- This studio, it's all about raw color and about light.

- Everybody's an equal in the art studio.

There are no hierarchy.

- Everything that happens in the studio is happening because there's a passion, whether there's a passion for color, for line drawing work, it's all about passion.

Everything that happens in the studio is happening because there's a passion, whether there's passion for color, for line drawing work, it's all about passion.

- They teach you in college that not to be so vibrant.

And yeah, mix those colors and, you know, make it something else.

And this studio, it's all about raw color and about light.

- Everybody's an equal in the art studio.

- There are no hierarchies.

Passion Works is really a, an advocate of people exploring who they wanna be, who they wanna become.

- It's an idea that can be taken to any city and could be successful.

- People look at the work and they can sense that there's something really special about it.

And, and the special part about it is that all of the work is collaboration.

I mean, some of the pieces involve seven or eight different people working on them, and you can, you, you can sense that from the work.

It, it emanates, its its power.

- If you're actually making fine art and you're focused and you're impassioned by it, all other things happen.

All other things, communication skills get better.

You use your body more.

You wanna communicate with other people.

So those things that happen in therapy are naturally just part of making art.

Not only do you get those things that are therapeutic, but you get art, real fine art.

And that in itself is the vehicle for success.

Wonderful.

Just a wonderful painting.

I, I, I mean, emotionally, it just s it will transport you into the community, into galleries, into the media, into places where squeezing a red ball won't.

Passion Works is, is the community.

And we make an effort to integrate and make art available for the rest of our community.

- Get up and fly - And touch the sky.

Do Thes.

- I, - One of our staff, Jeff Beline, was looking for different opportunities for people to participate in.

And he came upon Patty Mitchell - And I was spending most of my time outside of Athens and thought I better look home to see what's here, what I, what, what could I do to be able to live at home.

And I did a couple art projects at Atco with some photography and just felt that there was some kindred spirits going on, and some people who were just absolutely intent on making things get - Their pants out.

Okay.

- Coming into the studio, I knew that people would not be afraid to make art.

I just didn't know what I could offer them, because the people at Atco were, and are just so physically involved with their disabilities.

I mean, there's very little movement.

It was some folks, Hey, what's going on out there?

And I was naive enough to think that I really couldn't bring anything, that making it through the day was enough for these guys.

Getting outta bed, getting dressed, just daily activities was, was struggle enough.

And I was absolutely incorrect.

I was wrong.

Like for anybody else, those mundane activities are not enough for life.

And that with the struggle that I saw people getting through the da, their daily lives, they just jumped into making artwork.

And they needed that.

They needed that.

Something that's outside of themselves that can leave evidence of what they're thinking and feeling.

- It was in our second show at the Kennedy, it was called The Story of Flying.

And that show was born out of a family here.

Patty was friends of a family, and they'd had a child who was born with Down Syndrome.

And there's always this dilemma.

I mean it when someone's having a child and the birth of a child's always a cause for celebration amongst your family, your friends, community members that know you.

And when someone has a child with a disability, everyone kind of freezes.

Patty was struggling, what are we gonna do with this residency?

What is gonna be the theme of the show?

She had a friend, Denny Inger, who was a writer, who was also a friend of this family who just had this child.

And she'd written this story, the story of flying about welcoming this, this, this child, and the adventures he was gonna have with his sister, Sophie Gabriel.

And Sophie and Patty read the story and said, that will be the residency.

We're gonna build the art and the show and celebrate this child.

- So we took the poem and we had 25 workshops in the community reading the poem and having people partner with a ADCO employee to make an animal or whatever they saw when they heard the poem.

And so then this piece was built with about 500 people working on it.

- This is a story of flying with me and my friends.

The sky was full of Moon when Gabriel went to find Sophia.

He had stepped from the house with wings on his back and was anxious to try them out, but not alone.

At the - End of that show, another friend of Patty who was teaching at the university, she had a class of hers go to the exhibition and then write a response paper to it.

And I remember she shared this paper that asked the student if it could be shared with his, his response paper was the fact that when he was growing up, it was a mentally retarded boy in his neighborhood and he never saw him as human.

And he used to beat him up on a pretty, pretty regular basis.

And when he went to the show and he saw this work, he realized that that kid he beat up all those years ago was more like him than he was different.

And he felt horrible.

And it changed him.

And we realized then that that was the vehicle.

