Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: Frederick Hammersley Fund, New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME-TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation.

.New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts.

and Viewers Like You.

IN REIMAGINING TRADITIONAL PUEBLO ART, DAVID NARANJO CONNECTS TO THE DIVINE BY SEEKING THE DEEPER MEANING AND INTENT BEHIND THE DESIGNS.

JESSICA NAPLES GRILLI AND AMANDA LE KLINE PRESERVE THE STORIES OF WHAT IT'S LIKE TO LIVE ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF COLUMBUS OHIO.

BRINGING FAMILIES TOGETHER, AND BUILDING COMMUNITY, EDUCATOR MEGAN HALLETT LEADS THE "FAMILY ART STUDIO," A FREE, AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM.

It's all ahead on COLORES SEEING A PRAYER >>David: These designs aren't just used for their ornate aesthetic qualities, but they mean so much more.

To the Pueblo people, we see a story, we see a prayer and in many instances, it's my way of connecting to the divine, my way of extending my breath to something much more greater, something much more loving.

>>Faith: What role does the natural world play in your artistic expression?

>>David: The natural world combined with our cultural beliefs, has enabled us to survive hundreds of years within this desert landscape.

And our art is also a reflection and a testament to that.

In this particular piece, there are parrot designs comprised of water motifs, cloud and precipitation.

And the middle panel is an abstracted version of those parrots.

Birds and feathers are important within a cultural setting.

The parrots, like you see here, are also important because the colors of their feathers aren't just representational of the six cardinal directions, but they are a bird that can talk and talk to you.

So it has tremendous value within a cultural setting as well as how they're used and adorned on headdresses, tolitas, just to reinforce their relevancy within some of our most intimate ceremonies.

More specifically, the eagle is seen as an important intermediary between us and the heavens.

And so this design in particular here is, Tsay Whan, or eagle tail, and it's a repeated eagle tail design, and it's really looking at a pottery from a bird's eye perspective, showcasing and emulating the overall design.

And this particular piece is inspired by Julian and Maria Martinez.

So it's a piece really to pay homage to them and really can be seen as citations to the love of thousands who have came before us.

>>Faith: Can you talk a little bit about the use of lines in your work?

>>David: Yeah.

So lines are usually representational of water, rain, precipitation.

And so with my work, you see lines orientated in a way, if they're diagonal, it's falling rain.

Lines also are a great way to portray the trails and pilgrimages that were used for trade and prayer.

>>Faith: Could you share the significance of using materials like micaceous paint and silk and the importance of those materials in your work?

>>David: Yeah.

Micaceous iron oxide has a little bit of the mica flakes.

Once you see it in the sunlight, it has a glisten or a scintillating effect.

And so that primarily comes out of some of the ceramics that come from Taos-Picuris, where they include micaceous iron oxide into some of their puebloan vessels, you know, pottery.

And so since I'm dealing with motifs, iconography that come from these ceramic pieces, I felt it'd be most appropriate to also add them within some of my paintings.

And even the silk kind of brings both the designs and these modern artworks too, where they make 'em a little bit more relatable to this day and age.

>>Faith: So can you tell me about this piece?

>>David: This piece in particular is called Tham Pi Yeh or the East or Old Man Mountain.

And this is part of a polyptych four-panel piece, really kind of dedicating each panel to four of the six cardinal directions.

This one in particular is of the east and is also named Kuu Seng Pin or Old Man Rock Mountain.

And so this particular piece is comprised of bird feather water motifs, and they're depicting some of our cultural concepts where we believe the spiritual world to be a perfect reflection of this world.

And so this design, if you make an imaginary horizontal line in the middle, you can see that the top half is a perfect mirror image of the bottom half.

And so in order to include some of these pueblo and cultural concepts of above and below Zenith, Nadir, it's a good way to portray prayer.

I think it's great to be able to see some of these designs in a new format like canvas skateboards or articles of clothing.

It's a way to relate to the younger generation to showcase that these designs aren't always confined to traditional materials, but can be pushed into new ways of creating.

I think it is incredibly important to understand who you are, where you come from, and to be able to create and understand and portray some of these concepts is an incredible privilege.

Not only am I getting closer to my family and my communities, but I'm also able to explore and able to experiment and in so many ways able to hopefully teach others a little bit about Pueblo culture, a little bit about Pueblo design, and hopefully in doing so they can learn and become better neighbors, better relatives here in the Southwest.

So it's a way for me not to engage in prayer, but also a way to teach and inspire others to do the same.

SOUTH SIDE CHRONICLES Myself and Amanda both came to Columbus to attend OSU in a graduate program.

We were the only two graduate students in our class that lived on the south side.

And so we really hit it off.

We pretty much became instant best friends, and, that was in 2011.

Oh, my gosh, that was 11 years ago.

And we are still going strong.

Southside stories is really a collection of experiences and materials and obviously stories about what it is like to live on the south side.

And these stories really are about the history of the south side, but also about, um, contemporary life and what it's like to be a part of this community.

