Production of “Applause” on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

Coming up, women in Wooster turned to clay to help heal from addiction.

Jewish comic book heroes go up, up and away in Beachwood and Chamber Fest.

Cleveland captivates in Cleveland Heights.

Hello and welcome to “Applause” Im Ideastream Public Medias Kabir Bhatia We begin with art as a respite from the pains of addiction.

There's a group of women finding comfort and community.

Creating with clay.

Some days aren't easy, but they can seem easier at pottery class.

Inside the Wayne Center for the Arts in Wooster.

It actually could be life or death.

I know that with a lot of things about life or death, and there's a little things like this that keep me going.

So I'm really grateful for it.

It's just so beautiful to get to do something that I created and feel special and feel celebrated and embraced.

I just really wanted to do this for my kids.

I didn't want to let them down anymore.

Boundaries is a big thing.

How to regulate my emotions and coming out of my shell.

Because showing my emotions is hard for me.

You know, there are so many things that we go through in life that you can't necessarily process with words.

There's just a much easier way of conveying feelings through the arts than many of us can actually approach with words.

And by taking language out of the equation and allowing people to really express those emotions from a very raw place without necessarily defining something with words, I think it really opens up a lot of doors for people.

And I did this configuration a lot with these different models.

It's it's a drug and alcohol challenge.

And they're, they're making steps to try to get that out of their life.

Obviously life's hard and we learn to do things to help ourselves through it.

And some of those choices we make don't necessarily take us down a really good path.

And so the struggle is finding other things to try to replace that with more positive coping skills.

But then I always think about like, what's next?

You know, what's going to keep you sober.

And so doing art, you know, for some of our clients, you know, they can get their hands into it.

They can express themselves.

It's that creativity.

But you can tell sometimes when our students come in that there's there's a heavy weight on them and they're in a struggling moment.

And then and by the end, the joy and just discovering something about themselves that they didn't know.

I know they look great don't they?

I'm so excited.

And so I was just really struggling with myself.

I was making choices that I was not proud of.

Also, I can honestly say that there weren't many things I was completing in my life or doing anything productive.

So at least this feels like, look what I did.

You know, it's super exciting.

So art in general, for me is a stress relief.

I've always, always loved art.

I just like the therapy that it gives me.

So being able to express myself in a way that I understand and I don't really care if other people understand it.

It's for me, not for other people.

A little bit of slip and go around and soften those.

The concept of grounding is just to try to get clients out of their head and into their body.

And so that clay aspect of just being able to, like, grab the clay, work with the clay, use the clay, clients have said they've really enjoyed just being able to do, express themselves with that and then put what they do, you know, on display.

I mean, we do a lot of hand building with slabs, but I also like to do some pinch spot things and some coil work.

So there's various types of hand building skills that they work on, and I don't necessarily see them more than once sometimes.

So each class is a brand new thing from, you know, start from scratch.

We start from the beginning.

And they get to do a different project each month.

If you're going to do two before, I don't have much to look forward to.

Was not in the best place with my insides, you know, like who I was and what I was doing.

And here I get to look forward to so many different things that make me excited and give me something to look forward to.

Fulfilling really.

Probably the biggest aspect of when I work with them, I'm going through with them what my journey was.

Everything had to be perfect, and it's taken a while for me to figure out that, no, that's not what this is about.

And this idea of perfection, maybe it's not realistic and helping people accept that.

Like, I just he's all I'm going to see, and I'll.

It's pretty integral to our mission to make sure that we are removing as many boundaries to participation as we possibly can, just because we see on a regular basis the value that the arts bring to the lives of the people who engage with it.

And how important the arts can be for our mental health and these wonderful, these wonderful breakthroughs that people are able to have while engaging a different part of their brain and letting themselves just really feel.

We love it.

And I don't know, sometimes, you know, I come out of this, it's like the biggest thing I do, this impact, you know, we are.

Yes.

We get to do a lot of things together.

And by the time that it's time to leave, we've built a family, you know, and we get to be sisters and get to have fun and laugh with nobody judging us, no one looking at us like we're weird.