The passion works could also be, it could be about the art, it could be about the individual, but it could change people's perceptions.

- I believe what makes this program unique from other sheltered workshop programming is that I don't see it as programming for a sheltered workshop.

I see it as an art studio.

- I refer to our program as at co adult services.

And the sheltered employment part of it is just one part of what we do.

Personnel plus the community Inclusion, human Awareness, passion works.

Those are all different services we offer as an adult service program.

So we're trying to move away from just focusing on Acco, the Sheltered workshop, and focusing more on the variety of services and supports we can provide - In sheltered workshops.

There's usually a task that needs to be done.

It needs to be done a certain way, and it needs to be done over and over and over again.

- Maybe the structure hadn't allowed people to really show their creative abilities and passion works really promotes that on a daily basis.

What do you want to try that's different?

What do you want to do?

And those aren't questions that people with disabilities many times are asked.

- And so who got you started on this?

Was it Kurt?

Did you, how CURTs the found a piece of wood.

- Did you draw a little?

- Did you draw a guy right here?

You thought it looked like a head.

Did you, what'd he say?

You pointed at your shirt, you had a big deer on your shirt.

That's how it got there.

- What I see happening in the Passion Work studio is a chance for individuals, both with and without disabilities, to express themselves artistically.

What's unique about it is the combination of people blending their different strengths and talents together to make one cohesive work of art.

It's a place where people's creativity is, is allowed to blossom in its fullest extent and has made a valuable contribution to, to the overall program here, as well as, you know, unique contributions to the individuals who participate in the program.

- Yeah.

David Hawk, I am so impressed with this.

And you look, let's take, look at this.

David, take a look at it.

- Enjoy - It - Off the - Bag.

Isn't that great?

Well, these are ghost dogs.

Okay.

That's a ghost dog.

Ghost dog.

And then David did all the throwing and Yeah, finish, finish.

I do another.

- Well, I - Can.

All right.

I appreciate that.

- It's a daunting task to have 135 different people in a building and give them what they need and want and desire, and to have a product that is sold.

So, you know, it's, it's, it's a difficult undertaking for a sheltered workshop.

And what the art does is provides people because it's, you know, making art can be anything, and the approach can be anything.

It's just more flexible.

- Hey Dan, what you doing today?

Wanna come in here and make some art?

Is that at your house?

- Yeah, bottom.

- Oh, I carried - That - Too.

I'm happy.

- Okay.

- That - I'm done for it.

You're - Done for it.

Yep.

Need a new color?

- Yep.

That's when, - Set me.

Let's see.

How about what color would you like Debs?

- I think Atco environment has changed a lot since Passion Works came.

We have some individuals who I think are getting bored with the type of vocational opportunities they had here with pens.

And some people have just said, I'm not doing pens anymore.

I'm going back to Passion Works.

- And Harry Grim, who was that fantastic painter, retired himself from making pens.

He declared himself, - She's gonna love that - Retired and that he was going to make his living, making art.

- Can you tell him what you're doing today - When big, - He's - Making peacocks.

I was thrilled for him to make, take a stand and say, I, you know, I've, I've done that.

Thank you very much.

I've enjoyed it.

But I, moving on now to my next career, yeah, - I would fly north so I could see the one I wish to marry me.

Flamenco like vibrancy, long hair, brown eyes.

She flies, she flies eye to eye, to eye to eye to her face.

I see in the bride full moon, like an ostrich who hides his head in the sand in fear.

I get scared too.

Sometimes I cry.

Never hiding, then whoosh, it goes away.

Birds fly east to eat grass.

Birds see eyes from far away.

I am an owl.

I sleep a lot too.

I fly, fly home.

- I watched as people responded, as the crisis of September 11th affected the entire country.

And I watched for the first time, there was an avenue for many of our people to express what they were feeling.

And it came out in a lot of the artwork.

There was Harry Grim and he hooked up with Wendy Miner, an artist in our studio.

And they formed an incredible relationship and some of the collaborative art that they're working on.

It was so exciting - Because I was there on September, that was a Tuesday, and it shut everything down.

Of course it did.

But it affected Harry a lot.

But the week after, when he came back, Patty came in and we discussed the fact that we probably should put some music on and just try to slide things back to normal if we could.

So we did, we turned off the news and quit listening to it and put on the, put it on the music.

