[bouncy piano music] - [Host] In this edition of WLIW Arts Beat, a modernist painter.

- It's a lot of fun, kind of decoding works and jumps and just kind of takes you out on this.

I don't know when I look at them, it's like they just make my eyes feel fun.

- [Host] Vibrant animal portraits.

- As a kid, I always loved animals.

And, um, as an adult always enjoyed art - [Host] Wearable art.

- Most of the stuff that inspires me, um, comes out of the ancient Middle East.

That's kind of why I call it the ancient craft.

- [Host] Live competitive painting.

- The purpose of art battle is to provide a, a new and novel connection between the audience and the artists.

- [Host] It's all I had on this edition of WLIW Arts Beat.

Funding for WLIW Arts Beat was made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.

- Welcome to WLIW Arts Beat.

I'm Diane Masciale.

A key figure in the New Mexico art scene.

Artist, Raymond Jonson spent his life painting nonrepresentational modernist works.

Up next, we find out more about the thought-provoking pieces he created.

- It's a lot of fun, kind of decoding works and Jonson just kind of takes you out on this.

I don't know when I look at them it's like they just make my eyes feel fun.

Raymond Jonson really is my favorite painter.

These late period pieces are really a question to me.

We're looking at him at the apex of his spiritual expression.

And we're looking at him as a mature adults who's refined his techniques.

He's no longer really experimenting with the technical aspect of art but really what can he say?

[soft piano music] We look at this and Raymond Jonson has just gone through a tragedy in his life.

His wife has passed away and instead of responding in this negative dark way, he's really celebrating her life and life in general.

I mean, this color palette is looking upward.

It's looking into the skies of New Mexico and it's expressing something different.

It's, it's no longer tethered to the earth and we're really moving into a different spiritual expression and a different dialogue with spirituality.

[soft music] He is exploring the boundaries of the canvas more He has fully lifted the curtains and now the works move off the canvas.

It's off the picture plane, as the viewer when I approach one of these, I'm immediately wondering where does this line finish?

Where's the conclusion of this shape?

How does this color fade resolve itself?

And within the picture it's complete.

It gives you everything that you need to feel a sense of finality in the work, but it also then asks you that question of, well, what's, what's going on over here.

[soft piano music] So in that, the conversation has shifted.

He zoomed in, but by zooming in, he's allowing us to ask, what else is there?

[bouncy piano music] And I do love that it just challenges people's preconceptions of what new Mexican art can be and what it was.

And like these pieces are contemporaneous with all the cowboy in India, Indian stuff, and this is as much new Mexican art as anything else.

He really never stopped making art.

And in that, these pieces are beautiful and they're beautiful culmination and kind of conclusion for his career as an artist.

But what he left us in that is the ability to look a little further.

It's the question of why?

[bouncy piano music] I feel Raymond Jonson really still has a lot to teach us.

- [Host] For more information, head to artmusem.unm.edu.

And now the artist quote of the week.

[upbeat music] Artist, Emily Reid loves animals.

She renders multi-colored pattern paintings of alpacas, donkeys, roosters, and more.

We visit Reid in her studio in Reno, Nevada and learn more about her artistic process.

[upbeat guitar music] - [Emily Reid] As a kid, I always loved animals.

And, um, as an adult always enjoyed art.

So I paint animals in acrylic and, um, usually in bright colors and lots of patterns.

I paint, um, in the studio in my house.

So I'm usually painting right on the floor and my house is in my farm So, you know, I got animals all around me.

Which is kind of funny.

Once you get a couple animals people ask you if you'll take more.

And if I can give them a home that they, they live harmoniously with the other animals, I usually say, yes.

I'm a little bit bad at saying no.

I have about 40 animals that live here, that we're all in need of home.

And are all kind of supported by my artwork.

So the animals I live with inspire my artwork.

And when I sell my artwork it allows me to provide a home for my animals.

So it's kind of this cool relationship that we share.

We help each other out.

I have, um, three dogs and a pigeon.

I have, um, like 22 chickens and two emus and two alpacas.

