- [Voiceover] Production of Applause on Idea Stream Public Media is made possible by the John P. Murphy Foundation, The Kulas foundation, and by Cuyahoga County residents.

Through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Coming up, step inside the Troll Hole Museum in alliance and meet the woman behind this Guinness World record-winning collection.

Get to know a Shaker Heights chef who wants to punch up your cooking with the taste of chutney.

And learn about the artistic life of late Cleveland artist John W. Carlson as his paintings get the spotlight in Massillon.

Thanks for taking the time to join us for another round of Applause.

I'm Idea Stream Public media's Kamir Mantia.

Thousands of trolls with their big hair and smiling faces draw visitors to Alliance.

Attracted by the inexpensive real estate, Sherry Groom established a home here for her collection, which continues to grow and grow and grow.

Step inside for a look around the Troll Hole Museum.

(whimsical music) - When you collect trolls, it's like why trolls?

And all the people I polled and myself, it's something about the eyes and something about the hair.

Me, personally, I believe it goes much deeper, that troll dolls represent some universal concepts of kindness, goodness, and cooperation.

- The majority of 'em are made, you know with their hands out like they're hugging.

You know, that's a kind of a pretty positive message to put out there especially with, you know, a lot of toys, a lot of different messages going out.

But the trolls are all about happiness and loving one another.

- In 1950s, a fellow in Denmark, he was a wood handyman and he crafted this iconic image of a troll doll.

So this iconic image went viral.

So these iconic dolls copied in many different variations, with more pointed ears.

They have certain characteristics you can recognize them by.

They have four fingers, four toes.

They have, of course, the big ears and big noses.

And the original ones had tails, which I don't have one here 'cause those were really expensive, and I'm too cheap to buy the really expensive and rare ones.

When I started this project I managed to amass about 2000 trolls, and that was because I had a significant other, and he went out and started buying collections of trolls three or 400 at a time.

So that's why the numbers jumped.

Now I have amassed over 40,000 pieces trolls, troll dolls and troll memorabilia.

And the interesting phenomenon is that they continue to roll in on a fairly regular basis of donations.

A lady in Spain likes to make her own custom trolls.

She did the tiniest, tiniest ones, like less than half an inch.

A lot of folk artists go out and get natural materials.

Pine cones, there's pine cone trolls, wooden trolls, wax trolls.

And then the Smoky Mountain Trolls were created by Ken Arensbak.

He immigrated here with his family.

He settled in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, went out in the woods, took a piece of wood and sisal, which is rope, and created these folk art trolls with big noses, long tails.

Well, my favorite troll was one of the, what I call primo trolls, one of the dom trolls, but it's the bigger size.

So that was my first troll that I got that was the more rare and unusual, and made in Europe - What I grew up and what I got into was the battle trolls, the ones that are coming in combination of a GI Joe, like a troll, and maybe a a turtle.

So y'all ready to move on to this next room?

- Yeah.

- All right - Awesome.

Very nostalgic in some ways.

- Very cool.

So many different varieties and different setups and a lot of the like, dioramas and stuff upstairs are cool to look at and see the different pieces too.

- So I like the fact that a lot of 'em are from like my era, when I was younger, and that was cool to see.

- We discovered Historic East Main Street in Alliance, Ohio is the cheapest commercial real estate.

So we are entrepreneurs and gonna do something with that.

And we thought an art district, we did a lot of research and you need a hook, and Guinness record is a good hook.

And my husband had the bright idea to say, "Wow, you have enough troll dolls, we could get a Guinness record for the troll dolls."

And from there we'd have our hook.

So we started with the Troll Museum then we did Wisecracks Comedy Escape Room, Mad Dogs Crazy Cat Cafe, where you pay to play with cats in a unique environment.

And then in the last years we've launched Sticks, Stones, Bones and Magic, a metaphysical shop.

And then we had two event centers.

And so people come to visit quirky, unusual things, and that's how the trolls kind of took over.

Part of the tourism is the Football Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

So we created our own Troll Hall of Fame with our wall of fame of custom troll dolls and a reconstruction of the Benson Stadium.

But we have a bunch of unique custom troll dolls as well as the franchised teams all had troll dolls.

That was one of the big sellers in the nineties was get a troll doll with your team spirit on it.

