Coming up next on Gallery America, we meet painter and guitarist Tim Long, who creates neo southwest pieces of art inspired by his environment.

Then we meet acclaimed bassist Victor Wooten and learn about his illustrious career.

All that coming up now on Gallery America.

Hello, Oklahoma.

Welcome to Gallery America.

I'm Jonathan Thompson.

Today we're heading to Mustang to meet artist Tim Long.

Tim's created his own style of art he calls Neo Southwest.

Follow us as we figure out what Neo Southwest is and where he draws his inspiration from.

Places like this.

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I don't want to go completely out of my kind of genre.

Or what?

Of Neo Southwest or whatever it is.

We're doing neo southwest.

That's it.

I' running with that.

That's that.

That's a great description.

I don't know exactly what that means, but sounds great.

Where is Oklahoma?

Is it is it Midwestern?

Is it southern?

Is it western?

Is it southwestern?

I don't know.

Neo southwest is.

Old cowboy hat.

Maybe.

Maybe hear jazz playing in an old beat u pickup, driving down the road.

There's.

There's definitely going to be some dust blowing around.

It's probably going to be hot.

It might be a cactus.

That's neo southwest to me.

You know, cowboy boots, maybe riding a skateboard.

You know, something like that.

Sometimes I'll say that Western pop, but.

Neo southwest kind of has a nice ring to it.

I kind of like getting in on a painting and just starting and trying to finish up this as best as I can.

I find a find a lot of inspiration from Oklahoma.

I'm a Oklahoma artist born in Duncan, Oklahoma, and I live in Mustang, but consider mysel a contemporary Western artist.

Maybe I'm just an artist.

Take pride and kind of being from the state, kind of where it is bad.

I'm an Okie.

My roots from the Anadarko area or like the Stevens County, like Duncan area.

And I know I just had that curiosity.

It was centered about where I'm growing up.

Definitely want to take tha into consideration, but not not get too far away from what you're you're kind of used to just always kind of seem like it stemmed right out of here, out of Oklahoma.

It made me want to be a painter.

That's Rock Hudson from the movie Giant.

“This is Texas.

Mighty Colossus of the southwest.” I have this idea of my inspiration.

And it would be an old house kind of sitting on the plains, pale blue sky.

There's some red dirt.

You probably got Marty Robbins on the record player back in the back “i the West Texas town of El Paso.” And on the wall would be one of my paintings.

I know what I want to paint, but I don't know what colors, you know.

It's like a puzzle.

You're sitting there painting and you're trying to.

How is this going t you're a viewer just as much as, as a as the person looking at it.

Right?

I like to leave my art a little on the undone side.

I'll have a little voice in my head to say, hey, you're done or at least step back and stop.

Maybe I'll come back to it tomorrow.

And then if you come back to it tomorrow and I'm happy with it, then I'm done.

I have a day job, and as much as I would, would love to be an artis full time, it just doesn't pay the bills, right?

So I don't paint when I'm at work.

I think part of that is art.

For me, it's therapeutic.

It's a hobby but I don't want it to be a job.

The way I look at it, I would I would love to do this full time when I retire.

I never want anyone to look at my art and be like, wow, is that is that a photograph?

I want a painting to look like a painting.

It was a couple weeks before Father's Day, and my mom was like, what?

Are you going to get your day?

And she's like, why don't you want to make them?

Why don't you draw some?

She gets it matted and framed.

And we presented it to my dad for for, for Father's Day.

And it went straight on the wall.

His excitement at seeing it, you know, my mom's excitement of seeing it by my sister.

But I've kind of.

All right.

Maybe.

Maybe this is something I can do.

I like how it turned out.

My dad's dad, my papa, he he has some great pictures of him, you know, and, you know, on horseback you know, like, kind of rare up.

And, I have one of my, my great grandfather, you know, he's got his chaps on and it's cowboy hat, but I'm not a mature enough painter to to bring it the respect that it needs.

And that that's one painting that I'm not mature enough as an artist yet to paint it.

Mayb that one will be in the Cowboy Hall of Fame or something.

I saw a book that I checked out from my grade school, Indian Values past and present...”lets see...” by Lu Celia Wise.

A lot of kids maybe were seeing comic books and trying to draw Superman or X-Men or something.

I had this book.

Yeah, there it is.

That's that Kiowa Fancy Dancer by David Williams.

My favorite.

