Hello, Oklahoma.

I'm Robert Reid.

This is Jonathan Thompson and we are gallery America on an art road trip.

We spent the last few days traveling around western Oklahoma, the panhandle, in search of art with Matt Painter's.

We met Eagles.

We've bid on cows.

We've climbed mounds we sang songs.

We read the words of great panhandle writers.

We even cooked the Burmese feast.

And now we're headed to the top of the Oklahoma Black Mesa, the highest point in Oklahoma.

But before we get there, let's rewind to see how we got here.

There it is.

Ah, the road trip.

That rite of passage for the American vacation.

We're headed to western Oklahoma.

It's a sprawling area and sparsely populated.

Only about one in five Oklahomans live in this area.

It's rarely seen off the interstate.

We're going to the back roads like at our first stop.

We're in Hinton baby.

We're here to see Rock Mary.

It's something that inspired one of the first artwork that depicted modern day Oklahoma.

Let's pull in here and find out more.

Hello.

This piece of artwork was done by Henry Mollhousen He was a German artist.

He was a military artist.

He drew other landmarks, formations for Congress back in Washington, D.C..

This is the Rock Mary Mound that was named by the first immigrants going west.

Name that after Mary Conway, who was on that emigrant wagon train.

That let us know that Mary got engaged to one of the men responsible for naming the rock.

But he died before they got to Santa Fe.

I like to do the spider crawl.

It became a signature rock along the way for this southern route to California.

J. T. Johnson.

1855.

That's the one of the most prominent landmarks on the wagon trail.

It could be the oldest trail in Oklahoma.

And this is its landmark right here.

This is a landmark.

Yeah.

I love it.

Next, we visited an art co-op in Clinton that has art classes, a music studio, skateboarding, and a guy who paints in a skull mask.

There's something magical about this place.

It's a small town, but it has that.

I don't know.

I guess it's the people that make it really kind of easy and fun, you know?

I am a local artist here in town and try to be try to look busy.

My style is more, I guess you could say, the pop art or the street pop art.

I mean, I'm not breaking any new ground here.

If I see something, I really like it.

I like to take it and I like to use the word steal.

I'll borrow it and then I'll try to alter it.

I purchased this mask in in a mall with my children, and I saw this one and it just caught my attention.

It's a sugar skull and I think it originated from Mexico.

I think celebrating Day of the Dead, kind of it's like gimmicky, but I don't want to be, you know, I don't want it to be that serious.

Then we all wear masks.

Icons that I do this again, man.

There's no rhyme or reason.

It's just something that I see.

And I just fall in love.

The piece that I'm working on right now is the cover of Goodfellas with Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci.

So in this, as of like right now, I'm working on the outline of Liotta.

I didn't do very well in high school, but I really wish it was all based around knowledge of movies.

Dude, I would I would have went to Harvard.

I would where I got to go to, you know, Yale.

Yeah, the West OK CO OP.

Is a bit of a phenomenon, I guess you could say.

Okay, I'm ready.

It's a cooperative of artists and seekers, we say, that are interested in like minded and wanting good things to happen in the art for this area.

Of the city.

We want to allow people to be able to.

Structure or.

Define.

What they are, to have.

This may cheesy, but maybe we can make a difference.

I know there are a lot of like friends and family that that haven't been here.

And when they think of of and it must be, you know, really boring because you guys don't even have a Walmart or k mart or I guess, you know, a big box store.

I think it's kind of sad because you can't just judge a town over that I mean, it's the people right to be here in the co-op, man means, oh, I don't know, man, I.

Freedom.

Freedom.

As far as, like, creative freedom for my I mean, I take the silly thing off.

I can barely breathe it.

Hey, Oklahoma.

Next we go south where we find the back roads lead to all sorts of discoveries that you would never see on the interstate.

In Anadarko, we peek at the post office murals made by great Kiowa painter Stephen Moe Pope during the WPA era.

Then it's the Wichitas, the source of many paintings and photos where we meet some of the Refuge's residents.

Jonathan likes this guy most, and sometimes you got to look up to see them.

Which brings us to Tiny Cyril, where there's a sort of little new nest go for eagles at a place called See It.

And.

*kep kep kep * Kept o this bird's name that we gave him is my Wo-ho-may, our Comanche word for one who changes form and shape.

He's got all these exaggerated postures.

He takes ties in with courtship behavior.

Sia, it's not an acronym.

It is our Comanche word for Feather, because our connection with our people both past, present and future, is through the feather.

As they only they might be from someone else.

sia has a unique federal permit that allows them to raise eagles and hawks and distribute their feathers for ceremonial purposes to tribes nationwide.

Hey, baby Girl, *bird call * these living creatures that are much more than a living creatures.

Here they are our spiritual connectors with the Almighty.

*Yapetsoni * was hatched here six years ago, and she was hand-reared for the purpose of totally socializing her so that we could call on her energy to share with people.

There's still ceremonies that we rely on where an eagle doctor will ask for the presence of live eagle energy and the eagle priests.

In calling on the Eagles, energy will very often call at the heart where they connect with the heart, energy, the eagle, and then transfer that to the person being doctor.

