- Coming up on KVIE Arts Showcase.

Over the last 12 seasons, we've showcased some of the most talented artists from across our region and beyond.

Join us as we take a look back, a life devoted to music.

- My life is a testament to that 'cause my life, I've been devoted to music.

- A photographer finds her way.

- There's a time where your brain starts working differently.

You start to see all those things that you were missing before.

- Sculptures that inspire you to look deeper.

- I consider my work questions, not answers.

It's social commentary, - Finding what art means to you in your everyday life.

- This painting is titled "Queen" as I hope to capture a sense of culture through the silhouette and blend of colors.

- It's all up.

Next on KVIE Arts Showcase case.

Let's meet Sacramento native and 2024 NPR Tiny Desk contest winner Christian Gates, also known as the Philharmonik.

[Steinberg] - Every once in a while, somebody hits it really big.

When National Public Radio had its Tiny Desk contest.

They listened to great songs like, “Whats It All Mean?” as strong messages to young people.

And they decided that the winner of the Tiny Desk contest was a young man from Sacramento, Christian Gates!

- My name is Christian Gates, but my artist name is the Philharmonik.

I'm an artist, producer, multi-instrumentalist songwriter out of Sacramento, California.

[singing] - Whats it all mean?

Whats it all mean?

♪♪ - Sometimes your parents will have you go through music lessons or have you in sports.

And my mom decided to put me in both.

With music, though, she saw that I was special because she took me to a concert when I was, I don't know, 3 or 4 years old, and I came home from that concert without any musical background whatsoever and started playing the melody on the piano and she saw that in me and said, I definitely need to get you in music.

So we're going to start piano lessons.

- That was like a spark at that concert.

So it was like it.

I watched it like fill him.

He just had just a draw towards music, like all different kinds.

And so I just let him experience it as best as I could.

- Hip hop was the main thing that our generation listened to, somehow came up with the idea, like, I have all of this musical background, I'm in this MIDI class and I like hip hop.

How do I combine these three elements?

And that is how I got started in making my own music.

[rapping] “-and tell my mom and I do it for the people and rock the mic on the stage --” - For me, I started doing these shows as a rapper and performing on the mic.

I didn't feel like people are paying attention to me enough and I didn't like that.

So I was like, I need people to pay attention to me the entire time.

I need their full, undivided attention.

I feel entitled to their attention.

And so I started doing different things.

I started being more animated in my performances, and it wasn't enough.

Then I started bringing the keyboard in, and then I started seeing people treat me with a different type of respect.

And so I started bringing the rapping with the keyboard and started playing keyboard.

And then I said, wait, I also sing too, so let's bring the singing content into it.

I wanted to craft my entire brand off of musicianship first.

I do everything, absolutely everything in the process.

I play all the instruments, I mix and master.

I write all the lyrics.

I do everything from start to finish.

So it's basically saying I'm a one man orchestra.

Before I knew it, I had all of this material and like 17 different genres.

All genres that I love, of just me exploring and hearing my voice in it and I'm like, wow, I did not expect myself to sound good.

Let's just put this in one cohesive project.

And that's how the Philharmonik came out with his first debut album, 12 or 13 different tracks and 12 or 13 different genres, just the plethora and the diversity within it was just me having fun in the exploration phase of seeing what I could do with this music.

It ended up being pretty successful.

The first album really got a lot of praise.

I was really excited by it because I didn't know what to expect.

I just knew I had to bring it and I knew it was the best I had at the time.

I did not know that it would be so resonating to people.

To watch that go down was really exciting.

I got to ride that for two years.

I got to be on sway in the morning because of it.

I got to go on tour with Hobo Johnson.

Across the country, 37 cities sold out, House of Blues from here to to Canada.

It was great.

- I will rep this city until the day I die.

In everything I do!

Everything I do!

Every song that I make, I'm going to do it for y'all.

- The one thing I love and appreciate about Sacramento, first and foremost, is that I feel like here I've always been appreciated.

I've always been recognized for the talent, appreciate it, for the talent, honored for the talent.

Every time somebody rises up out of Sacramento, they're surprised because it's something different.

- People would start to walk up to me like it shows, oh, this is your kid.