I have two donkeys and a mini horse and I have three mini pigs and three goats.

Right now, alpacas are kind of popular.

And they've got, you know they're crazy little cartoony faces.

So those are good ones to paint.

I've painted the pigeon tubs a couple times.

And my tortoise, Phineas.

The donkeys have made it into a couple paintings.

There's two things that happen when I paint.

I either know what colors I'm gonna use and I paint the background first or I know what subject I'm gonna paint and I sketch that out right onto the wood.

And I like to leave all my mistake lines or my contour lines.

So I have lots of little shapes to paint and, and add pattern to.

And then I guess I just keep painting until it feels like it's done.

The energy, I guess from my artwork is usually a happier one.

I don't have anything that's too somber.

And I'm just unable to really paint when I'm, you know if I'm stressed or if I'm sad or if I'm just a little bit down.

So most of my artwork I think just expresses like a more positive energy.

I generally paint in large format, which to me is like four feet by six feet or three feet by four feet.

But I also painted a large mural, which is really large format downtown for the Reno mural expo.

And I'm kind of excited because not everyone buys art and not everyone can buy art but it's a way to kind of get my art into there lives.

[upbeat guitar music] I feel like the connection that I have to our natural surroundings really influences the way I paint.

Around here, we get colorful skies in the morning and at sunset.

And looking at Mount Rose, the colors on Mount Rose are so amazing.

And also in the desert after it rains, you know, the Sage brush looks extra fresh and the rocks have other colors that kind of pop up.

I'm just moved by our colors and our natural beauty.

And I don't paint realistically, but I hope that the feelings that I experienced seeing these colors that someone might experience them, looking at my artwork.

- [Host] See more of Reid's artwork at emilyreidart.com.

Now here's a look at this month's fun fact.

[upbeat music] In this segment, we go to Detroit, Michigan to meet Virgil Taylor, an artist who creates wearable art inspired by the ancient Middle East and cultures from around the world.

Taylor designs special pieces, full of spirit.

- [Virgil Taylor] I play with fire.

I zone out on working with metal.

It has, has spoke to me.

I'm an artist.

I'm not a jeweler.

And there is a difference.

I have friends that are jewelers that are brilliant.

Some of the stuff they do out could never do.

I don't have the patience nor the temperament for it because materials talk to me.

I grew up in, in Detroit, around central high school.

My mom was a huge art fan.

And so it was also, when I think back about it now like nothing in our house ever went unused.

We were always creating stuff.

And so I guess I was I had a natural aptitude for it, I had a very interesting life but I, I wasn't doing my craft all the time.

I'd come back to what I do it.

And, and then, in this particular facility Birmingham Bloomfield art center, I was in my thirties when I discovered this place.

And so I start, this place started getting me back into it.

I have an affinity for certain types of jewelry.

Most of the stuff that inspires me comes out of the ancient Middle East.

That's kind of why I call it the ancient craft.

Ancient Africa or African nations, Middle Eastern nations.

My inspiration tends to be around those regions, those processes.

I have an affinity for ancient techniques.

I went to Africa last year and spent time with the Maas ai.

I was really honored to do that and fascinated by their processes because they're so raw.

I mean, when you have people making like a kneeling metal overdone ovens which is pretty fascinating to watch.

I do a lot of really organic stuff.

I'm very fond of, um, happy accidents.

You know, a lot of times other people will go for refining something.

No, no, no, no, no.

That's perfect.

Leave it just like that.

It works for me.

So I don't strive to, um, make art that is, um, real refined.

I have a ring that I'm working on now.

I had no clue when I started with this ring what I was going to do.

And I ended up with a stone that I had no idea I was going to get but it just kind of all evolved.

And the final touches are this evening on that piece.

I have a client that's Ecuadorian.

I did some pieces for, I did a brace, a bangle bracelet for him.

There was really interesting.

And, um, the design ended up being my interpretation of an ancient Ecuadorian, palatial, aqueduct.

And so it was filled with a blue resonate was done in, um, copper, 18 karat gold and sterling silver.