Another key feature is its shrine of rescued religious items from around the world.

We don't own these items that you see here.

We're custodians for them.

That includes a Torah saved from the Nazis and Buddhas saved from destroyed Asian temples.

You're looking at the representation of millions and millions of prayers.

And we have people from the different denominations that will come to see you, mainly because of this.

You know, this is one.

Bill kept busy during the quarantine by creating this new edition.

We can't what you're seeing here is a Comanche crooked lance that was designed specifically from drawings that my great grandfather provided.

I think the most important thing to leave sia with is the understanding and the realization that our historic lifeways are not something to think of in the past.

They are vibrant and alive today.

This road follows the Chisholm Trail, where in the years after the Civil War, millions of longhorns ultimately bound for Eastern steakhouses, took their long march north.

It's a bit of history that are tributed by these WPA era murals in Enid.

But we're in town to meet someone else, an artist who's also inspired by history.

My name is J. Nicole Nahmi-A-Piah Hatfield Curtis.

And I am a Comanche Kiowa artist.

And this is what I do.

If I come in here every day, I come in here and I paint and I do my little routine, get my coffee and turn my music on.

And I don't just have flute music on here playing, you know, because that's what people think.

And I like to use a lot of yellow because it makes me happy.

And that's what it's about.

You know, creating art is about, as, you know, feeling good.

You know, when I first started, I wanted to inspire the youth because we were going through a an issue with with suicide, you know, within our communities.

And I wanted to inspire the youth to find something to help them.

And, you know, it's very healing and therapeutic.

And I like to say art is medicine.

This woman, I don't know much about her, the title, it just says Comanche Woman.

Originally, when I started doing all these portraits, I my main focus was to recreate these historical photos of these, particularly the women, because in a lot of these captions, they don't say their names.

The photo actually has another girl in there, which I believe is her sister.

And so it's to me, it looks like she's her protector and she's strong.

I think she's probably thinking, who is this person taking my picture.

Writing west, having surprises.

Come quick.

There's a trio of places that appear to emerge from the plains as if from some surreal canvas.

The Mirage, like Great Salt Plains, is a remnant of an ancient sea filled with selenite crystals.

The suddenly towering gloss mountains resemble a weird world of red fudge gloss.

Now, then there's what you find below the surface.

The reason why Alabaster Caverns is so unique is because it's the largest gypsum show cave open to the public in the world.

The caves, permanent residents, some 23,000 bats are well aware of its charms, and these natural features have long inspired local artists.

We're almost to Woodward, Oklahoma, and we're going there because there's a lot of art energy going on and a lot of it centers around the artist.

We're going to meet Larry K Hill.

I'm the window artist.

Come and join in.

Oh, I've got a bunch easels.

Get right up there next to me.

Lots of paint, extra canvases, no problem.

Part of my process is to live with the painting a little bit.

I want people to watch me and understand what I'm doing now.

And this particular painting right here, it's all about this right here.

That swirl.

Of course, I've seen tornadoes before, and this is the overtop representation of one.

This is ceiling tin.

And I was fortunate to get several of these panels here about six or seven years ago.

I came to the point in my life to where you so-call retire, but I didn't want to just sit on my butt.

That's not me.

I wanted Woodward to become a place known for arts.

We're not a Roy Rogers movie and never were just working in a little bit.

I'm an artist of oils and watercolors.

I work with Selenite Crystal, which is a natural, naturally occurring stone here in northwestern Oklahoma.

I paint on it, but this is a space that an artist can come in and show their work.

It's a place to come and ask about arts.

Like I say, I don't have all the answers, but I'm bet I can find somebody who does.

This is difficult.

And please bear with me.

Oh, excuse me.

My daughter died unexpected life.

She was 27 when she died.

She had two young children, but she was extremely bright.

She was very pretty.

I loved her.

I still do.

I was undone.

I had to remake myself.

So I. I wrote her letters.

It's very hard to look at, but it's something that I know what I have to go to.

It's simply a dad talking to his daughter.

And dear Sarah, it's soon to be Halloween and the kids are getting excited.

Reminds me of all the times your mother not dressed you up and took you to endless houses for candy.

I remember the lion costume the best.

You were three.

We drew whiskers and a nose on your face.

Love, Dad.

Dear Sarah, I'm now driving the old truck that was your grandfather's.

Thanks to your Uncle Doug.

Without him, it wouldn't be running.

It's the truck I learned to drive in the love to give you a ride.

Dear Sarah, I was thinking of the day of your birth.

The nurses took your mother to prepare her for what we thought would be a long wait.

I was 29 and it never held the baby.

I was scared.

Luckily, we both survived the day of death.

And I'm sorry.

That's enough of that.

That process can be very healing.

And you do one and you do another and you do another.

And you share it with everybody.

I know that my daughter's children will look at this at some point and it should help them.

I sincerely hope that it does.

And this is my court of colors.

It's the alleyway um But we've decided to take this and start doing murals.

I really dig, Larry.

His brain works like mine.

That's why the name Court of Colors.

But this is going to be a space for artists to have their art walks.

Most of my.

