Frederick Hammersley Foundation... New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund 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.

THIS TIME, ON COLORES!

ONE OF THE MOST PROMINENT NATIVE CARTOONISTS WORKING TODAY, RICARDO CATÉ OPENS UP ABOUT COVID, OPIOIDS AND WHERE HIS HUMOR ORIGINATES.

LIGHTNING SPRITES - MATTHEW MOHR'S WHIMISCAL KINETIC SCULPTURES ARE POWERED BY THE SUN.

BRINGING NEW AND UNTOLD STORIES TO THE STAGE, THE AFRICAN AMERICAN M ENSEMBLE COMPANY IS CREATING A LEGACY.

MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM CONSERVATOR JIM DEYOUNG IS PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE.

IT'S ALL AHEAD ON COLORES!

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?

>> Ebony Isis Booth: Do you like to laugh at your own jokes?

>> Ricardo Caté: Oh man!

I love doing that.

In fact, I sometimes- I'll say once every seven cartoons I will do that.

>> Booth: Yeah >> Caté: Where I'm actually giggling and going "oh my gosh this is good!"

great, right?

>> Booth: What tickles you especially these days?

What's your vibe for humor right now?

>> Caté: I think just uh- simplicity.

Just taking complex and making it like so simple that you know- you just have to laugh.

>> Booth: I'm excited to have this conversation with you One of the things that I had the first opportunity was to look at was your children's coloring book.

>> Caté: I got a couple of calls from certain entities asking if I could uh- develop a coloring book or one or two pages of, you know - something that had to do with the lockdown and how kids could cope with this.

But, I did it in a way where I was like thinking what would this little five year old be thinking?

Or this ten year old or this uh- teenager.

What would they be thinking?

And I drew from my teaching experiences.

>> Booth: I'm curious, what's your favorite cartoon in that book?

>> Caté: The chief washing his hands with the raccoon in the the raccoon is across from him washing his hands.

See - because if you study or know anything about raccoons, they're always washing their hands, they're always doing that.

And so, the chief is washing his hands and he's telling the raccoon- he's looking at him, he says "What.

You didn't think you were the only one obsessed with hand-washing?"

>> Booth: <laughs> What's going through your mind when you're developing that particular cartoon image?

>> Caté: I really did have a hard time but, I knew something had to be done because these kids you know-- they- as tough as it was for me, these kids are experiencing the same thing and so, it was necessary to come out with something like this.

And I thought it was very.

very important to include language where it was not so much all these PSA's that were kind of coming on TV, "Get your vaccines!

Wear your mask!

--" and they're like talking at you, they're not really talking to you.

>> Caté: I find myself really thinking about the cartoons and what words I put in, what image I put in.

Which wasn't there when I first started.

>> Booth: When did it develop?

>> Caté: In 2005 I was drawing for Fort Lewis College.

I had a cartoon strip about college life and I called it Fort Leisure.

Southern Ute Tribe, they got wind of my cartoon and they asked me if I could develop some cartoons for their newspaper The Southern Ute Drum and it was the first time I thought about developing Native characters.

I really had to put a lot of thought into it; what they were going to look like, um- is it my tribe where I come from?

We have a Chief and I grew up next-door to him my whole life and this guy was hilarious.

I wanted to make sure that the Chief has a better vocabulary, basically than the General who is this Custer looking type of character.

It takes a step away from Hollywood's stereotype of Natives where we're like <Grunting> we're just grunting basically.

I didn't want that for my characters.

>> Booth: Right.

>> Caté: ...and if you uh - look at my cartoons.

The Chief always has the upper hand and uh- I like it that way because I basically turned the tables.

>> Caté: Sometimes I wake up and I go "Ooh, I wonder what the Chief is going to say today?"

Sometimes he says things that I don't want - I probably wouldn't want to say or... >> Booth: But the Chief can say that?

>> Caté: Yeah.

But the Chief speaks the truth and it's pretty cool and scary that that happens.

And so, I hope that the Chief that I draw in the coloring books, or wherever, even in just a single panel for the New Mexican.

I hope the Chief is that to - to people, where they trust him and they appreciate that he is able to uh- say and do these things, - and oh my gosh!

We're talking like he is like a real person.

>> Booth: <Laughs> >> Caté: and- I guess he is!

>> Booth: That seems like a heavy mantle, right?

To flip that narrative, but you manage to do so with humor.

I'm really curious about where your humor originates.

>> Caté: We - we've all experienced as Native something horrific you know.

But at the same time, you look at Native people now oh my gosh!

In my travels I have been able to visit uh- a lot of communities throughout the country because of what I do and I notice that one thing is that humor is just right at the focal point of the- that community- they love to laugh at themselves.

>> Booth: Talk to me about the significance of using the coloring book to talk to children about opioid use?

>> Caté: I wanted to come at it where it was like uh- this addiction was something that everyone could help this person to uh- to address this problem and not just say "you're an alcoholic!

You're a drug user!"

I didn't want that, I wanted more of people that weren't alcoholics or addicted to opioids to understand that these people are going through something and that it is something where they really need help.

