(bright music) - [Matt] Create art with vine tendrils in the studio of Russell Serrianne.

Chat with puppet fabricator, William PK Carter.

And catch a performance from Ginger Geezus.

(upbeat music) It's all ahead on this episode of "AHA."

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] 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 music) - Hi, I'm Matt Rogowicz, and this is "AHA: A House for Arts," a place for all things creative.

Speaking of all things creative, we've seen a lot of different artistic mediums on the show throughout the years, but I don't think we've covered anyone using vine tendrils.

Until now.

Russell Serrianne is an artist based in Glens Falls, who uses vine tendrils on paper to create stunningly complex compositions.

(gentle music) - My artwork is drawing with vine tendrils.

Three-dimensional drawings.

It's like using a 9B pencil for thick line and a 2H for a thin line.

But I'm doing it with these natural pieces.

(gentle music) It really started when I saw a few vines in the tendrils in the backyard.

See this is what you'll find if you, the tendrils are always looking for something to hold onto.

You look at that.

I mean, that's a lot of determination to wrap around that.

(gentle music) And I clipped them, just maybe three or four of them, and I put them on the windowsill.

I didn't know why I was doing that, or what it all meant.

My background was in graphic design and printing, and everything was flat.

So when I saw these lines on the window sill, like I saw it as a three-dimensional line, and I started putting them together.

And then they made those shapes similar to calligraphy.

(gentle music) - [Matt] The light bulb moment.

- "A-ha."

(gentle music) The work started out being literally interpretations of asemic art, making language out of them.

It had nothing to do with knowing the language.

It was always about the shape.

I knew I wanted to expand that and make more shapes.

The characters started to open up and fall, and then that moved me on to more dense artwork.

(jaunty music) I realized that I could make different tones in the drawing by how thin I make the lines, or how thick and dense I make an area.

Each piece moves me on to the next piece, and it truly is about the process.

They start to get separated, whether they're a reddish color or a dark brown, and how thick they are.

And then I need these hair thin little pieces too.

I buff them with steel wool to get the dirt off sometimes.

And then you snip the stem, so that it'll lie flat and hold glue.

And then they're shellacked.

Otherwise the bark, the little thin bark will decompose at some point.

I don't rush on these.

I use tweezers.

I have to put glue with toothpicks and then place them where I want them on the paper.

There's thousands of pieces, but they're all connected.

(gentle music) There's a point I wanna reach with what I'm trying to say with it.

And I'm not trying to say a lot, I just want someone to be able to just take a second look.

What am I looking at?

My goal is to be satisfied with the piece and see where it takes me for the next one.

And there's no hurry to get there.

(gentle music) - William PK Carter works with commonly found textiles to create illustrative quilts and fabric puppets that coalesce into fantasy-inspired musical vignettes.

Jade Warrick sat down with William to learn more.

- [Jade] Hi, Will, welcome to A House for Arts.

- Ah, hi, hello.

- I know, I'm excited to have you, and talk about all things textile, puppetry, and all the beautiful things you're involved with, and you love to do.

So, to introduce our audience to who you are, and what you do, I wanna know a little bit about what your practice is, and how did your upbringing influence your current work?

- Yeah, totally.

So I am a quilter and a puppet artist.

And I started by studying fiber arts in college.

And so I went to Skidmore College.

They have a very good fiber department.

And so I took weaving classes, and I wove my own fabric, and I learned embroidery and I was like, "Mm, there's something missing.

I love this."

It's better than painting, but there's something missing.

And so then I was doing classes, and I realized that like in my upbringing, my grandmother was a seamstress, and my grandfather, my papu was a tailor.

And so I always had my Halloween costumes were custom-made to me.

And all of these other Greek cultural costumes that we would wear at the Greek festivals.

Like it was made by people that I love.

So I was like, "Okay, if I pull from that, and I combine what I learned in school, I can teach myself something new that's a combination of it."

So then I taught myself quilting.

And then my senior year, I made a quilted puppet.

And from there I've just been making quilted puppet after quilted puppet after quilted puppet.

- Oh, that's amazing.

So it just like really threw you down that path fast, yes.

- Yeah, yeah.

Well, there was so much media that was puppetry that now looking back, I was like, "How did I not get here sooner?"