And I said, let's, you know, let's do a piece, do a big piece.

And he agreed to a large canvas.

And that is what came out.

I like his style.

I like his freedom, you know?

And he, he's still at the point where he is like, teach me, I want you to teach me more and teach me more.

Is that thin enough brush?

- Yeah.

- Do a tv.

There's been moments where I thought maybe I should even do like an actual class, like a, like a workshop.

Like, okay, today we're gonna learn how to draw a figure.

Or today we're gonna learn how to do a proportionate building and see if that would, would change anything.

But I've always, when the pieces are done, I've always looked at them as they really can't get much better than they are.

- Are you excited?

Yeah, me too.

I'm excited for you.

Yeah.

This is a big step for you guys.

Yeah, - Yeah.

- You know, you'll get famous.

Maybe forget about all of us.

You won't forget about us.

- Wait, - He and Wendy have a show March 2nd, they're gonna be up on the gallery hop in Columbus.

- We put - Your name up in lines.

Yeah, that's great.

The reaction when customers walk in is just tremendous.

The, the brightness, the colors, the, the different mediums that they've used.

It's been, it's been wonderful.

- So were you nervous?

A little bit.

No, I know this.

How was I there until I walked in here?

You wait too.

- Yeah.

- What do you think?

- I don't know.

- You think you wanna continue to do this?

- Yeah, - You and me have shows.

- Yeah.

And money - For some money.

- Yeah.

- Out half.

You get half.

- Yeah.

- What did you hear?

What we ended up doing with the paintings?

Yeah.

They weren't for sale at first, and now we, we put 'em for sale.

Good.

You think that's good?

- Yeah.

- And we brought the price down, but not much.

They're going for $1,500.

Yeah.

Okay.

It's, no, not really, because the gallery takes half and then when it comes back, you take half.

Well, I had a friend of mine said, it's been years since she's cried in front of a painting, and she cried in front of one of Harry's painting.

She was like, it's so raw and so fresh.

And it's just not stuff you get to see very often.

- When we first started, we had a quarter of this room and it, which was basically that space back there by the window.

And we were just packed in there.

And people would come in and I'd be crawling over and, you know, just, it was crazy.

And we slowly, you know, expanded and then mailing and packaging department was very gracious and allowed us to take over the room.

And once we had the space, then things really started to move.

And we've been doing art shows.

And my intention at first was just to be an art studio and have art shows.

But then people wanted to buy the work, which I knew if we had could sell it and create jobs, then we would be able to stay here for as long as we wanted.

- Patchworks has brought a lot of energy into the building from all parts of the community that weren't coming into the building previously.

It's bringing more and more people to this place, not only to buy product, which is still something that is, it is a, it is a business trying to, to generate income, but also it's bringing more and more creativity.

It's like a magnet, you know?

And, and all the artists out there are like little filings and boom, they're clinging to the magnet and, and they're being in the magnet being the, the studio itself.

- See now I'm on film camera.

You're recording my image forever.

Forever.

If you want it.

- We had a residency with Ed Radkey, and that was through the Ohio University's film festival.

Ed is great.

He came in, got right to work, brainstorming with our artists as to what the video is going to be.

- And I remember in the first day, I think it's a five day workshop, what are we gonna do?

Well, by the end of the first day, we all have to know.

And, and I, and I think there were gonna be up to upwards to maybe 40, 40 folk who were gonna be a part of this.

And I was thinking, how are 40 people are gonna gonna agree on one singular idea?

They decided that they were gonna make a, a documentary about if they could go any place in the world, where is it that they would all go?

And it started because somebody said, I'd like to go to Dairy Queen, let's go to Dairy Queen and let's document the experience of going to Dairy Queen.

- Don't tie my heart, my backy heart.

Don't understand.

- A lot of our artists want to travel, but transportation is really difficult with people who are severely disabled and living in institutional settings and whatnot.

Taking a trip is a big deal.

- And when you're filming, remember that your camera is like your eye, your eyes.

And when you, when you look at someone and talk to them, where do you look?

Do you look at their knees?

No.

No.

Do you look at their stomach?

No.

No.

Where do you look at - Them?

- You look at their face.

- I think what happened was we couldn't take all 40 on the field trip, but we took two vans packed.

And then when we got back, we thought, well, how are we gonna involve the other participants?

We thought, well let's, instead of taking everyone else out on a field trip, let's just ask them the same question.

