[upbeat jazz music] - In this edition of WLIW Arts Beat, Monet's impressions.

- [Katie] For Monet, There were no limits to the canvas.

He continued to be curious.

He continued to look at the world around him in new and invigorating ways.

[upbeat jazz music] [gentle music] - [Diane] Conservation photography.

- [Justin] My love is wildlife.

I show that love through education and I educate through visual media and storytelling.

[upbeat jazz music] - [Diane] Multimedia performance.

- We're living the literal life, all of us.

The unliteral is so much more the abstract, right?

It's so much more interesting.

[fast-tempo music] [upbeat jazz music] - [Diane] A mosaic artist.

- [Elizabeth] I feel that the reclaimed materials I use add character to the piece.

[gentle music] - [Diane] It's all ahead on this edition of WLIW Arts Beat.

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

Thank you.

[gentle music] - Welcome to WLIW Arts Beat.

I'm Diane Masciale.

In this segment, we visit the exhibit Monet and Boston: Lasting Impression at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts.

For the first time in 25 years, the museum exhibited its entire collection of Monet's paintings for visitors to admire.

Take a look.

- [Segment Host] There he is on film.

It's 1915 and Claude Monet is talking, smoking, and painting at home in France.

He's real and regular.

Monet as man, not monument.

But as he fades from view, the legend takes hold.

- There's something that can be so transportative about Monet's beautiful vision of nature and about Monet's willingness to see variety and splendor in the mundane.

- [Segment Host] Katie Hanson is the curator of Monet and Boston: Lasting Impression, a hallmark event of the Museum of Fine Arts' 150th Anniversary celebrations.

It puts all of the museum's vast Monet holdings on view.

- Boston was a great champion for Monet during the artist's own lifetime.

He knew his works were here.

- [Segment Host] The show moves chronologically, with the first work coming from a teenaged Monet.

Who is Oscar Monet?

- Oscar Monet is someone who was teased about his name during his military service.

And so, he switched to his second name, Claude, but we do have one caricature that he drew as a teenager and it's signed O. Monet for Oscar, because that is how he began his career, both as Oscar and also as a caricaturist.

- [Segment Host] The caricaturist would turn Impressionist in short order after an artist in his hometown recognized Monet's early talents and pushed him outdoors to experiment.

- Try the landscape, try color, and the vibrant air, and Monet was open to that kind of exploration.

- [Segment Host] Monet explored his native Normandy, from villages to harbors.

- [Katie] He touches the canvas with the brush and squiggles it in one gesture to confidently create the reflection of the mast of a ship on the rippling surface of the harbor water.

- Katie, I love this painting because you feel like you can feel that little bit of heat that might be coming through with the sun.

- I love about this particular painting that it's really about Monet and where he lives.

I mean, he's living in this house.

He's renting this house with the green shutters.

And so, you know that he saw this kind of commuting happen daily, and that he saw art in it.

He saw beauty.

- [Segment Host] As he did wherever he went, especially along the coast where he filled his palette to meet the explosions of color in nature.

Eventually, Monet settled in Giverny, where he could make hay or haystacks of his lush environment and where he'd be the stalwart of Impressionism.

- [Katie] You more and more see artists creating their own sensibility, their own touch.

- [Segment Host] All the while, Boston collectors wrote him, visited him, and purchased works for which Monet signed his own receipts.

The painter John Singer Sargent was both an admirer and a conduit to Boston patrons.

- Sargent painted Monet painting one of the pictures that's in the MFA's collection on the meadow at Giverny.

And there's a letter in the exhibition that Sargent wrote to Monet.

And he's saying it was a pleasant afternoon despite the Bostonian air of the ladies who came.

- [Segment Host] This dramatically lit gallery is lined with later-in-life works, in which Monet vigorously tackled the same subjects or views with multiple impressions.

Cathedrals, coastlines, and yes, water lilies.

Katie Hanson has titled this space Monet's Magic.

- In 1911, the MFA hosted its first solo show for Monet, here at this location.

And one of the critics writing for a Boston newspaper was completely awestruck and talked about the magic moment, being surrounded by all the colors in a rainbow of dreams.

- [Segment Host] His process wasn't always dreamlike.

Here on the French Riviera, where Monet had vacationed with his friend Renoir, he met his match in the blazing light.

- One of the things that he says when he's on the Riviera is that he had to joust and fight with the sun.

- [Segment Host] Monet relished challenges, and for it, his paintings evolved.

