(bright music) - [Shelley] Welcome to "Kalamazoo Lively Arts," the show that takes you inside Kalamazoo's vibrant, creative community and explores the people who breathe life into the arts.

(lively music) - [Narrator] Support for "Kalamazoo Lively Arts" is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.

(solemn music) - Visual artist.

And I'm seeing a lot of animals in the house.

- Yes.

- Take me back to when you first well started this gig.

- Well, you know, I've always had a love and appreciation of animals and it ended up kind of focusing on birds at a certain point, probably about 15, 16 years ago, I became fascinated by crows and ravens.

Part of it came from my interest in them as scavengers.

I've always been a scavenger.

I collect lots of different things, things I find on the side of the road that I find of interest.

You know, you see scraps of tires on the side of the road here in Michigan, and I started to notice that material and thought, how interesting.

And so I started to collect the material and I ended up thinking it looked a little bit like a crow or a raven, you know, with its claws.

And so I started constructing these large scale crows and ravens out of scraps of tires from the side of the highway.

And I didn't really know a lot about the birds at that point, and started doing some research and discovered that they're amazingly intelligent and adaptable birds.

And I just became fascinated by them.

- Let me go half a step back.

- Sure.

- Was an artistic DNA part of your upbringing?

- I always drew, I always made things and I always worked pretty eclectically.

So it ranged from drawing, traditional drawing, to I would make things out of different objects.

For example, I remember as a child playing with clothes pins and making them, you know, pretending they were birds.

And I've always made things, I've always worked with my hands.

It's been a way for me to make sense of the world.

- [Shelley] Was there professional training?

- Oh yeah.

So I actually started as a behavioral science major and very quickly realized that my heart wasn't in it.

And so I pivoted over to what I thought was going to be a graphic design career.

I had to do a year of fine art in order to get into the graphic design program where I was going to school in London, Ontario.

And so I ended up in fine art and never looked back.

I fell in love.

- All right.

Take me to, first of all, kind of, I'm gonna call it the elephant in the room here in your beautiful studio.

Is this a crow or a raven?

- Well, that one in particular is more raven, you can tell by the beak.

But I really didn't distinguish between them being particularly crows or ravens.

I just wanted large corvids, so crows ravens, blue jays, jackdaws, and megpies, of course too.

'cause they're smart and annoying.

They're all in the same family of birds called corvids.

And so I wasn't so much interested in the particulars of that bird being a crow or a raven, but more of the idea of it being human scale.

So when I started doing this work, this was around 2007, 2008 actually, and it was around the time of the Great Recession, the automobile industry was tanking.

And it struck me that this material that I was collecting on the sides of the highway was really representative of this industry that was failing.

And so I thought, you know, these large dead birds kinda made sense to represent both this dying industry, but also the people, you know, their human scale.

And that was intentional, thinking about so many people who were suffering during that time.

And so the birds kinda came to represent a time in Michigan that was very challenging for so many.

And I did a series of five.

So inside this large crate that that bird is on are four more of them.

They're all leaving for an exhibition next week, which is why I have, you know, an array of things around my studio packaged up.

- Your choice of colors, do they relate to what maybe a crow picks up back to the shiny object?

- Gold leaf and silver leaf that I use in my work also has a monetary value.

It's an elevated material.

It's used in sacred texts, it's used in illuminated manuscripts.

And I've recently been doing some research on gold leaf and illuminated manuscripts.

I was in at Oxford University this past spring looking at some illuminated manuscripts that are almost 1,000 years old.

There was a particular book called "The Book of Beasts" that has imagery of animals and uses a lot of tooled gold leaf.

And I love that idea of the animals being presented with this kind of sacred material.

So this piece has an adhesive on the top section where the red is.

And what I'm wanting to do is have that covered with gold leaf.

And this is a 16-karat gold leaf that comes on a sheet.

And so what I do is I place this on the top and adhering the gold leaf to the adhesive underneath.

I wanted, when I was drawing this piece, I love the idea of the gold background on this.

It just, sometimes, I don't really have a reason why.

It's just... Just a feeling that I have.

And so what I have here, you can see where the adhesive is here.

And so this is where you don't wanna have too many fans going in your space because these little bits of gold leaf will fly all over the place.

And I'm gonna just slightly overlap so that I don't have any seam showing.

The red that's underneath this gold leaf is called Red Bowl.

It's a traditional under material that's used traditionally for gold leaf, because if you have places where the gold leaf doesn't adhere, the red actually is a lovely complement and gives a sheen to the gold leaf.

But basically what I'll do is just sort of clean up this edge a little bit.

And then I'll probably, and even just talking sometimes you can see the gold leaf just flies all over the place.

I'll probably take charcoal after the fact and kind of reestablish my top edge there.

And then, because this isn't a 23-karat gold, it's not pure gold, it will need to have a sealant put on it.

And otherwise, the gold will tarnish because of the other metals that are in it.