And the question was, if you could go any place in the world, where would you want to go?

And why?

- Action.

Where would you go in the whole entire road if you could to go see, see somebody?

See who, see one my friends?

No, your cousins.

My family.

- They've got a lot going on in their hearts and they have a lot that they'd love to be able to express, but they're not always as easy to express those ideas as perhaps you and I.

But it doesn't mean that they, they don't have anything to say.

In fact, it probably means that they have more because it's somehow a little bit more of a challenge to get out.

- I like going to Buildium.

It's a country in Europe, but my ancestors over about you.

I go out and and eat with my friend.

Your friend.

- And who's that?

Who's your - Friend?

Jenny.

- Go to my sister's house.

What's your sister's house?

Probably with a doll.

Big dog name.

What?

What kind of dog is it?

It's a, - A big dog.

Paris.

Huh?

- Paris.

What?

Yeah.

What, what's - Paris?

What's in Paris?

- All the good, the beautiful good architects, good restaurants and, and, and there are no ruins.

I like the, the old church, Amsterdam Church and see the sites and the countryside.

- You got a motor attacker?

- No.

- Okay.

- The arts are a way for anyone, regardless of disability or non-disability, to travel, to take journeys, to try things that they can't do at home.

- Okay.

We're careful.

Oh God.

This is gonna be a little bit of a spread.

There you go.

There you go, Gail.

There you go.

Very good.

Very good.

Now Yeah's scooch you up a little bit more on the seat.

- Okay.

Well, har, get down the beach.

Lay on the beach and just sit there and relax.

Well, you, you down the beach.

The beach set, set.

Set up.

Set up and relax.

Sit up and relax.

Let's look at the water.

- This is a motorcycle, right?

Right.

Mike is got the motorcycle.

He's motorcycle.

Sound.

Wave some people as you're driving by.

Yeah.

Come on, Jim.

- Okay.

Wave to the camera.

Night wave for the camera.

- Oh, well I still got a little bit of wild in me.

- He, your kit - Still got a little wild in me.

Doesn't take full wildness out of me yet.

- And David, Dewey and Serena.

What a, that's a great relationship.

There's love in that building and it's, it's great.

And I love seeing it show up in the artwork.

It's really, you know, just another component of - Life.

Roses read if I looks are blue, Serena says Sweet.

I love her.

And she loves me too.

I had a friend and I asked him, I said, how do I, how would I get her to be my girlfriend?

He says, just walk up to her and talk nicely to her or so I did.

And that's big help that she can become my girlfriend.

Maybe being the gator eight years.

I like doing this a lot better than what I did when I did the mill route.

Me being an artist and people get to know me and get, you know, get to know me real good through my art.

I throw a little pesty bug and then I drew a wolf and I thought, oh, when don't we doing that in the card?

Okay, - Yeah.

These are cutouts from the paper pattern.

This paper pattern came from an original David Dewey drawing, a famous wolf that they named the cafe after and everything.

And it's his drawing just blown up.

And I use the paper pattern to trace onto the clay slab and cut it out.

- People seek him out, you know, and we've had people ask for wedding invitations drawn by him.

And he's an an entity in town now as David Dewey the artist, when - They see the wolf, they go, oh, I got freedom.

Are you?

I can do whatever I want to.

And then same thing about the motorcycle.

You can ride on a motorcycle and go down the hall down the road and make you're free.

That just gets me freedom gets me out.

I can go to ark shows about anything I want to go to.

This is probably the flowers session.

Flowers - Probably help paint for the pales.

Carolyn Williams, she's been making line drawings and she'll, she'll draw flowers over and over again.

And her love of flowers and color and painting, that's where the flowers developed from, were her drawings.

All the pedal shapes are her drawings.

And we had a visiting artist, Kate Kern come in and show us paper sculpture.

And we used Carolyn's drawings.

So we took what she taught us and we translated it to the metal printing - Plates.

Yesterday.

Did a first coat.

No, this is a second coat.

You gotta make sure it's all covered up to where you can't see the printing on the, on the sheet, the metal.

You gotta make sure it's all covered, completely covered up.

Then after that, then they got like a pring press or like a thing that cuts out flour like a dye.

Then you put that on a plate, then you put the dye on top of the metal and then it cuts it out.

'cause it's got like a, like wire inside the, the dye.

