We shine the spotlight on Ebony Iman Dallas, A remarkable artist whose thought provoking work captivates audiences and sparks important conversations.

All the craziness in the world, I realize even more the importance of people teaching love instead of hate.

Also, we meet Arris Cohen, an artist whose vibrant colors and distinctive subject matter mesmerize the eye.

My art is based on Afro futurism, and on Afro surrealism.

And after a decade of rediscovering his passion for art, Gavi Jordan has found an unusual way to create mixed media works.

So, I have my drill.

So, I paint with a drill And I also paint with brushes.

All that coming up on Gallery America.

Hello, Oklahoma.

Welcome to Gallery America.

I'm your new host, Jonathan Thompson.

I'm here with my colleague, awar winning videographer Mike Weber.

Our story today brings us to Tulsa, where meeting an artist named Ebony Iman Dallas.

We first introduced you to her in 2021 for our Tulsa Race Massacre special.

where she told the story of that tragedy through her art.

She's been busy since then.

A new mother and still an artist.

She explores themes of unity, resilience, and social justice in order to create conversations about identity and healing.

Take a look.

I currently now live here in Tulsa.

And before that, you know, I grew up in Oklahoma City, All right!

Mainly because of family and friends.

My name is Ebony Iman Dallas, and I'm an artist.

Look at those signs.

Muralist.

Educator.

I kind of do several things.

I definitely enjoy, them all in the life that I've created around it.

Edison studios.

it's really easy to find.

Looks like a blue gas station.

So, like when people are looking for it, I just tell them, you know, it used to be a gas station, so it totally looks like a ga station, but it's painted blue.

You can't miss it.

And thankfully, like this one is artist owned.

Who would have known I'd become an artist and start working in wood one day.

I think my purpose, at least right now, at this stage in my life, is to share information through my art.

When people look at my art, I want them to hopefully come in with an open mind and learn about someone or something that they may not have any relation to at all.

Whoops!

That's way too much.

Because I'm always open to learning new things, and I love sharing those thing that I learned through my art.

There's value in being a forever student.

You know, that kid that never stopped creating art.

I've definitely been focusing a lot more on public art these days.

This year, the, the mural festivals in Ponca City.

It's almost like, you know, it's like, kind of stuck.

So there will be murals all through this alley and on to a couple of other streets.

But if you do like green here and green here, then that'll that'll look good.

So today I have my amazing husband, Keith.

He actually got to help sketch out our daughter spac who's right here in the middle.

That's good.

So in this painting, it features my daughter and our neighbor, who's a really sweet little girl.

We got our kids together in a park.

I did a photo shoot, and that's going to be the mural.

And it's just going to say teach love.

And that's it.

Just with all the craziness in the world, I realize even more the importance of people teaching love instead of hate.

An enormou amount of respect was developed, seeing her in her comfort zone, which is being a mother, which is what she's always wanted.

I'm glad that I had the opportunity to be that person that helped bring the best art piece in our both our lives.

Real creativity is this, you know, everything that's happening, what's formulating in the mind of the artist before they even put it to paper?

Hey, so this was the outfit for, you know, what's up, girl?

It's nothing like it.

It's like what's happened to me nowadays.

My studio time looks.

It's a lot less of the twelve hour day.

Yeah, I wake up a lot earlier, so I'm up by 6:30 in the morning.

I try to be in the studio by eight.

You having fun?

You go girl.

I'll work till about 12:30.

My husban brings art to me wherever I am.

And then I have her with me for the rest of the day.

This is a project that I'm super duper proud of.

I'm actually.

I'm in awe of this project.

This is the British version.

So you see the British flag there.

So in this scene, it's a family escaping slavery through, by taking a canoe so you can see a canoe being built here and then here you see Mami Wata.

She's a deity in traditional African religions such as this religion, believe that she's there to protect, people at sea.

This scene highlights a lot of the healers, the traditional healers that would use, various minerals, and going to different water springs in different parts of America.

And so this is showing in America where a lot of people found healing in the waterways is definitely something I'm really proud of.