And then the Rock and Troll Hall of Fame, where we have Dolly Parton who was just inducted, and at some point we're trying to get Justin Timberlake, and maybe Jimmy Fallon, 'cause they're two good friends that laugh and joke and have Jimmy Fallon present Justin Timberlake our induction into the Rock and Troll Hall of Fame.

So my background is mental health nursing, but I always knew that enjoyment and laughter is the best therapy.

And so it's very enjoyable to work here and share my passion with the people.

And it inspires them to then go out and be creative and do things outside the box, because you don't have to be mainstream.

A lot of people get into thinking they have to do something mainstream and trolls are certainly not very mainstream.

- [Narrator] If you want to stop to see the trolls in person the Troll Hole is located on East Main Street in Alliance.

Now let's turn to Columbus, home to award-winning photographer Katie Forbes, who explores activism within her community.

She uses her camera to capture the candid beauty of our common humanity.

- [Katie] We don't grow unless we're uncomfortable.

We're not gonna be able to change things unless we're making people uncomfortable, because this is real life, and it is sad, and it is tragic.

I am a self-taught photographer.

I started playing with cameras when I was little.

Around 2016 when I started I had my first good Nikon, like semi-professional camera, and I dropped it, it broke.

The only way I could use it was in manual mode.

So that very quickly forced me to learn how to really use a camera and balance everything, which was one of the best accidental things to ever happened to my work.

I'm really inspired by Margaret Bourke-White, who was the first woman photojournalist with Time Magazine in the forties, and she's from Cleveland.

What I'm inspired by, by her work is the irony that she's able to capture in everyday life.

So that's kind of something I try and mimic, where I'm not posing people, I just want to capture what is naturally occurring.

I think that that is where the most beauty is.

And you know, the moments that you wanna capture are the real moments not the ones that are being manufactured.

I worked in adoption for a long time.

I was actually a birth parent advocate, so I've been in the room for 27 births.

I'm still photographing a lot of the families I worked with there.

But it has been such an interesting shift from documenting happy, you know moments of families joining together, to the destruction of families.

It's just, it's, it changed my whole viewpoint on the world.

(light music) - [Katie] What's represented in this gallery, I want people to understand that this person that was shot and killed, or beaten to death, in the case of John Thomas, these are humans that were killed.

They're not a bad guy, they're not a criminal, they are a human that was killed by another human.

What I would love to come out of this is for us to really be able to take a look at our system, because there are so many flaws in it.

It was hard to be photographing all this grief constantly.

It makes you feel like that's all the world is.

But then you do get to balance it because like, you get to see the small celebrations that people get to have and you get to appreciate the little justices that are brought out.

When I look at the pictures, it brings me right back to the moment when it was taken.

I'd say some of the most impactful ones would be over here of Tyree King's family.

And the moment that it was announced, there's a photo back here of Amber Evans, who was an amazing community leader who tragically passed away in early 2019.

My heart really goes out to the one of Amber at the airport raising her fist.

You know, that was 2017.

It was right after Trump had been inaugurated, and the Muslim ban had been put into effect.

And it was amazing to see these groups like People's Justice Project coming out to support Muslim rights groups that care, and and host this event at the airport to show support.

I think that that is also a really good representation of what Columbus is.

You know, you don't have, there's all these groups who are working to make the world a better place, and you don't have to a hundred percent believe in the full spectrum of what they're fighting for, but you can trust that they're a good person or you know that they have gotten to know each other and support each other, and help elevate in things that really matter to them.

I'm working on a book of all of the different advocacy groups that I have photographed.

The book I'm putting together is gonna be photo essays of different political movements, including right wing and left wing.

There's not just one side to the story, and though these groups aren't necessarily opposed to each other, they are audiences that don't always overlap.

And so I think it could be an interesting way to bring people together to show how impactful it could be if we could find some common ground.

Henry Green's mother, Adrian Hood, actually came to the opening of this gallery, and she has been a huge supporter of everything I've been doing.

And you know, she's actually running for office right now, and I got to do head shots for her for it.

I feel like I've gained a community out of this, like I, you know, didn't grow up in Columbus, and that I never really felt part of Columbus.

I just was living here, but I feel part of Columbus now.

- [Narrator] Cleveland's only Suspension Bridge has been off limits for almost 60 years, but it's finally being recognized for its ominous history.

On the next Applause, a look at the past and future of the Sideway Bridge.

Plus explore the history behind Northeast Ohio's first black-owned recording company, now a Cleveland landmark.

And the Cleveland Orchestra celebrates a hero's life in music.