Like "Bear in the Big Blue House," all puppets, like the "Dark Crystal," all puppets, "Sesame Street," all puppets, - "Fraggle Rock."

- "Fraggle Rock."

Every thing that I watched was basically puppetry, and like animation is digital puppetry.

So everything led me to here.

- Oh, that's so beautiful.

- Yeah.

- So I know a lot of your work has a lot of glitter and like golden thread throughout it.

So what's the significance with that?

And what's the meaning behind that?

- Yeah, well, I'll start with the golden thread.

I was raised Greek Orthodox.

And so a lot of the imagery that I was seeing growing up and around the house that I still live in, my childhood home, was this, the gold embossing and embroidery of these icons.

And these icons showed very powerful people, people who were important culturally in this very powerful way.

And it brought light to them, which I thought was beautiful.

So I used that visual language to incorporate it into my quilts and my puppets.

And then I used glitter kind of similarly, but to pull in my queerness to the work.

Because glitter, I mean pretty like surface level, is like, "Oh, you're gay, oh you like glitter or you wear glitter, rhinestones, da da da da da da da."

But also I personally believe that we as people are little rhinestones and are little pieces of glitter, where if we surround ourself with people that are genuine and kind and beautiful and radiate light, we're gonna reflect that light.

Just like glitter doesn't produce any light, but it reflects all the lights around it.

Like we are little pieces of glitter.

And so when I work with glitter, like this is completely quilted, with a glitter tool on top of the fabric.

Like this is a reflection of all the beautiful, genuine people that I have in my life that I become because I just emulate what they are, you know?

- Yeah, I do know that.

And I can see it like sparkling.

The lights are reflecting off of it right now.

It's so bright and shiny.

So this kind of goes back to how you said we grew up with a lot of puppetry, and a lot of those things you mentioned are fantasy.

And I know fantasy within the arts and within media has been a big influence to you.

So I wanna know, why do you use fantasy to tell your stories?

And how is that, I don't know, the conduit to getting your stories out?

- Yeah, well, growing up as a Black, queer person, in a conservative White area, there was not a lot of representation that I had.

And so when I would watch TV and see shows, the only people that looked like me were these caricatures of an identity that that people writing them didn't fully understand.

And so I found myself being pulled into fantasy and sci-fi, but more fantasy, because it really humanizes characters that don't look like the stereotypical cis White person.

And to me, that othering from the main characters, but still being a fleshed out individual that was able to have some tentacles coming off of their head or their hair in a funky way.

I mean they were all Black-coded and queer-coded anyway.

But having those characters to look up to, and find myself in, was really freeing.

Because it like pulled me away from the expectations that were put on me, you know?

Like when I'm comparing myself to these standards that I will never reach, that was really stifling for me.

But when I was like, "No, I can be this orange Star Wars character with head tails and like do back flips and still be iconic and kind of have my features," that was really beautiful to me.

- A lot of your work tackles homophobia and colorism.

I know you have "Ripe Fruit, Bruised Fruit," and "Domesticated Creatures."

And I think both of them tackle those subjects.

So why is it important for the audience to understand these through your work and why is it important to you?

- Well, I honestly, I can only ever talk about what I've experienced.

And I used to think that everything that I experienced was so unique to me, and that was really isolating.

And the moment that I realized that I could talk about my things that I've been through, like I have a lot of internalized homophobia, and I've experienced a lot of racism and colorism is so rampant.

Especially in my family being from the Caribbean, there is so many of these things that if I didn't talk about them, I would feel so alone in experiencing it.

And I know, well, I know now, from performing and talking about these things, that so many people experience these as well.

And the only way that we can really combat it is by talking about it and by understanding that, because we're going through it, that we're connected.

Because we've all been through similar things, we have that connection, and also, that's not who we are.

The things that we go through do not make us as a person.

It is a facet of us.

It's an aspect, but it's not who we are.

And if we don't talk about it, and we don't make work about it, and we don't make it beautiful and represent it in a way that is respectful to the person experiencing it, then we're letting it win.

And I am not a loser.

(both laughing) No way.

- You go.

So with these tough topics, 'cause you know, some people may just try to shut it off and be like, "Well, I don't want to hear it," or, "I don't think that way," or, "I don't believe you."

