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.

THIS TIME, ON COLORES!

GROUNDED IN CLAY, ROSE B. SIMPSON OF SANTA CLARA PUEBLO SHARES HOW POTTERY IS AT THE HEART OF HER CULTURE.

ROSE B. SIMPSON PUTS THE PEDAL TO THE METAL IN HER RESTORED 1985 EL CAMINO "MARIA."

DESIGNER KENNY JONE'S LOVE FOR VIRGINIA BEACH ALL COMES TOGETHER IN HIS AWARD-WINNING NIKE SNEAKER DESIGN.

IT'S ALL AHEAD ON COLORES!

GROUNDED IN CLAY >>Rose B. Simpson: I just noticed something I didn't notice before.

There's light coming in and it's amazing.

You look inside and it's this- like, this one little- there's a hole right here and the light is just coming inside really beautifully.

A metaphor!

[Laughter] I lost somebody close to me recently at the Pueblo.

We've had a lot of losses.

There's only so many of us.

We have this information, we have this knowledge that um- it's beautiful, it's brilliant, it's just the flavor, the taste, the smells that no one else on the planet could understand.

And yet, does that change?

Does that end?

You know, and how do we persist or understand what it is- that flavor is, and how does it- do we let it transform?

Do we let it die?

Do we let it, do we- scream and kick and fight to keep it alive?

I've always been- we got to keep our people alive in order to learn our traditions.

You can't, you know, we can't be passing on the language if we're not there.

So what is- what does healthy look like?

What is alive?

What is living?

What is real?

Experience, and active, and life, an active life full of agency and clarity, and health, and direction, and humility, and hard work and rest.

What does that look like?

And I- really, I feel like I chose this pot.

Because my life's work has been about honoring that story, and not just the pretty parts, and not the- not the um- you know, the ones that are exploitable, easily digestible, palatable truth that people really want from our story.

And there's the genocide.

There's the deep heartbreak.

There's the denial of it.

The work, the hard work to try and live through that pain.

There's the- all the leaders of that.

All the ways that we- we work to survive, right?

And what does that look like?

And there's so many ways that that manifests.

This piece really, really hit me.

It's so aesthetically, the exact flavor of what I know to be my home.

And the way that it's chipped.

The way that it's been through a lot.

[Laughter] It feels like an honest representation of this experience.

And I love that when I came in here and the first thing I did was look inside, that light was coming through that hole and Illuminating the inside.

And for me, I feel like that's been the journey.

Is to find out we are this vessel.

we are all this vessel.

This is a representation of our being, and how do we illuminate what's within?

Our aesthetic is heuristic, right, so our aesthetics are very based on place.

And so, you know, I look around this room and all the different pots and they're made in different places.

With the clay that's there, and the clay that's in Acoma, is different from the clay that's in Santa Clara and that's going to change how those pots look.

And so you know, the way the wind blows, the way the light shines in the fall, the way we've interacted with our worlds and have for lifetimes.

That deep genetic memory of place, that builds aesthetic.

And this is that, right.

This is- generations and generations of an aesthetic built in place and in relationship, to an experience, right.

And I believe that we're given that genetic information, and that we have to navigate that.

The beauty and the pain in it.

And that- we accept it and there's a deep so- there's a deep love for that journey.

Because, whether we like it or not, you know, that's what makes us who we are and that's a really special thing.

You know I have- I've had a photo of this piece on my refrigerator, for I guess a year now, you know and I feel like I've developed a deep relationship with this piece and I have a dear love for it.

So much story.

And I wonder if I asked the pot who made it, it would tell me.

It's a secret, it told me, but I'm not telling you!!

[Laughter] And so I feel like, here we are.

These pieces of all these pots got chosen for this, and now they're out to speak, and now they're out to um- you know, communicate for us.

And we all now, just as I have access privilege to be here, this pot also has the responsibility to speak.

And I really want to get more diverse and honest voices into those places of privilege.

It reminds me in my work and I go out into the world and do what I do, that this is who I'm speaking for.

This is what needs to speak.

This is what needs to be heard.

This as I have access into these places, and these platforms where people are listening to me, what part of me am I conjuring, you know?

and it isn't to perpetuate stereotypes, or to satisfy some exotification- need in the audience.

