- Welcome to our place, our Time.

We'll visit s Jo Manor and meet two of the interior designers whose work is on display at the Decorator Show House.

We'll meet a young artist working in stone and we'll have blues from the Detroit Jewels, the host of our place.

Our time is Vianne Webb.

- Thank you for joining us.

I'm Vianne Webb.

We are going to visit a house on this program.

Unlike any house we suspect that you've ever visited before for the house, which is called Sage o Manor Estate, has been taken over by the Virginia Opera and turned into a show house displaying the designs and wearers of leading decorators and landscapers in Hampton Roads.

21 different decorators in a lovely Georgian style house of 22 rooms.

The Decorator Show House is a fundraising project for Virginia Opera and it gives us the opportunity to find out what's going on in Hampton Roads in the business and Art of Interior design.

In a few minutes, I'll talk with two of our area's leading interior designers and we'll begin by visiting the Sage Jo Manor Estate.

Your guide is Tim Morton - Vianne.

It's called Sjo for the man who built it.

The late Sam Jones, owner of Berkeley Machine Works and Foundry on the Elizabeth River from Swan Quarter North Carolina.

Sam Jones made a fortune manufacturing unique parts for railroad locomotives later on for anti-aircraft guns for ships and military vehicles.

Sam Jones also had something of an edifice complex besides this building alongside Lake Larson.

There are other large houses he built.

I it's extraordinary.

This house, it's not old built in 1948, but the bricks are old.

They're called paver bricks.

Sam Jones salvaged them from the main street of Princeton, West Virginia and brought them here.

The story is he never had a blueprint of the house.

He carried his ideas for it around in his head, and the house grew and grew.

Sam Jones also had a touch of the artist that's best seen inside.

He was an artist in woodwork, such as in this mule Post.

Jones didn't carve or make the woodwork, but he supervised the work and was known to break up pieces he didn't like.

There is woodwork like this in Honduras, mahogany and Cyprus all over Sage o Manor, even in a basement shop.

- Alright, Ron, did you and your staff get the upstairs and particular - Virginia opera's Decorator Show House at Sjo is being run by two full-time volunteers.

Mary Lyle, Ramsey and Margaret or Marty Moore - Tell when people come out to the house, they come in and they pay a donation of $8 at the door for their ticket and they come in.

There's a hostess in each and every room, and that hostess will have an inventory of everything in the room and will have a price for the things that are for sale.

And most of the things used will be for sale, - Tim.

We would like to have as many people through this house as we possibly can, but in our own minds, we would love to have anywhere from 20 to 25,000 people to come through.

And I really do think because of the success of what we've had already, that we probably will meet that goal.

- S Joe is a decorator's dream house and the 21 decorators showing their wares and designs have let their imaginations romp via.

After your tour of the house at S Joe Farms, Virginia Opera has a waiting for you, a restaurant with food and wine.

Cheers.

Faan.

- The Decorator show House at Sage Jo Mannerist State in Virginia Beach will continue to be open to the public through Sunday, may the eighth.

All proceeds from the show house will benefit the Virginia Opera and two of the interior designers displaying their wares and artistic designs at the show house are with me now.

Al Sealy of Sealys Interiors in Norfolk and Charles Powell of Design Alternatives of Virginia Beach.

Thank you for being here.

There's so much to talk to you about.

You were wondering what we were going to talk about.

Certainly both of you are leading decorators in this area as the others that have done Sage Joanna estate, which we've seen in the film and many of us will be going out to see.

But how do you reconcile the, what you see in your mind's eye with what you know you must play to your clients?

How do you get us together and create the comfort zone so that we, you understand me and I trust you?

- Well, that's all part of the the job, that's all part of knowing what you're doing.

You talk to the client a lot and you listen to everything that they're saying and you, what I try to do is in a nice way, manipulate 'em around to my way of thinking without letting them know that I've done it.

Because you have to, you can't just walk in and say, you've just gotta get rid of all of this.

You know, you've got to, you've got to let them feel comfortable with you and that you're not intimidating them on their lack of knowledge or, you know, whatever the case may be as far as that goes.

