Frederick Hammersley Foundation... New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund at the Albuquerque Community Foundation ...New Mexico Arts, division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts.

...and Viewers Like You.

THIS TIME, ON COLORES!

STATE HISTORIAN ROBERT MARTÍNEZ REFLECTS ON HOW NEW MEXICANS HAVE RESPONDED TO PANDEMICS OVER THE CENTURIES.

USING SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS, FIBER ARTIST SHERRY TAMBURO CREATES COLORFUL ECO-FRIENDLY ACCESSORIES.

EXPLORING ART HISTORY AND POP CULTURE, PAINTER KELSEY ROLLING FOCUSES ON REPRESENTATION TAKING A MODERN APPROACH TO AN ANCIENT ART FORM, POTTERS KELLY LEVER AND ADAM RUSSELL MAKE FUNCTIONAL ART.

IT'S ALL AHEAD ON COLORES!

LEARNING FROM HISTORY.

>>Rob Martinez: Well, I gotta tell you, we are living through history right now as we speak.

Here we are in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, today in New Mexico.

>>Ebony Isis Booth: What are some of the earliest recorded cases of pandemic in New Mexico?

>>Martinez: We know from records that epidemics and pandemics hit in the 1630s, the 1670s.

Jemez Pueblo was hit hard in 1728.

About a hundred people died there.

At Zuni in that same time period, about 200 people died.

And it's interesting.

The local people told the priest they wanted to bury their people according to their own ancient rites.

So we also get an insight into the cultural exchanges that were going on at the time.

So every 20 years, every 30 years, there's pandemics and diseases.

Smallpox.

Measles.

They come to New Mexico and they come through Guadalupe del Paso.

That's now Juarez in Mexico.

That was part of New Mexico, so you have a record, the church records.

You know that there's a problem when you see people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s being buried.

That there's diseases coming through.

Because it was much more common for babies to die at birth or old people to die.

That was regular and commonplace.

But in the actual area of Guadalupe del Paso, you had in 1763, cases of tabardillo.

This is typhus.

So these are the different diseases that come through Guadalupe del Paso.

But they come up to New Mexico and throughout the decades, the Pueblos and the Native groups I want to talk about 1780, because a smallpox a pandemic moves north from Mexico into New Mexico.

And it hits New Mexico so hard that about a quarter of the population dies.

About 5,000 people.

Now, there's this interesting guy named Cristobal Maria de Larrañaga.

He was born in Mexico City about 1750.

He ends up marrying a local woman at Isleta Pueblo in 1775.

And he's a physician.

He's trained, probably in Mexico City, to be a physician.

So he's around for this smallpox epidemic that hits New Mexico, pandemic actually.

And what he does around 1804, he's traveling to Mexico City.

He brings up scabs that are from victims of smallpox.

And then he brings children of soldiers from Chihuahua, Mexico around 1804 to inoculate, to vaccinate, the people of New Mexico.

So they say that Cristobal de Larrañaga saved a generation of New Mexicans around 1804 to 1809.

So that's one of the more interesting stories, I think, that we had vaccines in New Mexico in the early 1800s.

>>Booth: Rob, what other examples of pandemics that you find especially interesting are there?

>>Martinez: Well, I think when we look at the Spanish flu, there's a lot of things that I find interesting about it.

We tend to focus on 1918, but we need to remember the Spanish flu did not originate in Spain.

It came from Asia into Europe during World War 1.

There was a world war with soldiers from all over the world fighting in Europe.

They are infected and then they go home around 1917.

And they're taking this flu with them to their homes.

So this actually starts around 1915 and it really peaks in 1918.

In New Mexico, we get our first cases around September of 1918 at a military fort.

Then, just a couple months later in Deming, New Mexico.

And then it spreads like wildfire.

So it really peaks out around 1918, but it continues until about 1920 or 1921.

So I think that's what I find really fascinating is that we think these events tend to last about a year.

But actually it was an event, a worldwide event, that lasted about five years.

So I think we need to keep that in mind with the current situation we're in right now.

