- [Announcer] Funding for "The Art Show" is made possible by the 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.

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

- In this edition of "The Art Show," sculptures with life- (spirited music) the art of Indian classical dance- (spirited music) and celebrating Dayton's aviation heritage.

(spirited music) It's all ahead on this edition of "The Art Show."

(spirited music) (spirited music continues) (spirited music ends) 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.

You know them if you see them.

The Greater Cincinnati area is dotted with sculptures of everything, from Reds icons to university mascots, but do you know the creative mind behind these artworks?

Artist Tom Tsuchiya creates statues, reliefs, and receptacles you can find across the city and beyond.

Let's step into his studio to hear some of the stories behind what Tom calls "sculptures that breathe."

(tranquil music) - One of my conversations, I asked him, you know, "Hey, Pete, you know, why did you almost always slide headfirst?

You know, it's kinda dangerous and all that."

And he just replied, "'Cause it gets you in the papers."

My name is Tom Tsuchiya and I'm a sculptor based here in Cincinnati, Ohio.

People in Cincinnati can view a lot of my works around town, including the Cincinnati Zoo, Mount St.

Joe, Xavier University, UC, Blegen Library, Smale Park.

My interpretation of the three wise monkeys on Court Street, and the sculpture is translucent and announces itself night via LED, "Embrace No Evil."

Anyone who's gone down to see a Reds game will notice all my bronze is down there.

Most people are familiar with all my large-scale bronze sculptures and large public works that can be seen outside in an outdoor space, but I also do some works that are rather small that are inside the National Baseball Hall of Fame at their plaque gallery.

And then you head north, you'll see "Lux Mundi."

You'll see the 50-foot-tall sculpture of Jesus greeting everybody driving up and down I-75.

As many of us that lived in the area in, like, 2010 know about is that tragic night when our beloved Big Butter Jesus, or Touchdown Jesus, caught on fire.

(thunder booms) Lightning from the heavens struck it, you know, (laughs) and it was gone in like 15 minutes, you know, burned up.

There was a company called Display Dynamics up in Dayton area that is involved in creating a lot of, like, large-scale works of all kinds, you know, and then we all ended up being approached by Solid Rock, you know, Church, you know, about creating Jesus.

Even though this sculpture here is gonna be 50 feet tall and it would be the biggest sculpture I've ever been involved in, it was actually the easiest sculpture I was involved, because I just produced a five-foot-tall, 1:10-scale model.

That was my main focus, and then I just provided really just the design, and then Display Dynamics took that design and then they did all the engineering and did everything else.

Figured out how to enlarge it, how to fabricate it, all the really difficult parts, including installing a lightning suppression system that runs from the top of his head all the way down.

Now, I didn't care for the forsaken Christ pose, but more like he's welcoming, and that's what I wanted to do, something that is like a loving, caring Jesus.

I call it "Lux Mundi," "light of the world" in Latin, and at the same time, all the local Cincinnati people, the clever people that they are, came up with some new names, like, to keep in with the football theme in issue with the Touchdown Jesus, now it's Fourth and One Jesus, you know, which I love that name, and then they had $5 Footlong Jesus, and Hug Me Jesus, too, which I like that one.

I like Hug Me Jesus.

You know, any one of those names, I think, are perfect for the sculpture.

(Tom laughs) The way I look at it is sculpture itself is an inanimate object.

It has no life.

It never will have life.

It's just an object that will never live.

I always feel, and what I always aspire to do in every sculpture that I create, is to give this inanimate object a feeling of life.

I want my sculptures to look like literally they have a heartbeat and then there's blood coursing through their veins.

Of course, I try to achieve the detail, likenesses of people, but to me, the most important thing is the sense of life and energy.

You know, when you think of Pete Rose, there are two things.

Number one, headfirst slide, and number two, he had that very distinctive crouching batting stance.

But of the two, the sliding headfirst is the signature look for Pete because that is something that captures his whole Charlie Hustle, you know, persona as well.

I remember it was like, "Okay, well, that's gonna be cool, but, you know, that's gonna be a challenge too because, you know, I didn't want anything with some ugly post sticking out of the belly as he's, like, skewed or whatever.