Ultimately, he would make a splash with his water lilies, depictions of the gardens on his own property, places he saw every day, but to Monet, never stayed the same.

- A critic for the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Roger-Marx, in 1909, when those paintings were first shown, he says, "No more earth, no more sky, no limits now."

For Monet, there were no limits to the canvas.

He continued to be curious.

He continued to look at the world around him in new and invigorating ways.

- [Diane] Find out more at mfa.org.

And now, the artist's quote of the week.

[upbeat jazz music] - [Diane] Justin Grubb specializes in wildlife and conservation photography.

When he takes a picture, he highlights the threatened species in need of assistance.

We head to the Grange Insurance Audubon Center in Ohio to see an exhibition of his work.

[gentle music] [bird singing] - [Justin] I grew up in Worthington, Ohio, and I think it was a great place to grow up to connect with nature, you know, with the Metro Parks being so prevalent in the city, the Columbus Zoo being right there.

That's something that I really think shaped what I do now, was being able to go out and find wildlife and explore.

[gentle music and birds singing] - My name is Justin Grubb.

I am a science communicator, so I do wildlife filmmaking, wildlife photography, I write articles about wildlife conservation, I do photo galleries, and that's always been the focus, conserving wildlife.

[gentle music] - So my background is in wildlife biology, going out and taking data, doing population viability analysis.

But while I was doing all that, I sort of realized that there was another element to conservation as well, and that's the storytelling, that's the connecting with people, you know, working with the general mass public and getting them to understand how they impact the environment and these species, because conservation really is a people problem, you know.

The animals didn't do anything to get themselves in this situation, it's what people have done to the environment.

And in order to change that environment for the animals, you have to go to the root cause, which is the people.

And so, by doing that, you know, I really got into photos, I really got into video, I really got into writing.

My love is wildlife.

I show that love through education and I educate through visual media and storytelling.

[gentle music] [birds singing] - [Justin] So we're sitting at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center and on the walls here is a photo gallery called Conservation Through A Lens.

[orchestral music] - Having Justin, who is known for his work with National Geographic is just, I think it's a surprise for Grange Insurance Audubon Center to have him here.

And we're very excited about what his artwork does and how it connects to the bigger stewardship in conservation.

- When you look at the center, you'll see photos along the walls that all depict animals that have very unique, interesting conservation programs, initiatives, strategies associated with them.

There's the Hall of a Threatened Species, which each photo depicts its own conservation initiative.

But then we've got, you know, The Forgotten Wolf, which is an entire sequence of photos that describe a single conservation initiative from start to finish.

And then, there's the Planet Indonesia gallery, which talks about how an organization in Indonesia is doing conservation work through community development, which is a really unique strategy that I think should be adopted more around the world.

People really connect with a good story, and so, with these photos, they all kind of convey their own little story.

You know, you're getting a snapshot of the animal's life through their eyes in the moment, in their environment, behaving naturally.

And as a photographer, I live for those moments.

It feels like everything just is still on earth, and the only thing that matters is you and this animal, and you're just trying to capture the moment as it happens.

One of the most exciting things I'd say about the gallery is its interactiveness.

Each photo has a little card next to it that explains its range, the conservation project associated with the image, but also it has a QR code that allows you to connect to a website called Conservation Through A Lens that has more details about that animal.

You can read more about the initiative and you can even donate to the initiative, if that's your thing.

But there's also other really cool elements to this gallery as well.

There is a section where you can draw an animal and contribute to the gallery.

We'll also have a couple film screenings.

And there's something that I built called Beyond the Lawn.

It's a biodiversity survey where people can learn how to like convert their lawn into usable wildlife space.

- No matter where we are in this world, we live on this world with animals, insects, plants, and other things, and what we do affects how they live.

And oftentimes, we don't make that connection.

And so, I'm really excited for people to see the beautiful work and how he captures it and learn about how they can help make a difference in what we do as humans to help not have those animals become extinct.

- Bringing my work back to Columbus is really exciting.

This gallery brings in a very global perspective on conservation.

And so, you know, you're seeing animals from all around the world, varying conservation initiatives to help protect them from various threats.

But everything that you'll learn about is applicable to what goes on on a small scale, like Columbus, Ohio.

And so, that's one thing that I want people to walk away with, is everything is very interconnected.

And what you do locally has a huge effect on global biodiversity.