And especially when you're stressed out, come in here and it's like you get to leave with a fresh breath of air.

And yes, I am in recovery, but there are still days where it's hard and it gives you something to do somewhere for your mind to go.

And I really like that.

And it's good to have that.

All right.

If you hadn't heard already, Superman isn't from Krypton.

He's from Cleveland.

The Man of Steel was actually the brainchild of a couple of Jewish teenagers from the Forest City back in the late 30s.

And the Jewish connection to comic book history goes a lot deeper.

So right now I'm going into a phone booth while you have a look at this new exhibit at the Maltz Museum.

“Icons in Ink” Do we know if there's actually any phonebooths here at Playhouse Square?

Oh, the thing on the corner?

No that is not a phone booth.

thats for the construction people.

“Icons in Ink, the Jewish Comics Experience” It is the biggest exploration in any media of any kind of the history of comics, and the history of Jewish Americans, and how those two inform each other.

It's 4000ft.

It features over 100 original physical artifacts, ranging from, rare vintage comics to original art to, historical artifacts, not including prints and texts and screenings and other things.

And visitors really are taken on a journey, a celebration, that tells you the entire story of the history of comics and the Jewish history of comics from that perspective.

And we really made sure that there's something in it for everybody.

You don't need to be a fan of comics to appreciate American popular culture.

You don't need to care about the Jewish origins to really appreciate comics as a piece of history and as an art form.

And we range from mainstream comics, superheroes like Superman, all the way to Harvey Pekar and Peter Kuper and Terry Libenson.

Really, the anchor is Cleveland, because this city is such a hub and has always been such a hub of comic book creativity, and that's where we wanted to feature.

Comic books are an original American art form.

Comic books are as uniquely American as jazz or baseball, and it's a history that is really only beginning to be recognized, let alone celebrate it and explore it in depth.

And so much of that comes from Cleveland.

We're very interested in diversity in this exhibition.

There's a section on Yiddish comics.

So these are separate areas we hope you'll take the entire exhibition in, because it does tell a larger story.

But there are separate areas that may very well interest you.

One that we're particularly excited about is the Cleveland Home of Heroes section, because it's the newly created for this particular venue, and we focus on a handful of really important, influential Cleveland comics makers.

They're very few people around the world who don't know who Superman is.

Right?

And all of that multi multibillion dollar industry, this huge popular thing all starts right here in Cleveland in Glenville with two Jewish teenagers, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who get together in high school and come up with this mashugana idea out of flying space men in tights.

And that changed the world.

It's a huge history to recognize.

And here's the amazing thing.

For four years, nobody wanted it.

They pitched their Superman to every single newspaper syndicate in the United States, and they all turned them down with a variety of replies.

My favorite being the idea is to fantastical children will never relate.

And we we started exhibit it with Siegel and Schuster.

But over history we get Harvey Pekar, who's one of the founding fathers of autobiographical comics.

What are the most popular genres today?

We have Brian Michael Bendis, who, among other things, created, Jessica Jones and Miles Morales very popular characters, Terry Libenson, Pajama Diaries, Peter Kuper, “Mad Magazine,” Spy versus Spy, a Pulitzer finalist.

And we really explored the different types of comics and different personalities and comics that all come from or relate to Cleveland.

Of course, Superman is a huge part of the Cleveland Jewish comics experience, but also one of my favorites is Harvey Pekar.

And we have we have this Wall of Harvey information.

Harvey comics.

Harvey artifacts.

Harvey is raised Orthodox.

His parents are observant.

He deals with that in two different graphic novels, but especially The Quitter.

The quitter is really very autobiographical.

His Jewish identity always is important to him.

So this is from Harvey Pekar's Cleveland.

But what I love about this particular page where you can see how curmudgeonly he is, he says, I'm sort of Cleveland Heights answer to the beloved literary character Tevye the Milkman from Fiddler on the roof.

So there's all these Jewish references throughout his work.

Author and historian G.K.