What they ended up designing was this incredible stainless steel skeleton that runs through the body and then it bypass, it exits out of the elbows, and then it's like a fork that fits into, essentially, these tubes that's buried in the concrete pedestal.

It can hold 6,000 pounds, so it's amazing.

You can park a full-size Mercedes S-Class on that thing.

Big Reds fans going all the way back to, like, 1975.

Marty Brennaman was, like, the soundtrack, you know, of the Reds, and he retired a few years back, and because we always think of not only the certain players as, like, iconic, like, just symbols of the Cincinnati Reds' history, Marty Brennaman, our great announcer, has always been also one of these just fixtures and just great iconic figures, and the Reds said, "Yeah, we're gonna honor him."

Also, I had the good fortune over the years.

I visited Marty when Joe was also alive as well, down and visit their booth during games.

So, I thought, "Hey, you know, the best way to depict him would be really almost like a bust in this case."

It's really just from his chest up, and then depict his desk with the scorebook, the mic, media guide, things of that sort, and I thought that was the best way.

So, we unveiled Marty's bronze twin on September 6th of this year.

When I'm working with, let's say, a life-sized bronze of a particular person, I'd work from, like, video footage and photographs, and if possible, if they're around, I work from life, so in the case like Marty Brennaman, since he's around and he's local, it's wonderful.

He can just come into my studio, and he can pose, and I can ask him questions.

It's just amazing to always work from life.

Sometimes I'm working 12, 13, 14, 15 hours straight on something, and to see that all that hard work is, you know, is appreciated and seen by many people, it's always, it's a wonderful feeling, and it's something that I know that, these sculptures I know have been loved by many of the locals and then other people visiting from other places.

It's both a special honor and just plain fun to see something I created all over my own hometown.

(relaxed music) - 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.

Now, let's travel up to Cleveland, where Indian classical dancer, Sujatha Srinivasan, is keeping an ancient art form alive.

From childhood, the native of Chennai, India had a passion for dance.

Today, Sujatha continues to teach and perform the ancient and expressive art form of bharatanatyam.

In 2024, the Ohio Arts Council awarded Sujatha an Ohio Heritage Fellowship in the category of performing arts.

Here's her story.

(singer sings in Tamil) - I think I started at the age of five and a half or six.

My mom introduced me to dance lessons.

I vaguely remember that, but I know that I was very excited to go to dance classes.

It was a very huge passion of mine to learn dancing.

My hometown is Chennai.

It's a beautiful city.

Chennai is the den of bharatanatyam.

It's one of the seven classical dance forms of India.

They say that it's as old as 2000 BC, and they attribute it to Lord Shiva, who was the first dancer.

It was passed on from a teacher guru to a student verbally.

Even to this day, it's a living tradition, and it started as worship in the temples, and then slowly went to the proscenium on the stage, and it's one of the most popular dance forms in the world.

Bhavam means expression, ragam means melody, thalam means rhythm, and natyam means theater or drama.

So, bharatanatyam.

It incorporates everything that you can bring along underneath that umbrella.

In that way, I think it is one of the best dance forms and no wonder it's so popular.

(singer sings in foreign language) - She's the consummate artist.

She's an amazing performer.

I think though, to be honest, her talent lies in bringing that out in other dancers.

- I moved into this country in 1993 and came to Cleveland in 1995.

This should be up.

Posture should be up.

You should be extending your body.

Originally, I didn't want to start teaching, but then I understood that there was not a lot of performing opportunities here, and then the community around me kept asking me to start lessons for their little kids, and I get a lot of happiness when I introduce a dance step to somebody.

We usually like to start when they're six years old, and pretty much for the next 12 years, they're with me if they want to pursue dance.

By the time they are 15 or 16, they become really good.

- So, learning from my mother and my guru as well since a young age has not only wholly influenced me as a dancer, but also me as a scientist, as an individual, as an innovator.

Learning from your mother, especially somebody that's very established and well-known, comes with these extra expectations that other students don't necessarily have.

