This time on, rocks depicting the majesty of Louisiana's whooping crane.

To help save the species without and making music out of salvaged materials.

These stories right now on art rocks.

West Baton Rouge Museum is proud to provide local support for this program on LPB, offering diverse exhibitions throughout the year and programs that showcase art, history, music, and more.

West Baton Rouge Museum culture cultivated Art rocks is made possible by the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and by viewers like you.

Hello.

Thank you for joining us for Art rocks with me, James Fox Smith from Country Roads magazine.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries joined forces with local and regional artists to raise awareness of the Bayou State's critically endangered whooping crane population.

The partnership worked so well that these very different groups are now considering pooling resources and talents to draw attention to other environmental concerns, from conserving more endangered species to coastal erosion.

Gave Griffin works for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Foundation.

Here's Gabe describing how the organization's use of art is helping educate people about the importance of protecting wildlife and the land that ultimately all of us call home.

The Louisiana Whooping Crane Project has been on the ground for about 13 years now.

We brought our first whooping cranes back to the state in January of 2011.

We have whooping cranes and most of southwest Louisiana up to a Voyles parish, and we have birds out on the landscape that have made it and hatched and bred their own wild chicks.

We started seeing the rise of artists in Louisiana wanting to paint these cranes.

And over at the foundation we said, well, this is a great opportunity to connect a different user group, a different audience than our typical outdoorsman to our wildlife.

We decided that we would come to the table and maybe put on this gala to give a venue for this wonderful work they've done.

We've got artists throughout the state of Louisiana.

We had over 50 adult artists.

We had over 60 pieces of adult crane art that was submitted.

It was a $30 entry fee for our adults with cash prizes.

We have been blown away with the quality of artwork that we receive.

We've got professional artists who have taken countless hours to put these pieces together.

Images with depth.

Lots of variations in color.

Just true artwork that we didn't expect to see.

This being our first year.

We had five judges on the bench to look at this artwork.

We had R.C.

Davis, who is a famed artist here.

We had two of our whooping crane biologists look at them for anatomy, make sure that the birds actually looked like they work in real life.

And so the judges all came together, scored every piece we wanted to do it right.

So we wanted not only to have quality judges to judge this quality artwork, but we wanted to have cash prizes and other incentives for these people to come submit their art and see a reward at the end of it.

Our winners will get to go see the woven cranes.

In order to see a whooping crane in Louisiana, a lot of times are on private property.

But we thought it would be really nice to incentivize our artists with our winners.

They can go see the whooping cranes out in the wild.

So our first, second and third place winners not only get a cash prize, but they now have the opportunity to go see whooping cranes out in southwest Louisiana, where most of them are.

They'll get to see our biologists doing everything they do.

And hopefully these artists will keep those memories in mind when they go to paint cranes again.

We understand there are great student artists throughout this state.

With it being our first year, we focus solely on East Baton Rouge Parish schools.

If you had an art program at your school, you had the opportunity to submit your artwork.

Our highest ranked school, the most artwork that came in was from McKinley middle.

So not only did they have a winner, but because McKinley middle had more artists submit art, they now get a visit from Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to their school to learn more about the cranes.

Really, all the species that inhabit this wonderful place we call Louisiana.

We had an artist's reception not only for our adult artists, but also our children artists.

We wanted the youth here in East Baton Rouge Parish to feel celebrated.

We wanted to congratulate them on their artwork.

We wanted to give them their blue ribbons.

We wanted to award the schools that had the highest participants.

It was a day to celebrate the artists, a day to educate not only the kids, their parents or grandparents, and we had a way to print their artwork and put it on a tote bag, a coffee mug, t shirt.

So it was a day to celebrate our youth artists and give them a glimpse of what a real artist gala can look like.

The outpouring of artists for cranes was incredible.

We do have other species.

We have other habitats, we have scenic rivers.

We could pick a category every year and give our artists that prompt.

And I do believe we're going to start seeing this kind of outpouring.

I've heard the word bio art used.

Whatever it is, crossing science, art and in a sense, communication.

Right?

Connecting people to these species, even if it's not with the bird in hand.

We're here for that.

