- [Announcer] Production of "Applause" on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

(gentle music) - [Kabir] Coming up, we're going for a ride in the pride of Warren, Ohio, the Packard.

Meet a Cincinnati artist known for his hot rod detailing.

And groove to a Columbus samba written on a full belly of Chinese food and a few sips of whiskey.

(chill upbeat music) (upbeat funky music) Hello everyone and welcome to another round of "Applause."

I'm your host, Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia.

Let's cruise into Trumbull County, home to many things Packard.

The family of industrialists hails from northeast Ohio, but eventually moved its car company to the motor city.

70 years ago, It was the beginning of the end for their luxurious automotive brand, but some dedicated people on Mahoning Avenue and Warren are keeping the memory alive.

Packard Park features ball fields, a pavilion, and a test track.

The park sits next to the National Packard Museum dedicated to the brand which was the Cadillac of automobiles before there was a Cadillac.

- The museum started with a group of citizens who knew that Packard history needed to be preserved.

One individual in fact, Terry Martin, who since passed away, was largely responsible for that movement.

He actually came from Chester, West Virginia, and he was a car guy, restored old vehicles, and he came to Warren as a cabinet maker.

And he's going around Warren seeing Packard Park, Packard Street, Packard Music Hall so he started looking into that history.

- [Kabir] Martin began collecting artifacts and established the museum in 1989.

In the late '90s, he leased the city's former municipal bathhouse.

- It was scheduled for demolition, but the Packard Museum Association went to the city and said, "Hey, we wanna put a museum in there."

And so they agreed, they signed a lease, and over the next two years, they raised money to renovate it.

So in 1999, the centennial celebration for the Packard Motor Car happened here in Warren, over a thousand Packards came here.

I actually was running photography studio at the time not too far from here.

And shortly after that celebration, my friend told me, "Hey, this little museum up the street's looking for a director, sounds like something you'd like."

Because I was really into photographic history and preservation.

- [Kabir] As a teenager, Mary Ann Porinchak taught swimming lessons in the building, which now houses historical displays and more than two dozen cars.

- 'Cause it was international.

It wasn't just local, it was international.

People that were coming here and still calling and dropping things off and helping the collection grow.

So fast forward to 2008 and we're looking at, okay, we're out of space.

- [Kabir] The museum then lobbied the US government for support, noting Packard's contributions to the country's transportation network.

$1 million allowed the museum to expand and build a climate controlled vault for vehicles like this 1955 Caribbean convertible, which belonged to a movie producer and his actress wife.

- Howard Hughes bought this before they were actually available to the general public.

He bought it for Jean Peters, who was then his fiance.

They drove it once, didn't even put 500 miles on it.

She didn't like it.

It was too big.

So they parked it in a garage in Burbank and it never got driven again.

- [Kabir] The vehicle's now preserved thanks to a team of volunteers that comes in every Tuesday.

- This car has a lot of chrome, it has very few miles on it.

It only has 1,752 miles on it.

It has dual four barrels underneath, a lot of chrome.

It came with just about every option imaginable on it.

Jean Peters was a very small person.

She got the car as a gift when she was 29.

And there were a couple of stories coming around why she didn't like the car.

And after the first drive to Malibu and back, she didn't drive it anymore.

One story is the pink stripe.

The other story is, since she was so small, she sat in the car and she couldn't barely see over the steering wheel.

And the third 1955 was the first year Packard had air conditioning.

One position, on and off.

No fan controls, no blower motors or anything.

So they're blowing at you the entire time.

- [Kabir] The volunteers get the privilege of occasionally driving the Packards.

- They're big, they're beautiful.

What more can you say?

These particular cars are so much fun to drive because you get 'em out on the road and you float.

You don't drive as much as you float down the highway.

I've driven that yellow one that's out front there different times and it's a joy to drive.

- Some of the cars have the torsion bar suspension on it.

It automatically adjusts.