So this will get varnished.

And I typically use like a spray varnish to finish the piece.

Oh, it's beautiful.

(gentle music) - [Shelley] Let's talk about the owl.

- Yes.

- And your personality.

- [Shelley] What's on the wall?

- Yes.

So I needed to look at a bird in person in order to understand the anatomy.

And prior to doing this body of work, I really hadn't studied birds in particular.

And I called this facility out of the blue.

I said, "Hi, I'm a visual artist.

I need to look at a bird so I understand the anatomy."

One of the birds in her facility is Hubie the Owl.

- Hubie?

- Hubie.

Hubert actually- - Is this Hubie?

This is Hubie.

(laughs) And Hubie is a red morph screech owl.

So screech owls are usually between like four and seven inches tall.

Hubie the owl is imprinted to humans.

It means that he never identified with his own type.

He was snatched out of the nest as a tiny bird and was raised by humans.

It is highly illegal, of course, to snatch a bird out of a nest and keep it as a pet.

So whatever bird comes in, if it's imprinted, it means that it can never be released into the wild again, because it never learned how to fend for itself.

And so Hubie lives there and is an educational bird and actually is frightened of humans because he doesn't actually understand that he's an owl.

- And you've captured Hubie in what form of art then?

How do we describe your work here?

- It's charcoal on paper, and the background is actually gold leaf, and it's broken up into a grid of seven, which represents the days of the week.

So at that facility, Hubie gets an organic mouse a day because he's a very special bird, and all her birds get treated with royal treatment.

And so I thought what an interesting way to think about that bird as being sort of in this grid.

And you can see on the bird, there are grid lines that actually penetrate the bird, and it becomes almost like a little bit of a prison.

So I liked this idea of the bird is, you know, taken care of.

Hubie is, is very comfortable, but he's also in a prison because of humans not allowing him to be a wild bird.

- Your art has a story to it, it sounds like.

- Yes, it does.

I'm really very interested in the creatures that we share the planet with, whether they're imprinted birds that don't know what they are, or ravens in the wild.

I'm very much interested in the ways in which humans have come to dominate the planet to the detriment of other creatures.

And so for me, I feel a little bit like part of my desire as an artist is to kind of cheer the underdogs on and represent those creatures in ways that respects what they are and how they are in the world.

And showing how we humans have penetrated their identity and their being.

And, you know, make comments about that.

- How has Kalamazoo assisted with your work?

- Well, Kalamazoo generally has a very thriving art scene, as you know.

And what's been wonderful is that Western Michigan University provides us with these studios.

They've provided faculty with studios for over 60 years.

This year represents the last year that they will do that.

So we faculty will actually be no longer supported by the university for our studios.

The university traditionally has been exceedingly supportive of our creative endeavors and understand the importance of our professional practice.

And that's been a big part of the joy of being in this community, has been that wonderful support that we have received in the past for what we do as professionals.

- Will you ever get back and see your favorite owl?

- I absolutely will.

I try to visit Hubie every year or two.

And he's a very special friend.

- Thank you for reminding us of the importance of these animals.

- Yeah, absolutely.

(lively music) (gentle music) - All right, Here we are at the establishment of Alexa.

I'm gonna call you Alexa K 'cause that's what it says on your door.

- [Alexa] Yes.

- Congratulations on your establishment.

- Thank you.

- Yeah.

How do you describe your work?

- It's mixed media.

I make my own paints using my grandmother's crushed jewelry.

So I took her jewelry and I put it in a stone crusher and I crush it up.

And that's what creates the texture and the sparkle in the pieces.

And then I also make my own paper and I adorn the paper with crushed material, Micah, flower petals and different additives to create texture.

- Bring me back to the young Alexa K, the eight-year-old.

Did you like art?

- Yes, I did.

In fact, I had a journal when I was around that age and I wrote in there, "I want to be an artist."

And then I just never stopped.

I was one of those kids who, you know, I think all kids are into art to some extent and I never stopped.

- Did you study art?

- Yes, I did.

I received my BFA and MFA from the school of the Art Institute of Chicago.

- And what did you study specifically?

Did you have to choose?

- So their program is kind of open, studio art.

And then I concentrated on print media, which is a contemporary form of printmaking where you use traditional techniques along with contemporary techniques.

And then the whole time I painted as well, so it was kind of painting with printmaking.

- You mentioned your grandma.

- Yes.

- Tell us more.

- So I was very close to my grandmother and I inherited her collection of costume jewelry.

And that's what inspired the paints, is I was doing a 100-day project, which is this piece in the back.

And I got bored after the first week and I was looking at her jewelry and I was looking at the insects that I painted, and I saw similarities.

Insects are iridescent, they're gold, they're shiny, they're sparkly, and so are the beads.

So I thought, "Why don't I put my grandmother's legacy into the paint?"

And I started crushing it up and putting it in there.