(orchestra music) - [Narrator] All that and more on the next round of Applause.

Shaker Heights' Sahithya Wintrich combines her upbringing and scientific training to add spice to kitchens with a distinctive chutney punch.

Inspired by the tastes of India, varieties include spicy peanut, savory chana and super sesame.

- I'm Sahithya Wintrich and this is Chutney Punch.

Chutni Punch is a line of finishing spice blends.

They're shelf stable.

This allows you to quickly add flavor to whatever you're eating.

So they're dry, and then you can, you can either toss this directly onto whatever food you're eating or you know, if you really wanted a snack I would recommend just put some olive oil in it, and mix it up.

And you've got like this nice little dipping sauce.

Chutni Punch is a South Indian condiment, so it's based on South Indian flavors.

All three of Chutni Punch's blends have four main ingredients.

Chilies for the heat.

They also have curry leaves, which is not curry powder, it's actually a tree.

There's also some jaggery, which is a brown sugars.

There's tamarind.

Now tamarind is a fruit.

It makes it sour, you know, it has a sweet and sour taste.

So, you know, when people think of curry leaves, they think of curry powder.

It produces these leaves that are so fragrant.

Studies have shown that these leaves have a lot of vitamins and minerals, and lots of good stuff.

One production run typically produces anywhere between 700 and 800 jars.

You know, this is all organically sourced, single origin, that kind of thing, which also costs more because, but honestly at the end of the day, you're supporting the farmers, you're supporting the people who make this stuff.

This flax seed is from Stutzman Farms right here, really close to us.

So when I was creating my recipes for these blends, one of the things that was important for me is to balance both the taste and the nutritional value of the product.

I always start my production with an intention of stating that whatever food that we produce helps people be well, and they're nourished, that they enjoy their food.

They have a great experience with eating, because all of that plays into our wellness and our health.

For now, I'm selling it through farmer's markets.

Come on in, stay a while.

These are finishing spice blends.

They're spice condiments, they're not sauces, they're shelf stable.

They quickly add flavor to whatever you're eating.

The great thing about the farmer's markets is that I get to interact with customers directly.

I have a one-on-one interaction with them.

I can get feedback right away.

A lot of people are willing to try the samples, you know?

'Cause part of it is educating the customers, or informing the customer about why this is a different product.

It's a dry spice blend.

It's a shelf stable dry spice blend.

So, that's why I started the farmer's market.

So right now, primarily, yes, my sales are through the markets locally, but I'm slowly getting into stores.

So I'm in Miles Market, I'm at (indistinct) right here, and at Nature's Oasis, and hopefully get into Giant Eagle and Heinens, and so on and so forth.

My background is in software and biomedical engineering, but food was always something that I cared about.

Good food or tasty food, was something that I cared about.

And also the role that food plays in people's wellness and their overall experience.

'Cause I'm sure you've had this experience where you've had something, this super delicious thing, and it leaves an imprint in your memory.

- [Narrator] Find more about local entrepreneurs making it in northeast Ohio at ideastream.org.

The late Cleveland artist John W. Carlson was known for his introspective paintings inspired in part by his passion for blues music.

Carlson died suddenly in 2020 at the age of 66.

He's paid tribute in an exhibition at the Massillon Museum, Set the Twilight Reeling.

Idea Stream Public Media's David C. Barnett shares his story - [David] As a painter and as a person, John W. Carlson was known for his empathy.

- [Shari] He had an uncanny ability to make you feel that you were the only person in a room by truly listening and paying attention to you.

- [Hilary] He always took the time to speak with people at openings.

He'd see someone even sitting over by themselves, and he'd go over and start a conversation with them.

- John had this superpower to go up to anybody, and immediately within a short period of time, get out of them what their creative passion was.

- The things that he talked about.

Whatever he put out in the ether, you could feel it.

- [Narrator] Born in Ashtabula, Ohio, Carlson gave up on art school after one year, preferring the steady paycheck he got as a garbage man in his hometown.

- He joked that he had a an MFA in being a trash man, but that influenced his art career, because he started to see people in their most human form, and he started to study the landscape around him with a different eye.

- When he painted, he painted how he felt, and it was about, to me, the pain as it relates to what he felt with his son.

- [Narrator] Much of Carlson's empathy came from his own personal grief.

In 2010 Carlson's, 26 year old son Ryan died of a drug overdose in Nebraska.