If you put four people in the back or only one person in the back, it senses it and automatically adjusts it.

You can go over a railroad track and you don't even know you're going over it.

They're so smooth.

- [Kabir] Packards were smooth compared to other cars, but also unique compared to each other.

- Every one of 'em has a different hood ornament and sometimes they were custom to the customer, but this one has the goddess of speed.

And the goddess of speed was probably their premier hood ornament 'cause Packard was known for not only for high quality, but also a fast automobile in their day.

That's why a lot of the gangsters use Packards because they were dependable and they were fast.

The business coop in there has the wing hood ornament.

The wings fold back as the car goes faster, and there's a legend behind that.

We call it a the wife hood ornament.

The wings are folded out.

When the car comes back, they should be folded out.

If they're folded back, you know she's been out racing with the boys.

(chuckles) Or it could be the son hood ornament or it could be the husband hood ornament.

You can invert the name however you'd like.

- [Kabir] That might be up for interpretation.

But Packards had many clear innovations.

- When was the last time you thought about who developed the sun visor, or the foot pedal accelerator, or the glove compartment?

The things that we take for granted were all Packard innovations and we still use them today.

And that's the story we wanna convey to our guests that you get in your car and you turn that ignition and there's a whole lot of things that you wouldn't be able to do without Packard innovations.

So, you know, we're here to keep that story alive, to keep that history alive.

- [Kabir] That includes bringing in a younger generation including 10-year-old Ryan Paisley.

- I asked my grandpa, "Can I volunteer at the Packard Museum?"

And he just brought me here one day and he introduced me to all the other volunteers.

And whenever they move the cars around, I usually hold the wheel to keep it straight.

Whenever they take the cars outside, if they don't have any to ride with, I just ride with them.

- [Kabir] The team of seven volunteers keeps things rolling at the museum each week.

- I am currently 81 years old and I'm a widower so I don't have a lot to do at home.

This gives me something to do, a place to spend my time and energy and I so enjoy doing it.

In some ways, it's a therapy.

And we have a good camaraderie with the fellow guys and other workers.

We enjoy it.

- [Kabir] Packard merged with Studebaker in October 1954 and faded away soon after.

But you can get your Packard fix at two places in Ohio.

The National Packard Museum in Warren and a restored dealership in Dayton.

From the history of an Ohio-born automobile to an Ohio artist with a passion for painting automobiles.

It's time to drive to Cincinnati where customized cars are this man's canvas.

Let's meet the hall of fame pinstriper, Jim Dauber Farr.

- When I was a preteen, there was a point where I quit buying comic books and started buying car magazines.

I was fascinated by the designs and eventually I found a magazine that showed Dean Jeffries doing some pin striping on an old car, and he had a striping brush in his hand.

I got on my bike pedaled down to the Sherwin-Williams store, back wall had striping brushes so I bought the smallest brush that would fit my hand, and it helped me learn how to do skinny lines.

I am Jim Dauber Farr.

I'm a pinstriper, gilder, commercial artist, graphic artist.

Happy to be here.

There was an occasion when I was at the art museum viewing the show, "Women of Egypt."

And at the end of the show, there were two caskets encased in plexiglass, and there was pinstriping on these caskets.

I knelt down to look at them and I couldn't resist drawing my hand across the plastic, imagining what that wood would've felt like with a brush in my hand.

And when I drew the brush back like that, there was a thunder boomer overhead and the lights went out.

And I had my hand there and I looked up at my friends who were standing there and I took my hand away.

And for some reason, the lights came back on and it just sort of seemed to be somewhat karmic if you take my drift.

Dauber came into my life when I was working in my partner's shop, Bill Roell, over in Covington.

We worked together for almost 10 years.

And there was a guy from the west side of town who came in and was watching me letter, and the lighting was very inadequate.

And I kept wiping paint off on my shirt 'cause I couldn't get it the way I wanted on the car.

And this gentleman was standing there looking at me doing that and he says, "This guy daubs more than he paints.