As time evolved, of course, she started to give me more space and room to grow, and our relationship has grown stronger and stronger, of course, both artistically and on the mother-daughter axis.

- The way I dress, the way I wear all this is not just for dance.

It's a way of life that I carry on even in my everyday pursuit of life that comes and integrates itself into the art form.

So, when I create that person as a dancer, I'm also creating somebody who has got a little bit of India in them, and this is the traditional art form.

Can she draw her eyes a little bit more?

Classical art forms are very difficult to pass on, so I believe it's a responsibility of every teacher and artist to make sure that the next generation continues in the manner that we wanted it to be.

- Some of the art form, there is no compromise on that, and over the years, as you mature, as a dancer, as a teacher, and as a choreographer, there comes a deeper appreciation of the fundamentals, to appreciate the core values of this classical dance form even more.

She gives them one of the purest form of the dance, and at the same time, she has repeatedly proved you don't have to lighten the classicism to appeal to the people.

This not only connects the Indian diaspora and their children to their roots, but it also gives for the wider population a greater understanding and appreciation of an art form, which may be totally different for them.

I have unbounded admiration for her.

She's a remarkable artist, remarkable human being.

- And then she sees the ring.

That's something familiar.

So, she takes it, and then she's so happy that she's got it, she clenches it.

So happy.

Dance is about communication.

For me personally, there's a joy that I feel when I'm performing and I want that joy to be shared.

If I'm performing at a school, to children, then I try to tell stories and make them very simple and enjoyable so that it ignites their interest to see the dance or to be more inquisitive about the dance.

When I'm performing at our own Indian dance festivals, there, I am presenting work that is traditional that will portray the bandwidth and the greatness of the art form.

When I am performing at Cleveland Public Theater or the Cleveland Museum of Art where I'm commissioned to do work, I have been presenting work that makes people think, that makes people not only take home something from the dance, but also connect to a very socially relevant subject that is happening then.

I've been fortunate to be in a place where art is not only given recognition, but appreciated, and it has been a very welcoming audience, and everybody's welcome, and everybody can share, give and take, that is beautiful, and to be a part of an art ecosystem that is very vibrant and that is always growing, and then for me to have shared my art and know that it is welcomed?

It's a very big joy for me.

And the Ohio Heritage Fellowship Award helped me to be introduced to new people who do not know about bharatanatyam or do not know about me, and that paved a way to introduce my art.

- I couldn't be more proud that my guru, Sujatha Srinivasan, has been named as the Ohio Heritage Fellow.

It speaks not only to her personal excellence as a performer, but I think more to the fact that she's had such a broad impact on the community around her, to show how art can transcend language, religion, cultures, and in that way, I think she's really helped the classical art of bharatanatyam spread through the community, and I think building that kinda impact really takes a lot of work and foresight.

(singer sings in foreign language) - 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 Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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

On December 17th, 1903, the Wright brothers of Dayton, Ohio made history with the world's first successful flights of a powered heavier-than-air flying machine.

To this day, Dayton enjoys a reputation for its aviation heritage tourism.

In Season 13, we took a look at a mural series commissioned to highlight the significance of a cluster of buildings on Dayton's West Side.

Let's revisit the site for a reminder of Dayton's pioneering role in the history of flight.

(inspiring music) - It's interesting that so many people who live in Dayton do not realize they have a national park in their own backyard.

Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park was created almost experimentally.

It is unlike any other national park.

This park is about inspiration.

It's about grit; it's about resiliency; it's about failing and getting up and going forward.

The story here is astounding.

- The phrase that is used quite frequently is that the Wright brothers taught the world to fly.

The story of the Wright brothers is just a fascinating one and inspires minds of all ages.

- In 2004, Congress designated the National Aviation Heritage Area because there were already significant assets in this region that tell our nationally significant story.

So, the Heritage Area sets the table for 17 designated aviation heritage partners to cooperate and collaborate on projects and programs.

I love talking about the Wright Factory mural project.

We were anticipating the West Dayton Metro Library opening, and as a good partner, we wanted to make sure the Wright Factory buildings were in the best condition possible for that opening.

