[Narrator] Funding for "The Art Show" is made possible by, The L&L Nippert Charitable Foundation, Montgomery County, The Virginia W. Kettering Foundation, The Sutphin Family Foundation, The Wohlgemuth Herschede Foundation.

Additional funding provided by, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

In this edition of "The Art Show", ceramics that tells stories.

(upbeat music) A gallery glows with light, dancing with fire, and a hip hop artist goes classical.

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

(upbeat tribal music) (upbeat tribal music continues) 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.

Holly Barrett grew up being told stories.

Now, this multimedia artist channels narratives into her vases, plates, tiles, and other porcelain creations.

Let's visit Queen City Clay in Cincinnati and learn more about Holly's recent collaboration with a ceramicist and illustrator in Cuba.

-(gentle music) -(hands plodding) Clay feels like nothing else.

People say that clay has a memory.

It remembers how you treat it or the indents that you put into it will come back through a kiln.

It's also the most community-oriented art that I've done so far.

Painting and drawing, I can do anywhere.

I can do it by myself.

Clay really needs a group of people, if you're firing kilns together or just constant feedback and lifting big 50-pound bags of material.

I am a multimedia artist working mostly in clay and illustrative installation.

Currently, a resident artist at Queen City Clay in Cincinnati and going to graduate school for ceramics.

I started out in painting and drawing, doing a lot of illustrative ink work.

I've always been drawn to buildings and clean lines and edges and three dimensional things.

And then when I went to university for a Bachelor's in Studio Art, I took an intro to wheel and hand building class and just dove into it, and I really liked the tactile nature of it and how messy it was.

I was really drawn to doing vases or things with lids that contained something, maybe contains a story, and that kind of pushed me to want to go bigger and bigger with these vases that could hold more imagery or a larger story that I could start to play with and mess with the way it was on a form versus just drawing one image on a smaller surface.

So, I started really thinking about pots as a canvas and how much canvas or surface I could get out of them.

Growing up I was homeschooled, so my mom read to us a lot as kids and my dad is a writer and I have parents who are editors and English teachers, and so, language was really important to us and folklore and stories growing up.

And so, a lot of my early work was based around that and fairytales and the act of storytelling and kind of those stories that we tell ourselves over and over again and the things that we hold onto.

Part of the reason I'm interested in storytelling and started to do it on vessels, is because you're working in the round.

When you put a narrative on a pot, there's no clear beginning or end.

It's just kind of this cycle and you can choose where it starts or finishes or what pieces you focus on.

Clay has such a fragile, but also permanent nature that I think really ties into how we view stories and how they translate over time too.

So, combining my interest in illustration and ceramics is really my way of like tying into that kind of narrative tradition of ceramics, but also things that are personal to me.

I've gone from pots to doing more installation work recently, tile work and backsplashes.

I've been doing the architectural doors surround, that's currently on the outside of Queen City Clay that was 2,200 pounds of clay.

It's a lot of surface.

And I'm also doing a wall right now for Queen City Clay that's specifically mine and it's for the Queen City Clay community and tiles about their history and stories.

So, it's 9 by 12 feet of just fully illustrated tile work and columns.

Porcelain is my favorite clay to use.

I started using it in my senior year of college against the advice of several people who said, "You need more practice throwing before you should really use porcelain."

But I also got a lot of encouragement from people who knew I was like, "I want to try it."

Because I think of clay as surface and I'm looking for that kind of monochromatic black and white.

I like the natural background of porcelain rather than having to forcibly paint all of my pots white to start or anything like that.

Last summer, 2023, I was nominated to be one of Ohio's emerging artists via the Ohio Craft Museum in Columbus.

And then somehow through that, Donna Collins from the Ohio Arts Council put me forward, I think, or gave my name to Michael Reese who was running this trip to Cuba.

It's for the Havana Biennial, or Bienal, which I didn't know anything about before this trip.

There were maybe 12 to 15 artists from different mediums.

I was the only ceramic artist.

We went to different museums.

I got to meet with the director of the Ceramics Museum of Havana, which is where my work will be once final things go through for the Bienal.

We also went to Matanzas, which is a little drive east of Havana where Manuel Hernandez and Lolo have a gallery out there.

And so, Manuel Hernandez is in his nineties, but he's a Cuban ceramicist and his family works with him in Matanzas.

Prior to going, I knew nothing about Cuban art and I knew nothing about Manuel.

I didn't even know his last name until we were there, so I couldn't find any information about him or what his art looked like.

I just knew I was going to meet this famous Cuban ceramicist and have this experience of a different culture.

He does more illustrative caricature and some comedic work.

He used to be a cartoonist for a newspaper, and so that ties in.

You can see the influence of it in his work, and that was exciting to me, because I like the little bit of whimsy coming in.