Not everyone's going to be out in the woods every day, but they need to know about Louisiana's species.

They need to know that Louisiana's in danger species is Louisiana, a whooping crane, and probably will be for some time.

It is about that fusion of getting young people and artists involved in something different.

We are the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Foundation.

Everything we do is in support of the state agency, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

This was a new way for us to connect into artists, give them a platform to put their artwork out, a way for them to benefit financially and for our foundation to benefit financially.

There was a 6040 split, 60 going to the artist, 40 going to the foundation.

And so while this might not have been the largest fundraiser we ever do, the idea that we can have artists come in, they benefit and we're getting our outreach goals accomplished.

People are learning about the whooping cranes.

They're learning more about Louisiana's outdoors for a first go.

This was an incredible fusion.

Life can be enormously enriched by the creative endeavors of others.

The trick, of course, is knowing where to look.

So here are some standout exhibitions coming soon to museums or galleries near you.

For more on these exhibitions and others, consider Country Roads Magazine available in print, online or by e-newsletter.

To watch or rewatch any episode of Art rocks again, just visit lpb.org/art rocks there.

You'll also find all of the Louisiana segments available on LPB bays YouTube channel.

There's nothing like the unexpected pleasure of painted glass to capture folks attention in a bustling shopping mall.

So many merchants in Reno, Nevada look to window cartoonist Trey Valentine to turn the heads of passers by slow down and take a good long look.

I was always getting into something as a kid, trying to finger paint on the refrigerator.

This is the fun part of my job as I get to just kind of be a kid and make a mess on the back of my truck.

My name is Trey Valentine and I'm from Reno, Nevada.

I am a window cartoonist.

I paint signs on windows.

I am paint windows for any and all occasions.

Lots of restaurants, tire places, car dealerships.

I've done flower shops.

You name it, I've done it.

My best signs usually turn out when they go.

Just do whatever.

Those usually turn out really well because I have no boundaries and I can get real creative.

I take a crayon and just kind of get like an idea of what I want to put on there.

if it was warmer, I would do it with a paint brush, but it'll take too long to dry, so I'll just do it in crayon, and then I'll come back with my paint and I'll start painting it.

And then with my fingernail etch out where my reference lines are.

And you'll get kind of a weird, silhouette looking thing on the window, and then I can go from there.

This is a gymnasium that I'm painting today, and the client wanted all the characters to be in shape, so I put a weight in this guy's hand and, gave him a little bit of muscle tone.

She said she wanted a really fit Santa, so I make them all.

But I always do the white because the the paint.

If you just put, colors on here, you kind of see right through it, and it wouldn't look really good.

This kind of attaches the color to the window, gives it that nice opaque awesomeness.

So most of my characters get a white outline around them to really make them jump off the window.

So you see how I've kind of, like, left a little bit of white.

I'll do a black outline inside the white so there'll be a different edge to him, and then like a little aura around him, which will make him really pop off the window.

When I first started doing this, everything was just one color.

Like, I didn't do any highlights or shadows or anything.

And then in the last couple of years, I really started to dig the whole highlights and shadows and different colors.

Very subtle difference, but there's definitely a difference.

I like scenes like these because they're just quick.

They're fun, they're easy.

You don't have to really measure anything.

Just kind of go for it.

My favorite part about pinning signs on windows is the fact that it's an instant gratification.

You get an idea in my head.

It goes on the window pretty quickly, and I get to see it come to fruition, or I see it come to life within the afternoon.

I've been doing this my whole life.

I was a musician back in the day, back in the 80s, and I'd go out and play clubs all night.

No one made money back in the 80s.

Being a musician.

So, I'd go out.

I learned how to paint window sign, and then after a while, I learned how to do it right.

I did the office thing.

You know, I was in radio for a little while, and that's all indoors.

And right now it's a little tough because it's 22 degrees outside, and I can't feel my fingers all the time.

And I get home and I'm pretty worn out.

just from the weather.

But the other side of that coin is in the summertime.

I'm running around in a tank top and shorts, working on my tan and having a blast listening to music and painting some.

Now come with us to Groveport, Ohio to meet artist Sandra Lang and Wall to wall partners in art and life.

The two met in art school more than 40 years ago.