Chesterton said that, dragons, fairy tales are more than true, not because dragons exist, but because they teach us that they can be beaten and superheroes are along the same way.

They teach us the most valuable, basic lessons that we need to remind ourselves again and again throughout our lives.

That's how basic lessons work.

That we are capable, that we are brave.

That we are kind.

That underneath these, you know, nebbishy, faulty... insecure, schmucky facade which we all have in one way or another.

There lies, you know, we are men and women of steel.

A few of the artists featured in “Icons and Ink the Jewish Comics Experience.” Visit the exhibit July 12th at the Maltz Museum in Beachwood And the show is on view through August 23rd.

about Ideastreams Art critic Steve Litt also visited the Maltz to give us his thoughts on this heroic show.

history book, On the surface, it would seem that there's nothing more completely American than comic superheroes such as Superman, Spider-Man, and Captain America.

Yet they and many more owe their origins to Jewish creators who embedded their work with subtly coded references to Jewish culture and faith.

"Icons in Ink: The Jewish Comics Experience" is both a revelation and a celebration, organized by a team of curators led by New York pop culture historian Roy Schwartz.

The exhibition reveals the deep Jewishness of comic book history in America.

Did you know that Superman's backstory bears similarities to the finding of Moses, or that his super powers recall those of the biblical hero Samson?

The show opened in New York several years ago and is packed with memorabilia, original editions of classic comic books, and original, hand-drawn and inked comic book pages.

At the Maltz Museum, the show has been enlarged by Samantha Baskind of Cleveland State University to include the contributions of Clevelanders to the history of comic books.

For Jews and non-Jews alike, The show is a chance to appreciate cultural meanings that have long been hidden in plain sight.

In American comic book stories.

It's also a reminder that in America, which is a nation of immigrants, we all carry complex identities that contribute to the richness of being part of this country.

our next artist works in his bare feet so he can feel the sand between his toes.

You see, Carl Jara is a renowned sand sculptor whose incredible creations make up the Lake Erie Sand Sculpture Tour.

It looks like fun, but he actually has a love hate relationship with this gritty medium.

This story is part of our ongoing series showing you how art comes together “Behind the Scenes: Art Across Ohio.” I hate this material.

I hate sand, I hate it with a passion.

It is just it gets in your all of your equipment.

It gets in your clothes, it gets in your house, it gets in your car.

It's everywhere.

It's an obnoxious material.

But for an artistic medium, man, you can't beat it.

I am a competitive sculptor.

I've been competing in master level events since 1997, and now I have this burning thing that I have to just get off my chest.

So I'm going to make the piece.

I don't know what to say.

Ugh!

what I strive for with what I do in sand sculpture is especially if I'm if I'm doing a contest piece or something related to where it's not a commercial piece specifically, I really try to just describe the world around me.

There are a lot of times if you were to go back through my portfolio, I'm pretty sure you could just pinpoint the exact moment in time that those things occurred, because I'm trying to describe it in a fashion the world without it being too blatant and to raw.

You know, I'm not trying to give the news.

I'm just trying to give an impression of what's going on.

To me, that's really what I, what I strive for in my work My work went to commercial work.

I give people what they want.

You know, you're paying for sculpture.

I want to make sure that you get what you paid for.

The Lake County Sand Sculpture Trail this year.

It's just kind of a cool idea that the Lake County Tourism Bureau had.

They wanted to introduce public art out into their community.

So they're really investing in this idea of putting an artist out, working, talking.

People can watch.

So we developed this idea of the trail, and, it's just a series of four pieces all the way along the coast of Lake Erie in Lake County.

Osborne Park out in Willoughby at the far western end of Lake County, and then Headlands Beach State Park, which is kind of in the middle of Fairport Harbor, which is slightly to the east of that.

And then all the way out on the eastern edge of Lake County is, Madison Township Park.

For the first three pieces that I did, I really wanted the pieces to kind of relate to their their geographic locations.

Osborne Park, sort of a celebration of the future.

Osborne beach.