They would come up and they'd be like, oh my gosh, your kid changed my life and all of this stuff.

He must be so proud and and I think people.

But it's really him that's done the work like I did.

I did labor him in here, but he's made an art out of the training and the lessons.

His heart is in it.

His passion is in it.

He's always had a strong sense of himself, - At that time, you know, I saw Hollywood just in my, in my view and, you know, I was gonna do anything to get there.

And then COVID happened and that was an entirely different journey.

I was dealing with many personal things.

Addiction.

I got into a car accident on May 8th, 2023 before I dropped my album release.

And so I was fighting this, this invisible enemy.

And, and it took me five years to release another album.

I had an entire album that was ready and I didn't drop it because I felt like it didn't reflect the trajectory that I wanted to go or the message that I even wanted to give out to the world or to myself.

Some of those songs they went on this project that I released, Kironic, which was last year, July 28th, when it came out, I feel like it, it was so slow.

It was just like I was putting all this energy and I felt like I was getting nothing back.

I was at such a point in my life where like all of the debt from my car accident was really coming to a head.

I was behind on literally every bill, every single one.

By at least two or three months.

It was, it was bad.

In that darkest moment, I said, I have to create something to get out of this.

I know I created this album and nobody's listening to it.

I have to do something.

So I went to go put it into places that just to try to get it to feel around.

First place I went in into it was American Songwriter.

That first drop of water led me to be ready for my Tiny Desk submission and I had to wait for a few months.

I see myself making it in the top 45.

That was exciting.

And watching the judges on Tiny Desk talk about it.

And then I get a call from American Songwriter and they tell me, “you won best song for 2023 for What's It All Mean?” And that was a month before I got the Tiny Desk notification too.

[singing] - “if I keep it slow and steady, then I win the race.

♪♪ Got my eyes on the prize, lets take it day by day.

♪♪ - I didn't put an expectation on how to feel.

I just in that moment, the first thing I felt, I said, I'm ready, I've been ready and I'm glad it's here because I couldn't have come in a more perfect time.

[singing] - “life goes on, life goes on.” ♪♪ [ Applause ] Every place that we've been to is sold out and it, it's just been euphoric.

Being able to connect with the fans and, and to, to be able to grace the stage in that light once again, like, it's like all the groundwork that I feel like I've put in for the last like 12 years.

It's all like accumulating for this moment.

'cause sometimes, you know, you put in a lot of work for a lot of years and you just don't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

But it just, sometimes it just takes that one move and then all the moves that you've ever done, everything you start to see counts.

And this was that move for me.

This is me leaving the nest, like in the flying and being able to fly and to thrive in the world.

I understand when they say don't quit, why that's what so many people say it is because you're gonna want to do it.

And the hard times you're gonna really want to do it because I really wanted to do it right before I dropped Tiny Desk.

And it's like if you just stay in there, if you just try one more time or if you learn from it, you can really make it far.

It's possible to blow up in Sacramento and to be from here.

I think Sacramento is, is a thriving city.

We have a lot of talent here and I want people to see me here and see an example of what that looks like and say, you could do it too.

♪ - Artist Gabriela Michanie found her passion for photography on a family trip that would turn a hobby into a fulfilling career.

♪ - I started to take pictures when my kids were little.

I think what I wanted to do is make sure that I never forgot those moments.

And it translated to when we went somewhere and traveled to take that picture to make sure if I got really, really old and I couldn't remember anymore, I had the picture to look at and remember those moments.

I actually fell in love with photography our first trip to Yosemite.

I knew what I wanted to get, but I was missing the technique.

And actually my husband suggested, you know, you should take classes and taking classes online.

I met my mentor, Jim Zuckerman, and he took me under his wing after I asked him, do I really need to choose?

I don't wanna choose.

Everybody's asking me, are you a landscape photographer?

Are you a fashion photographer?

What kind of photographer are you?

And he said, you don't have to choose, you know, - Every place that we've been to is sold out and it's just been euphoric being able to connect with the fans and to be able to grace the stage in that light once again.

Like it's like all the groundwork that I feel like I put in for the last like 12 years.

It's all like accumulating for this moment because sometimes, you know, you put in a lot of work for a lot of years and you just don't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

But it's just sometimes it just takes that one move and then all the moves that you've ever done, everything you start to see counts.