It's not over.

We're gonna be fighting this for a while.

So it takes time.

That's what I find interesting about the different pandemics and epidemics I've looked at.

>>Booth: How are residents of New Mexico responding in new ways to COVID-19 and coronavirus?

>>Martinez: Well, I hope what we're doing is learning from our ancestors.

I mean, that's wonderful that during that late colonial period, Larrañaga brought a vaccine, and we were open to being vaccinated.

And we were vaccinated.

There were other cases.

When the Americans came along the Santa Fe Trail, they also brought illness that affected the Kansas native peoples of the plains.

And then, in 1898, the Pueblos are hit hard by another smallpox infection.

What we learned here in New Mexico during the Spanish flu around '18, 1918, excuse me, 1918, is that we were unprepared.

After all this, we were unprepared.

San Ildefonso Pueblo was hit hard.

We read of 50 burials in Albuquerque in one week.

There are mask mandates in certain towns in northern New Mexico.

Churches are closed.

Theaters are closed.

But we're one of the poorer states in the United States at that time and we're hit really hard.

So this leads to the creation of the state health department in New Mexico.

So one of the things we learned from history is that we need to be prepared for these events.

They're not just things of the past.

And that's what we're dealing with right now.

Not just at a state level.

But we need to do it at a local community level, and a national level, and work with the world.

Because in centuries past, it was trails that spread these diseases.

Humans and animals carrying them.

But now we have airplanes.

We have airplanes crossing the globe at vast speeds.

What are we gonna do?

Not just now.

We'll get through this.

I'm hopeful that we'll get through this current COVID-19 pandemic.

But, what are we going to do 20 years from now?

30 years from now?

50 years from now?

Because something else is going to come up.

We need to come up with ways to help our children, and our children's children to fight off these pandemics.

WEARABLE ART.

(SOFT PIANO) From a very young age, I was always involved in some type of material or fiber.

My mother sewed and thought it would be a good idea for me to learn.

In the 1970s, I got involved with the Expansion Arts Program in Florida.

I learned how to weave.

I have a couple of looms.

I learned how to spin.

I mainly work in wool, silk sometimes bamboo fibers and sometimes I get the fleece that is, that I have to take and wash, and card and dye.

So it's all sustainable materials.

Nothing has to die.

Recently, I was in a workshop in Austin, TX by a woman from the Netherlands and she taught a class on making coats.

I made a coat and It was all one piece.

And you have to make it so large, five times as big as the coat because wool shrinks.

And, we laid the fiber on there and we had to add different pieces so that we could get the fullness.

And, then we had the sleeves.

No glue, no sewing; it's all manipulated.

Wool has scales in it and when it's warmed up and there's friction the scales open and then they connect to each other.

The scarves with the silk; I have a silk base which I dye all my silk and then I lay the wool on the silk, now I have to use cold water because I don't want the wool to felt before it goes through the silk.

There's no sewing on these, it's a piece of silk and it' wool.

By slowly massaging the fibers, they go through the silk and connect on the other side and it becomes one continuous piece of fabric.

On my eco printed pieces, I use natural dye.

There's a bug, it's called Cochineal that grows on cactus I can get a bright fuchsia with that.

So these were eco-printed yesterday.

I cook for 3-4 hours actually I steam these in an electric turkey roaster I love that, I just discovered that.

And then you take it out and let it sit over night before you undo it and it's really hard to not undo it because you really want to see what you have and I haven't unrolled them yet.

I did two scarves together on this one.

And, so his is basically what you do.

My, this looks gorgeous.

I have to take these apart.

The bottom one had already been dyed with Cochineal, the bug that grows on cactus.

Oh, God, that's gorgeous.

See, I never know what is going to happen.

This is eucalyptus right here.

Wow.

And, this is sycamore.

This is more eucalyptus.

It didn't do too much there.

But, this one is really.

This is an oak leaf.

Came out gorgeous.

I'm experimenting with doing a lot of pods.

