Frederick Hammersley 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!

WITNESSING THE COLOSSAL TRAGEDY OF WWI AS AMBULANCE DRIVERS DEEPLY IMPACTED THE WRITING STYLE OF ERNEST HEMINGWAY AND JOHN DOS PASSOS.

FOR ASIA HAMILTON PHOTOGRAPHY IS A WAY OF SHARING HER HOME, OPENING UP TO LIFE AND HEALING.

BRIAN MELENDEZ CREATED A GUIDED MEDITATION THROUGH HIS PAIUTE ANCESTRY.

MAHKWUHOO IS BASED IN COMMUNITY, FAMILY AND ENGAGEMENT WITH THE LAND.

PAINTER KELLY FIELDS IS CAUGHT UP IN A MYSTERY THAT KEEPS HER COMING BACK AND BACK AND BACK.

IT S ALL AHEAD ON COLORES!

THE IMPACT OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.

>>>Gwyneth Doland: Your book is The Ambulance Drivers, who were they?

>>>James McGrath Morris: John Dos Passos who s little remembered today and Ernest Hemingway who s certainly well remembered.

There was a story of two of the most significant writers of the twentieth century.

People have forgotten that, a lot about World War I.

When World War I broke out in 1914 it was many years before the United States entered the war but for young Americans, particularly politically active Americans.

They felt the war was going to be the defining moment of their generation.

Never before had such a mechanical uh war machine taken place slaughtering thousands upon thousands of people and so it was a defining moment for their generation as for mine may it be the Vietnam War would of been the equivalent.

And they felt the need to get there and see it and be part of it and since the United States was not part of the war, a voluntary ambulance core was developed and people like John Dos Passos and Ernest Hemingway ended up being on the frontlines of the war through that means.

>>>Gwyneth Doland: Can you give us just a picture of what that would have been like?

>>>James McGrath Morris: It depended a lot on the person themselves.

In the sense that Dos Passos was anti-war and so he saw it as a horrible scene.

Hemingway uh had this sense of wanting to test himself, to endanger himself so for him it was an exciting experience as opposed to a depressing experience but both of them saw carnage, both of them saw the gruesomeness of the war upfront and it changed them and not only just changed them it changed American literature.

The war was such a fracturing event in history that people felt needs of expression had to change, that the old way of writing was no longer suited.

So, both Hemingway and Dos Passos after the war, along with others, tried to rewrite how we write um uh how to, how to find a means to express things that represented the new modern world that it emerged.

Um and that s part of the reason why Hemingway became such an important writer to us is that what he did was a revolutionary act.

Looking back now it doesn t seem so but that s often the case.

I mean we look at a Cubist painting today entirely differently than we do when the first time a Cubist painting was hung in a museum.

>>>Gwyneth Doland: How did the literature change them?

You mentioned that.

How did it change them?

>>>James McGrath Morris: Well, it changed them in a couple of ways.

Dos Passos and Hemingway had a, had what one today might call, and I don t call it in the book, a bromance.

In the sense that it was an intensely emotional relationship, very close with each other and at the center of it was their writing.

They each read each other s works before they were published, they each commented on that, and they each waited for each other s reaction and so their fight over literature ended up being a fight that affected their friendship and, in the end, brought an end, brought an end to their friendship.

Um because they saw such radically different purposes for their writing.

Um I mean to simplify things; Hemingway was more of a pure artist and Dos Passos was more of a artist who wanted to use the power of art to make a change in the world.

>>>Gwyneth Doland: So, this experience of the war profoundly changed both of their lives and changed, especially for Hemingway the way that he wrote sort of concentrated his bold direct style.

Um how did that impact the other American writers?

>>>James McGrath Morris: Well in a sense with Hemingway there s before Hemingway and after Hemingway.

Um anyone who did not go along with the changes of style that he so successfully uh engineered in writing was often considered stodgy, old-fashioned, out-of-date um and a whole generation mimicked him and sought to write like he did.

It it s part of the, part of the aspect of doing something revolutionary in art is when it first occurs people rebel against it, think it s wrong and don t know how to take it but once it s accepted we forget how revolutionary it was.

So, when somebody picks up a Hemingway book today and reads the short staccato sentences, that conciseness, that directness you re talking about.

They re so used to it that they don t recognize what a moment of break through it was when it occurred and that s exactly the point um what was revolutionary back then is commonplace today.

THE LOVE IN GIVING BACK.

(ambient music) Every human being they have a uniqueness about them that you can grasp with a photograph.

Photography saved my life.

It was exactly what I needed to do and what I was born to do.

I grew up on the northwest side of Detroit.

Photography has been a way of being my therapy.

One of the things that I want to talk about specifically is how mindful photography is and how it requires for you to take your thoughts and focus on something else.

And it was a time where my mother, she had gotten ill, she had a stroke and I was in extreme panic and I needed to take a walk and I was just walking around and I saw the way this light was hitting the building and the textures on the building and I was like, oh my God, that's so beautiful.

And I had to take out my camera and started just taking pictures and it literally took me out of that element and had me focus on something else.