I was practicing my drawing by some of these master Native American painters and the pictures that I saw on that just I was captured.

He would have some muted colors.

Probably like a solid background color done in temperatures or guache It's the flat style.

Or Bacone school of of drawing.

Almost in illustration style to it.

But there is a sense of movement and all of that.

Right.

These artists are takin a very flat, you know, based off on this ledger art from, from you know, like the 19th century.

It's it's just gorgeous.

Like the way his hands holding his whip and his fan and the look on his face.

The movement, you see.

But they capture the sense of movement that for a 2D painting, it's.

It's amazing.

I would have been probably 11.

You know, something at that young of an age that can stick with you but that absolutely has done it.

It's still fascinating to me to this day.

It's some of my favorite paintings are in that style.

It's gorgeous.

I like my I like my art.

I want people to see that whether I ever play the guitar in front of anybody, I just.

I like playing.

I like playing for myself.

Do I listen to a lot of jazz?

A little bit, but the jazz side of it is just.

It's.

That's what comes out kind of when I play.

Is this, like, clean tone?

It's the.

It's got some blues.

It's got some jazz.

You hyperfocus on what you're doing or playing and yeah, it tunes everything out and you tune in that.

You know what you're trying to play and.

You know, there's days that it sounds great and there's days that you'r like, I'm going to put that up and I'm not going to play it for a while.

You know.

It just it finds its way out of me.

So was about 15.

I was begging my parents for you to save your money and you can get it.

And so I did.

They ordered it from Sears catalog.

Like.

And here I am.

I go to a list.

What do you want to play?

I want to play Chuck Berry.

She's like, tonight you're going to learn.

Mary had a little lamb.

“Mary had a little lamb...”, hurts my fingers.

You know, I can't really do it.

So give up on it.

So that's about 15.

So I've been I've been playing ever since then, or at least trying to play.

I don't kno that I'll ever learn it to the.

I want to learn it and just have fun with it.

You know?

There's definitely a juxtaposition from working in the oil field to being a painter.

I can daydream while I'm out there in the in the heat or in the cold.

And I'm.

I'm thinking about painting.

Been in oil and gas for 16 years.

You.

Regardless of those, maybe if it's oil and water.

But that's just that's who I am, right?

And that's just kind of how it is.

As you drive that seven hours and and you quit thinking about what you just did on days off and what you're about to get to get yourself into.

But yeah you definitely have a mind shift from what you did with the wife and kids and the dogs and which painted and back to, you know, what, you're about to go do it or.

It just so happens that most places where oil and gas or not, you know, it's not on the beach in California necessarily.

It's it's dirty, it's loud.

It's, long hours.

So painting is a great escape from that.

That juxtaposition of being in a hard industry to something that's visual.

And, you know, the two don't.

You don't hear very often in those two media.

It's definitely hard work.

It's not as cowboy as it used to be I find a lot of inspiration from Oklahoma.

I want to do a series of based on Oklahoma musicians because that combines history, art and music.

The three things that I really enjoy.

“How do you know when you're done?” that you know, that took a long time.

I have paintings o the wall that I might be like, I should have done this, or I should have done that, but there's others that I know that's perfectly not another stroke, right?

There's times where I'm afraid that if I overwork it, then.

Then I'll lose some of that magic.

I guess it's just it's organic, I guess, as you can in this day and age, right?

That's kind of how I want it.

You can find Tim's art at the Wildfire Gallery in the Paseo District in Oklahoma City.

Or follow him on Instagram at T dot Long Fine Art.

Now, let's keep this beat alive.

We're about to meet Victor Wooten, a five time Grammy winne considered to be one of the best bass players in the entire world.

Some of his associate act included Bela Fleck in the Fleck towns, Branford Marsalis and the Dave Matthews Band.

Follow along as we learn about his illustrious career and the music piece that brought him home.

Check it out.

Coming home is always more special, especially when you've been away for a while.

I get to be a hometown hero, and that's not what I'm in it for.

But I'm going to use it for everything I got.

Because I want you to succeed.

I want you to know that you're worthy.

You're enough.

You can achieve your dreams.

And I'm proud.

I'm from Newport News, and I'm the youngest of five brothers.

Music has played a big part in my life, probably before I was born, because my brothers were already playing and they needed a bass player.

My earliest memory of playin was right around two years old, and because I was literally learning to speak music at the same time as I was learning to speak English, music became very natural.