Are you ready to play in the water.

Oh, the baby.

Oh, oh, for my daughter.

I want her to become who she's meant to become.

So if she's an artist, i she does insurance, if she does.

There you go, Nuggy!

Dance, I can totally see her being a dancer.

I think having a little one.

And, my life is very different.

I spent so much time worrying and scared about what could go wrong.

And and it's fine.

I believe was 1976.

My dad came to the US from Somalia.

he died before I was born.

It wasn't until I, really met a lot of people that were with him.

You know, around that time that, without a doubt, I believe it was.

It was murder.

It's just it's amazing to be here.

And I'm so glad that I've had that experience.

One summer in Somaliland, I saw things like, instead of throwing let's see a can of coffee away, you make a flower pot out of it, and it works just fine.

And it looks it actually looks kind of good because it's like lots of colors and stuff.

There's just so much beauty in things that maybe it's not completely perfect.

And it just kind of taught me the beauty and imperfection.

Like, it doesn't have to be new and flashy all the time.

So I have a a painting of my father, Saeed Osman is his name holding me when, you know, I guess I was about one years old.

And it took about four images to get that painting.

To make it seem seamless.

Like he's actually holding me in the original picture of me with me.

And it was, one of my aunts was holding me.

So beautiful.

Oh, you know, I kept driving too fas when they were filming earlier.

So ridiculous.

With life, if you over plan you don't leave room for magic.

Just like with my painting.

Slow down, baby, all you have to roll with the punches.

All right, make it.

Here you go.

Like a little drop.

And in the water I'm gonna play in the water.

Let it flow and it'll take you places.

You'll never even imagine.

My purpose, at least right now, at this stage in my life, is to share information through my art.

I definitely have had a lot of people share and express the value in the stories that I'm telling.

I'm a storyteller.

I love telling and sharing stories.

I love what I do, and I'm thankful to be able to do it full time.

And it's a chance for me to just share with the public.

To see more of Ebony's art.

You can follow her on Instagram at Ebony Iman Dallas.

Next we're going to Cleveland, where artist and teacher Arris Cohen is using his art to make his community a better place.

Check it out.

Responsibility is a big thing for me, so I have a responsibility to do work in the community and give back however I can.

That's.

That's why I teach art and have always wanted to.

And that is why, you know, any underserved community that I can help, do work in.

I feel absolutely responsible to to give back and help, to have people understand that art is important.

art is therapy.

So.

Thank you.

So appreciate it.

So My art is based on Afro futurism, and on Afro surrealism.

I primarily, like to paint with acrylic, paint on canvas.

Or would, you know, although classically trained in a lot of different mediums, that's just my go to now.

And, I like to use vibrant colors.

a lot of color, a lot of different shapes, for backgrounds and, and mainly subjects, people, different ethnicities.

But, you know, I was talking to someone earlier about, my primary subject matte and organically the black male.

just because that's what I see in the mirror every day.

it does not take away from my love of cultur and my love of people and just, you know, liking to look a people's faces and the structure of how they're made up.

And I love to recreate those things.

So that's what most of my work is based in.

My creative process would be, you know, searching for subject matter, thinking of a way to convey my thoughts and feelings visually, finding references, whether it be taking photos myself or, looking at photos that maybe someone else has taken, changing them like a piece of music.

And, then I digitally recreate or set up my composition.

I then either draw directly on canvas or I projected, depending on the scale, and, and begin to paint at that point, since I've been doing murals and since I've been kind o doing a lot of different things, I notice that I like to take the hard road.

I tend to go the difficult route.

but is is more of a process and thing for me.

Like, I, I like to se a white canvas, most people will say is scary to see a canvas with nothing on it.

And then you got to sit here and and fill it all in.

So if you tone the canvas first, it makes it easier for you.

Well, life isn't easy.

So for me, I like to take the hard road because that's my favorite piece.

And I did not tone that canvas.

And it came out great.

And it's my favorite.

So.

The piece, called conduit, which is, picture of a marble sculpture of a slave, in blue with a backgroun that looks like a finger print.