And so the resin that I used in it is blue.

So it looked like it was a pool at the top and it looked like there was blue running through the veins because I cracked it open.

I had another client, a young man.

She was very close to, was killed in the Naval accident over off the coast of Japan a few years ago.

And she went to his funeral at Arlington and they gave her, they gave her one of the shell casings from when they did the 21 gun salute for him.

I was in that president's honor guard.

I was in a unit that did that.

So when she sent me the shell case and issues like I need something made out of this.

And then I took the shell casing and turned it into part of that bracelet.

So it came up pretty remarkable.

I was really proud of it.

That's tremendous honor for me.

And I have had people give me their parents jewelry or grandma's jewelry, or you know, different pieces.

I got this, this earn that I'm getting ready to do.

That's just a huge honor for somebody to entrust that kind of thing to me.

[electric music] I recently have been doing some bracelets.

They're African, their different parts of Africa but they're currency, um, jewelry.

They're wearable currency jewelry.

Some people get a little miffed because when they see them a lot of times they, they see it as representing slavery.

But the reality of it with those, those bracelets though was that yes, they sometimes were involved in slave trading but the people that were using those bracelets in this, these wearable jewelry that they had little or nothing to do with slave trade.

That was a method of people, um, currency wearing it because they didn't have pockets and things.

And so they wear these things and sometimes it would be a display of wealth.

People would barter with them.

So would it be the equivalent of us wearing dollar bills or a hundred dollars bills on our wrist.

So I've been doing some of those recently.

I've been casting those.

The beading that I do I typically use African trade beads.

They're typically ancient and, um, they have a value and a lot of significance.

So the stuff that I create has some historical significance or some meaning to me.

So when I create it, it, it, its more than just the beaded bracelet or beaded necklace.

I feel like it's where I come from.

It resonates with me.

It always has.

For me, working with any of those materials is, is the ability to take something and create something beautiful that someone will enjoy and other people will marvel at and look at it and say, oh that's so beautiful or interesting or whatever.

This is always cool.

I guess it always resonates with me that like, why, why are we attracted to jewelry then?

Just like, why do we sing?

Why do we dance?

You know, what, why do we why do some things to make us happy?

And wearable art or jewelry for me is is just part of that beautification.

Traditionally humans like to embellish.

They like to, to beautify themselves whether it be with paint.

If you go back and look at old cave drawings, people would paint themselves with mud or whatever and then they would adorn themselves with bones or or beads or rocks or whatever that they found, feathers that they found that were, were beautiful.

So there's something to me that resonates with us as humans, about beauty, about the embracing of beauty for me, I think it, it has, it's a reflection of our psyche, our desire to always embrace the beautiful.

And so jewelry wearable art is just another component or aspect of that.

- [Host] Discover more theancientcraft.com.

And here's a look at this week's art history.

Up next, we take a trip to Florida to experience art battle Sarasota.

An exciting competition, where artists gather together to paint for the viewing public.

With just 20 minutes on the clock, the competitor's race to complete their artworks and the audience gets to vote for their favorite.

- [Competition Host] Five, four, three, two, one.

Let's paint.

- [Announcer] Some say it took Leonardo more than 20 years to paint the Mona Lisa.

But if you want to compete at art battle, you'll have just 20 minutes to complete your masterpiece.

[pumping music] - [Founder] Good art we feel comes from placing restrictions and, and in art restrictions are everywhere.

And as they are in our lives.

We must overcome these restrictions, be, be they, um, you know, um, time or be the materials.

And in this case, we restrict both time and materials to create a fairness in the competition as well, to create a compelling spectacle for the audience to enjoy.

- [Announcer] 12 artists, three rounds, four finalists, one winner, that's the format for art battle.

An international competition that ships the contemplated world of painting into high gear.

- [Founder] The purpose of art battle is to provide a, a new and novel connection between the audience and the artists.

It's, um, so rare.

In fact, there's, um, only a few narrow opportunities for, um audiences and patrons and art lovers to experience visual art like this, in a live fashion to experience the opportunity to see inside the creative process.