It's kind of like magic because you put the fibers down and then you wet them with warm soapy water and then you wrap them in a pool noodle and you use bubble wrap and then you roll.

It's quite intensive but you get a good workout.

And then when it starts coming together it takes a form of its own because wool has a memory.

I always have an idea.

I have a sketchbook, so I try and sketch everything out before I do it.

It doesn't always come out like my sketch but it is close and I'll put towels and fabric in them while they're wet so that they'll dry in the shape I want them to dry in the shape that I want them.

The pods are like a cocoon.

They are like a safe space ant that's what they remind me of.

I'm making lighting fixtures.

I have a cage that I get and then the insides go in it.

Then I felt around it and those are fun to make, bags.

Wool is so durable.

They last forever.

Hats, I do hats I love making hats and I'm doing some jewelry, necklaces and I'm doing some cuffs that I make.

I've been working on acoustical pieces like this piece behind me.

This is layered felt it took me six weeks to make that thing.

It absorbs the sound.

This piece is called Among the Fronds.

First, I did a whole layer of just wool on the bottom and then I made pre-felt, which is very loosely together but it holds together and I cut leaves out and then I put tape in between.

I put an edge on the background and then put a piece of tape so the whole thing wouldn't fuse together.

The vases I make using a resist.

It's called a resist and its floor underlayment.

If you're putting down pergo or something, there's a white base that you put down before you put it on there, well I used that for my resist.

So you just cut a shape out.

Everything starts out flat and you put fiber on one side and you flip it and put fiber on the other side and you usually do four or five layers so that you can get a nice thick felt and then you cut a hole and then you pull your resist out and then you start to get your shape.

This is a cat cave, it's the first on I've made but they seem to be really popular in Europe.

This was all white.

I used white wool and then I eco printed this.

So this whole thing was flat and it had a round resist inside so I cut a hole, pulled the resist out and then I fold it.

When you fold it, that's when you get it to the stiff stage.

This is five layers of wool on here but then this is eucalyptus here and some roses in here, rose petals and rose leaves which give a nice green and the whole thing was eco printed.

QUESTIONING HOW WE SEE.

My name's Kelsey Rolling.

I'm a painter full-time right now.

I do a lot of work that focuses on intersectional feminism, 'cause of lack of representation.

Basically just figurative works of women of color, I would describe my work as, with varying influences depending on what's going on in my life.

Kelsey's a portrait artist, so when we approach portraiture that third wall is completely broken so we get to stare at the subject, spend time with the subject, which is the really impactful thing about portraiture work and the ability that Kelsey is able to have on her audience.

It's just this profound sense of like, who is the subject, how can I get to know them, how can I do a little more research to understand them?

Especially in regards to the pop culture references and the art history references that she has throughout her work.

I get a lot of my ideas from looking at a bunch of things.

I'm really fascinated by how saturated our visual world is, so I look at social media things like Instagram and see cool photos or paintings.

So it starts with getting reference images.

I use mixed media.

I paint with a lot of acrylic paint as base layers and then I use oil paints to do my figures mainly, so I can get really good detail on them.

I'll pick a solid color that I think is really beautiful and just base the whole painting energetically around that.

And that's why I start with the acrylics and then I'll do a rough sketch of the figure, and then I'll paint it in with oils from there.

A lot of what makes something look real is focusing on things that you wouldn't want to include on a face almost, if you're drawing it.

I remember when I was younger, I would draw things and I wouldn't include certain shadows, or certain blemishes, or certain marks under the eyes that really make something look realistic.

So I try to just focus on the little highlights and different colors and shading, 'cause there's just so much variation that goes into a face and skin tones.

I look at a lot of references, but painting as it's seen and not how your brain wants to see it.

I think that's made me expand my idea of beauty in a lot of ways too, which was nice.

I'm just more accepting of a lot of different things, 'cause it all just looks so beautiful to me.

The type of response that we typically get from Kelsey's work comes from a audience that's more connected with social media.

So we get a little bit, mostly consisting of young people just really vibing her work, really into the subject matter she's pursuing.