The meaning for the textures is just the history behind it.

How did those textures come about?

What did those places look like beforehand?

And a lot of the portraiture and stuff that I shoot is, it's the documentary of history.

It is like a way of just remembering a time and so those textures are bits and pieces of a time that has passed.

I love to take posed candid photos.

There's always those instances of a glimpse of a person.

And a lot of times when I start to shoot, I'm looking for that in between.

Just so that I can capture the real essence of a person.

There's a photo called "Westside.

I literally pulled up on these people, it was a father and a son standing outside and it was the golden hour in photography.

The sun was shining and they looked, it just looked beautiful.

I took a picture of them in the midst of asking them, can I take a photo?

And I continued to photograph them a little bit more but it was that first shot that got it.

For a long time I photographed a lot of nude women, black women specifically.

And it was because there really wasn't enough black women being shown in a way that was artistic and I wanted to present them as beautiful in their body.

And that was a learning process for me because I had to become comfortable with myself.

The series of mixed media photographs that I did with merging the textures and the portraiture together was really embracing our history, our lineage, how we go through life from beginning to end.

You know, those textures, all of that information in there in our being and how we interact with each other.

There is a photo of a man and a woman.

They're like my grandparents.

Starting there at that unit was pretty much the head of the family.

We look to them for our wisdom.

And then I have another exact photo of a younger generation of a young boy and a young girl because that's our beginning, that's where our start is.

There's this one picture it's just a bunch of kids on the playground.

And I was like, hey, y'all come together, get together, let me get a photo of you.

And the pose that they gave me was so fierce.

That's one of my favorite pictures.

You want to be able to educate people with your work.

That doesn't always have to be in the form of a protest.

It can be in the form of just healing the people as is.

That's what I do.

I use it as a way to heal myself and whomever else that comes in contact with it.

I love to give back because I had some amazing mentors, I've taught, middle and high school students photography.

I started a business called Photo Sensei, which is a photography tours and workshops around the Detroit area.

Another thing that I've done is open up the Norwest Gallery of Art.

Norwest Gallery is in North Rosedale Park on Grand River between Evergreen and Outer Drive.

Norwest comes from the Norwest Theater that used to be on Grand River just on the other side of Southfield freeway.

This is an opportunity for me to create a platform for artists who are emerging all the way up into strong professional artists that's been doing it for years.

It was really a matter of wanting to create a platform and space for people to exhibit and show their work, express themselves in a way that's a safe space to just be yourself.

I love curating shows.

I like to get people to feel, so it's a big part of my art.

I come up with a concept or an idea and just push it to the limit.

I select the artists that I think would be able to convey that message in their medium and it's super exciting to me.

The gallery has definitely taken on its own life, and it is a necessary place for this neighborhood.

I show Detroit how Detroit performs by just being myself, I'm always gonna be Asia in my work, in how I greet people, how I run my space.

It's all very calm.

When people come in here, they're smiling and they're like, oh my God, the energy in here is so good.

And that's because I want you to know that I'm sharing a part of my love with you.

This is my passion.

This is my home.

So it's like me opening up my home to you.

(upbeat music) SHARING IDENTITY AND CULTURE.

The meditation that we're gonna do today is called Mahkwuhoo, and Mahkwuhoo in my language which is the Paiute language, it's pretty much a literal translation that means something which is already done.

We're gonna come together as family and community, sit on the ground, we're going to focus, and we're going to ask the spirits of our ancestors to guide us and teach us lots of things and connect back to the earth and then I'm going to share with you some really old ancient songs from my people just to give you a little bit more of a boost to walk into the world and feel good.

I myself am a Paiute person from this valley, so the belief systems that I have in my culture and my language and my understanding is connected to the Great Basins, connected to this valley.

So this is the most localized indigenous practice that we can have in our valley 'cause it's not imported from other places, it is very much us here.

What I do as far as Mahkwuhoo meditation is I take my understanding of my community and then compile all of that, like the essence of who we are as far as what our spirituality might be, and then create something, and then provide it to all people in the form of meditation.

I'm able to crosswalk every single thing that is something that maybe a person of the Great Basin may have and take it from like the tribal space from the reservation and bring it out into non-tribal spaces.

And when I'm in non-tribal spaces, I'm able to share it in a way with all people of the world because the basis of the meditation is community, family, and their engagement with the land that they're on.

A lot of the people that come here, they come by themselves, and they don't know anybody so when they get to be here and when they get that experience at the end where they get to hold hands and they get to hug and they get to have this experience and I've seen so many people leave here making a friend and then they come back and all of a sudden those circles get bigger and stronger and then there's more cohesive experiences for people.

- Brian reminds us that we don't have to do this alone, we can pray, and bring it to ceremony, and meditate.

And be reminded that we're here all doing this together.

- And the singing and the drumming it's really beautiful because they have so much meaning to us.

They're songs about people being born or they're songs about the water, they're stories.

So it's our oral tradition and story coming out in song form.

And so there's different rhythms and different harmonies and different words and different purpose and intention.

