(liquid sloshing) (air whooshing) (gentle electronic music) - Bring me back to the real young Colleen, was there an aha moment that sent you into this art world?

- Mm, well, I do tell a story quite often, it's kinda my origin story with the TwinScope Viewer, or thinking about vision and sight, and that's when my twin sister and I were 11 years old, and the "Return of the Creature From the Black Lagoon" was playing on television sets around America, and you could go to the 7-Eleven and get the red and blue glasses.

- And your Slurpee.

- (laughing) Right, and your Slurpee.

- (laughing) Sorry.

- Yeah, so we did that, we were at our grandparents' house for some reason.

We were in front of the television set, and the creature was like lunging off the screen, and I was doing this, and she's right next to me, and she wasn't moving at all.

After a few times I said, "Don't you see it?"

And she said, "See what?"

And I just went, "Wow."

Like, when you're 11 years old, and you share everything with your twin including what you think is a worldview, and you suddenly realize that you're radically different, like something so basic as what you're seeing, I really wanted to get inside of her eyes, and see what her world was like.

And then that set up kind of a lifelong fascination with how we all perceive things differently.

So that's a story that I've told again and again, but she was always the artist growing up, and I played clarinet, and I didn't ever call myself an artist.

That didn't even happen until about 10 years ago.

So I picked up a camera in college, as I said, and my twin sister did painting, drawing, but not photography.

But you know, I just loved it, and I did it professionally for many years as a freelance photographer, professional photographer.

12 years I was doing that, and then I went to grad school to get my MFA.

And then I decided after a few years of that, I'm an artist now.

So it was really only in the last like 10 or 15 years.

- Wow, so is this why TwinScope is part of your resume?

- Yeah, TwinScope is the name of my stereoscope.

Being a twin, I can understand, like a side by side image pair, that's a stereograph.

The historic 3D images are called stereographs.

And my twin sister couldn't see in 3D growing up.

So the stereoscope helps train her eyes, so it's a kind of homage to our relationship.

But I make them here, I do rubber casting here in my breakfast nook, and assembling of the pieces, and working on the hardware.

And it's start-to-finish handmade art object that goes out into the world, and has served many, many people to see stereographs.

And yeah, it's definitely my work comes out of an understanding of differences that we all have.

I'm an identical twin, but we're different.

We see differently.

(gentle electronic music) So I'm gonna cast rubber now in the breakfast nook off my kitchen, to make the eye cups for the TwinScope Viewer, let's go.

This is the mold, and this is the two part rubber.

I'm gonna pour and mix the rubber, and then I'm gonna pour them together, put 'em in the mold, and then I've got four minutes to get it in the pressure pot, 'cause it starts setting up really quickly.

The adventure begins.

Oh, and you have to wear your respirator.

So I gotta open 'em, I'm gonna stir each of these for a minute before I do anything else.

Okay.

That one, actually have to remember which one gets the eye drops.

There six that get coloring.

Okay, so now we're gonna put in the drops to make it black.

11.

So in that case, I'm going right up to the line.

Okay, put this one aside, let's then do the other one.

(liquid sloshing) Another minute on this.

I've been doing this whole process myself since 2016, gosh, six years, right, pretty cool.

To the line.

Okay.

Okay, now I'm gonna pour it into the mold, which I'm gonna move.

Let's see.

And then I'm gonna push this down, and it's gonna come up the sides.

There she goes.

Now I am going in the mold.

The four minute starts when the two parts make contact.

- [Interviewer] Have you ever gone over?

- I have, and I may right now.

And then you get, you run the risk of getting a little bubble.

- [Interviewer] Yeah.

- Okay, now we're gonna fill it with air.

(air whooshing) All right, all set.

(gentle music) - All right, what we see in your home includes photographs.

Let's zone right in on the one with the ivy.

- Yeah, yeah, pandemic, I was inside for three days at a time, and I went outside after a rainstorm and walked down the street, and was awestruck.

Four houses from me had this ivy-covered house I'd never seen, and I made an enlargement of it.

It was an iPhone picture that I blew up.

And I think for me it's about seeing the wondrous in the everyday, you know.

It's right outside of our doorstep.

We don't have to go on a trip, we don't have to do anything.

I think there's a quote, I'm trying to remember, yeah, "Outside lies magic, outside lies wonder."

That's from John Stilgoe's book, "Outside Lies Magic."

If we just stop and look around, we'll find the wonders right in front of us.

I'm kind of paraphrasing, but that's the gist of it.

- Yes, yes, to your left, is this a self portrait?

- No, that's my twin sister.

- Oh, she plays a lot in your life.

- (laughing) Yeah, you know, if there's a camera, and there's both of us around, I'm gonna be behind the lens, and she's gonna be in front of it, it's just kind of natural.

- Where do we see your work?

- Ah.

- What's the end result of, besides your home away from home, yeah?

- [Colleen] Hmm, you know, my website is one way to do it, but a lot of my work is, it's interactive.

It's things that you touch and pick up and hold.

So it's best in a museum or gallery situation, so.

My website has updates on where I'm showing, and when I'm showing, yeah.

- Delve more into your interdisciplinary art.

We've talked about photographs, what else do I hold that's made by you?

- [Colleen] I've worked with blind artists and gone into galleries, and put braille cards all over the wall.

The lights are pretty much off, and you can touch the wall.

And if you're blind, you can actually read the wall to a sighted person.

So I'm interested in like changing the dynamic between who has access or, well, there's a TV in the other room that we could look at too, that you could turn the dial.

- It's obvious that you are high into collaboration.

Let's talk about why it's not just you when it comes to your art, and you bring in KIA, and other organizations, right?

- Yeah, so my art practice is, my life, I should say, I'm an artist first and foremost, but when I'm not making my work, I'm supporting other arts organizations in the town, like using my skillset.

So yeah, I do a lot of work for the organizations, and then I also find resources that they provide me to do my work.

It's very reciprocal.

- Why should we be supporting the arts in Kalamazoo?

- Oh my goodness.

I came back to Kalamazoo because the arts are already so rich here, whether it's visual art, or theater, or music, or people maybe don't understand that the arts are all around us, you know, in everyday experience, whether it's going to a restaurant, and thinking about how that was designed, or the way that the food is arranged on the plate.

I mean, somebody is bringing artistry to like all aspects of our lives.

And it's problem solving.

If you're studying art, doing art, you're using that creative side of your brain that's relevant in all areas of your life.

So as we know, it's not just entertainment and amusement, but it's actually like rewiring, art is rewiring the brain to think creatively.

- Congratulations to what you're doing, Colleen.

- Thank you very much, Shelley, it's been great to talk to you.

(happy electronic music) - Thank you so much for watching.

There's also more to explore with "Kalamazoo Lively Arts" on YouTube, Instagram, and wgvu.org.

We'll see you next time.

- [Announcer] Support for "Kalamazoo Lively Arts" is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.