And then that's how it makes the, like the pedal for the flowers.

- And our artists love to paint.

Everybody can, it's, you know, from finger painting to writing words or drawings, you know, these plates can be decorated.

And then we cut them down and make the passion flowers.

We have, you know, a retail wholesale market sell to over 60 venues across the country in Canada.

They became the identity for the studio.

And then we approached the mayor of Athens and asked if we could make them the official flower of Athens, Ohio.

- Whereas patient work studio's purpose is to inspire and liberate the human spirit through the arts.

And whereas patient work studio has created metal sculpture patient flowers, born from the talents and interest of their artists.

Now, therefore, I Richard Abel, mayor of the city of Athens do hereby proclaim patient flowers to be the official flower of Athens, Ohio in the city of Athens, Ohio.

And requested all residents of the city join in support and recognition of this proclamation and of the work, the patient work artists who all made this.

It's all all of us.

Yeah.

All of you participated guys.

Those are pretty, very nice.

We'll have this on display in the mayor's office now, so everybody that comes in and see you can take a look at your work.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

Who is that?

- Who - Hope, who is she?

- One lady.

- The first lady of Ohio.

- Wow.

- And we're going in two weeks.

Two weeks?

- Yeah.

Dang.

- She came and visited.

- Yeah.

- And she talked to you.

- Yeah.

- And then she decided to have passion works come up for a, a tea party.

- Yeah.

Oh.

- And I think she's gonna have cash work flowers in her garden.

Yeah.

That part of it.

- Yeah.

- And they say the governor's gonna be there too.

Yeah.

Oh - Man.

I first saw them at a Ohio Craftsman museum and thought they were so spectacular.

I had to go down and visit the studio.

- I came home one night, I was totally, I looked out, what, what is that?

And my goodness, what has my wife done now?

And the first lady was down in Athens and she saw these incredible works of art.

Really?

These beautiful flowers done by passion work.

She says we have to have these in the governor's garden.

So, you know, she doesn't waste any time.

She got 'em up here almost immediately.

And they are now enhancing our quality of life here at the governor's residence.

- Whenever I come home from a hard day, I come out here and I get rejuvenated by the excitement and the happiness that are in these flowers.

And so today we are here to celebrate the artists and the artworks and the programs of Passion Works and Sun, apple and Company.

These artists and the programs demonstrate a commitment to self-determination, which is also supported by the Ohio Department of MRDD.

Oh, thank you so much.

Here is my - Portrait.

Oh, that's, wow.

That, that's how you caught her.

You, you captured, you captured her spirit one - Day.

- One day.

Yeah.

- And - She came down to - Visit.

Yeah.

- Yes.

- You did this in one day.

Yeah.

- Thank you so much.

Harry.

- December 14th, USA today travel section saying 10 great places with art filled spaces.

And Harry Grim is the largest photograph talking about Athens, Ohio is one of the top 10 small communities for the arts.

And Harry putting us on the map.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

My plan is for the studio to be outrageously successful in, in the sense that we can show our work on a national level and that people can see it and see what our artists are doing.

- There's challenges, but we're, we're looking in ways to potentially form trust for individuals so that their money can be put into trust.

We're working with someone locally now to find out how we can allow people to be successful and not be punished for their success.

So that's a challenge.

The catch 22 is that when you are a poor person to, if you want a range of services and it's designed to keep you poor, if you start to have success, then you can lose your Medicaid and you can lose benefits.

It might be helping you pay for the rent in your home.

And we wrestle with that with Passion Works.

We have some people with talents that we could see them growing and they do become working.

Artists could be paid good money for their work, but there becomes a point, how much do they need to make before they really could afford to lose some of the benefits that they really can't function without.

Many times family members who are involved in their lives won't allow them to be involved in certain programs if they're gonna make past a certain amount of money.

Because the most important thing to them is to make sure that they have that medical card.

- Hey, we need to make like $200,000 a year.

And last year we made 64 to not have outside help 200.

So that's a lot of flowers.

That's a lot of flowers.

So we're hoping that the jewelry or the cards or something could be cattle, be in a catalog or you know, some kind of bulk buying with those.

And then we won't have to depend on writing grants.

- Looks like it's about done, doesn't it?

Yeah.

Should we put, should we put just a few more on that?

This one end?

Yeah.

To make it even and measure it.