- So, so often when you first meet someone, it, if your thought process is similar to theirs and you can perceive their human need and in chatting with them, you understand by reading between the lines what they want.

And then you can take what, what they need out of the room and what their sense of is their, their sense of the room is.

And you can take your sense of brilliance and mix them together and come up with something that meets their need, but also shines according to your sense of what is proper.

Then you've got something real exciting.

- Well, I think what's always exciting for me is when I make the design presentation to the client and they, the first thing they say is, I love it.

It's not what I expected.

- Thank you.

That's exactly, - You know, there you go.

That's then you've done your job.

There you go.

You know, and they're excited and you're excited.

- Folks frequently don't know what they want.

They know what they don't want and they know what they like when they see it, but they can't tell you what they want.

And when you've listened well enough and your sense of the dream matches theirs, and when you come in there and make that presentation, you see their eyes light up and you've given 'em what they wanted in, in a way that works for them, but in a way they would never have thought of.

Then you've got magic.

- When do people use decorators?

There's several levels.

Aren't there someone who would have you do a new home from scratch, someone who wants those final touches and pulling it all together, - Or those that have been are in trouble?

Oh, that's it.

They've tried and they realize that, oh, wait a minute, I can't do this.

You know, and I get a lot of those and I think a lot of designers do, you know, everybody wants to make their own statement in their home and hopefully being a good designer, I help them do that.

I don't want you to walk into the house and say, Al Sealey did this house.

I want it to be a reflection of them.

But, but very seldom do.

Well, it's a little different nowadays than it was maybe 10 years ago.

People are, you know, respect your professional ability and will call you up and say, I don't want to waste money.

I want to get it right the first time I've seen you work, I want you to do it.

But that doesn't happen all the time.

- It, it is never my intent to force my will on somebody else.

It, it's never my intent to force my dream on someone else.

However, if, if we are communicating well the client and I then, and they've elected to work with us, then obviously there's a common ground there and they're excited about the ideas and the concepts that I, that I wanna share with them.

And once that rapport is there, then the excitement and there's, there's, there's no longer a forcing of will.

There's no longer much of a compromise.

- But it's a real trusting situation, isn't it?

Al was saying that he didn't want someone to walk in and say, well, Al Sealey did this room, yet you are artist enough that you're going to leave the stamp.

I think as, as clients or observers of other people's homes, what we don't want to see is that anybody did the room, but it's perfect.

- Well, you're right, it is a, even - Though you're alert enough to know that somebody artistic, pull this together, - But as we were talking about before we were on camera, you know about people that had to be with you to pick out everything.

If they don't trust you, you can forget it.

You know, the, the job won't, it'll be a fiasco.

You, you both will end up despising each other and you know, it'll come outta miserable situation.

- And as a designer, you've got to have the confidence to say, this was our plan.

We can't change it until we really see it completed.

You've got to have the confidence to let them carry it through to execution.

Because until it's completed, you won't really know if it's what you want or not.

- You must tell us quickly, Al you did the but Butler's pantry at St. Joanna, which we saw, and Charles, - We did the drawing room off the living room.

- And in, in a situation like that, of course you're on your own given the restrictions of a house.

- True, true.

Which we both had major restrictions, which everybody that was out there that did, but it's turned out a beautiful house and the people that we've worked with out there have been wonderful and it's been a very exciting thing and I think it's gonna be good to promote design.

I'm real excited.

- Oh, I'm too.

I am too.

- I want to thank you for being on the show with us today.

We wanted very much to introduce two of the leading designers to our audience because you are, as someone pointed out before we went on camera two of the loveliest people, but two, we could never invite into our homes.

So we are pleased to have you here.

Thank you.

Bye.

Still to come on our place, our time.

We'll meet a promising young sculptor and hear blues music from the Detroit Jewels right now, as we do every week at this time.

We'll keep you up to date on some important events taking place the next few days in Hampton Roads.

Here are our choices.