So how do you create comfort and understanding with such tough topics to get your audience to digest and understand and be empathetic?

- I don't think it takes much work for people to be empathetic.

I believe that everybody is going to be good, or is good, and then there are things that we're taught socially that get in the way of that.

But I think that using puppetry specifically to talk about these really vulnerable and uncomfortable topics to talk about, puppetry is a beautiful vessel for these messages because there's no wall put up between people.

Like if I were to talk about just like this to somebody that doesn't have my identities, that hasn't gone through what I've gone through, if I were to say like, "Oh, I went through this, and I went through this."

They're gonna be like, "Oh, that sucks for you."

But there may not be that connection to the material because they see who I am, and they're like, "Oh, we must not have been through similar things."

But when I use a vessel like a puppet that has its own individuality, agency, and is not tied to any racial group or social class or anything, then that allows for people to project themselves onto it without any barriers, which I think is really beautiful.

And it has led to community being made in people that would've never found community in each other otherwise, you know?

Where they needed that sort of separation, like this isn't, "I'm not watching another person talk about their shame.

I'm watching how this swan reacts to shame."

And, "Oh, I feel shame."

Like I think that this as a medium, puppetry is such a beautiful, beautiful way to convey these topics to people.

And also I think it's the closest thing that we can get to imagination.

- Yes.

- That's why I am in love with the medium, because I have a vivid imagination, and I've always had one, and drawing and painting and even quilting, that's a stagnant image.

Like I can conjure what a photograph of my imagination is in one of those pieces, but it's not gonna have the life, it's not gonna have the tactility that a puppet does.

- Yes, and probably like you get to be flow, you get to move.

Like that has to be so fun and energetic just to be out there, because you're not just on stage, just sitting still.

Like give us like a view of how it is to witness you on stage.

Is there lots of movement?

Like talking, music?

- Yeah, yes, well, I personally never thought of myself as a performer or a mover, or anything of the sort, until I started doing puppetry.

'Cause I was like, "No, my body is awkward.

Like I don't know how to move it, like da da da.

I'll just make something, put it on a wall, and then stand and look at it."

But in performing puppetry, I have gotten so into my body, which is such a valuable thing to experience.

But my piece is, this one specifically, there is, 'cause it's through the whole piece, it's this bird is swimming, the swan is swimming on water.

And it starts slowly and then it gets more rapid, and the storm starts, and the waves are getting bigger.

And all throughout, the bird is plucking feathers, 'cause it's stressed, it's stressed.

And this one is about internalized homophobia and shame.

That's stress.

But puppetry makes me engage in all parts of my body at once while the music is going.

I do record my own music, and I compose my own stuff.

But while all that is happening audibly, I have to be in control of, "Oh, my right hand is controlling the body, which is the movement of the water.

But my left hand is doing the beak and the head, which is very different."

So it's like compartmentalizing different parts of my body while I'm performing so that they all do the different job that they need to do, you know?

- Yeah, awesome.

Well, thank you, Will, for taking us down your pathway of passion.

- Yeah.

- And introducing us to the lovely beautifulness of puppetry.

I appreciate you.

- Thank you.

I appreciate you.

Thank you for having me.

- Please welcome Ginger Geezus.