They've been collaborating to create Wills throne and hand-built functional pottery ever since.

Let's find out how their beautiful throne and sculptural clay vessels take shape.

People don't see exactly what you're seeing unless you go ahead and carry it through.

And that's what your job is as an artist is to to bring that what you're seeing, make it possible for other people to see it.

We met in art school.

KD started out in painting and drawing, but found clay.

So I moved into that.

And actually it's been this gradual sort of getting to where we are.

It was just a, I guess, a natural evolution.

But we've always that being a goal of making our living as artisans.

I went to learn to paint and draw.

I met Sandy and kind of hung out with her in the clay studio.

I was just sitting there talking.

She was working.

I should have been home doing homework or something.

When we decided to do this as a business.

Yeah, it was hard as struggle.

So you just make little tweaks constantly to see what what's going to sell, what's going to keep us alive.

I never thought I would be doing functional ceramics when I was in school, but it's a good living.

So many people say they don't see how you can work with your spouse, and we've never had a problem working together.

I think we both grew up with that really deeply ingrained, blue collar kind of values of work.

I can't imagine not working.

I do love physical labor.

That's part of that whole experience of the 3D visceral living.

And I think that, you know, for, for us, we're not afraid of sweat and we're not afraid of getting in it in the dirt and, you know, exhausting hard work.

Raccoon is a traditional firing from Japan, which actually came from Korea.

They usually take the pot out red hot and let it cool naturally or quench it.

They brought Raku back from Japan and we're playing with it.

And they were carrying a pot.

They were carrying pots down to a creek, and somebody dropped one of them and they said, oh, just leave it.

And they kept going.

And then when it came back to it, it had smoldered in the leaves and in the dry stuff and got some clusters and some cool things.

And so that's where the post-fire reduction came in.

So it's pretty new to ceramics with the Raku.

It's the temperature, the day, the humidity, the length of time.

It's in the can, how hot the kiln fired to and how long it takes to get from the the kiln to the can.

Just every little thing can change.

And it's just so unpredictable that, you know, it's kind of cool that way.

You have to let things go.

You know you can't be.

It can't be perfect.

It might be, but you can't expect it to be.

And you can never recreate the same thing twice.

And this is just what fits into our space and what we have.

The way we chose to live is the reason that we can do what we do.

So it's so completely entwined.

It's a way of living.

You do what it takes to.

It kind of just kind of fits together.

You know, we're not big consumers.

We're more likely to buy a piece of art, probably, than we are to go out and buy the latest and newest stuff and so we really consider that kind of thing.

And there, again, the idea of pottery going into your life, it's meant to last you your life.

It's not not a throwaway thing.

We make the clay and all the glazes is from scratch, as you can get it.

Our technique is a slip trail, which is our clay dissolved to liquid, put into a bottle with a needle tip, and then drawn on to the surface of the clay.

So that gives it some texture and also holds the glaze where you put it.

It's technical for us for certain reasons.

but also it gives the user something to just hold on to, to caress, to, to feel.

and it's usually something either pretty or funny.

I think that sets it apart a little bit.

And when we put handles on on mugs, we try to make it a comfortable handle.

And since they're all handmade, they're all going to be different.

People come into a booth and just pick up mug after mug.

Oh, this is the one.

It feels just right.

Maybe it might inspire them.

Maybe it'll just be something that comforts them.

Something?

Yeah.

Just fun.

It's just such a joy to be able to pick something up and hold it and use it.

And appreciate it.

You know, we have people will come in to a booth and say, oh, well, you know, I would buy this, but my, my mother's a potter.

And like, well, we have cupboards full of everybody else's pots and it's just so nice to have a different pot every, every morning to drink coffee out of.

Everyone feels different.

And that gives you a different feeling, different joy.

I feel like the hand of the person that made it makes it an individual piece that a piece of them kind of goes with it, or, you know, a bit of their energy, their spirit.

Art for life is how we think about it.

You know, this is my favorite.

Creating beautiful functional instruments through recycling.

That's the mission of tied music.

The company builds ukuleles and other small portable instruments using weathered wood salvaged from the shores of Lake Tahoe, California.