Sculptor Matthew Fine is a young sculptor from Virginia Beach who works in untraditional ways with Stone Fine, has won a top award from the Tidewater Artist Association and captured the admiration of veteran sculptors in Hampton Roads.

Kim Simon wanted to learn more about this young artist who appears to be going places.

- Matthew Fine grew up on the water.

He's a native of Virginia Beach, so it is no wonder he draws his inspirations from the sea.

Though a jagged mountain range would seem a likelier setting for Matthew at age 24 is a sculptor.

His chosen art form stone.

- When, when talking about how I carve the words violence and attack, I, I really do just confront the stone and take my physical strengths and, and go at the stone - By his words.

One might think Matthew would be an angry young man, but this placid soft spoken stone carver is quite the contrary.

While his medium dictates an explosive approach, it is his artistic sensibility that enables him to unearth his fluid and most personal forms.

Although many contemporary sculptors have moved away from stone for Matthew, it is a custom designed calling.

- A lot of people nowadays are using lasers and they're using mass produced items such as Barbie dolls and all sorts of funny things to sculpt with.

And basically we're working with the same ideas.

We're working with space, we're working with how to deal with, with the issues of space.

The reason I use Stone has a lot to do with the fact that it is such a primal thing and that, and that it's, it's an one of the most elegant and old art forms.

People have been carving stone since, since the beginning of time.

The first, the first art forms were carved stones.

- While his art form may be rooted in the past, the abstract form of his art is recognizably modern, using yesterday's tools and techniques as well as high tech air hammers, electric chisels, and diamond discs.

Matthew releases abstract forms from beneath crusty exteriors.

- The direct method, which is the method.

What I use, which I use, is to take the stone and carve directly into it.

Have your form come straight from what you find.

Inherently what I find inherently pretty in the stone, I very often use and leave rough aspects of the stone, rough parts.

I, I do feel sometimes that there's pressure to use a highly polished stone simply because it's, it's, it's prettier, but being true to my material.

When, when I talk about the primal sense of the stone, I feel if I feel, if you don't leave certain, you know, tool marks and, and rough stone that you're just, you're just making something that's pretty.

And I think that it's not, it doesn't work as well with the stone.

- Matthew lives at home with his parents, which affords him the freedom to concentrate on his work.

A rare luxury for an artist.

- The support of my family is, is, is very important to what I'm doing right now.

Every day I'm able to come here and I'm able to work and the processes that I go through on a day-to-day basis are so important.

I'm able to come in here and, and make something.

And it's, and it's not for sale, it's not a sellable piece, it's just, it's a process I needed to go through.

- When he is not in his Virginia Beach studio, he's teaching at the Governor's Magnet School at Old Dominion University, the class one in sculpture, of course, subtractive stone carving where it's back to the basics.

No power tools, please.

- I think it's real important when you're, when you're first starting out to learn the hand tools.

When I, when I was learning, I used hand tools and though there were, there were some things available, you really don't understand the stone and you don't get the rapport going with the stone if you just attack it with a big chisel or something like that.

- Learning fundamentals first certainly worked for Matthew.

It has only been three years since he was introduced to the Art of Sculpting in an elective class at the University of Richmond.

Serious about his work, Matthew has sought tutelage both at home and abroad in Italy, where master sculptor ISR GCI in particular greatly influenced his work.

According to Julia Bell, owner of Palm Maie Gallery in Virginia Beach where Matthew's works are now exhibited and sold.

His progress has been outstanding.

- I saw him at the Boardwalk Art Show and he did small pieces and I was so impressed by just the small sculptures that he did out of marble and granite that I thought, I'm gonna keep an eye on his work and see what he does.

And just within a year and a half, he has just grown and grown and his work has become so involved - Setting his own sights.

Matthew continues to study and to evolve as a full focused artist, - We are pleased to be able to present on our place, our time, many of the area's finest musical performers and groups.

And so we welcome now to our program The Detroit Jewels, these young players, mixed jazz and the blues - Romance we do.

I Magic romance, my, my feather on the body.

I do.

- This is Historic Garden Week in Virginia.