It's about how do we find that deep part of our humanity, that talks about some of those hard things.

Because that's how we need to grow and heal, is by going to those places that are kind of uncomfortable, and um- yeah, I have to, you know, I have to give thanks that I have that access, and that it was me who walked in here and pulled this out and said "hey, we're going to do this together you and me," and together we can enter into spaces and speak, the stories that need to be told.

This pot is inter-dimensional.

This pot is navigating so many layers of existence from within, from without, the reflection.

This pot is a mirror of the world but on a supernatural level.

It's explaining, it has a story on it that is- timeless.

It represents the past.

It represents the future.

It represents those layers of consciousness and being, that we don't, you know, that we don't get slapped with on the face every morning.

And it's so- you know, multifaceted in all the dimensions and layers in it, that it's awe- inspiring.

And I think that we have limited our lives to a very simple existence, or a very simple dimension, and by revisiting a very specific, you know, ancestral aesthetic, that we can be reminded of how to reconnect and re- engage with something bigger and something that is- you know, it flips through dimensions.

Which I really love.

Yeah, I think that's what draws me to do these works, and especially this work.

Is that- that moment, that tenuous moment where you're on the edge of a new dimension and you could just go there.

It's pretty dope.

[Laughter] Dang-- [chucking], I got all choked up.

I love you, for all that you are.

All the layers.

I see you.

I see you there and I- and I see you in me, and I see you in the ones I love the most.

I see your power.

I see your fragility, your vulnerability, and I love it, and I'm thankful for it.

And I'm sorry for all the things I cannot see and all the actions that I have been blind and numb, but thank you for reminding me.

A VESSEL FOR CULTURE >>Rose B. Simpson: I grew up in Espanola, which is the city adjacent to Santa Clara Pueblo, and it is known as the lowrider capital of the world.

So there are more lowriders, uh, per population than even Orange County.

I felt like coming from Espanola and seeing how cars build identity and create empowerment in disenfranchised peoples.

And sometimes you'll see like a house that's in poor condition and then you'll see a nice car outside.

And part of that is sort of building identity and feeling empowerment in the world, especially if you have a skill like customizing a car, and if that's a cultural skill.

I dove into, um, car culture because I wanted to more than create something that was, that was seen from the outside as a piece of identity, but something that when I was behind the wheel and I was in that car, that transformed my own identity.

All right.

I found a 1985 El Camino for sale on the side of the road, and I wanted to take the engine out of it.

It was sitting out in the yard and we, we, we took it out into the fields and we ended up using it to harvest one year.

Um, and it was kind of useful cuz the bed is so low that you could actually reach in and, you know, put the squash and the beans and the corn and everything in the back of it and, and access it.

Even the kids could reach into the bed of the thing.

And I realized it was the first time I looked at it and realized that it was a vessel.

It turned into this cultural, it had a cultural application at that moment when we were harvesting.

And I realized that I wanted to, um, treat it as a vessel and my, my own cultural understanding of vessel and how that carries, um, the relationship to all things and our environment, um, on it.

So I painted it.

Um, I decided to paint it black on black like Maria Martinez pottery or the traditional pottery of this area.

And the, the patterns that I, that I put on the side of the car were about this valley.

It was about these mountain ranges and this, this river that flows through here.

And it was, and it really felt like, um, the really heavy history of this place.

You know, an El Camino is a very Spanish car in this area.

We have a very old and heavy relationship between Pueblo people and the Spanish people here.

It felt very much like I was trying to build an empowered experience and transformation of, of some of the trauma and the pain from this place, the black on black pottery was rooted in, in spiritual and applied aesthetic, cultural aesthetic.

And so to put that on the car was sort of me trying to experience that and apply that into our current day.

ONE STEP AT A TIME - My dad was in the Navy, so we moved all over the country and finally settled here in Virginia Beach.

I immediately fell in love with the ocean and the waves and the boardwalk and the beach.

The vibrancy and the people and all the colors.

The Pharrell's, the Timberlands, the Clipse, all the people who made it from here.

I mean, how could you not be inspired by this place?

I've always been amazed by skateboarding.

It's a beautiful thing.

When I was getting into the skate scene, Nike SB Dunks were coming into popularity.

