a course in art.

This is one of the pieces I did when I was 12.

And you're using your imagination as a kid and it, it, it's not from anything except my imagination.

This is the underpainting.

And it's just establishing my lights and darks values more so that when I start in on my color, there's less guesswork for me.

Um, it just makes the whole process a lot easier for me to do once I've got something down.

I was a commercial art major back then, they call it graphic design now.

And in college, uh, I would finish up early and if somebody else needed help in class, I was always there to be helpful or whatever.

And, and I remember a college instructor of mine, I remember he came over to me one day and he said, "you're always helping somebody in here.

Have you thought about teaching?"

And I thought, no, I hadn't.

But I changed my major that day.

I just think I needed somebody to say it to me.

"I hardly ever make sense, but occasionally..." I get called coach a lot.

Um, kids just don't expect it.

I lift weights about three times a week right now.

Uh, but nothing too intense.

Nothing like I did, just trying to stay in shape, I'm not sure what they've got in their head.

When I first met him, I was not expecting him.

I guess I was expecting a woman and, you know, you know, just there's the classic look of an artist that you would think of.

And I think his class kind of taught me that an artist can be anything, anyone.

It's a little photo album of me back in my bodybuilding days.

And, um, you keep these pictures because I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it.

I think I got into bodybuilding when I was a kid because I was buying comic books.

And, um, and then you see those advertisements in the comic books back then, uh, about bodybuilding.

Oh, that's a good way to look like a comic- book character.

I competed from 1987 until 1991.

The discipline in this is similar to art, in that you're building, you know, it's like you're shaping with flesh instead of shaping with a pencil.

It was never an ego thing for me, it was always an art form.

The big, giant mural, uh, that I did for the school.

I think it's 115 feet long by, I don't know what it is, 10 foot tall.

And so I had the idea of going down to what we call the Wolf Run here.

I went down through there that, that stream through there and took pictures and took pictures of the Wolf Run, and then incorporated that into the entire mural.

That's our mascot, we're the Santa Fe Wolves.

Once a Wolf, always a Wolf!

That's what they say.

I believe it.

So art does not come naturally to me.

And I went as far as to petition the principal to let me get out of the state required art, And they were like, "that's ridiculous.

You have to take art."

She got shoved in an art class.

Didn't think it was going to be her deal.

And now she's a painter.

So I took just your basic painting class with Coplin.

And it was one of the biggest lasting impressions I've had as a young adult.

When we got to do oil painting, just something about the way that the paint could be moved and manipulated and squished.

My fascination with detail started there.

And I've been painting ever since.

It is definitely a feather in my cap to see somebody go on and do some fantastic work, you know?

"This area here... create a little emphasis."

The underpainting can really add to the flavor of your color too, because this is sort of a reddish brown.

And so it'll add a warmth to anything that I put on top of it.

And it'll show through a little bit, and then sometimes I'll let it show through.

I won't completely cover all of the underpainting.

So I've got little flecks of this reddish brown throughout the painting, which adds a harmony and a continuity to the entire painting, kind of ties it all together.

People always ask me, "what's your favorite painting?"

and my favorite painting is always, always the painting that I'm working on.

You gotta be in love with that one while you're doing it.

And so it's the process that I enjoy, whether the painting works out or not.

It's the process that I love so much.

It's addictive.

You can't stop doing it.

MOVING INTO ENLIGHTMENT >>Cyrus: We like to think about creative discovery and in ways that we can allow people to explore movement, explore themselves and create, and also have fun.

Acro Enso is perhaps the only place in Reno and one of the few places in the United States where we have a very particular focus and program based around Cyr wheel and partner acrobatics and where we incorporate a variety of other circus arts.

- The name Acro Enso came to us after a long journey of asking many friends and family about what we should call this place.

>>Cyrus: We Knew that we really wanted to focus on partner acrobatics and Cyr wheel and so we wanted acrobatics to be a part of the name.

We also wanted something referencing a Cyr wheel so in this case, a circle.

- Enso is actually Japanese for a calligraphy practice that they do, it's circle.

And when they draw the circle, it's always incomplete and it's supposed to symbolize that whoever draws the circle, they are perfect and imperfect in that moment and it's wonderful as is.

They're completely present and this moment's never gonna last forever, it's gonna always be changing.

And that's kind of how I feel about acrobatics when I'm flying in the air or when I'm holding somebody up, it's present, it's in the moment, there's nothing else in the world that matters.

It's perfect, it's imperfect, and it's me.

To us, Acro means meaningful play, and Enso means authentic movement in whatever form that is.

So all put together, Acro Enso is meaningful play through authentic movement.

Cyr wheel is a giant metal wheel covered in PVC and what you do with it is you get inside of it, you spin around in it, you play with it.

>>Cyrus: A lot of what we do in the Cyr wheel is learning how to stand and how to root ourselves into our feet.

And so there are actually a lot of similarities between learning Cyr wheel and learning ballet.

In Cyr wheel it's all about rotation and understanding where your center is and being able to create a really nice spinning axis with our body.

And so a lot of what we do in the Cyr wheel is we initiate rotation and then we stand into it and from there, it's this really cool process of, I like to talk about kind of developing a spider sense.

You can't really use your eyes because you're spinning.

You really have to develop this intuitive sense of where your center of gravity is, where it's going, and how to interact with that and it's a really fun process.

- Word Acro is where you have partnerships, either groups of two, groups of three or more, and you come together and you lift each other up, you balance each other, you throw each other in the air, flip around and catch each other.

And it's a whole competitive sport on its own.

We do compete with our sports team but we also have an adults team where we focus on performance for the kids as well.

We like to have that performance opportunity so that we can have them go to places like GSR and perform in CMS and do fun acrobatics.

Our acrobatics teams will train for about two hours per training.

And in that two hours, they go through a variety of conditioning drills, handstand drills, partner skills.

And at the end of practice, we focus primarily on choreography and linking all of those skills together.

Our son's name is Huckleberry and our daughter's name is Coco.

Family is everything to us.

We wanted to create a place that our children could come to and be able to grow inside of and someday even take over if that's something that they're interested in.

So our kids are here all the time, they are taken care of by the village of this community.

- When Huckleberry is wandering around, he's got all sorts of people interacting with him, playing with him, teaching him, and same thing with Coco.

And just watching how they've blossomed and how they've up in it, obviously as parents and we don't wanna project onto them, but we do wanna provide opportunities and so being, having the ability to provide those opportunities and to watch them take them up enthusiastically has just been amazing.

>>Kiesha: When we started this place and we had only one or two people coming in and our acro team only had five kids on it, it felt like a lot.

It felt like we had a long journey ahead of us.

- Especially with what we've had to go through.

We were just about to celebrate our first year anniversary when COVID happened.

The number of times that we thought we would have to to close this place were you know, more than we can count.

And so right now still being able to keep the doors open.

>>Keisha: Now, when I come into this space and I can see the floor filled with people and our team with 18 kids, everybody playing with each other and having fun with each other, it is an overwhelming feeling that just puts a big smile on my face.

- A really big feeling of wonder almost that it could happen.

- It creates a kind of life that I don't think I would wanna live without.

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"UNTIL NEXT WEEK, THANK YOU FOR WATCHING."

Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: Frederick Hammersley Fund, New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME-TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation... ...New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts... and Viewers Like You.