Our southside stories project has evolved quite a bit from the initial conception back in July of 2021.

When we first imagined it we thought it would be a newspaper that was very text- heavy.

We were hoping for, I don't know, 50 stories from individuals across the south side area.

But we found it was more difficult than we thought to get people to write stories.

That is asking a lot of people.

People are busy.

There is a certain element of trust that is involved in that as well.

So we now have switched gears and started interviewing people in-person.

The earliest stories that we have gathered are from people's grandparents or about immigrants coming to the Southside to work the mills and the glass factories and things like that.

Usually when you ask someone about their story of the south side, that is where they begin.

Right.

They want to tell the history of their family, what brought them to this particular place, and how that has kind of shaped their lives and their stories.

I think what surprised me the most about working with this project was how much I didn't know about the south side, about the history of the south side, about all the little hidden gems in this community.

And when we do tell people that we are working on the story about the south side, they are very excited.

They are really proud about the southside roots that they have.

This is a great graphic.

Yeah.

Columbus Ohio in the middle of the earth.

Yeah.

I think a lot of the times when we are interviewing or talking to people, it is sort of the mundane or the ordinary events that stick out.

They get talking, and they are so excited to tell their story about their mother singing at Plank's or about walking on the streets being remembered by their name.

We are not reporters.

So, it is not like we are asking direct questions, we're asking, kind of, just -- tell us a story.

Right?

It's not easy to think of something that is interesting right off the bat.

It's like having a conversation or a dialogue has been the most interesting part of this project.

Seeing the individual people and thinking about what their Southside story would be like.

So there is something about the friendliness and community that can be found here if you are willing and open to it.

That is something, I think, is really great.

My husband and I moved here.

We really wanted to live somewhere that felt like home, and the history of the southside was really intriguing to us, the diversity of the neighborhoods and the communities.

And you know, just being in a place where it felt familiar and I think that that has continued to really hold true.

Anytime i'm in any other part of the city, I think I enjoy it, but I also feel like.

I'm not from here and the southside has really kind of taken hold of me or the south end has taken hold of us as we grow older and have lived here longer and longer.

We want this newspaper to be something that people can read and interact with in different ways.

So we felt like it should be a newspaper in that it has this relationship to the community, like a free flyer-- or stuff like that.

That felt like the right form to compile stories and images and ephemera and other archival materials into --so that people could take and kind of distribute and circulate in each other's hands.

I think that, you know, not being a reporter, being an artist, and trying to really think about it from different perspectives, like allow something to be an object and not just be information.

Right?

To be an object that is visual, that's interesting, that can be given to their kids to look at, you know, to the grandparents to read about.

We hope that by compiling all this information and all this visual materials, that people will hold onto it and not just look at it and then recycle it.

But if they do, you know, please recycle it and not throw it in the trash.

ART UNITES What do we need in order to make a pet portrait?

Do we need to be just perfect at drawing and be able to make something look like a photograph.

Kazon, what do we need?

Shapes.. And?

Details.. Yeah, we just need have some shapes and details.

And in fact, tonight, we have so many shapes for you in case you have any concerns and your students know how to start their first moves with some shapes because we're going to be working big.

So you'll need shapes and you need details.

And in this case, you will need each other.

All right.

Get ready to work together.

My name is Megan Hallett, and I am the visual arts specialist here at Escalante.

I've been here for 12 years.

I'm also the director of Framework Arts, which is a local nonprofit.

And so I bring in programing at night.

And so when I'm here at night, I'm both the students art teacher during the day.

And then I'm also doing an art lesson for families at night.

Tonight's theme, it was for the third grade classes and they were doing pet portraits and they could do pets that they actually have or pets that they wish that they had and they're encouraged to experience drawing big.

So that's really their task to help their parents draw big so that we can use oil pastels.

So then also they're teaching their parents how we use the oil pastels.

Prior to being an art teacher at Escalante, I was a curator of education at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.

And part of my job there was to do family programing.

So when I became an art teacher, I loved working with the students, but I also I've always loved working with families and getting a chance to see the students interacting with their parents.

So I started a nonprofit called Framework Arts in order to apply for grants and get funding and to be able to not only bring in other artists from the community, but to pay for food so that we can have snacks and food while we're working and to pay for the supplies.

And framework arts does not just Family arts studio, it also does other community based work and occasionally I'll work with adults.

Or I'll work with the city library.

I've done family arts to do even at other schools, but for the most part it's our our main program and we've been doing it since 2014.

We're trying a different model this year, and so we'll do eight total for the year.

And there have been times in the past where we might do a multi week one.

So I've done a ceramics class that lasted four weeks.

So family at the same families come every Wednesday for four weeks.

This year, the difference in our model is that I'm doing it by grade level.

The kids know the assignment ahead of time and are learning it during the day so that they are then the support/co-teacher for their parents at night.

it gives the kids a sense of empowerment.

But it also I mean, I think the kids are relatively comfortable making art.

I don't know how comfortable their parents are.