I fell in love with trying to figure out what these designs are based off.

Cause it wasn't just some random color where they thought was cool.

There's stories for every single shoe.

I love Pharrell, so then I find out he had a skate team and then he had his own shoes.

And then I found out about BPC and Ice Cream.

All the stuff that I liked, kind of came together.

Had a clothing brand right out of high school called X Society.

It was me trying to get my creativity out there a little bit.

I joined the Coast Guard and at that point I wasn't really putting designs out on paper, but I was always designing stuff in my head.

Everything changed when I got the opportunity to design my first sneaker.

Scrolling through Instagram.

And I see NikeSBornothing, post something about a contest.

It's about your city and you can win your own shoe.

I was like, "Dang this is made for me."

Cause any shoe design I ever thought of was always based off of where I'm from.

I wanted to do the waves.

Cause that's like the first thing I think of is the Virginia Beach ocean front and the King Neptune statue as well, which is such an iconic thing at the beach.

I knew I'd want to give ode to the military cause I'm in the military.

And also my dad was in the military.

And then the swoosh, not only was it a nod to Nikki Diamonds who designed my favorite SB Dunk of all time, it was also that big Navy ships that are steel.

Wanted to obviously give note to the music because that's one of the things that kept me excited about living here.

I put it out there just like any other post.

You're hoping a whole bunch of people to see it.

After that first day I had like a thousand likes on 'em.

I was like, "Dang!"

Way more people were sharing it than I ever thought, Virginia Beach and all Virginia backed me so hard with the whole contest it was almost surreal.

I never really thought I was gonna win.

I just wanted to put something out, cause I haven't put something out and this is my dream.

Once I actually won the ReverseLand people hit me up like, alright, we're gonna get started as soon as you can.

It was the longest couple of months of my life.

It was just like a waiting game.

I knew they were coming at some point.

I just didn't really know when.

- [Kids Singing] Happy birthday to you - When the shoes finally came, it was actually on my birthday so that was even cooler.

Happy birthday dear Daddy, Happy birthday to you - Do you like the cake?

- Yeah, where'd you get it?

This is cool.

- Mom I like the cake too!

- You do?

My friend Samantha made it.

- To have the box in hand was an unbelievable feeling.

- Look Daddy's surprise is here?

- Look!

I think I know what it is.

Look.

- What are those?

- Your shoes are cool!

- Dang.

It was just crazy to see my design on a sneaker and not just any sneaker.

My favorite sneaker of all time, the Nike SB Dunk.

They look like the picture.

- Mm hmm.

They got the waves on it.

- They got the waves on it.

ReverseLand did such a great job of putting the shoes together.

The manufacturing, the colors pop, the attention to detail.

It was amazing to see how it all came together.

Even the sneaker box was dope.

- [Mom] Can you find daddy?

- [Son] That's daddy!

- As soon as I signed off on the design that went into manufacturing and since they were custom, there wasn't a whole lot of pairs that were going to be made and the process takes a little bit longer.

But once the day came to put them on sale, I got a notification and it said they sold out in 15 minutes and I was like... dang.

To sell out and to sell out in less than 30 minutes is a dream come true.

I'm a religious person.

So I feel like God didn't give me this opportunity just for me to go back to the posting pictures of my family and the shoes that I'm wearing that day.

As soon as I won the contest, it really rejuvenated me to be able to let that creativity out.

And now that I have like a platform to do it, it's almost like I don't want to buy clothes from anybody else.

I'll just make my own shirts.

So if I can actually live out my dream of becoming a designer or working in the industry in any way, I need to jump on it and do as much as I can, as quick as I can.

This opportunity's not gonna always be there if I just, rest on my laurels.

You got to strike while the iron is hot.

And that's exactly what I'm trying to do.

I have a lot of eyes on me and the attention of a lot of people that I've always wanted to work with and looked up to.

There's a lot of pressure on myself but I also feel like I'm on top of the world.

TO VIEW THIS AND OTHER COLORES PROGRAMS GO TO: New Mexico PBS dot org and look for COLORES under What We Do and Local Productions.

Also, LOOK FOR US ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM.

"UNTIL NEXT WEEK, THANK YOU FOR WATCHING."

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.