And so, I introduced myself to him in bad Spanish, and somebody else helped to facilitate a little bit.

We had just been talking about doing vases and a couple of vessels to put in the museum, and he got excited, and he took me out to see these murals that are tile murals on the sides of the buildings in Matanzas, and there are several spanned across the street.

We were kind of just trying to translate for each other, and he expressed interest in doing one of those together.

So, that's how it got started, that we'll do pots for the museum, but tiles for Matanzas just because it's something that we both love is tile work.

I'm making pots right now that Michael will take down Cuba with him on his next trip and Manuel will finish them.

And then Manuel is currently working on about 36 tiles that he's starting and going to paint initially, and then I'll finish those once they come back here.

We both really are interested in ideas of home and the places where people live and that kind of tradition and things that are important to us, and just the things that people hold onto no matter where they are.

The biggest thing, especially as somebody working in clay, but just any type of art is you don't wanna be limited to any one thing or idea.

I think it's why I was so drawn to being a multidisciplinary artist and doing clay and illustration and other types of work is because you just start learning so much from each medium and how they can interact with another, and it just feeds itself, and it feeds your own work, and just keeps growing and growing as you find out, how much there is that you don't know.

And so it's that same thing going and interacting with other artists and other cultures is you just, you're reminded how much there is to learn and how much you don't know and how we all have so many different experiences, because of where we come from.

But it's also fun to find those ones that are the same.

Like Manuel and I are, he's from Cuba and an older gentleman and I'm 24 from Ohio, and we've had very similar priorities in family and home and really we're able to bond over that.

Cuba has really opened me up to how much I love collaboration, whether it's working on community projects or just working with another artist to open that up a little bit, because you can have certain decisions that are just yours and then some that are just theirs, and some that are shared.

And I think the biggest advice is to find some connections, even just locally, you just plug in somewhere, because even not ceramics, but just any art.

If you're an artist, you can't do it alone.

You need a support system or people who are gonna push you a little bit.

Nobody's going to care as much about your art as you do, but it's helpful to find people who are gonna follow your work, or just encourage you down the road, or connect you with people they think might be interested in you and vice versa.

That's what's kept me going is just not feeling alone in 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 Northeast Ohio to check out a show that's lighting up the Akron Art Museum.

"Glow: Neon and Light" features artists that use glass, mirrors, light bulbs, and neon tubes to create spectacular immersive sculptures.

Take a look.

(high tempo upbeat music) One of the things that I wanted to showcase was how many different working styles there are within this medium.

So, there are artists who work with professional neon manufacturers.

We have artists who've bend their own neon and then two artists who even use recycled neon from wherever they can find them out in the world, and then they combine them into these new compositions.

So, it's really beautiful to see all these different working styles to see artists who are minimalists, to see artists who are maximalist, and then the variety within that.

Max Hooper Schneider, he's taken a helicopter wreckage, suspended it from the ceiling and from that are all these chains with fluorescent tubes, just the kind of thing you would find in a hardware store.

And then he's created this resin pond with all of this kind of detritus, this material that's embedded in it.

And then there's these plants that are growing out of it, and then all this neon, and the neon is activated.

And then there's also these Tesla coils that sort of draw energy, kind of like static electricity from the air.

And once they have enough energy, they activate, they send off these sparks, and then the fluorescent tubes are lit up, and it's loud.

(electricity crackling) And it's this kind of bright flashing light and it almost feels like a lightning strike.

(soft high tempo upbeat music) My whole modus operandi, as they say, is from recycled material, and if the glass is not broke, chances are it still works.

So, that can be a challenge to get it to light up, because it's always a surprise.

You never know what kind of gas is in it, because neon and argon are two different gases in two different colors, and the phosphorus on the inside of the glass is what gives them many of the colors.

When I get glass, I like to take that paint off so I can see the whole thing.

Even with this piece back here, I have removed a lot of the paint that was on those so that those little blue specs can come out and it gives it a whole nother color in there as well.

So, argon is the blue, and the many other whites they're like 10, 12, 14 different whites that you can get.

The cooler colors are argon, the warmer colors, your oranges, the reds and the other kind of warm colors are neon, which is why it's so prominent, because people want to be able to see that and they can see it from across the street.

This is "View of the City Through a Keyhole", and it was actually, in a different version of this one before somebody brought me the big orange piece, and I took that old piece out, 'cause I really wasn't happy with it.

Put that one in there.

I'm going, yes, now it works.

And it's a pretty literal piece.

I mean, you can sort of see what's going on there, whereas this one over here, it's argon, it speaks for itself.

(Jeffry chuckling) (gentle upbeat music) It wasn't really until the sixties that artists started exploring how you could work with light, how you could manipulate light in different ways.