- [Kendell] The Wright Company Factory is an amazing site, though to look at it, you wouldn't think so.

Even when it was built in 1910, the newspapers at the time talked about how it was a fairly lackluster building.

- The Wright Company Factory buildings are critical for our aviation heritage because they are the first purpose-built structures for the manufacturing of aircraft.

It signals the change from hobby to industry.

- One thing that intrigued me when they brought up placing these murals at the Wright Factory or the Wright Company, you gotta realize this was the very first airplane factory in the world!

In the world, and it's right here in Dayton, Ohio.

That's just a mind-blower.

- Our vision for the Wright Company Factory murals was to emulate the WPA style that emerged in the 1930s under President Roosevelt through his Works Progress Administration.

At that time, artists were commissioned to do National Park Service posters as a work-relief program, so we hearkened back to that style with our project.

- We felt that Mark Riedy would be an ideal person for this project because Mark has just an incredible portfolio.

We had also worked on the Cincinnati Reds stadium, and Mark had handled two vintage-style murals that showed the 1975 Reds and then the 1869 Reds, along with it a sculpture that's out front of the stadium that also has that WPA or that Art Deco feel to it, so we felt that it really tied in quite well with what we were trying to achieve here with the Wright Factory.

- Those are nice projects because there's a sense of permanence.

In my business, we don't get involved in too many things that last.

In the advertising business, things are pretty transient, but that's something that's gonna be there for a while.

We always kid that our museum is like the frozen food section, where you can see my Red Baron Pizza design and I did the portrait of the Red Baron.

You can go buy a bag of Quikrete and see all the Quikrete bags.

I did all those illustrations.

In the 90s, I illustrated all of the Nerf toys packaging, so every kid in our neighborhood was modeling for a Nerf toy.

The process of a illustrative designer, first thing is we collect information, collect pictorial images.

We're dealing with visual storytelling, so first part is just show me what was going on in the early 1900s with them, what exists.

Either old black-and-white photographs or just stories.

Things that kinda get me in the mode of just what life was like then.

I'm looking for interesting visuals that I can do something with as a designer.

After the research portion, I just start sketching, and then from there, I take those sketches and scan them and the computer is where most of the magic happens as far as color and building that final image.

- [Mackensie] The murals were a series of six and those are the six sites of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park.

The reaction to the murals was extremely positive.

Our partners at that site and across the region saw the value, both in the artwork and the beautification of the factory buildings.

- I think the murals brought some life to this location, to the factory site.

Prior to them being up, this was just kind of an abandoned site that probably people would overlook.

I think it was a wise thing to install them here and kind of get a spark going.

But then, of course, the fire here cut that short.

(sirens blare) - In the early morning hours of Sunday, March 26th, the Wright Company factory caught on fire.

It is my understanding that the Dayton Fire Department responded within minutes.

It was known at the time they arrived that this was the Wright Company Factory buildings.

I believe that if it had been a different structure, it would have been allowed to burn.

- I will tell you, I literally broke into tears when I heard, even now, I'm gonna break into tears, when I heard that on March 26th, the factory was on fire.

It's a near catastrophic fire.

There's been a lot of damage out there.

We're still waiting for reports to tell us just how extensive is it, you know?

How much of a loss is there at the factory, and until we get more information, we're just gonna have to be patient.

- I would say that the fire, it's just a huge tragedy.

If there is a silver lining in it all, it's the national attention that it has brought to the property.

To have national journalists covering it, I think it helps remind our local community that what we have in our backyard shouldn't be taken for granted, and it is actually really, really special.

I know it's painful to reclaim a burned building, but I hope that we are able to do that, and time will tell if it's able to be done or not.

(sullen music) (no audio) (no audio) - Did you miss an episode of "The Art Show"?

Not a 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.

And that wraps it up for this edition of "The Art Show."

Until next time, I'm Rodney Veal.

Thanks for watching.

(spirited music) (spirited music continues) (spirited music continues) (spirited music continues) (spirited music continues) (spirited music continues) (spirited music continues) - [Announcer] 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.

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

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

Thank you.