- We have open studio so anybody can come into the studio and participate, hang out, help out.

And Lucinda Moran lives right down the street.

She's a jeweler.

So on breaks she would come to Passion Works and just hang out and work with us.

And she saw some of the drawings that people had done and she thought, you know, some of these might work as silver pieces.

I said, try it if you, I mean if you would, that would be great.

So she took our logo and a guy with big ears and she took them home.

And then the next week she brought them in these beautiful silver pieces and that followed the spirit of the drawing to a t. - Oh Caroline, did you see these?

- Try - Come in Danny.

Those are - Awesome.

Hey my daddy.

Try come in.

You know whose they are?

- Mine?

- Yes.

Can I hang you right here with the - Rest of these gang mine?

Come on.

Yeah.

Look at the rest of 'em too.

There is, there you're horses.

Show 'em to Susan Marty's bird.

These are Carolyn's flowers.

Flowers.

- And then I don't know who we, this is unclaimed.

You know - Who, who do that Iden.

- You did you draw that?

- Did you draw that cat?

Now we know my kitty.

- God, I I have to write it down on there.

Susan's cutie - Alexis's elephant.

Mindy's got her sunshine.

- You worth this?

Yay mate.

More?

- Yep.

- We're gonna - Pass them.

Yes.

Yes.

Whoa.

That's a small hole.

- Yeah, the needle just came off.

- The needle came off.

I can help you with that.

Did the needle break?

Oh, that is a small be Did it break?

Do you like doing bead work?

- Yeah.

- Almost done.

You are.

Oh, that's so beautiful.

Mary Burgess was a passion work artist who just really has fallen in love with beading.

There's some people who just really like fine focused, detailed work and you know, glass beads are gorgeous, you know, and to be around them and to have a finished piece of joy.

I mean, it's, it's really rewarding.

This is something I would - Wear.

You too, Mary.

- Yeah.

- Mary's flying.

You're flying with the beads.

Everybody here has different skills and I just, you know, I, I work with each person individually.

David Dewey working.

He has a really hard time, you know, picking up the bead and we're, we're working on trying to figure out a way for him maybe even having a sticky surface where the bead won't roll around when he, you know, pushes it with the needle so he can, can do that more easily.

So we're, we're working on little one end systems for each person so that everyone can, can do it.

There you go.

Two, you think these.

Whoops.

There you go.

Bye Bill.

Nice to have you here.

Go to work.

Yeah.

Time to go to work.

See you later.

I like this more than what I'm doing.

I love this stuff.

You know, it's just these, these pieces taken from drawings are so refreshing to me and I don't, I don't think I could design this probably My work will continue to be what it is and I'll continue to, to take their work and turn it into metal.

This is a great thing for this studio, I think.

I think people are gonna love this stuff, but they already do.

It's already flying out the door.

- Yeah.

- Isn't it Mary?

Yeah.

I think I can get one more beat on there.

- I like you.

Oh, I like you too, - Nancy.

We're pals, huh?

Yeah, that's - Right.

- Well, Nancy, you have changed my paint.

Do you think you're the teacher?

- When artists come into the studio, they just don't give it away.

It just, it, we just don't bleed them dry of all their creativity.

That it's really a collaboration and that these artists have time to explore something new and that they get to work with 20 different people and create these new projects.

- You just have this thing for color.

I wish I knew how you mixed your colors.

I wish I knew what you were thinking when you mixed your colors.

Today they all look like candy, like cotton candy and taffy and stuff.

You want me to turn it so you can - Reach the other side?

Yes.

I'm almost done.

- You are so - Close.

Yeah.

I like to, to sell my art.

You like to sell it to the, to the other adult people to get, get, get some money.

- That's good.

Because people are buying it.

- Yeah.

- A lot of people liked it up at the gallery.

- Yes.

- People talk to you.

Did they, did they say that?

- Yeah.

- It's like a dance.

We're following the abilities and the interests of the people that we work for in the creation of fine artwork.

So the interest and ability of these people, they are the core of what happens.

If somebody draws circles and they love making circles, then I gotta find the best place and home for those circles.

- I'm Alexis Reinhart and I'm, I'm passion work stars and I write, - I write about Smokey Robinson.

Does Patty Mitchell recognized that Lex had a lot of unexplored talent.

She has an a fascination with Smokey Robinson.