And one of the first artists to really think about neon was Keith Sonnier, and he is in our show.

He's from Louisiana originally.

He started experimenting with neon and plexiglass and rubber and mirrors and really started being very playful with them.

He creates these works that are sort of gestural, like a drawing, but when you think about it, it's not a drawing at all, because you have to bend these to these exact precision.

But he's created a work that's so playful and feels improvisational, but that would've been highly structured in the way that you make them.

Breakneck Creek, which is a tributary to the Cuyahoga River, is right behind my house, and I walked back there almost every day.

So, I was walking back there and I came across this sort of horizon of ice in the forest, which I hadn't seen before.

And you know, it was like these frozen circles of ice around trees, and it just really struck me.

And I just stopped there and listened and watched, and it was sort of like one of those vista moments.

I just was there in that time in that place experiencing it.

And what had happened was it flooded and when the water was high, it froze.

And so, there was this like two inch layer of ice stuck on the trees and then the water went back down.

And so, it was just hovering there in this plane.

It changed the space that I see every day into something other, something new that there was this, there's always something new to discover, and I would hope that the people visiting the gallery for the first time come in and have a similar feeling where, you know, they're taking a bit out of what's normally running through their mind and into a space where they're more focused on the present.

(gentle upbeat music) I want people to think about how their senses are activated and how that impacts how they feel in the space, their memories of the space.

There's a lot of different topics that we're addressing within the show, so I hope that they, you know, engage with those and think about some of the things that we're bringing up.

But ultimately, I just hope that by activating your different senses, you can really create a positive core memory of this exhibition and your time at the museum.

(gentle upbeat music) If you miss an episode of "The Art Show", we've got you covered.

It's available to stream 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.

Now, let's travel to Reno, Nevada to meet flow artist Cooper Bayt.

His dynamic performances combine elements like juggling, dance, and fire spinning.

Let's watch to see how he does it.

(upbeat tribal music) I would describe flow arts as a visual art, much like dance, but you're combining modern dance with prop manipulation.

So, it's adding that extra element where it's kind of an extension of your body and you're able to tell a story and create shapes.

(upbeat tribal music) My name's Cooper Bayt, and I'm from Reno, Nevada.

I am a flow artist and professional fire spinner.

I was gifted a pair of juggling sticks when I was really young and I spent countless hours at the park training this thing that I had no idea would really kind of take over my life later on.

Controlled Burn, which is a local fire spinning group, had a workshop when I was only 13 years old.

And so, I was able to fire spin for the first time when I was 13.

And my grandma, she was a professional photographer, she actually, captured that first time.

She instilled a lot of that fine arts background in me that to be dynamic.

The first step to creating a fire show, make sure that the area is safe in case anything happens, any drops, nothing's gonna spark up.

Secondary, set the space with candles, with torches on the ground in order to create the stage effect.

Third, almost most importantly, is that I'm gonna have a Duvetyne blanket, it's a fire-safe blanket, and a spotter that's gonna be right there for me to help me put out my props in order for me to start the next one and keep everything in a calm, collected manner.

Tell me if I catch on fire or if anything goes wrong.

-(upbeat tribal music) -(flames swooshing) There are specialized tools.

Take a juggling club, and the way you would do it is you would have, let's say a jar or a ammo container full of white gas, kerosene, or lamp oil, and you actually, dip it in and this wick will absorb like a sponge.

When you dip the prop into the gas, that's like a moment of mindfulness, like you're counting, you're measuring the amount of fuel that you soak and you hold it there and you let the excess drip out.

And in that moment, you know you're collecting yourself, you're getting ready.

And when you're ignite it that poof, that initial rush is like, "Okay, here we go."

Everything just starts to fade away.

You just get that internal rush of the fire around your body, the sound of it, whooshing past your head.

It's an amazing feeling.

I love to interpret like hip hop dance with creating shapes that are extensions of my bodies with the props.

So, it's kind of that mix of dance and prop manipulation, very much inspired by hip hop and modern dance.

A lot of it is improvisational when it's just a solo flow performance.

I do also choreograph and write shows with multiple fire artists.

So, it becomes a choreographed dance that is very structured that we all have to hit the certain notes on the certain eight counts, and in order to create the illusion, create the shape that we want the audience to see.

What I get out of flow arts, juggling, fire spinning is the fact that it's good, it's good for my mental health.

It's not so easy to talk about mental health and people's anxiety and fear.

And I think this has been a means that has really saved me in a way to be able to dance like nobody's watching.

And you really can get into a meditative state.

It's the flow state that we refer to and it's mindfulness, because you're able to move your body in a certain way that you're able to release, you're able to let go of everything else and train relentlessly to give me some kind of purpose in this crazy world.

Like even if it's just as silly as learning a new trick that night, it's doing the problem solving, the going through the motions and the failure in order to pick it back up and start again.