And so I let the kid negotiate that with their family member instead of me trying to figure it out when I have so many people in the room and so I tell the kids during the day, this will be your job.

These are the few things that you have to go over.

You should talk to your parents before they get here and let them know we're going to be using an oil pastels.

You know, this is what we're going to be drawing so they can prep a little.

And so, yeah, I'm just trying it with varying degrees of success.

I'm sure depending on how old the kids are or how familiar they are with whatever we're doing, but just trying to use them as co teachers.

From what I've seen, the results we're getting more and more people want more community getting involved, which is not always the same ones that we usually get.

Now it's more, new ones.

And the result is, I mean, we get good reviews on it.

They come back and they want more.

And Ms.. Hallet, when are you going to do another art class?

And that tells me a lot that that they like they like classes like this, events like this.

Because it brings us together.

I mean, after COVID, it was it was bad.

And as soon as we came back to school, she was on top of it.

And it showed all of us.

And I'm saying all of us, because I'm also a parent here.

My son comes here and I mean, we're all here together.

We all know each other and we trust each other.

And that's that's what we love.

She did something new this year.

And it's an awesome outcome because all the teachers are showing up to.

That means a lot to the parents as well, because it doesn't only show Ms. Hallett it's here.

It's also their their own teacher, which to me is important because they only see the teacher maybe when it's needed, which is on conference, SEPs, stuff like that.

And when they show support it means a lot.

I mean, and like I said, it makes it better, more welcoming, more they feel more comfortable.

Okay, the teacher's here and the parents are here, and that's better for us One of the things that I've enjoyed about family art studio having done it for so many years and so many different topics is that I have, first of all, have families.

There are families tonight that have been coming for, you know, four or five years.

And so and in some cases, like, for example, the first class I ever did was family portraits.

And then I taught that family portrait class again seven years later.

And the family had two new kids.

So they have a family portrait that's on their wall at home that is just a small family.

When they first started with me with that program and then they had to redo it so that they could put in additional children.

And so it's part of their story and their experience, not just with the school, but also the neighborhood, because then those kids go on to junior high and high school, and then this is an opportunity for them to come back in this class tonight, I have an intern and she was at Escalante for many years, and now she's in eighth grade at the middle school.

And she comes back and helps me with this program.

So it just builds a strong sense of community over time.

It's something that we never take the time to do at home.

We never do something like this as a family, and here, we are taking the time to create something as families.

We all contribute ideas to something wholesome here.

The teacher encourages us to come and gives us confidence to participate, we are always welcome here and we like these classes they have different themes, and we like that the focus is in the family and not just the children, but the entire family.

Yeah I think it's really neat that I get to teach her the things that I'm learning, like drawing and she always supports me in what I do at school.

I tell her what happened each day and what my teacher said, my mom always says she's glad that everything is going well and she always encourages me.

I like that I get to show her different things and how to do them, help her just as she's helped me before.

What I would say about the new model that I'm noticing is a couple of things.

One, it used to be that I would open it up to multiple grade levels Tonight is a third grade team.

The teachers are a team.

The kids are a team.

They knew that this was their night and they wanted to make the most of it.

So I do think that it has increased their sense of ownership because they and they all know each other.

So then they are talking to each other and sharing what they you know, they already have that relationship.

But then also next week when we get together again, and this is what I've noticed, that the evenings prior to this, when we get together again, comments are made about, Ms. Hallett, did you see what my mom did at the art class or.

Oh, that that piece?

Because the stuff is on display right now in the art room, they will then be able to say, Oh, that's the one that my mom and I did.

And so it's just spreading that experience and just letting them take over the real estate in a in a way that kids should, you know.

And and I think that sometimes schools struggle with opportunities for kids to do that.

And and this like they're they don't act like that during the day which is fine it's just a slightly different feel and and it's nice for them to you know to be the it's almost like they're concierge for the space.

I think it's important to do this kind of programing for families in any community.

Families coming together with art materials, making stuff alongside each other.

I think it's particularly important to do it in public schools.

And the reason there's there's multiple reasons.

One, a school should function like a community center, you know, depending on where you live, especially here in Salt Lake City, you don't have the same easy access to a lot of resources that other people have.

Like, if you were to go from this neighborhood to the Museum of Fine Arts, it's like a half an hour.

It's far outside of your zone of comfort.

And so I see public schools just have an opportunity to act almost as a community hub.

And why not?

We have all the supplies.

The kids are comfortable here.

We've got the desks.

It's easy to communicate with parents and bring them in and to work together.

But even more importantly than that is it's an opportunity for parents to get comfortable in the school.

And the research shows that if your parents are comfortable at your school, it helps your school success, and it just contributes to the overall family success.

For them to be able to come here and not come here just for a parent teacher conference or for discipline issue or even I mean, we do lots of things during the day, but to just come and really settle in and take your coat off and work alongside your kid in this environment, interact with their teachers in a much more casual, fun, kind of chaotic environment.

It's just really good.

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Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: FredSouthwestern Arts &nd, Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME-TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation.

.New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts.

and Viewers Like You.