I was on stage by kindergarten, if not before then.

We're opening for war and Curtis Mayfield, The Temptations.

We didn't know any better.

It's just what it was.

And my older brothers, who are superheroes to me, they're treating me like an equal.

I'm the baby brother, but no one's beating me up.

Instead, they're holding me up, giving me all the credit.

We did a lot of gigs, and we caught the attention of a lot of different people.

A guy named Kashi brought us brothers in to Paris.

The rappers big record company record deal didn't go so well.

And it was the cause of the five of us brothers not playing together.

And all we know is music.

So we find out about Busch Gardens.

And my life has never been the same.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Canadian Palladium at this time.

Can you put your hands together?

Welcome.

Good.

Start building good time.

Country.

They announce was.

And welcome to the Good Time country show.

And then for black guys walk out cowboy hat.

And it's like.

That quiet.

But when the music started oh my goodness it was great.

Yeah.

At the time I was too young to work in the live entertainment department, but they were about to open in a couple of weeks or so, and they needed a bluegrass fiddle player.

And the one of my brothers said, well, I got another brothe who could probably play fiddle.

I never played fiddle in my life, so I researched and found three of the top fiddle songs, and I went in and I won the audition.

For us, music is music.

A string is a string.

We can make a sound on.

We had a lot of people tell us back they really need to move to Nashville.

And at the time I'm going in Nashville.

Never say never.

all of us Moved to Nashville.

In 87.

My friend introduced me to Bela Fleck and we just hit it off.

Bela asked me to be a part of a television show called the Lonesome Pine Specials.

They were going to give Bela a four hour long special to play his music.

He said, I just need a drummer.

And I said, oh, well, you got to check out my brother.

Blea told me, I met this guy named Howard Leavy.

Whoa.

I don't know if I've ever met a musician like this guy.

He can play anything.

It was definitely Bela Fleck in the fleck tone that put me on the global map.

And I thank Bela for that, because Bela understood that the band would be better if we allow every musician to have freedom.

Bass player magazine was just hitting the scene, so I wound up in Bass Player magazine a lot.

We did The Tonight Show five times and the flektones.

Arsenio Hall is a big bass fanatic, so we get on Arsenio Hall.

We do this song called Sinister Ministry, which is a bass feature.

Spinnin the bass around my neck.

Arsenio Hall was going crazy And so things worked out for a Bela Fleck and the Flektones I wrot a book called The Music Lesson.

At the beginning of each chapter of the book is a measure of music.

So if you read all the chapters, put the music together, you get a song called The Lesson.

And then when I thought about writing a concerto, I wanted to really flesh it out with real instruments.

If anyone knows that song, you'll hear bits and pieces broken up and spread out between movements, as well as spread out between instruments.

I wanted a bass that I could bow.

And nobody made one.

So I asked Vinny Fodera if he could get a bow bass made.

And he said, I think I can.

And the easiest way to think of it is a cello on its side.

That's fun for me to get to play, because it's a one of a kind.

I think of a concerto as a musician out front, virtuoso, playing a lot of stuff in the orchestra is back behind.

And I like that idea but I didn't really want to do just that.

I want the audience to see what a bass does but also see what a bass can do.

So there are times in the symphony where I'm supporting the oboe, supporting the violins, and doing what the bass does with the bass section.

But then I'll step out front and let you se that the bass can play chords, the bass can play melodies, the bass can solo.

So that is an education for all of us.

As I heard a friend of mine say, playing music is like trying to count to infinity.

It doesn't matter how far you come.

You don't get any closer to the end.

But you do get further from the beginning.

So yeah, I've come a long way with music and I'm satisfied.

It doesn't mean I feel like I'm done.

There's still things I want to do.

My focus has changed to what I can help others to do.

If I can inspire you.

To do anything is to be the best version of you possible.

If you continue to pursue your dreams and just don't quit.

You will live them.

It may take longer than you took.

It may be harder than you think.

But if it was easy, it wouldn't mean as much Music is about sharing it.

You're giving it to other people.

Living our dream with us.

And that's a beautiful, beautiful life.

Well, that's all the time we have for Gallery America.

Thank you so much for joining us.

As always, you can see past episode at OETA Slash Gallery America.

And don't forget to follow us on Instagram @OETAGallery.

We'll see you next time.

And until then, stay artyOklahoma!