In 2010, Tide Music was founded by a pair of self-taught luthiers.

So let's visit their workshop to see it all come together.

Todd Music is a collaborative company that makes instruments in North Lake Tahoe, California.

We kind of focus on ukuleles and other small portable instruments for the ukuleles.

We build for different sizes, and we have a soprano, a concert, and a tenor and a baritone size.

It's a Hawaiian instrument, and the Hawaiians call it the ukulele, which means, I think, Jumping Flea, because the way they played it was real quick, and I was like a flea jumping up and down.

We use a lot of materials from the around the area.

We started out with the reclaimed woods because that's what we had available.

We like different grains and different colors of woods to use in our instruments, and also tone wise as well.

They all have a little bit different sound.

One of our partners, Cline, really turned us on to this building concept that, yeah, you can go out and you can use reclaimed materials because they're right in our backyard, and it's got character.

It's got a story.

Our absolute favorite materials to work with are recycled peers out of Lake Tahoe, mostly because they're so close to extreme elements of the microclimates that swirl through Lake Tahoe.

The sun bouncing off of the water and the way that magnifies calcify and just peaks that would.

It condenses all the different wood structures.

Then you have winds swirling up, as they do in storms that would just pop off at Lake Tahoe.

They'll grab the sand and sand last and pit almost like an alligator print onto the wood.

And then the ice comes in and it's breaking apart different places where the water drips.

It does it more and there's a lot of politics involved in taking something down in the basin of Lake Tahoe.

And luckily, our next door neighbor right here is the pier builder on the north shore of Lake Tahoe.

And so he dismantles them and rebuilds them.

We get to go down with him, pick out materials from from the pier that he's dismantling.

We start very carefully lifting the boards off to try to keep them in intact as much as we can, and we're looking to cherry pick the very most interesting, most lake affected boards that we can.

And then there's the job to stacking them carefully, keeping them from twisting that that office view.

Nothing like it.

That's the best office.

You go out there, you you get to go check out material that has been weathered for years.

We get to go experience these old piers that are falling apart, and they're reborn into an art form that we're, like, looking for different, you know, knots and different textures and different materials to use.

I mean, we even use some of the nails.

Those aren't all going into the trash.

You know, there's there's so many things that you can think of.

Your mind kind of was like, what am I going to do with this material?

Let's make something special.

And it's a full on story.

Some people and on that pier before, I think the most successful pieces we have are when we find those pieces that show the reclaimed or the rough edge, and then we put that into an instrument.

So someone does know when they look at that, they're like, okay, that's a New Galilee, but why is it look like it's kind of chipped up or how did that happen?

And when, when when someone looks at one of our instruments and can instantly recognize that, you know, that came from a an old piece of wood, an old barn, an old pier, old whatever.

I think that's a pretty successful piece of art.

A lady that came up to us at the Reno Ukulele Fest fell in love with one of our reclaimed instruments, and we told her the story about it being from a Lake Tahoe pier.

And that's what really touched her heart.

And she walked away with, with that ukulele that weekend because her mom used to live up in, in Lake Tahoe.

And that's what sold the instrument to this lady was because it brought up childhood memories and the thoughts of her mother.

I wish there was more people like us to to actually take material and make art with it and not have it go to landfill and have other, you know, other nasty things going back and forth.

I'm a big fan of just reclaiming wood, and getting it home locally sourced, but obviously we can't work with it all the time.

Some people want that exotic wood and we're not going to say no to it.

And that's our clients.

There's a lot of reclaimed materials that are people are using, and I'm just stoked to be a part of it, and I'm excited to build more instruments out of it.

And that is that for this edition of Art rocks.

But never mind, because more episodes of the show are always available at LPB.

Borger Art rocks.

And if you love stories like these, consider Country Roads magazine.

It makes a vital guide for learning what's taking shape in Louisiana cultural life all across this state.

So until next week, I've been James Fox Smith and thanks to you for watching.

West Baton Rouge Museum is proud to provide local support for this program on LPB, offering diverse exhibitions throughout the year and programs that showcase art, history, music, and more.

West Baton Rouge Museum culture cultivated Art rocks is made possible by the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and by viewers like you.