And the technicalities of creating a painting.

I mean, there's something absolutely magical about seeing the artist raise their brushes to the air and having the audience cheer and the smile that comes across the face and their excitement is, is palpable.

And we all get to enjoy that together.

- [Announcer] Art battle was brought to Sarasota earlier this year in a joint effort with the arts and cultural Alliance of Sarasota county.

More than 300 people fill the Selby public library for an up close look at the artistic process in action.

- [Director] Art battle has been going on around the world now for about 14 or 15 years, um, well-established and, you know, throughout the country and different parts of the world.

And we felt it was appropriate to bring that to Sarasota because one of the major goals of the arts and cultural Alliance is to be able to bring the arts to as many people in the community as we can in ways that are important to them.

And, um, to have an art competition where the people can come and be a part of the audience, can watch the art being made by the artists and then can help evaluate the art and, you know, rating their favorites is, we thought would be a great way to get the public more involved in the art process.

- [Announcer] Art battles rules are simple.

Artists must use the same canvas and paints they're given prior to battle.

They can, however, bring their own brushes.

After that, their only limitations are time and talent.

[pumping music] - [Director] Well, the whole goal of art battle is to allow the artists to do their own expression.

There's really not a tab to find this type of artist or that type of artist.

What we want to do is make the, um, artists in the community aware that a battle is going to be going on and they have the opportunity to use their skills to express themselves the way they are most comfortable with.

And obviously that's going to be how they create what they're thinking about.

And then the audience is the one that judges whether or not they like what they did out there.

So we really don't target a particular genre or a particular type of painting or anything.

- [Announcer] While, all artistic genres and styles are welcomed.

Some appear in battles more often than others.

- [Founder] The styles that we see, um, that are most prevalent are, are the sort of the classic styles of painting.

We see a lot of portraiture.

We see landscapes, we see abstract.

I think that what we, what we see that the audience enjoys is typically something that they can empathize with or that they can recognize.

- [Announcer] During each round, audience members view the paintings and what is referred to as a slow tornado of art appreciation.

At the sound of brushes down, the round ends and the audience votes, 21st century style.

- [Director] Judging is done by the phone.

We're, we're modern day of the audiences.

They're with their phones.

They get to, um, have a tab into, you know, an app that'll take them to the voting poll.

And then the folder tabulated, the votes come in and we make the selection from the total number of votes for each charter.

- [Founder] Sarasota is a, a very artful city and we are pleased to be here.

The, the artists, there are so many artists, we put out the call to artists and we had over 50 applicants.

And they may even be higher than that, but I know that it was at least 50.

And it seemed like just a perfect match.

- [Competition Host] Five, four, three, two, one.

Brushes down painters, brushes down.

- [Announcer] After three rounds and nearly three hours of inspiration and admiration.

The first art battle Sarasota champion was crowned.

- [Competition Host] Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of art battle Sarasota is Judy Robertson.

Alright, Judy, come on on stage, come on over here Judy, come say, hi.

- [Judy Robertson] I just paint fast.

[laughs] I just jump in with my whole being and just start painting.

- [Founder] I think that I would say for artists who are considering applying, practice and practice with the same tools that we use which are acrylic paint, and which are any, any paint brush that you might like, the canvases are typically 20 by 24.

Um, and so, you know, if you've done a 10-20 minute paintings, you'll have a leg up on the vast majority of artists who come, who come to work with us and have a very good chance of doing well on your first competition.

- [Judy Robertson] My advice would be to just trust where the paint goes.

You just, just start putting color down.

And then you kind of let the, the flow of the paint lead you.

- [Host] That wraps it up for this edition of WLIW Arts Beat.

We'd like to hear what you think.

So like us on Facebook, join the conversation on Twitter and visit our webpage for features and to watch episodes of the show.

We hope to see you next time.

I'm Diane Masciale.

Thank you for watching WLIW Arts Beat.

Funding for WLIW Arts Beat was made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.

[bouncy piano music]