(upbeat blues music) ♪ Oh, yeah ♪ (upbeat blues music) ♪ Coals is running hot, engine pumping ♪ ♪ Flying down the tracks, my hear is pumping ♪ ♪ Too many fine ladies ♪ ♪ Can't keep this pace up ♪ ♪ To reach my destination, now I gotta face up ♪ ♪ Speeding up, oh yeah, curve is coming ♪ ♪ Not sure what's around it, but I'm gunning ♪ ♪ Right for it, but the track's running ♪ ♪ Out now and that's why I'm going ♪ ♪ Off the rails ♪ ♪ We're going off the rails tonight ♪ ♪ Off the rails ♪ ♪ We're going off the rails tonight ♪ (upbeat blues music) ♪ Full head of steam to reach my destination ♪ ♪ Gotta keep flying, make it to the station ♪ ♪ Pistons are cranking, my heart is racing ♪ ♪ Going off the rails for what we are chasing ♪ ♪ Think I'm going crazy ♪ ♪ Hear the whistle blowing ♪ ♪ Outta control, don't know where I'm going ♪ ♪ Just too many miles ♪ ♪ In front and behind us ♪ ♪ I pray to the good lord ♪ ♪ Hope he's gonna find us when we go ♪ ♪ Off the rails ♪ ♪ We are going off the rails tonight ♪ (upbeat blues music) ♪ Off the rails ♪ ♪ We're going off the rails tonight ♪ (upbeat blues music) ♪ Gotta get my heart back ♪ ♪ Back on the track ♪ ♪ Gotta keep it rolling ♪ ♪ 'Cause you know where I'm going ♪ ♪ Gotta get my heart back ♪ ♪ Back on the track ♪ ♪ Gotta keep it rolling ♪ ♪ 'Cause you know where I'm going ♪ (upbeat blues music) ♪ Gotta get my heart back ♪ ♪ Back on the track ♪ ♪ Gotta keep it rolling ♪ ♪ 'Cause you know where I'm going ♪ ♪ Gotta get back ♪ ♪ Back on the track ♪ ♪ Gotta keep it rolling ♪ ♪ 'Cause you know where I'm going ♪ (upbeat blues music) ♪ Take me there Jimmy ♪ (upbeat blues music) ♪ Off the rails ♪ ♪ We're going off the rails tonight ♪ ♪ Off the rails ♪ ♪ We're going off the rails tonight ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Off them rails ♪ (upbeat blues music) ♪ Riding down the highway ♪ ♪ Cold wind at my back ♪ ♪ Gotta do it my way ♪ ♪ Won't let you tell me jack ♪ ♪ Coming to the next town ♪ ♪ The people all gawk and stare ♪ ♪ This blues rock hurricane ♪ ♪ Double G is gonna take you there ♪ ♪ Hit you like a sack of bricks ♪ ♪ We got a party tonight ♪ ♪ Blow the roof off ♪ ♪ Baby come with me ♪ ♪ Hit you like a sack of bricks ♪ ♪ We got a party tonight ♪ ♪ Blow that roof off ♪ ♪ Baby come with me ♪ (upbeat blues music) ♪ Now we go it going ♪ ♪ Ain't no way this show is down ♪ ♪ I'm seeing all this fine ladies ♪ ♪ I might just take one to town ♪ ♪ You know I show a girl a good time ♪ ♪ You can ask around about me ♪ ♪ But now I hear the road calling ♪ ♪ And I know that I gots to be free ♪ ♪ Hit you like a sack of bricks ♪ ♪ We got a party tonight ♪ ♪ Blow the roof off ♪ ♪ Baby come with me ♪ ♪ Hit you like a sack of bricks ♪ ♪ We got a party tonight ♪ ♪ Blow that roof off ♪ ♪ Baby come with me ♪ (upbeat blues music) ♪ Blow that roof off ♪ (upbeat blues music) ♪ Blow that roof off ♪ (upbeat blues music) ♪ Blow that roof off ♪ (upbeat blues music) ♪ Blow that roof off ♪ (upbeat blues music) (upbeat blues music continues) ♪ Bring it on back, boys ♪ (upbeat blues music) ♪ Riding down the highway ♪ ♪ Cold wind at my back ♪ ♪ I'm heading to the next town ♪ ♪ I told you that I couldn't stay ♪ ♪ The boys got my back now ♪ ♪ Oh you know they're rolling with me ♪ ♪ The people all gawk and stare ♪ ♪ This blues rock hurricane ♪ ♪ Hit you like a sack of bricks ♪ ♪ We got a party tonight ♪ ♪ Blowing that roof off ♪ ♪ Baby come with me ♪ ♪ Hit you like a sack of bricks ♪ ♪ We got a party tonight ♪ ♪ Blowing that roof off ♪ ♪ Baby come with me ♪ ♪ Blowing that roof off ♪ ♪ I'm blowing that roof off ♪ (gentle music) - Thanks for joining us.

For more arts, visit wmt.org/aha.

And be sure to connect with us on social.

I'm Matt Rogowicz.

Thanks for watching.

(gentle music) - [Announcer] 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 Robeson 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.