[Narrator] Funding for "The Art Show" is made possible by: the L&L Nippert Charitable Foundation, the Robert and Adele Schiff Family Foundation, the George & Margaret McLane Foundation.

Additional funding provided by: And viewers like you.

Thank You.

In this edition of "The Art Show," free-flowing abstract compositions on canvas, (bright music) a place where culture and diversity come together, a social media influencer creates other worldly couture, and a museum celebrates graffiti and street art.

It's all ahead on this edition of "The Art Show."

(upbeat music) Hi, I'm Rodney Veal, and welcome to "The Art Show" where each week we provide access to local, regional and national artists and arts organizations.

Cincinnati artist, Tiffany Moyer, discovered fluid art, also known as acrylic paint pouring, about five years ago.

Without any formal art education, She began experimenting with how to create gliding, organic and free-flowing abstract compositions on canvas.

Let's visit her backyard studio to check out her process.

(smooth electronic music) When I sit down to paint, I try to shut off my head.

I try to shut off all the thoughts that are in my head, and I really try to allow my intuition to guide me throughout the process.

So I sit with my music, and I let myself connect to the music in a way that allows me to start picking paints, like the colors that I wanna use.

Sometimes there's just a color, like purple.

Purple is the color of the day, and then I start matching colors to that that I think would complement it and kind of express I think what I'm feeling or how the music's helping me feel.

And once I have colors selected, I put them all into cups, and I mix up like a water medium that I pour into the cups to kind of slowly, slowly add to get to the consistency that I want, and it's like a constant check.

Check, is it (laughs) the consistency?

And that took a lot of trial and error.

What is it that I'm trying to achieve?

What's gonna make all the paint run off the canvas?

What's going to hold that tighter?

What's going to blend the paint?

So it's a process of what color do I want to stand out the most in this painting?

It's during that time that the energy of the music is going into the paint.

The energy of me is going into the paint through that process.

If I really take my time and focus on what I'm doing, that's when I get the best results, I think.

It's almost like a meditation, in a way.

While I was like really connecting to the music, I would see patterns of colors.

I'd see sequences, and I really fell in love with mixing colors and kind of letting these like images that I had already seen in my brain come out onto the canvas without thinking about them.

And for the first time in my life, I found something I really enjoy.

I'm really, really passionate about it, and right after I started painting, I got really, really sick.

And it started in my neck, it was like pain in my neck.

The pain started to go into my back.

I had spasms.

This lasted for about a year.

I was in bed in debilitating pain some days.

Just I could not move.

But I made a goal, every single day for that year, to paint something, no matter how big, no matter how small.

My illness just magically got better one day, and I think it was pushing through the pain on the days when I was like, "I don't know if I can do this."

And I got out of bed every single day and painted.

I was determined to learn through one of the most painful parts of my life because I really, I was like, "oh, this makes me so happy!"

In a way, I almost feel like this medium, especially, saved my life.

(upbeat music) After I mix the paints, sometimes I'll go walk around.

I'll punch my punching bag to kind of like take some time to let the paint really interact with each other before I pour it.

I have a friend who was trying to teach me to box.

He started to explain that boxing is sort of like meditation, in a way, and when you really get lost in the process of like the rhythm of punching, your mind goes blank, similar to art.

At the beginning of COVID, I bought a punching bag.

I had no idea what I was doing.

But I started to really enjoy it.

Sometimes as well, if I feel like I'm lacking energy, to move energy around inside of me, I'll start punching the bag.

Just kind of like get loosened up, like break up the energy.

Let's get the creative juices flowing a little bit more.

I had nowhere else to put my punching bag except for in my studio.

So it kind of came together in that way.

I was like, "This is really adding another element to the creative process."

(smooth electronic music) There's a lot of different styles of pouring the paint onto the canvas.

Some people will take individual cups and try to do a design that way.

I think I fell in love with the dirty pour because essentially it's just like taking four or five colors, or however many colors, into a cup and you take that cup and you pour onto the canvas.

I do one cup and then start to move the canvas.

See how the paint's interacting with each other.

Pour another cup, see how that's interacting, and then it comes to life as I start pouring.

There's nothing ever inside of my mind before I start pouring.

It comes to life as I start pouring, which I really enjoy now.

Before, I was like, "I really want it to look this way", and it doesn't do it that way.