I think people should appreciate so - Solo songs more than they appreciate the, the ones he did with Miracles and the ones he wrote.

For the other little 10 singers and groups, singer solo songs are a lot more beautiful.

And the ones he did with The Miracles and the ones he wrote for the other little town singers and groups to sing.

I've been to a few of his concerts and, and at the first one, he kissed me on my right cheeks twice.

- Whereas to other people that might not be particularly interesting, Patty saw that as something that Lex need to express and she provided her with the opportunity to explore that more.

And that was a, a, a really liberating thing I think for, for Lex.

So Patty encouraged her to write about Smokey and she incorporated that expression into collaborative artwork.

- You can find a place to bring in people's talents almost everywhere.

Sometimes in one piece that you might see as a finished piece.

There might be four or five passion work artists involved in that.

Alexis Reinhart, she loves to write.

And suddenly we realize it's really beautiful on top of a painting to have this script flowing across it.

We had a piece that was featured in a show at Siegfried Hall.

Started out its life as a big ugly metal cabinet.

And then Nancy Dick started painting the cabinet.

And after she painted the cabinet, Lexi, she wrote all over the cabinet about Smokey Robinson.

It was really a compelling piece.

- People are responding in all kinds of ways, you know, purchasing the work, making like, you know, there's a guy up in on Court Street who has a jewelry store and he just offered us his front window to sell jewelry at no cost.

He's like, I wanna sell it for you.

I'm like, chap Chapman's jewelry at Athens, Ohio.

I mean, he is, it just, it's just, I don't even know the guy he called us.

It's just beautiful.

So I'm surprised every day at the response and people being creative and how they can help.

- Now the arts many times are, are, are too removed.

And I think what Passion Works wants to make sure that we're not only introducing our artists in the community, but we're introducing the arts into the community.

Making people see how that they're a, they're a viable part of community life.

That they could be a viable part of economic development.

- I was hanging a show at the Kennedy Museum and in this show there are 250 flying objects, seven foot flowers.

It's big.

It was a big show.

And Ed popped his head in the door and he said, I want this in my restaurant.

And I said, it won't - Fit in your restaurant.

And I said, well, we'll just make the restaurant bigger.

And we, we literally had to take one of the central pieces, which is a giant paper mache, flower vase about four feet in diameter and it wouldn't get through the doors.

So she and I both had to push on it and compress it and shoulder it to get it through the doorway.

And then of course it sprang back out again.

So that piece went in the center of the restaurant and these giant 10 foot flowers come spraying out of it.

- He put the flying animals all over the ceiling and he said, hang them lower.

Hang them lower.

You know, it doesn't matter if you bump into 'em, it's only paper.

- I remember one, one couple came in and the husband looked at the wife and she looked up at him and he said, I dunno, honey, can we do this?

And they decided they could.

Of course we had some people from Norway last week come by and, and stumbled on it and came back for dinner and learned the story and went away.

Just inspired and determined to tell people back in their community in Norway about the program.

We get requests for literature all the time.

So we keep a lot of that stuff on hand.

- Ed has told us that it has made his restaurant even more unique to have that type of artwork in there.

And so that's helped his business and it's helped us and, and those are the best kind of relationships here.

- Say it's hard opportunities for those with development disabilities, professional artists and other community members.

Ms is encrusted with metal floral sculptures from recycled materials.

The studio is supported by grants from the Ohio Arts Council and matching funds from the county board Illation and developmental disabilities.

You are invited to attend the Post Parade art sale at the Purple Chopsticks restaurant directly following these festivities after the purple chopstick.

The parade.

- The the float.

Oh, bye.

Got cookies and hot cider.

Okay.

Art sale.

Let's add the purple chopsticks after the parade, right?

Yeah, we're there.

That's when we first started making the flowers and we thought, we'll, we'll do this parade and at the end of the parade we'll have an art sale and sell the float.

And that's, that was the idea for the first float.

And that was real, it was really fun.

And it was just great having our guys on the float have this beautiful thing going down the street and the crowd going wild.

And, and going down Court Street, we realized how many people were seeing this parade.

So the following year we wrote a grant through the Ohio Arts Council to have Alexandra Underhill come.

And she's a sculptor and a costume designer.

She was amazing.

And in three weeks, made a hundred costumes and built a float that was outrageous outta recycled materials.

- So this used to be, what is it?