And this was that move for me.

This is me leaving the nest and then flying and being able to fly and thrive in the world.

- I'm proud of that.

That he's able to advocate for himself, to express himself, to do the risk, to live his life as himself.

If you can live your life and become yourself and stay yourself, and not let the world shift you around so that you're hiding your gifts.

That's life.

That's a good life.

And I'm proud of that he's doing that.

- Now I understand when they say don't quit.

Why that's what so many people say.

It's because you're going to want to do it the hard times.

You're going to really want to do it.

Because I really wanted to do it right before I dropped Tiny Desk.

And it's like, if you just stay in there, if you just try one more time, or if you learn from it, you can really make it far.

It's possible to blow up in Sacramento and to be from here.

I think Sacramento is a thriving city.

We have a lot of talent here, and I want people to see me here and to see an example of what that looks like.

And so you could do it to.

Having my photography in different galleries, I had a hard time receiving the feedback from the people.

I was afraid of that negative comment, you know, "would people like my stuff?"

'cause everybody that said they were amazing was my family or my friends, what are they gonna tell me?

Oh my God, this is awful.

So it, it was really, really hard and I actually, and I stood back and tried to listen and it was like, oh my God, they really like 'them, you know?

And my family of course says, "we told you!"

There's a time where your brain starts working differently.

You start to see all those things that you are missing before.

I think what sets me apart from other photographers is my style is my passion is what I see through that camera.

You can actually shoot a model.

You can have four different photographers in the same place at the same time shooting the same model and all the pictures will look different.

I want people to know me through my photography, to get to know who, who I am.

And I'm working really hard at doing that.

There's so much to learn, there's so much out there.

I think photography is always evolving.

There's all kinds that you can try and do, but I never wanna get away from the passion that I have from it.

Even though I can use new techniques and new ideas.

I like to stay with a passion, but always learning, learning from the best to become the best.

I'm, I'm still trying to figure out what I wanna be when I grow up.

[ Camera Clicking Noises ] ♪ - You will discover more questions than answers when viewing the work of California artists Al Farrow, - I consider my work questions, not answers.

It's social commentary.

Basically, I'm, I'm sort of trying to mix it up with symbolism so that people will start questioning why these combinations of symbols, why these elements?

Why?

And I'm not giving them answers.

I'm actually trying to get them to think.

Art was always a part of my life growing up.

My father introduced my brothers and I to art.

He was a very poor man.

We had a lot of kids and we always had pencils, glue, paper, scissors, all kinds of creative stuff.

We didn't have lots of toys and luxurious things, but we always had creative stuff.

He had a passion for art and so he would make sure we got some exposure.

I knew I had talent, but my brothers, particularly my older brothers, had lots of talent and they all went to special art schools, but I didn't wanna follow in their footsteps.

So I went to an engineering high school as a specialty, and ironically, by working in engineering and hating it and leaving and then ultimately becoming an artist.

The work I do now, I couldn't have done had I not worked in the engineering profession.

My first series was ballet dancers.

I recognized I needed more information about the formal dance, what position this would really indicate.

So I went to sketch to learn more about dance.

And so I would sketch several days a week and I just fell in love with dance.

And so I started doing ballet dancers and it was a total diversion from social commentary, which was my initial purpose.

And then after about two years, the owner of the school sat down next to me and she says, you, you draw very well.

You, you, I could tell which kids you're drawing, even though they're very brief sketches.

I said, how can you tell?

She said, by the mistakes they're making.

Then I realized I was drawing everybody's mistakes and I needed to get the information from inside my body.

So I signed up for ballet class.

I was 34 years old and I took ballet for nine years and I sculpted dancers for about seven years.

Then I was starting to get really serious when I got my first show.

I had to produce a lot of work and I had no money at all.

The beggars came out of my experience of trying to raise money.

I really got depressed when nobody would support you.

I I really felt like a beggar.

So I had a show of dancers and beggars in one gallery.

This is a real crazy dichotomy.

That was the beginning of showing my social commentary work and what followed that was the Icarus series where I started really developing my reactions to political events.

So the Icarus series addressed the concept of flight and what we've done in less than a hundred years flight has turned into amazing atrocities.