This paint has a mind of its own, and it's really taught me to accept that I can't control.

There's some things I can't control.

So it's really almost a reflection of the lessons that I'm learning in my own life, is how it comes out on the canvas as well.

I really try to take time out in between every pour to kind of see like, what do I wanna add?

What is it that I wanna add to this?

So, once I feel that the piece is balanced, I stop pouring.

Fluid art is always going to be my passion.

I think what I love the most about this medium is that you can have two artists that use the same colors and it comes out completely different, because every artist, I think, has their own style.

And I finally found that style and it feels really good.

I don't think society sets people up to believe that they can make a career out of the arts, and I think I want to prove to people that, yes, you can.

You can follow the arts.

You can live your life's dream.

You can live your purpose through the arts, and it's okay.

It's gonna be difficult at times, but it's gonna be okay.

You can do it.

If you'd like to learn more about this or any other story on today's show, visit us online at cetconnect.org or thinktv.org.

Our next story takes us to Michigan.

The Center for Performance Arts & Learning just outside of Detroit, provides the community with an inclusive space to explore the arts.

No matter your background, everyone is invited to express themselves.

Let's take a look.

(gentle moving music) Nothing holds me back.

If I can dance, I'll do it.

This is the Center for Performance Arts & Learning.

This is where cultural diversity comes together.

This is the where "6 to 600" is our new hashtag.

Age is not a limit.

Your ethnicity is not a limit.

Your gender is not gonna hold you back.

Your beliefs don't hold you back.

We strive to bring an all-inclusive and safe environment for any walk of life, any human being that wants to be an artist can come here and be welcomed here, and be a part of what feels like a family.

Nandita has a great heart for people, and she pushes, we want everybody to be comfortable, and we want everybody to try something they've never tried before.

So this is a very unique place.

[Nandita] We are actually right at the border of Novi and Wixom.

We were looking for something which was easily accessible.

But I think when we walked in, it sounds cliche, but the space just seemed right.

This is basically a springboard for young instructors, for young artists, for people who want to learn, and they can, they are in a very safe space.

It is so important for people to learn about other art forms because it's the same way about learning history or learning math or learning reading.

It creates a holistic view of the world.

In the dance world or in the music world, a lot of what is competitive leads to broken self-esteem, leads to broken dreams.

So we're trying in our own little way, trying to build people back up, I guess.

[Collin] I think what really causes confidence to grow here is that nurturing environment.

So you see people walking in who have never taken this class before, grow from complete beginner to very, very fluent in the motions, and it's so cool to see that really positive, really nurturing environment, really helping inspire people to succeed.

We have four basic areas, dance, music, art along with creative expression.

Creative expression includes languages, speech classes, communication classes.

Music, of course, covers your drums and guitar.

That was the four basic areas, we started working with, was drum, guitar, voice and keyboard.

Now we could expand it into a viola, violin, flute.

We are talking to a cello instructor as well.

I teach voice, and I'm gonna be the one directing the community choir, that's going to be an incredibly wide age range, which I find to be very unique.

You don't really see a lot of community choirs anywhere that have age ranges from early high school or even middle school to middle age.

It really doesn't matter what age you are.

We do have a student who has actually been invited to sing for the Pistons.

He's gonna be singing the national anthem for Pistons in March.

[Collin] It makes me proud to see them thriving.

[Nandita] Dance classes cover your ballet, tap, jazz, international dance styles, classical dance styles, aerial arts.

We just introduced a mixed aerial arts class, and then fitness.

[Collin] Some of the really unique ones that we have are the aerial silks classes or the Lyra classes.

Our aerial program has grown over the last year a lot, because of the commitment that I've made for it and what the vision that I've wanted for it, and Nandita has backed me up all the way, which is great.

We went from having two straight fabrics to now all these other apparatuses and all these different things that these students can learn.

I like the fact that it takes a lot of strength, and it's a very difficult discipline.

I want the students to leave every week, how I felt when I first started, which was when I got in my car, I didn't wanna leave.

I wanted to go back in and just keep playing.

It's a great stress reliever.

It's a workout.

If you're on that apparatus for 45 minutes to an hour, even if you're on and off of it, you're burning calories, you're building muscle, you're building confidence.

[Collin] There's a lot of Bollywood-style dance classes that we have that you really can't find at a lot of places nearby.