Satellite dish.

Satellite dish.

And so we got it from the, the, the reuse shop.

And the guy, one of the guys from the sculpture Prime, I don't even know his name, he cut it into fan coral.

So I'm really excited about what these are gonna look like.

- The program involves a community night once a week where the community members are invited in to work with the, the artists.

And sometimes they have more people than they can actually even keep busy because people come in and they, they feel the juice.

Wow.

- Great.

What's - Your name?

Isha.

Isha.

Nice to meet you.

What craftsman.

You're we are basically leading the community in a lot of ways.

We're not following what's happening.

We are breaking forward and making things happen.

And the community is more than welcome to come with us because they're there too.

And we love it.

And we need more and more and more people on the, on the train 'cause we're taking off.

And, and that's different too.

If, if you decide that you're going to lead, people will often follow.

And so we're not waiting for the invitation, but we're extending one.

- Go, - Go, go.

And then last year we worked with Bill Dooley, who is one of our artists and he has lots of interests, but one of his is Greek mythology.

- My idea get, can I get and makes me the star of who curated this idea of Greek mythology.

Yeah.

It made me a Zeus.

Oh my God.

- Hey, the storm is a rocking man.

Just really a sound of thunder and, and lightning bolts and stuff because Zeus is coming through town.

So that's what we're doing.

Giving him a grand entrance.

- These are clouds and there's twisters.

Wear this to get the tuggers ready and wonder boats ready.

Old instruments.

The vault.

- Zeus is the boss today.

- Just for one day.

- Just for one day.

You have the whole day.

You ready to bang at gong up there?

Yes.

Yes, Dan.

So we're gonna head over soon, I would guess.

All right, us off.

Lead us on Let's go.

Come on.

- Is losing his pants?

- What?

You dressed up?

Actually that's okay dude.

Passing out Passion works advertisement so people will know that they can get the ceramics, rubber stamps, Magnus greeting cards, jewelry, t-shirts and more.

All at purple chopsticks on Richland Avenue.

We hope that everybody will come buy these wonderful gifts.

Never too early to look for December gifts.

Patty, should we be any certain place?

- You are in the front.

You are.

The second thing first it's gonna be the passion works and then it's gonna be this sign.

And then it's gonna be the float.

Okay.

Okay.

So we should be up - In the front of the truck.

Go in that way.

- Yes.

- We're gonna go towards that way.

Just the last detail, just the signs.

Everybody.

Our support system.

Getting their little logos out.

We gotta get the logos out.

There's more signs on the float.

Somebody else can take this.

Patty, do you have the order in mind here that people are gonna ah, we have people from patchwork artists and community members will use students.

My mom and Zeus, just the thunder just went and back.

We had to, we we've been may having art night and building float, little miniature floats for the chairs about three minutes.

And we've just been building and building and building for probably for two months on a regular basis.

Seven this morning we started seven this morning.

Yep.

And now we're ready to go.

We couldn't have asked for a better day.

It was just, it was beautiful.

We were coming down Court Street.

There was just this wave of screaming.

I I just love it when our studio and the people that we work for are the kings and queens than whatever's going on.

- I now Banner, stand up and, and look over - Here.

Fish Crew is beautiful new - For the official Ohio.

Sophia's advice for flying was twofold.

Gather a handful of rocks and pretend something, anything.

And he did.

The rocks in his hands were sparkling seeds.

He plucked from beneath his sister's feet and planted inside himself.

The moon was the watery can pouring its light on both their heads.

Look, Gabriel, we're flying.

There's our house.

And below them, their parents slept like fish in a shimmering - Sea.

The story of flying is ongoing and we hope to achieve full flight here at some point in time and, and see this program really enriching the lives of people everywhere.

- It's, it's changing people's life through art.

It's very liberating.

- We need to take what we're doing and use it as a model, create a structure so that other organizations can, can use it and, and be successful.

I I, I want art to be involved in other communities and in the lives of people with disabilities.

- There's so many things.

I think Passion Works is charged with making sure we get out in the community.

So sometimes it feels like a pretty overwhelming mission.

I think we have great enthusiasm, we have good support, we have a great story.

I think the more we tell it, the more this will spread.

- For more information about this program, log on to pbs.org.

- Just one.

The, - If you would like to purchase a copy of this program, please call 7 4 0 5 9 3 4 9 4 4.