People think I'm just.

Chaotic and all over the place, which I am.

Amanda mead, a local artist, highly talented, one to boot more than what she knows.

I enjoy being around him.

I enjoyed talking to him.

She's better than me.

But she shimmies up that ladder.

And right now she's working on murals.

So I wanted this side to just be kind of raw and kind of messy and and then just be colorful.

Because that's what it's supposed to be.

In the arts right now are pretty much Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

Woodward is known for oil cattle wheat Why not just be arts?

I'm willy, folks around here.

Just call me windmill willy.

Let me tell you something.

I bet you didn't know it was Colonel Colt's revolver, barbed wire and the windmill to help settle the westI think you should put the windmill right on the top of that list.

That's the recording of Windmill Willy here at Shattuck's Windmill Museum, which is an open air collection of century old windmills from around the country.

You ever seen this many windmills?

No.

I see where we're headed today.

Yeah, let's check it out.

The Panhandle.

Let's see here.

Beaver.

Here it is, the Oklahoma Panhandle.

Truth be told, most of it's pretty flat and sparse.

It even used to be called No Man's Land and literally sat unclaimed for a spell.

But locals are a hardy, friendly bunch and we learn.

Many of them call the rest of us Oklahomans down staters.

Well, these down staters are starting our visit with cows.

*Auction Chanting and cow noises * *Jordon is that Ok?

Cause you're the boss for 90 years folks have come here from across the region to buy cows.

But Dane Drake kind of makes me want to sell them.

Well, a lot of people went to school and stuff to learn there.

There's good schools you can go to.

I taught myself how to do it and just a lot of miles on a tractor and in a pickup.

Just teach myself.

Over and over.

Can you give me some advice and I want to start doing this.

Well.

If just your numbers slow, just go $1.

Anybody going to be a $2?

Is that what you're saying?

Well, going a bit, yeah.

You can use that for a filler word.

That's how I started to fill a word that I that I started with is a simple $1.

Anybody got a bid to $1?

Anybody got to.

You know, anybody going to bid three.

Auction skills enhanced.

Next up is Beavers Jones and Plumber Museum.

And right off, we bump into a local legend.

I've written several books about the history.

I love history.

This is Pauline Hodges, an author and educator whose first memories are living here during the Dust Bowl.

Give me a hand.

Oh, yeah.

The dentist office was actually the man who was the dentist grew up west of the little town of forgen And this is his actual equipment.

His name was Jim Butcher.

The museum is packed to the gills with remembrances of the past.

There's also tons of local art, even dishware made from uranium.

And then there's this.

The cow chips were very important for the survival of this land because we had no trees.

So people lived in dugouts and they burned couches for for heat.

They burned couches for food.

And it was very, very important for the settlement of this country.

In 1970 Kathal's dad helped start beavers April cow chip throwing contest and now we're going to sing its anthem.

Yes.

Ready?

When it's chips throwin time here in Beaver, crowds of.

People flocking to our town.

They can see all those chips in the wagon and our met with a smile, not a frown.

nice!

Survival is a big word in the panhandle and always has been.

In 1541, two of Coronado's Spanish conquistadors supposedly disappeared into a mysterious green light here at the Beaver Dunes.

Thankfully, we survived, but the big event was the Dust Bowl and the Panhandle was its epicenter.

Driving around today, you'll still see many abandoned homesteads from that period.

We're looking for Caroline Henderson's house during the Dust Bowl.

All of America was reading what she wrote about life during the Dust Bowl and Atlantic Monthly in his letters that's been compiled in this book.

And currently her house is around here somewhere.

Here I am a way out in that narrow strip of Oklahoma between Kansas and the panhandle of Texas, holding down one of the prettiest claims in the Beaver County Strip.

I wish you could see this wide free western country with its great stretches of almost leveled prairie, covered with a thick, short buffalo grass, the marvelous period of sunrises and sunsets.

We venture deeper into the panhandle, making quick stops to see a failed lake at optima, a pet skunk from the 1930s at No Man's Land Museum in Good Well and Champion Rodeo Grounds at Panhandle State University.

And we sit.

a spell in a 1948 home built by the renowned Oklahoma architect Bruce Goff.

This is the only one.

That's pretty much fully I mean, it.

Is left just like it was.

Dixie.

The dog sure seems to like it.

Our final stop is Kenton population five.

There are no grocery stores, restaurants or gas stations out there, so we have to stop for food.

At a Burmese grocery store in Oklahoma's most diverse town, Guymon, Mingalaba- Mingalaba (Burmese Greeting).

Are you open like that one?

Yes.

What is this?

That one saba fish saba fish sue Gave us all the ingredients we would need to make a real Burmese feast.

We need all the energy we can get because we rise early for an eight and a half mile hike, climbing 730 feet to Oklahoma's highest point in Black Mesa.

This is the perfect exclamation for a trip around a region, sometimes called an outback.

It's only here that you find the literal top of Oklahoma.

Why does one take an art road trip?

Well, for us, it was the art It was the people, the inspiration, the surprise, the lessons and knowing will leave western Oklahoma with a far greater impression of what it really is.