Since 1929, the Garden Club of Virginia has organized opening of Virginia's beautiful homes and gardens to raise money to preserve and restore grounds of the state's historic landmarks.

One of those landmarks is Bacon's Castle, located in Surrey, Virginia.

The Garden Club funded the excavation of a 17th century garden on the grounds of Bacon's Castle.

Hopefully a full restoration is to come.

Liz Macintosh takes us on this tour.

- Bacon's Castle is the oldest documented brick house in English North America, built in 1665 by immigrant author Allen.

It was a masterpiece of extravagance Since then, it has been influenced by the changing needs and preferences of the three families that have lived in the house today.

The house belongs to the Association for the preservation of Virginia Antiquities and is a study of three centuries of American architecture and history.

Dorothy or Richie is the director here at Bacon's Castle.

Tell us why aren't there more houses left from this period?

- Many of those early 17th century houses were built a frame and weren't able to survive Virginia's difficult climate.

In addition, they were built with the kitchens right inside the house and by the end of the 17th century, we had lost most of because of fires from those constantly burning kitchen fireplaces.

- You can see from the outside of the house how it's changed since 1665.

The inside has changed as well.

Let's go inside and see.

Various rooms have been restored to represent specific times.

At Bacon's Castle, detailed inventories made of the home and its contents have survived three centuries.

- We chose an inventory that was taken in 1711 when Arthur Allen II died as our basis for trying to reconstruct this room.

So the furnishings in here are all 17th century dating to before that 1711 date English maiden.

Very typical of the type that would've been here according to those inventories.

Research indicates that there would've been no decorative woodwork around the doors or windows, no plaster on the ceiling, and that the fireplace would be, as you see it now, - That show us what the house would've looked like in the 18th century.

Alright, - This room was always referred to as the hall in the 17th and 18th century.

And of course it didn't look like this when the house was first built.

This lovely panel would not have been here.

It would've been like the room upstairs with bare plaster walls.

I always imagine the woman of the house coming home from visiting in Williamsburg around 1740 or 50 and saying to her husband, Arthur, did you see that gorgeous paneling?

I am so sick of these filthy plaster walls.

And so since we think this work was done at that time, we've chosen an inventory that was taken in 1755 is our basis for acquiring things to go in this room.

Well, tell me about this beautiful desk.

We know there was a desk here in 1728.

The inventory states that there was a desk and a bookcase in 1755.

The inventory says there was an old desk and a bookcase.

So we assume then that, that it was the same one.

And this one dates to about 1720 would've been very similar to the type of desk they may have had.

- So the inventories tell you a lot about the evolution of the house.

They really do.

Finding the items from these inventories can be difficult.

For instance, a round Virginia Maye table is listed in the 1720 inventory, but so far only this rectangular table has been found.

So this is the modern - Edition here at Bacon's Castle.

That's right.

This wing was added in 1854 and it's a very nice example of architecture of the mid 19th century.

There were those who thought we should remove all these later editions and put the entire house back to look the way it would've been the 17th century.

But A PVA chose instead to let it reflect the taste and the lifestyles of the generations of people who lived here.

- Well, I'm certainly glad they did.

Dorothy, thank you for the tour.

The remains of a 17th century garden are also on site.

Here at Bacon's Castle, the Garden Club of Virginia funded the excavation of this English style renaissance garden dating from 1680.

This represents the earliest documented formal garden in America, which is an extraordinary find.

As you know, this is Virginia Historic Garden Week, and it is hoped that some of the proceeds this year will go to continue the work on the grounds.

Here at Bacon's Castle - In works of public art, we state our ideals as a people remember great events and heroes and give focus in unique designs to our public, the affairs and buildings.

Next week on our place, our time, we'll consider public art in Hampton Roads and we'll visit historic Abingdon Church near Gloucester, where the congregation is installing a new and magnificent organ of 1200 pipes.

And Dr. Alan Schaefer will perform on a harpsichord that is as beautiful to look at as it is to here.

Till next time, I'm Vianne Webb for our place, our time.