So you do not want to crush materials just willy-nilly.

I use a stone crusher and it crushes the materials and then it goes into the air.

And you do not want to breathe that in because you can breathe in heavy metals and those never leave your body.

So when I crush my materials, I use a respirator and I use air ventilation.

- So what we see, the lady with the sparkles, a lot of your grandma's jewelry.

- Yes.

This is Gaia, Mother Nature, and I made her for a project called the Photosynthesis Project.

It's a group of artists in the Kalamazoo area.

There's, I think about 12 artists involved.

And we met for several years every month.

And we would bring writings and different inspiration, and we would sit in a room and talk about photosynthesis.

And then we created artwork inspired by those conversations.

So this piece, Gaia is my final for that project.

And this piece took me three years to complete - The process of your paper making, let's start here.

- Okay, so paper is made by using the pulp, which can be bark from a tree, it can be cotton.

I prefer to use cotton because I like the white in my pieces.

So I take white and I do a blending process that takes a few days to soak and blend the cotton.

And then I'll use a fraction of recycled material in there as well.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - [Shelley] Dimension and texture, expand.

- Okay, I am very interested in creating a three-dimensional piece because with the advent of technology and looking at things on the computer, like art had to become more that for me.

So I wanted it to be an experience.

I want my pieces to look different up close and from far away and from, you know, across the room you see a pop of sparkle.

And so when I started crushing up the jewelry, I decided to keep some of that texture so it would catch the light and you would get that spark.

Come closer, and then realize what is this really made out of?

And see the jewelry and the crushed gems and glass in it.

- Let's move on to other pieces, including there's a piece that well, is the bat?

- Yes, the bat.

So first of all, everyone has a story about a bat in their life.

And so it's a fun piece to take to art fairs because everyone comes through the door with their story of a bat.

And my story was, I grew up in a house with a fireplace, and every year, once a year, a bat would come through the chimney and it was the only thing my dad was scared of.

So I was the one who had to take care of the bat.

(laughs) So it's definitely a memory piece, yeah.

- And the piece itself, how did you construct it?

- I have made several bats over the years, and I have pieces that I always need in my studio at all time.

A Luna Moth, the female form, and a bat is one of these pieces.

And so I make it, I make them on handmade paper.

And then there's 24-karat gold and the embedded jewelry for the texture and handmade watercolors.

- [Shelley] Nice.

(bright music) - Butterflies, obviously, the idea of metamorphosis and that transition is an appealing subject for an artist, especially when dealing with subjects like Mother Nature.

And then I've always been interested in the small format, and there's a name for that, ACEO.

And it's a standard size that an artist can do and use it as like a trading card or like a mini affordable art.

So I was making these and I wanted to do a 100-day project and I thought, "Ooh, that would be a challenge to do a different insect every day for the 100 days."

And so that's how that.

It started maybe with butterflies and bees and then it grew into every stick insects and leaf insects and everything you can think of.

- How much is nature involved in your work?

- Highly.

It's something I think about constantly with my work.

I live on 10 acres of woods back here.

That was a Christmas tree farm that was neglected, and so it's all overgrown Christmas trees.

And there's coyotes that live back there, turkeys, deer.

So every day I get inspiration just from my backyard.

- Which leaves me to talk about your coyote.

- Yes.

- Talk about that.

That was inspired by, when we moved into this house, we had scary coyotes howling back there.

And it was scary at first because they're very loud.

And so I was inspired to do that piece and then also walking back there and finding their dens.

And I found a coyote skull next to one of their dens, which I thought was interesting because the coyote had been chewing on it.

So I thought like, kind of like a full circle.

(laughs) - What do you say to parents that see art in their eight-year-old?

- Nurture it, you know, just encourage it.

And it doesn't have to be anything formal, just provide art materials for your kid.

And it's good in so many aspects of your life, not just to become an artist, but there's science in art, there's math and art, you know, there's different things that you can drive from making art.

- So with your family, are there budding artists and how does the family make art happen?

- Absolutely.

They are all involved in the studio.

They all have a lot of fun.

My son really likes to make books and he's into the paper making.

And my daughter, I set up non-toxic glitter paint stations and she makes paint.

- How supportive is Kalamazoo of artists?

- Kalamazoo is so supportive of artists.

There's an amazing art community here.

A lot of artists like the Photosynthesis Group and groups of artists who really wanna get together and have conversations about art.

It is a very fun community to live in for that.

- Will you ever run out of your grandmother's jewelry?

- I get that question a lot and it is a concern of mine and that's why I use other materials as well and I kinda keep her jewelry for the very special, the big pieces and the pieces that I plan to hold onto for like formal exhibitions.

(bright music) - Thank you so much for watching.

There's also more to explore with "Kalamazoo Lively Arts" on YouTube, Instagram, and wgvu.org.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] Support for "Kalamazoo Lively Arts" is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.

(lively music) (lively music continues)