And so when we're doing this, that's what we're doing it for, is to raise the energy even more.

So for us to have the drums and the noise, and the loudness and kinda shake you a little bit, that's what we're after.

We want you to be just a little unsettled and just kinda remember that there's a lot of energy and a lot of power in the world, and we're just a little part of it.

There are tribal people who still very much live here, and so I use the opportunity to have meditation to educate people as to the tribal belief systems that are already existing on the land, the people that are here venturing in the city, they should understand and know that there are 27 federally recognized tribes in the state of Nevada.

And that we still very much have language and culture and tradition and we have our connections back into these areas and that we're very much here and we're not going anywhere.

So that's why I use meditation because it's a really neutral vessel for me to take something and share something of my identity and culture with people from other different cultures in the world and they will be able to extract and absorb a lot of what I'm saying in their own way and their own understanding.

- It's an art of how both the guide is an artist.

But I think I also become an artist, I'm creating myself in the course of this ceremony or course of this ritual where I feel I'm an artist of my own consciousness.

And that's a powerful thing.

- I try to invoke the spirit of my ancestors, my connection to the land, who I am, to give me insight and to give me direction as to what I'm to create next.

Because I very much believe that my job in this earth is to be a person of service.

So I don't think about the things in which I create solely just so I can have it and I can feel a certain way, I feel that what I'm here to do is to provide a service back to the world.

My art has to be a reflection of the message in which I'm trying to live this world because I have no desire to create art that doesn't help people.

I wanna be the kind of artist that if I did something, it's because it took all of the momentum of my community and family to help me to do that.

The art that I create, it came from a really beautiful sacred place.

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

MASTERING AN UNPREDICTABLE LANDSCAPE.

I used to love putting makeup on and looking good.

My hair fixed.

Now it's just get up, throw everything in the truck and go work.

I'm living the dream.

And I do not take it for granted.

This is a beautiful day.

Lots of pretty shadows.

I m working in the fields a lot now, painting.

I would've never thought I'd say I'm in the hayfield.

You know, I'll call you later.

That's not very common for someone my age and a lady.

I'm Kelly Pennington.

I'm an artist from Ada, Oklahoma, who paints landscapes outdoors.

I paint a lot, out of the back of my car.

That s where my office is.

Of course, I set up my easel.

Set up my paint box.

I put my new canvas on.

And I might just walk around and look at different angles.

You walk out into a pasture and think, golly!

It was overwhelming to me when I first started.

But if you have that viewfinder, you ll simplify it down.

This is going to balance this, and this direction is going to go this way.

OK, we re ready.

Growing up, I was always outdoors.

I'd be out walking cattle trails and walking the dirt roads.

We stayed outside.

And that's where I felt comfortable, safe.

And I was very observant as a kid, quiet, shy.

Because I was half deaf.

I can only hear with one ear, of course.

And maybe that's why I didn't talk much?

And so I connected to my environment.

And then in 7th grade we had art full time.

And that's when I felt a part of school.

And that kind of built my confidence up.

When I was about 25, I decided I wanted to do something with art.

And then taught art for 17-and-a-half years, public school.

And I enjoyed it.

I started thinking that if I'm going to be an artist, I need to do it now because I'm not getting younger.

I think when I first reconnected with art, which is about seven years ago, when I thought, okay, this is what I want to do.

That was probably the lowest time of my life.

And it helped me cope.

Plein air is just a French term for painting out in the open air.

You have to be on your game when you're plein air painting.

I do like to plan for the week, And I have a list.

I have to look at the list to make sure I've got everything packed.

And I have to have my sleep.

I mean, I really have to be sharp mentally.

Cause you only have about two, two to three hours to get done.

You have to do it right.

There s so much I have to depend on.

Nature, mother nature's unpredictable.

Oakley is my painting buddy.

He loves to go with me.

He's a good boy.

He's spoiled though.

He's he's a spoiled dog.

It's also exciting to get out of state and see other landscapes too.

And then when you come home, you think, wow.

Oklahoma has some pretty places.

When I m scouting for locations to paint, I'm always looking.

If I'm just going to the city to run errands, I'm always looking.

The Ada cement plant has always been an Ada icon.

It just always intrigued me as a young child, looking out the car window, seeing that large structure.

And so I thought, you know, I want to paint that.

The reason why I chose representational art is that, again, I like to be outside.

Any reason to get me outside and, and be close to nature.

It just fits like a glove.

This pasture belongs to my uncle.

He was so kind to give me a key to roam because he knows what to look for the landscapes.

It speaks to me because this is where I grew up.

It s where we spent most of our time.

I did not know that he could be a fine artist.

I grew up in a working class family that... it's just, it was beyond anything I could have ever imagined.

My dream is to have my studio in my house and have it where I can just step out my back door and paint the same thing over and over because it just changes.

You'll never get the same.

I ve never painted the same.

The reason I became an artist is because I wanted to see where I could get.

There was always that mystery.

How good could I be if I mastered something?

Thats what keeps me coming back and back and back.

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