If it's helping people deal with opioids or this pandemic, with everything that this country is going through, well then, yeah.

I've done my job and so I'm really happy with the direction that this cartoon is going.

And uh, if we're all in this together well then, I'll do whatever I can to- help the kids or the elderly.

>> Booth: Yeah.

>> Caté: ...and so this is my contribution.

>> Booth: Right, you're like the spoonful of sugar to help the medicine of these trying times go down, but beyond that, like- it's just delightful, absolutely delightful to talk to you.

>> Caté: Thank you.

I came out with this cartoon simply because- I loved drawing cartoons and- somehow since 2007, this cartoon has become something that people really look up to and <long pause> we'll see what will happen in the next few years.

LIGHTNING SPRITES?

For a while there, I couldn't produce anything, when the pandemic hit.

The art just went away.

And so, I was looking around for inspiration and it just -- One morning, looking at the kitchen with my cup of tea, Looking out my window, I was like, "I love these things."

I've had these solar powered toys for, you know, years now.

They keep going.

There's something just simple and lovely about the platform.

But what if we combined that with a more open-ended approach to art?

What if we make it a little more open for interpretation?

And sculpture, and solar power, and kinetic, and boom, it was just there.

And so, then the journey became about, how can I make something that expresses the way I'm feeling about the pandemic.

Here I'm drawing different possible heads for these Again, thinking about how you know, we interact with these forms daily, the prescription pill bottle, or this is a top for a tube that you twist, and you can open.

But then, the pandemic sort of put us right back in that moment where these very mundane tasks become much larger actions in our daily lives.

And I just thought, you know, this is a moment that's worth considering.

I worked with Susan Van Pelt Petry to work on a series of gestures.

Susan created a gesture that switches from recoil, which is what the pandemic made us all do, to reaching, reaching forward and grasping something new.

When you see this, I essentially translated it into sketches.

So, here we are at reaching and it's going to go back to recoil.

And so, now they're being modeled by Todd Perkins, who's doing the engineering behind them and you know, we're working together on these and it'll be -- they're gonna be great.

(HUM FROM MOTOR) Just need to remove the support material now.

That's the part you see here.

So, I continued to work on them and then I got a call from David and Janet at the Dublin Arts Council, saying we'd like you to do an installation for the art and wellness show.

They're whimsical.

They're fun.

You're curious about them when you see them.

They look like common objects, some parts of it.

So, there's a familiarity there, but there's also a strangeness about them, like an otherworldly -- And I think that's where Matthew came up with the Sprites idea.

Lightning sprite is essentially a moment, a flash of lightning above the clouds.

It looks unearthly.

It has a reddish glow to it.

It's only there for milliseconds, but it's like something you've never seen before.

And I thought about a lightning storm coming through Dublin and depositing these lightning sprites around -- around the forest of Dublin, as if the lightning struck a tree and left one of these little sculptures there.

[ Thunder ] [WHIMSICAL MUSIC] If we come out together and experience art, it's a way to move through what we've been through the past year and so, we just hope that the art makes you Laugh, and gives you joy, and that's our goal.

We're at the beginning stages of technology that will enable us to explore many, many different ways of expression.

And I see these sculptures as being part of that dialogue.

A PLACE FOR STORYTELLING.

"She gave me her recipe" [LAUGHTER] My name is Shirley Richardson, and I am co-founder and executive director of M We are the oldest, not just African-American theater company, but the oldest theater company here in Miami-Dade County.

M Ensemble Company started in 1971.

That's a long, long story... under the direction and founder, the late T.G.

Cooper.

And he decided to come to the University of Miami and pick up his Master's Degree.

And while he was there, he had to do a project called Purlie Victorious, and he needed, uh, a black cast and a white cast.

Unfortunately, there weren't many black, students on campus at the University of Miami.

During that time, I think there were about three of us.

So he recruited the three of us.

T.G.

left, but before he left, he left some money and he left a staff in place.

And we maintained that relationship with him until his We are here now at the Sandrell Rivers Theater, after being bounced around from one place to another.

I can't even tell you how many places we've been.

There've been so many, you know, trying to keep up the legacy.

[SINGING] In this space.

It allows the company to show the audience, the technical aspects, because in many places that we've been in, we have not been able to really see it the way we really want to see it.

You know, when we did the Kings of Harlem, we had all these seats were out and they were conformed into a basketball stadium.

The space was set up, you know, to give you that ambiance, you know, being back in that time in this old stadium where, um, the first basketball, black basketball team played and the story behind all of that.

But the biggest impact is that the presentations that we bring to the stage.

It's the plays.

It's the playwrights.

You know, the plays that people never heard of, stories that they never heard of.

These are the stories, our stories, these are our words.

and so that's important.

It's a lot of work, but, you know, it's the passion that keep us going.

And hopefully when it's time to pass that torch, we will be able to identify those people who have that same kind of passion and willing to make the sacrifices that keep it going.

You know, we're 50 years old now.

So, that is a legacy and that we are in institution.

COMMITED TO PRESERVING ART.