They're planning on building a breakwater and a pier out, and that's going to naturally build the beach for them.

And I incorporated that into a postcard with the future children playing at the future Osborne Beach.

The piece of Madison Township, is more about the location in that area You have one of the highest concentrations of wineries in Ohio.

So we're just kind of celebrating that fact.

Osborne's very quiet and intimate.

You have to get up and look at it.

And Madison is just this huge thing.

You almost can't step away at far enough to see the third piece at, Fairport Harbor was really more about kind of celebrating the idea of the lighthouses.

And the Lake Erie monsters they've got two lighthouses in the area, and I thought it was kind of fun to play with the lighthouse.

But then I find architecture to be a little stiff on its own.

So I thought I'd add in the Lake Erie Monster to go with it.

Just to kind of tie in with the local lore and legend.

Now, what I'm doing here at Headlands is a completely different animal, something more meaningful to me about the current times that we live in.

So having good material, is absolutely the first and foremost thing.

Having good sand to work with.

A sand sculptor can work with any sand.

You know, we pride ourselves in it, but I've bit my tongue a few times.

I've had beaches that were so bad.

My sculptures were about three inches high and 16ft across, and I couldn't get any taller than that because it just collapse out.

The sand here at Lake Erie tends to be rocky.

It tends to be very round.

And you'll find that on almost any beach, you're going to get rocky, round particles.

So the sand that I use here is a glacial till.

It's a very, very sharp, very fine grain, almost crystalline in structure.

It hasn't been washed and eroded, so it's not rounded off.

As a result, the particles are cling more like Velcro Together, they'll jam together and stay that way.

So when the water evaporates, I'm left with a matrix of material, not a bunch of failing covalent bonds.

I think tomorrow I bring an extra length of hose.

We're a little tight on the hose today.

I just I want to make an oval, but I want to make an oval.

That'll eat up about a quarter of this pile.

So I'm kind of mentally going through in my head.

And I got to think about that size.

And I'm thinking about the three sculptures I just finished up because they're the same size.

And even though I've done this for 34 years, this is still the part that I'm most likely to screw up.

Now, I don't carry around a lot of tools.

The guy who taught me carried enormous, enormous bag of tools.

I think I realized quickly that I didn't need an enormous bag and tools to do this.

I've got a couple of these small trowels that have worn down over the years that work really nice for all of your little detail work, I've got some larger trowels to do, larger cuts.

I'll work with a shovel, if I need bigger cuts and then, if I'm doing some really tiny things, I have just a single tool or two for really tiny detail work.

I figure if I have more tools and I can hold in one hand, I got too many tools.

And, the fewer tools I have, the fewer tools there are to leave in the pile.

Okay, I think we're ready to get off this pile.

Oh.

Here we go.

Magic moment.

It's like magic.

There are times when it's like it's.

I have to walk away from an area.

If it's not working, and there's always a million other places to step on to and work.

But people always say, oh, you'd be so much fun to bring along on vacation.

Actually, no, I wouldn't, because I don't like going to beaches.

I will go into the mountains if I'm going on vacation.

I'll go find a stream.

I'll go find some trees.

I'll go find some shade.

Anywhere that has no sand is good for me.

The second annual Lake Erie Sand Sculpture Tour kicks off at five different Lake County beaches on July 11th.

On the next “Applause,” we're enrolling in the art and history of the Cleveland School as we meet an avid collector obsessed with Cleveland's modernist movement of the 1920s.

The Cleveland School is an umbrella, under which many artists with many different styles fluorished in Cleveland.

Plus, feel the Tri-C JazzFest beats as the annual fest nears All that and more on the next round of “Applause” Thanks again for joining me for this round of “Applause” My friends, Im Ideastreams Kabir Bhatia sending you off with a sensational performance by the musicians of Chamber Fest Cleveland.

Here's festival co-founder and violinist Diana Cohen leading a unique string quartet with not one but two cellos.

Chamber Fest Cleveland celebrates its 14th season June 10th through the 27th.

Production of “Applause” on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.