I know my art isn't necessarily geared towards a younger audience, but I think having people who look like me or can relate to me and see me as an artist who's just painting people that look something like them would be really nice, 'cause that's what I wanted when I was younger, so I hope to have that for people who need that as well, regardless of how old they are.

I grew up in a different time than it is now.

We all grew up in a time where there wasn't really a lot of places where you'd see black people or brown people in things.

That really influenced me a lot as a kid because I know a lot of other people can relate to wanting to look different or act different.

Growing up, it's hard when you're just like, where am I in these places?

I got to a point where I was like, I can just paint my representation that I want.

It kind of serves as filling gaps in places where I think they need to be filled.

People gain an understanding and can relate to people if they see them.

If you grew up with a bunch of people who looked really different, you don't think that's weird.

If you grow in Reno and there's not a lot of brown people, you don't really know how to interact with them sometimes.

And I experienced that growing up, is just people being confused by my hair or confused about my appearance 'cause they're a biracial couple so they didn't understand.

More exposure to different types of people just creates more tolerance in a way, or accepting in a way, or just normalization at least.

I want people to stop for a moment.

I want it to have enough detail, enough confusion in it that people take a moment to look at it.

I'm intrigued by personal understanding of it, 'cause I think everybody responds to everything differently given their background and given their opinions on art.

I would like them to just like question like where we see people and like how we see them, and like how we interact with them, and like recognize beauty in different forms and different ways.

COLLABORATING ARTFORMS.

The pot never forgets the hands that make it.

So I think that that's something that I want each person to walk away with is that, that feeling, that compassion, that creativity and that love.

Kelly and I are actually both classically trained as painters.

And we met in painting school in Bowling Green, Ohio, actually.

Kelly is a lifelong potter and the correlation between painting and ceramics was not obvious to me at first.

I ended up buying some used equipment and starting a studio within our home, kind of doing more of the art fair circuit in Ohio.

And at that time, Adam had his painting studio in the same So, while he was painting, I would make pottery.

And then he started sort of commandeering my pots to paint And eventually 10 years later, he was converted to the dark side of pottery.

I couldn't make pots.

And I had to paint on her pots to begin with lo and behold people loved them.

We had a little bit of commercial success with those It was this kind of whole new world between painting, making impression, but also, creating something into three-dimensional reality.

Painting for me at that time was mostly about creating an illusion to make something three-dimensional was a whole new world.

Pottery to me is a meditation.

I love the process.

I love centering the clay.

I love the feeling and how it relates inside of me.

So kind of using the elements, using the earth, using the water, the fire, the kiln, the air to dry it Differentiating between Kelly and I's work has become more difficult over time because, like any good partnership over time, it's really become hers, mine, and ours.

So, a lot of the things we just simply make together, those things we sign KWP Key West Pottery, just our studio makers.

We get people from all over the world that have collected And we also have a really big local following as well.

I love making the functional wear.

So not necessarily the one of a kind but production items.

I love art for the everyday.

Being an artist in the Keys is wonderful.

There's absolutely no shortage of inspiration.

The wildlife, we have exotic birds of every variety that change throughout the year, you know, and that's how we can see the seasons.

And we have a full range of, of works.

We definitely gear towards, more fine art, being painters.

We really love the one of a kind.

So even my production wares, we tend to incorporate imagery and, color and try to take a modern, approach to an ancient art form.

Our work is very unique and very colorful and color is an indication of health.

So having the full spectrum present can give you that feeling, that good feeling, that good vibe.

What I love about the Keys is that there is a certain colloquial nature to the culture down here where we're populated with plenty of intellectuals.

There's a lot of actually quite famous, authors and artists.

And at the same time, we have this kind of Caribbean based culture that is very welcoming of anyone.

It doesn't seem like it is elitist or, you know.

This work is for everyone, you know, and, and that really kind of speaks to the core value of, I think, why we make the work to begin with.

That's why I like it.

Plus the weather's not so bad, you know.

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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.

(CLOSED CAPTIONING BY KNME-TV)