It speaks to my journey as an artist.

he's looking to the future into the light, but he's having a conversation with his past.

It really just speaks to who I am as an artist and what I've been through that led me to the point that I'm at, and also lookin at my trajectory going forward.

There's a piece at the at Hale Hall that's in there, permanent collectio called gravity, and it's Mother Earth with her arms around the moon.

Child and I just the subject matter for that really stands out.

It came to me organically.

And so, those two pieces really are my favorite.

I have a lot of favorites.

So it's every piece that I've ever done, I have a connection with.

As a as a high schooler and in art class, I learned that, you know, it's it's good to give back when you have a passion for something.

So I learned early that I wanted to be a teacher.

I need to give back.

I need to do something that's fulfilling.

And Franklinton High School a charters school in an underserved community gave me the opportunity, right?

They gave me the privilege to be able to figure that out to really just go into the class and come up with my own curriculum, teach what I wanted to pertaining into art.

And it's it's just been a blessing.

No, you don't know how.

You don't have to know how to draw.

You don't have to know how to paint.

I'm going to teach you, but also use this time to take your mind off of whatever you might be going to do at home, There we go.

The mural on Franklinton High School that I was able to do this past summer.

It's based on the community that the school is in.

the subject of the mural is on of the students at the school, who every time he sees me, he gives me dap.

And, you know, he's so, like, happ to have been the subject matter.

And I was able to do it in tandem with, Jay Hunter, who's one of my colleagues at the school.

And so, it was a real fun time.

It was really hot.

And, we got to go up on the lift every day that we, you know, and so just being able to do something that I had never had the chance to do before, it really isn't much different from what I usually do, even even on, you know, my larger scale paintings, it's like there's a process.

There's, you know, just all of this planning and, getting to this part is, is the easy thing, but the planning and the, you know, getting the composition that you want, that's all the hard part for me.

That was my first time using spray paint on a mural, primarily, and the largest mural to date that I've done.

just it checks so many boxes for me receiving, the inaugural Community Artists in residence, for urban art space was very special.

part of my connection to the Ohio State University as a student, as a as a young scholar, it's always been a dream to do art, in any place, but especially in Cleveland where I'm from and in Columbus.

And it's been life changing.

My days are packed by 10:00 at night.

I'm thinking, okay, the kids are asleep, so now I need to go in the basement and paint.

and primarily I'm an artist.

Primarily I create visually.

So, I'm always thinking about that, like, I literally think about it all day long.

when can I paint?

Becaus that is my favorite thing to do.

and so I find time for it whenever I can.

There's my free time.

Is painting.

This next Fort Lauderdale artist constructs his paintings using a very unique material.

Using painted screws he creates sculptural paintings that jump off the canvas.

Meet Gavin Jordan.

It's funny because halfway through most of these paintings, I' like, Gavin, what are you doing?

Why are you, Uhh?

Why don't you just paint normally right away?

Why are you going through this?

But you know, when the painting is complete, then I step back and I'm like, wow, I did that, you know?

So it's a difficult technique to to to do what keeps me doing it and keeps me going is actually the reaction from, from viewers.

Right.

Because, you know, there's 2D with 3D.

3D adds, a different dimension to the experience of seeing the piece.

My name is Gavin Jordan.

I, the gallery owner of 24 Marie Fine Art Gallery.

I'm also an artist and, you know, some of my work i is here at the gallery as well.

And, you know, Gavin is also an executive.

Right.

A business executive, a CPA.

And so Gavin is many things.

So in 2016, I was doing an assignment in, in new Jersey, right.

for a Jamaican owned, business.

And I was the CFO for that business.

It was, a stressful experience.

And, I remember I was driving by Michael's art store, one Saturday afternoon and, you know, I said to my wife, Tamika you know what I want to stop at?

I buy clothes and I need to get some pencils because I want to start sketching again when I think about it.

I can't really tell you wh it happened the way it happened.

You know, I often tell people it's like, you know, when Spider-Man does that bit by that, that radioactive bug and then, you know, suddenly he has superpowers kind of like that, right?