We ought to call him Dauber."

Within a week, the concrete had dried and I had no choice in the matter.

I actually am pinstriping in gold leaf and not too many people do that.

You mix a sizing, a glue, which is commonly known as a sizing and you a mix glue and usually some color with that so you have an image of what you're actually putting down, and you let it dry a certain amount of time depending on the weather and the thunder and lightning and also the the humidity and whatnot.

And once it's ready, it's ready.

And if you don't pay attention to the clock, you can find yourself having wasted some time and possibly material.

And it's entertaining sometimes, but also challenging.

You've got to pay attention to detail.

Simple as that.

Gold leaf has a tradition and a history that goes back centuries, literally centuries.

The Egyptians were doing it and possibly further back than that.

It came into vogue again during the Renaissance, actually prior to the Renaissance and so forth, subsequently in churches and things of that nature began being used on on picture frames and things like that.

I know of maybe five or six other stripers nationally that do pinstriping and gold leaf on the streets.

There may be more, but I'm unaware of it.

Where do I get inspiration from?

Everywhere.

I'm blessed with powers of observation and I try to be receptive and I try to pay attention to things.

I also try to do things, for instance that have not been done.

I try to give people more than they expect simply because I've been doing it this long.

And if not now, then when?

There was a very humbling experience in 2006 for me and for Bill.

He was contacted and was told that the National Hot Riding Association was going to nominate him for induction in the drag racing hall of fame.

He said, "I won't do it unless you also incorporate Dauber in that."

And it was a humbling thing standing up in front of a bunch of people in a crowd situation thanking them.

It didn't make a lot of sense to me until I realized there were no other artists in the drag racing hall of fame at that point.

And it was a humbling situation and still is.

I've done a quite wide variety of work for folks, including the museum center, the fire museum, multiple radio stations, the Cincinnati Zoo, clients involving race cars, hot rods, motorcycles all over town.

Everything you see around and behind me and everything that I do is original and it's hand done.

I do not use a computer for my art.

I do not do anything in vinyl.

Everything I do is done the original way, the right way.

I like the smell of paint.

I like the feel of brushes in my hands.

I wanna do it right or not at all.

Pinstriping is sort of a zen thing for me.

You gotta be in a good frame of mind.

I do yoga, I do meditation twice a day, and it gives me a good frame of mind, it keeps me calm.

You can't do pinstriping without having brush control.

You don't have brush control unless you've got some control up here and in here.

It's logical.

I tend to look at a naked panel and I can imagine, you know, things growing out like a blooming flower and God willing, it'll bloom wherever the brush is pulled up.

My grandmother was the first one to encourage me to do art.

Art is not as easy as it might seem.

There a lot of people figure that you just put a coin in a slot and out pops art.

It doesn't work that way.

You've gotta think, you've gotta be versatile, you've gotta be diverse, you've gotta be qualitative, you've gotta be all of those things and you better know how to market yourself too to a certain extent.

I am grateful to have work.

I'm grateful to be doing art.

Art for me is a long-term deal.

I am very grateful to be able to work with young artists, young stripers and so forth because there was no one around to teach me anything.

I am completely self-taught.

I'm frequently asked, "Don't you think that's a dying art?"

No, I think thanks to the internet and the web, there are probably more people pinstriping worldwide than any of the time in history.

- [Kabir] Do you know any northeast Ohio artists doing something cool like pinstriping?

Send us the info in an email to arts@ideastream.org.

Let's head to Columbus where Ohio State University alum Roy Lichtenstein was ahead of his time when it comes to the pop art movement.

Not too long ago, the university decided to honor the late artist with a sculpture on campus.

(mellow violin music) - It's a little different than most other sculptures that we've done for the Lichtensteins.

It's about 31 feet tall, weighs in, we believe it's going to be about 5,000 pounds.

I mean, it's the most fun thing I've ever done.