- He was all torn up because he did not go to collect the body.

He did not go to Nebraska at that time.

And you know, that stuck with him forever.

- [Narrator] In the decade that followed the death of his son, Carlson channeled his grief into art.

- He frequently used charcoal.

He specifically said, it's the fact that it's created by fire.

It's the remnants of of being burnt, almost kind of like the symbolic meaning of it is something that he said was also powerful.

- [Hilary] John was one of the most raw individuals that I've ever encountered in the art world.

He was not afraid to talk about his past.

He was not afraid to open up about addiction, and then the grief and the loss, and dealing with that.

And I think that's why the community felt so connected with him.

- John, in my conversations with him, seemed to think so much and empathize with the emotion of the figures that he was going to depict, what the figures are doing, what their hands, their body language, but also the physical expression.

But even more than that, it's what's going on outside of the figure, it's the way he's manipulating the materials, the paint, the charcoal, whatever he's doing has an expressiveness of his own.

As if you could almost feel the emotion as an extension of the way his hand was moving.

- [Narrator] Carlson and his life partner, photographer Sherry Wilkins began a movement called American Emotionalism.

- The whole point was to create art that elicits emotion.

The labels, the didactic shouldn't explain everything, that you should feel it.

You should look at a piece and feel it.

It's instinctive, it's intuitive.

You don't need to have it explained to you.

- [Narrator] In 2019, Carlson and Wilkins made a pilgrimage to Nebraska so he could see the house where his son had died.

- He had in his mind that it was gonna be, you know, like a horrible place.

And then when we went there, it was like, you know an average neighborhood with a nice house.

It was totally the opposite of what he had imagined.

I got out to take photographs of the house for him.

He sat in the car alone, and he said that he could feel Ryan's spirit.

- [Narrator] After the trip to Nebraska, a change took place in Carlson's work.

He began adding color.

- [Hilary] I remember going into his studio and seeing the use of like, bright greens and yellows, and at that time he was just painting as a singular portrait of someone.

But then, the color palette started expanding, and all of a sudden I was seeing pinks and neons, fluorescent.

- The change to color was, I think kind of trying to kind of work through the grief and shed some of that heaviness, and looking more towards enjoying the color.

- [Narrator] Carlson was a musician as well as a visual artist.

And the music he loved to play was the blues.

Mixing his passion for music with his grief, and then closure over his son's death, led Carlson to the most acclaimed work of his career.

The Blues series.

- [Hilary] The Blues exhibition was his best, most well received exhibit that we'd ever hosted at the gallery.

- [Shari] Yeah, that blues exhibition was just a knockout.

He was the most proud of the work that he created in the Blues series.

- [Ruddy] It wasn't just about the music.

What he painted was what people felt that created the music.

He wanted you to feel the anguish in the middle passage, the anguish in people who are fleeing slavery.

For me, he painted what his pain looked like, and it resonated in the way it did.

- [Hilary] He was definitely hitting the stride, and it was so exciting.

- After the series, the next question was, "Where do I go from here?"

- [Narrator] On December 20th, 2020, just 10 months after his Blues exhibition John W. Carlson died from an abdominal aneurysm.

He was 66.

- His death was so tragic, because it was so sudden.

One morning he'd been playing guitar with his grandson, and then that evening he was gone, basically.

- [Narrator] Even in death, Carlson showed his empathy as an organ donor.

- He donated his kidneys and his liver.

So he was at the hospital longer.

And what they do is they have an honor walk.

They're taking the body down for harvesting of the organs.

And so it's like the last, it's like the last walk, the last time that you have with the person.

You go down the halls, and all of the doctors and nurses and everything, you feel supported, because your loved one's honored.

His donation, you know enabled three other people to carry on living.

So it's probably to me, probably one of the biggest impacts and legacies that he has.

- His legacy for me is in the lives he touched, is in our voice as we speak about John.

That is where I think his legacy lives.

- [Narrator] "John W. Carlson: Tet the Twilight Reeling" is on view at the Massillon Museum, September 16th through November 12th.

Thanks for watching my friends.

I'm Idea Stream Public Media's Kamir Batia, inviting you to join us next time for Applause.

In the meantime, here's the late John W. Carlson sharing his other artistic passion, playing the blues.

(music playing) - [Voiceover] Production of Applause on Idea Stream Public Media is made possible by the John P. Murphy Foundation, The Kulas Foundation, and by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.