I was sporting my sketches on Facebook and Instagram for a while and the response was, you know, that was overwhelming in terms of the reactions, the pieces.

That passion that was reignited in 2016, you know, caused me to go through a process of significant, exploration.

Right.

So I started with sketching with pencils and charcoal.

You know, a painting with acrylics, inks, oil paints.

And I eventually started working with mixed media.

I was doing a lot of research.

This is my mechanical brain now.

As soon as I started painting, I wanted to have a style.

I was like, why?

You know, I need my style to.

I need something to show that this is me.

It's very humbling.

Right?

It teaches you about patience, right?

You have to be, you know, vulnerable.

and then you have to figure out how how you get your, authentic voic to come out in European things.

It took me a while to figure that out.

So I started exploring with mixed media.

and after that process, I decided to merge that three dimensional element with traditional painting.

You know styles, right?

You know, some more impressionist, then you have the mixed media coming in.

So I decided to go through a cruise.

You know, so doing my exploration with nails, you know, after, you know, the disaster o hitting my fingers a few times, I said to myself, you know what is easier to use than than actual nails?

So this is the tool of the trade.

So So, I have my drill.

So, I paint with a drill at my feet.

And I also paint with brushes.

here, you know, with my my oil paints as well.

So given this particular piece that I'm working on.

So I will after going throug the process of doing the sketch then and I've worked out how I want this piece to look.

Unscrew is then I will look at this sketch and with intuition determine the depth of each through, the positioning of each front.

So on.

So I will go through this until I'm satisfied.

and then what I wil typically do is just rub my hand over the, the, the screw to ensure that what I'm feeling is the indentation of the the face.

Right.

And these are the, the cheekbones here.

The nose is also here.

there's an indentation here and and so on.

So I would go through that process until I get the perfect, yo know, sculpted image on screws.

So I'm not connected to a painting emotionally.

It's hard for m to complete the painting.

Right?

So I can't just paint around the objects without any sort of emotional value to it.

Right.

And what I've found, creating pieces that have that kind of emotional valu mixed with the three dimension, you know, unlocks, a different experience for me, for my viewers.

Right.

So I want I want people to experience what I call the other side of the story and not focus on the single story.

When I came up with this ide for for opening a space, right.

One of th the issues I had in my creative journey was finding spaces that were open to showing my work.

So when I opened this space, I decided that, you know what I need to figure out?

Oh, I, I, I also help those other artists to, to get exposure.

So we decided to set up this space in the, you know, the Flagler Village.

you know, the there's a lot of history as it relates to African-Americans, ancestral.

I mean, it was one of the the largest settlement for African-Americans in Fort Lauderdale.

We decided that, you know what?

This upcoming area would be a great, area to to have a gallery that's dedicated to the African experience.

Right.

you know, because our culture is it's it's there's a thread that ties us all together with our experiences are just so different.

So this guy is walking.

I've been doing ideas work.

I mean, does he feel fulfilled?

Has he lived a life that he's comfortable with?

And, you know, I decided to name this 1 or 2 lives.

So it wa it was kind of me asking myself that question as well.

You know have I done what I wanted to do?

So one of the responses to that question was actually for me to pursue my creative journey.

All right.

Well, that's all the time we have today.

Thank you so much for joining us.

As always, you can see past episodes at OETA.TV, slash Gallery America.

And don't forget to follow us on social.

You can go to Facebook and Instagram at OETA Gallery.

We'll see you next time.

Until then, Stay arty Oklahoma!

In the heartland where the wind sings.

There's a place for art take wings.

Sculptures rise and paintings gleam in Oklahoma with dreams redeemed.

In the rhythm of the lands embrace, brush strokes dance with gentle grace.

From the prairies to the city lights, Art brings in an Oklahoma sight.

Stay Arty Oklahoma.

Where culture rules and love ignites with every brushstroke, every rhyme our spirits soar in endless time.

Stay arty Oklahoma.

Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh.

Stay arty Oklahoma.

Where culture rules and love ignites in every brushstroke, every rhyme, our spirits soar in endless time.