(serene piano music) - Roy Lichtenstein became first known as a pop artist and these pop artists came from the word popular artists, but they were using popular subject matter in a kind of a critique or an alternative to a very painterly style of abstract expressionism from the 1950s.

- Well, Roy was a very dedicated artist.

I mean, he fell in love with art when he was a young boy and when it came time for him to go to university, he wanted to be able to study art.

And at that time, there were really only a handful of colleges where you could get a degree in art, studio art and Ohio State University was one of them.

- Well, you know, we're proud to count Roy Lichtenstein is a double alumnus of the university back in the '40s.

He achieved both his bachelor's and master's degree here in fine and was part of our teaching faculty for some time following that.

- And Roy always held Ohio State University in high regard because of this experience he had here in the art school.

- In more recent years, the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation has actually been looking for ways that they could continue to engage with the university.

And so it's really through the foundation that we have this tremendous opportunity to actually be considered as the location for something as amazing as this Modern Head sculpture.

(bright music) - The Modern Head sculpture, we figured we could build to do a memorial non-commercial cast of an edition of that used to be four.

We decided to make one more addition to it.

This is a posthumous edition, and that it would be donated to the university in Roy's memory.

- I mean, we wouldn't really dare make anything new.

In fact, we got the plans from the original producer of the piece and we worked with fabricator that Roy had worked with on many of his pieces, Paul Amaral.

(upbeat music) - We're in Rhode Island on the East Bay, just a little bit east of Downtown Providence, Rhode Island.

And we are ready to build a Lichtenstein sculpture.

This one had been built before by other fabricators.

That was the challenge to build it from other people's drawings and design parameters.

The input information that I got was analog hand-drawn pieces from the early '80s.

So we had to correct all that stuff and get it right so that we could have complete faith in the computer file to produce a piece that is the shape that Roy intended.

Everybody started feeling really confident towards the end when we started producing small scale versions out of a water jet or a laser machine and everything lined up and matched, and did what it was supposed to do.

- The sculptures of Roy Lichtenstein are often thought of as very technical, almost scientific in nature.

And so when folks from the foundation came and walked across campus, they found this space in the North campus area that actually aligns not only with where we're enhancing our arts district, but also provides this really amazing synergy with some of our science buildings particularly Smith and McPherson labs.

- Which actually is closer to Roy's personal interests.

Roy was an engineer, he was a draftsman, he worked in engineering companies.

He liked making mechanical things by himself anyway.

- I mean, the whole purpose of art is really to engage people and thinking about imagery, what it means.

So I'll be very curious to see how the students at OSU deal with this, what they wonder about it.

- So I wanna thank everyone in Ohio for making this as a good opportunity for us to have a work here that could be provocative for the tens of thousands of students who will be passing by it.

It's just a nice opportunity to maintain a relationship.

- [Kabir] Here's what's in store for you next time on "Applause."

Akron-based artist Meryl Engler escaped the Ohio winter to bask in the sun and the art of Cuba.

That artistic adventure has inspired Engler's woodwork prints now a part of the 2024 Havana Biennial.

Plus we go inside the doors to My Barrio exhibit at the Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center.

And guitar master Jason Vieaux leads his quintet in a Spanish fandango for Chamber Fest Cleveland.

All that and more on the next round of "Applause."

(dramatic guitar music) We are gonna keep the pace moving here as we say goodbye.

Thanks for riding along on this round of "Applause."

I'm I Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia handing things off to the Alex Burgoyne Quartet from Columbus.

Burgoyne wrote his "Samba Bebado e Gordo" after a night of tasty takeout and a wee bit of whiskey.

The song's title roughly translates as the drunk and fat samba.

But no matter your state of mind, we think you'll enjoy.

Catch you next time.

(chill upbeat music) (chill upbeat music continues) (chill upbeat music continues) (chill upbeat music continues) (chill upbeat music continues) (chill upbeat music continues) (chill upbeat music continues) (bright music) - [Announcer] Production of "Applause" on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.