And so, that translates into my life tenfold.

(upbeat music) If you crave more art goodness in your life, the podcast Rodney Veal's "Inspired By" is available now.

You can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Learn more and find show notes at thinktv.org or cetconnect.org.

When Tony Pierce and Dustin Knock invited leading musicians to reimagine the future alongside the Colorado Symphony, experimentation was part of their plan.

Their Imagination Artist Series collaboration with hip hop artist RZA led to the recording of his first classical album, which is called "A Ballet Through Mud".

Here's the story of how RZA made the leap from Wu-Tang Clan to the world of classical music.

Mud is looked to be dirty.

Yet, out of the mud grows the lotus, grows life.

(upbeat orchestral music) But for this album here, I think I started jotting down a lot of the ideas in 2020, and I had found a book of old lyrics.

And these old lyrics I would read 'em and these are lyrics that go back to when I was like 15, 16 years old.

And so, I started writing music to kind of help tell the story of my youth.

But as the music started developing, taking on a life of its own, it became more obvious that this was more of a ballet that I was writing.

(upbeat orchestral music) It could be it's own thing.

It didn't need all these lyrics that I had planned to put with it.

Instead, I opted to have it expressed through just music and dance.

(upbeat orchestral music) Tony Pierce and Dustin, we had talked about me becoming part of the Imagination Artist Series.

The thing was I told them in the beginning that, you know, the first year it'd be this would be that, but I want to do something original, so I don't wanna just do Wu-Tang music and things that I've we created.

I wanna create something new and original.

And they said, "Okay, when you're ready."

And then this ballet became it and I was ready, and I took it to them and we performed it with dancers and orchestras and visuals.

It was a great personal achievement.

NAS, Buster, Wu-Tang, and we always like having such a brotherly moment.

It all talked about recording some music together and we was like, "Yo, we should have a studio bus."

So, on the second half of the tour, we paid for a studio bus to come and it happens to be the John Lennon Educational Bus.

And Dolby had just put in this whole new Atmos system into this bus.

Nobody came in and made a song.

When I realized that it was a chance that, that wasn't going to happen, I was like, "You know what?

No matter what, I'll come here every night and if anybody else come, we'll do hip hop.

If nobody else come, we are gonna mix this album in Dolby Atmos."

(somber orchestral music) When you do an orchestra, an orchestra has a certain way they sit and the music comes at you from a certain dynamic based on that setting and the mix in stereo is based upon that kind of stereophonic sound you are hoping to get as the orchestra projects itself throughout the room.

But in Dolby Atmos, you could break all those rules.

If the horn player is here in the beginning of the song, can we put 'em over here by the end?

Now, in a real orchestra, a horn player will never get up and walk over to there, okay?

But in Dolby Atmos mix, we was able to do that.

So this album, which I think is special, that's mixed, not only in Adobe Atmos, but actually using Dolby Atmos as a creative tool.

No, we are actually moving the instruments and moving the players throughout the mix to make you go like this.

You know what I mean?

And that was something that came about without playing.

We didn't plan that.

The first thing that enamored me about music was hip hop itself.

Hip hop has found this way to inspire the world.

I would advise young people to take the path that hip hop gives you.

Pick up your drum machine, pick up your FruityLoops or your Pro Tools, whatever you're doing, but pick up an instrument, because the understanding of the instrument is gonna help you understand the creativity of what you're doing.

It's gonna take you to a level of creativity that can be uniquely yours.

This album is no samples, it's all musicians playing this music.

The recording that we released is not the same recording that we first tried, because each time we played it, there's something different happening, because the human hand moved different.

There's a different amplitude, there's a different expression, there's a different embellishment or flourish.

There's also something in the own stimulation of your own brain that instruments gives us, you know, that self-expression.

And so, this is a ballet through mud, like, yeah, maybe even my own past has been muddy, starting in the streets of Staten Island, Brooklyn, living the, you know, the street life as we did "Binging the Ruckus", you know, Wu-Tang Clan.

And going through that mud, but then evolving, you know, to a lotus, you know?

And the thing about a lotus is that even though it grows with so many things that could be considered to be foul around it, it maintains to keep its clarity.

-(somber orchestral music) -(bees buzzing) If you want to see more from "The Art Show", connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

You'll find us at thinktv and cetconnect.

And don't forget to subscribe to "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) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) [Narrator] Funding for "The Art Show" is made possible by, The L&L Nippert Charitable Foundation, Montgomery County, The Virginia W. Kettering Foundation, The Sutphin Family Foundation, The Wohlgemuth Herschede Foundation.

Additional funding provided by, and viewers like you.

Closed captioning in part, has been made possible to a grant from the Bahmann Foundation.

Thank you.