Within five years of the first flight from the Wright Brothers, they were dropping bombs out of airplanes in World War I, it's before anyone ever thought of a commercial application of flying people around.

And you can see the influence of my dancers.

If you look close at the Icarus series, they're very dancerly.

They all have that nice muscularity and good lines.

When I showed my African series, people were frightened.

They didn't want to see African black men naked with guns.

I mean, freaks 'them out on every level.

People didn't get it.

They didn't buy 'them either.

It was very frustrating.

I don't compromise my art ever.

I won't ever compromise it.

And so I just kept going and it took decades.

That's one of the reasons that I got into the guns and bullets.

It's because my figure work frightened a lot of people.

I do a lot of research no matter what I do, dealing with religion as, as my main subject against militaria, it has to be respectful.

And I'm not trying to insult any religion or anybody's choice of religion.

I'm trying to equate the relationship.

I'm trying to at least present the relationship of religion and war.

All the armies send clerics in with the soldiers and tell 'them God's on their side and, and that they're gonna win.

And of course, we can't all win, it's just not gonna happen.

The content of the work is not beautiful, but the form.

So I'm using beauty as a hook so that you can see this from across the gallery and you're attracted to it because it's pretty, it's got harmony, it's got grace.

And when they get close, they start discovering.

And that's the ticket.

If you are allowing the viewer to discover things, you can hold their attention.

If I used plastic skulls or fingers or plastic guns, it would have no impact, none at all.

If people could look at it and discern that it's not real, so to speak, it wouldn't have an impact.

I would like a reaction.

If people are indifferent, I miss my mark, but I always get a reaction.

They either love it or hate it.

You know, whether people buy my work or don't buy it.

I feel really fulfilled and coming to a place where people recognize my work all over the world.

So, you know, it's evolving even as we speak.

And I don't know where it'll ultimately end, but I really like working.

And so I'm, I'm gonna just continue till I can't.

♪ ♪ - We asked you to share with us how you use art in your everyday life.

Here are some of the remarkable things you shared.

[ Cymbals And Bass Play ] ♪ Art is infused throughout our lives from the unmistakable urge to dance.

When a song catches your ear [ RnB Music Plays ] ♪ [ Unintelligible ] - To the words in a poem, a play, or a book that inspires your day.

Art can be used to express our frustrations and our fears.

♪ Art can be a way to balance stress with humor and a little animation.

- Having worked in fast food, I've realized one thing, people are stupid.

Oh, can I get a burger?

But without the bun and the meat.

- So you wanna salad?

- No.

- Art can take a passion and turn it into a career.

- Podcasting is an art, it's a way for me to express myself outwardly.

It's a facet for me to express how I feel and how I relate to things.

- What does art mean to you in your everyday life?

It is something different for each individual.

Through a time of stress or in a moment of reflection, one may reach for a pencil to sketch or a brush to paint.

Art helps us to honor and celebrate who we are and where we come from.

- This painting is titled "Queen," as I hope to capture a sense of culture through the silhouette and blend of colors.

This creative piece titled Bows and Afro Puffs is meant to resemble the beauty of natural hair and its uniqueness by use of yarn for the puffs and bows.

- Art can also be a resource to unlock parts of yourself you didn't realize were there.

Art can be a counselor, a stress reliever.

They can also provide a moment for meditation.

Art can be a collection of captured moments or a memory of a loved one passed.

Sometimes art is taking the simplest things -- - We love art - And making them into a beautiful masterpiece.

- You wanna do a little art?

Welcome to the Museum of Rocks.

Start with one.

We got the pattern one.

We got this one that has a face.

We got another face that looks more red.

- Art can be repurposed, reused and reimagined.

Art can even be a moment to share a song.

- [ Singing ] Hold fast to dreams ♪ For if dreams die, ♪ Life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly ♪ - Or a moment to build connection with family, friends, and coworkers that are just outta reach.

♪ Art can help to remind us of the beauty that surrounds us every day.

Art is something that connects us all, but also gives us perspective, understanding, and empathy for others that share this beautiful planet with us.

[ Jazz Music Playing ] ♪ - Episodes of KVIE Art Showcase, along with other KVIE programs are available to watch online at kvie.org/video.