>> Jim DeYoung: The history of anything is the history of its survival, and the history of art depends a great deal on its ability to survive.

>> Margaret Andera: And as a museum, we are charged with the preservation of these objects forever and ever, and this is Jim's job.

>> DeYoung: I was hired to do the in-house matting and I was not a conservator at that time.

It's changed a lot since I started here in 1976.

When I first came to the art museum, I thought it was a layover on my way to grad school, where I was going to be able to study under a famous artist.

I still was very focused on becoming an artist.

I thought the museum work is interesting and then the conservation work was interesting, but I have to get back to my art.

And I would say about 10 years after I started here, so around the mid-80s, I finally realized that hey, I'm on a roll here.

This is something that could be a destination.

So this is the main area, but this is my old lab.

I had to kind of create a clean space in there every day and keep the door closed and make sure that I was able to preserve the art amidst all of the chaos.

>> DeYoung: Well the museum never really thought of having a conservation lab.

It was never in the planning stages.

There wasn't even a thought of having a frame shop.

>> Andera: He understood that if the museum was going to continue to grow at the pace that it had been growing, and once the investment in the Calatrava building was clear, that that was going to happen.

>> DeYoung: And I saw, I just stared at that miscellaneous storage space on the blueprint and thought, no, that's the new conservation lab.

It wasn't planned for.

>> Andera: That was an important moment in this institution's history because we went from kind of a smaller, local institution to a more regional and national and even international museum.

>> DeYoung: We grew like an adolescent, where the growth of the collection, of the building, facilities, of the staff always was outrunning the conservation program's ability to keep up with it.

>> Andera: That conservation lab was a way of saying, if you're going to do that from an institutional point of view, you have to make sure you're bringing the rest of the museum with you.

>> DeYoung: It was generally known that we really had outgrown our space.

I kind of elbowed my way into it proactively as much as I could.

>> Terri White: He also did, I think, all or most of the fundraising to make this space the way it is and to equip with the materials and equipment that we need.

I consider my single greatest accomplishment here was to actually get a really professional home for the conservation program.

>> White: We develop a relationship with the They sort of become like old friends.

>> Andera: They're the ones who really know the collection in a way that most curators won't ever know because they're the ones who handle the works.

>> DeYoung: We try not to move it as much as possible.

It's the Cornelia Parker once-in-a-lifetime Artist intent is very important.

It's a window into the thinking of any particular The creativity is certainly involved in solving unique problems with each individual piece.

>> DeYoung: The sculptor is Duane Hanson.

The piece is entitled "The Janitor".

>> Andera: He looks like a real person.

He's one of the most popular pieces in the collection.

>> DeYoung: This is why we have white tape around here, to keep people from touching and handling this because people really want to steal the pens or add pens.

This is a very fat file, probably one of the biggest files we have.

>> White: We have letters from Duane Hanson himself.

>> DeYoung: Giving us very specific information on its >> White: That include clumps of hair and his permission for us to use glue of any kind and replace that hair.

>> DeYoung: You want to make it as convincing as possible.

The glasses and the pipe and the case, they're all definitely from the period that Duane Hansin selected.

>> White: So he had the fun of going out and sourcing all those materials that I asked for.

>> DeYoung: And so Terri White was able to fashion some new leather straps.

>> White: So we know that it was very important for him to preserve that illusion of this figure that was sort of fresh and alive in 1973.

>> DeYoung: There were things that I never dreamed that the conservation field would get me to this point.

I thought I had to become a famous artist in order to get to the experiences that I was having.

One of the artists that was the reason I got into conservation was Wassily Kandinsky.

It awakens in me my discovery of art.

He would have a paintbrush in each hand.

Probably the most profound experience I had was, my older sister was so struck with my interest in art and especially that artist that for Christmas that year, I was, I think, 12 years old, she gave me a coffee-table-sized book of Kandinsky, which I still have.

A few years ago we did an exhibition on Kandinsky.

I had to do all the very close inspection of these Kandinsky paintings in Paris and then oversee their packing.

And I could barely catch my breath because each painting brought out, I had this vision of this 12 year old turning this page in this coffee table book, and I just wanted to get back to that 12 year old and say, you're not gonna believe this, but when you're in your late 60s, you're gonna be doing this.

To have that kind of access to that painting in the same room and having my magnifying visor on and inspecting them and seeing the brush work, and you almost start communicating with the artist at that point.

It really creates almost a time-traveling kind of effect.

>> Andera: I appreciate his dedication to the museum.

He is someone who I would say unfailingly has the museum's best interest at heart.

>> White: There are so many works of art that he has saved that might not otherwise be here in the collection if it weren't for him.

>> DeYoung: When you actually have institutions, museums, committed to preserving art all the way back to the beginning of human history, there's a difference between a fossil and a person who maybe renders a fossil or a cave painting.

I think it's really important to be able to keep it as intact as possible the way the person who made it or the culture who viewed it, who treasured it and passed it on to the next generation, why did they value that?

And keeping that value alive is very important.

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"UNTIL NEXT WEEK, THANK YOU FOR WATCHING."

Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: Frederick Hammersley Foundation New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund 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.

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