One, two.

I teach Bollywood classes.

I teach both classical, semi-classical and your contemporary Bollywood music-based classes.

[Gary] If an instructor has a passion for it, we can tell.

Our biggest strength is our instructors.

They are all qualified.

They're all passionate teachers.

That is what makes them so unique.

I just love it because she's seen what I can do, and we get along really well and can communicate just fine, and she kinda just has thrown the ball in my court, allows me to create my own syllabus, allows me to just be creative with the students, set goals with them.

This is the most comfortable way to step out of your comfort zone.

There are things you can do here that you'd never thought you would do, but it's the most comfortable way to do it.

If you are sitting there watching this, just do it.

There is nothing holding you back.

We are here, and we want to have you here.

We want to help you succeed here.

When we started about two years ago, we just started with this one building, pure dance classes.

Today we are sitting at 2 different studios with about 23 different classes we offer.

The goal is still to work with as many people as possible.

It's very satisfying.

It makes us happy to see that we are able to do what we're able to do.

I want to bring love to the community, a smile at the very least, and something that they fall in love with at the most.

Because at the end of the day, I truly feel like art is what makes us human, and when we love art, we're able to love people.

So I want to kind of share that with the world.

I wanna share that with every person that walks in these doors.

[upbeat music] "The Art Show" is going to be traveling around Southwest Ohio.

You might see this logo in your neighborhood.

Follow the travels of "The Art Show" on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @thinktv and @cetconnect, and check out "The Art Show" Hashtag.

Now let's meet a social media influencer who's also a talented artist with a love for pop culture.

She sews a wide range of couture garments, stages photographs of her work on location, then shares the results with their 2 million-plus followers.

Here's her story.

(gently inspiring music) Hi, my name is Sarah Hambly, and I am a social media content creator/internet influencer.

So a social media influencer is basically like a marketing team/personality online.

So I do everything from getting a brand deal to setting up all the products, to taking all the pictures, and then pushing it onto an audience that would enjoy it.

So my art form that I create in, is I sew.

On the internet, I teach DIY tutorials.

I make things from really beautiful fabrics, and I make things from bedsheets or bags.

(gentle music) I got into sewing in a really kind of roundabout weird way.

I have my degree in photography.

I was working as a photo editor in Los Angeles, and my dad passed away really suddenly.

It was suggested to channel my grief into something totally new.

You know, so I didn't just go to work, come home, cry, type of situation (laughs).

So I picked up sewing through that.

The conception of the project starts with usually finding inspiration either in my mind or from like a television show or from movies.

And then it goes down on paper.

Sometimes the idea is so clear that I don't need to put it on paper.

And then comes a process of like do I already have a pattern that I've made that I can modify to make this dress?

Or do I have to start from scratch?

Most dresses that I create can be anywhere from a few hours to many months.

So this one behind me, this was three or four days to do.

Mostly because I had to really accommodate the bead work on there.

So it really depends on like the complexity level of what I'm doing.

(upbeat music) My social media journey is kind of your typical like overnight type situation.

I wanna say October 2019 is when I like really started to focus on posting the dresses I made.

Because before then, I wouldn't share them.

A friend of mine got me into TikTok, filming the process and everything.

And it just kinda snowballed from there.

Around March 2021, the pandemic started.

I had a lot of free time as most people did.

And so I decided to try and remake Ariana Grande's Grammy dress that she wore that year.

I thought that'd be really fun to like attempt to remake.

So I did part one, and I ended up with 35 million views pretty much overnight.

And went from like 100,000 followers to 1.5 million.

The impact of social media these days is huge.

I didn't realize that it's its own industry.

I used to sew for other people.

I used to do commissions and wedding dresses.

And I did Miss Nevada Rodeo.

When I started posting on social media and gained a following, I gained a new career.

(gentle music) This dress here was inspired by what's called Royalty Core which is an aesthetic online.

I was really inspired by the whole concept of flowing gowns and running through castles, and those kinds of imagery that you get in your mind.

When I do photograph these, I try and create a whole world, like a whole concept.

So it's not just the dress.

It's like props, it's the backdrop.

I will do like photo shoots around Reno, and I'll go to parks or I'll go and hike a trail.

And I did one that down in Davis Creek Campground area where I had a girl on a horse in the dresses, and people just loved it.

I think we live in a really beautiful unique ecosystem here.

Having the ability to share both the desert and the mountains within relative posts online.

So like I could go and do something in the desert and then post something in the mountains, and I've only driven an hour, that's fantastic.

There's like no part of the day where I don't feel like the world that I'm in is inspiring.

Did you miss an episode of "The Art Show"?

No problem.

You can watch it on demand at cetconnect.org and thinktv.org.

You'll find all the previous episodes, as well as current episodes, and links to the artists we feature.

For our last story, we travel south to the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami, Florida.

Through exhibitions and hands-on workshops, the Museum of G celebrates the artist behind this edgy art form and chronicle the art's movement's rich history.

Let's watch.

(funky music) [Alan] My name is Alan Ket, and I'm the co-founder of the Museum of Graffiti.

[Allison] Allison Freidi, I'm the co-founder of the Museum of Graffiti in Miami, Florida.

The Museum of Graffiti is the only museum of its kind in the world.

We give context to the walls that you might see when you walk around this neighborhood.

One of the most important exhibitions that we currently have on display is called "Style Masters: The Birth of the Graffiti Art Movement."

And that exhibition takes you from 1970 when this was an art form started by kids tagging their names on the streets of New York City and Philadelphia and Los Angeles, and shows how it evolved from simple print writing on walls and on trains to an art form that started to have style.

And then we go into the emergence of these artists into the art galleries.

How did that happen?

Why did that happen?

You get to see original works of art created in the 1980s.

And we continue along this timeline to show the emergence of this art form in Miami.

And we go through the '90s, 2000s, now, as it moves out of New York City, travels across the world, here in America, goes onto freight trains and crisscrosses all over the country and introduces this youthful art form to audiences everywhere.

(funky music) What separates graffiti from any other art form is the desire for the mastery of letters, how to bend them and tweak them and enlarge them and make them your own.

And so when some people talk about street art, and they ask, "Well, what's the difference between street art and graffiti?"

Well, street art has to do more with imagery.

Graffiti is about lettering.

[Allison] So what we're looking at here is a site-specific mural by DEFER from Los Angeles.

What we teach about every single day at the Museum of Graffiti is how looking at each one of these walls can give you context clues to where these artists are from.

For instance, in this wall, you can see how DEFER incorporates inspiration of Los Angeles gang graffiti by taking something that society typically looks at as bitter or as violent, he makes it beautiful.

And we like to compare this or contrast it to this wall by JonOne.

And JonOne was a train painter.

He did huge pieces on the subways in New York City.

And it's so important to see how two graffiti writers who are doing the same genre of art can have such a different take.

(upbeat rock music) This is the world's largest art form.

It has practitioners all over the world.

That fact that it's sort of expanding and going around the world and very open to anybody picking it up and adding something to it has started to change the perception of this being purely a vandal's movement to an art form that is celebrated and accepted globally and desired globally.

Communities have woken up.

And that's where we are today, which is that social norms and cultural norms have shifted, just the way that they've done in other areas of low-level crimes.

People are opening up and seeing the benefit to including this type of art form within our community.

(hard rock music) My personal history, I'm from New York City.

I started painting in Brooklyn, New York as a teenager in the 1980s.

I painted exclusively, illegally.

Painted the trains.

I painted the walls.

And I've gotten arrested.

It didn't dissuade me from being a participant in this art movement.

As a matter of fact, it made me sort of more entrenched.

And the Museum of Graffiti today is sort of the project that I dreamed of.

And I was able to convince artists that normally would not give their artwork to anybody to allow me to have it because they trusted me.

They know me as a member of the community.

This art form has not been celebrated by museums in the past.

We had to make our own museum.

If you wanna see more from "The Art Show," connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, you'll find us @thinktv and @cetconnect.

And don't forget to check out "The Art Show" channel on YouTube, And that wraps it up for this edition of "The Art Show."

Until next time, I'm Rodney Veal, thanks for watching.

(upbeat music) [Narrator] Funding for "The Art Show" is made possible by: the L&L Nippert Charitable Foundation, the Robert and Adele Schiff Family Foundation, the George & Margaret McLane Foundation.

Additional funding provided by: And viewers like you.

Closed captioning in part has been made possible through a grant from The Bahmann Foundation.

Thank You.