- Columbus is an art-rich community, and I'm just, I'm just excited to see what else is down the pike.

Because I think there are a lot more Justins out there.

[birds singing] - [Diane] For more information, go to runningwild.media.

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

[upbeat jazz music] - [Diane] Natasha Tsakos is a show maker who combines technology with live performance to create new dynamic experiences.

In her work, she reimagines what theater could be.

Here's the story.

[fast-tempo music] - Here, I want to show you something.

My name is Natasha Tsakos and I am... Are you ready?

A show maker.

I went to New World School of the Arts for college.

I realized very quickly is that I I didn't want to just be an actor.

[ball bouncing] I wanted to tell my own stories.

I was excited about the potential of theater but not so much about its execution at the moment.

- [Performer] I create things that could not exist yet.

- Meanwhile, in New World, I was performing in nightclubs and performing in the streets to support myself.

When you're street performing or when you're interacting, this level of interaction, you are sharing a magic moment.

And so, all these worlds sort of collapsed and coalesced naturally, right?

The club culture elements came in and the rawness and the interactivity from the streets, the classical training.

And so, I think naturally, when I graduated, I realized, well, I wanna write my own shows.

And I start doing that.

And the result was so rigid and linear.

You know, what I was imagining was shape-shifting.

It was like a, like a drug trip.

I don't need drugs, but I feel like I naturally trip.

And I feel like that is how I want to express the stories and the journeys that I want to share.

As I realized that I didn't wanna produce the shows, those linear rigid shows, I had this epiphany and realized the words were the very problem because the words grounded us in the literal instead of lifting us up to another level.

And that is what's interesting.

So I stripped the words from the equation and I said, well, where do I go from there?

So I started doodling, literally, my next story and just, and the doodles took form, and one doodle and the next and the next and the next and the next.

And then, I suddenly had, suddenly I had an adventure.

I had a journey, I had a story.

[performers shouting] - Up Wake tells the story of Zero, who is a modern-day toon character going to work with his life in a suitcase, stuck between dream and reality and not able to make out the two.

And it's definitely a commentary on modern-day life, in a way.

I wanted to make it dynamic, and I wanted drawers to open and crazy things to come out, and I wanted Zero's coworkers to be headless, of course, because Zero, while he's always dreaming, is the only one who has his head on his shoulder.

And then, and then making his way to a ginormous, almost like what is now a data room, right, of folders and files where all these headless men come out of, boop.

And then, of course, has to scan himself because we know we need to be more than one in order to do anything these days.

We're living the literal life, all of us, the unliteral is so much more the abstract, right?

It's so much more interesting.

And that is sort of the realm in which I like to live in.

The story always comes first.

And then, the technology needs to support that process.

But then, there's sort of a feedback loop because as we then start to go into production, technology will also inspire possibilities that I might not have thought of.

- [Performer] Súper intenso.

- I'm not trying to do anything with the stage, I'm trying to do something to people.

And that leads me to HUMANODE, which is what I've been working on for four and a half years nearly.

So I went to a program called Singularity University based in NASA in Moffett Field, California.

We are tasked to come up with an idea that will positively impact the lives of a billion people.

How can we convert the emotions and energy generated during a show into tangible actions that have positive impact and then scale that?

HUMANODE tells the story of the last human brain, kept captive in a surreal scientific traveling show led by a demented headmaster.

And tonight, the brain escapes into people's phones as it tries to make sense of the world.

We're going through this extraordinary ride, right?

That highlights and raises awareness on some of the most important causes.

And then, at key moments, your phone is being triggered to do something about it, if you wanted to.

You'll actually get to donate, sign petitions.

It will be a live epic production when the time is right but it can also be an interactive reality movie.

I push the envelope by asking what now, what next, and what if?

- [Performer] Pending accelerating.

I am imagination.

- [Diane] See more at natashatsakos.com.

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

[upbeat jazz music] - [Diane] Up next, we take a trip to Reno, Nevada, to meet mosaic artist Elizabeth Wright.

With stained glass, beads, stone, and so much more, she creates colorful textured mosaics.

[gentle music] - Mosaic art is anytime you take smaller pieces of a hard material, glass, tile, stone, to create a picture or an image with those items.

So, anything in that description is considered a mosaic.

I don't think I'm a typical artist in that you don't look at mine and go, oh, she does this one thing.

That's what absolutely pulls me into mosaic is that I can go in so many different directions.

But I use rusty things I find in the desert, dishes, pottery, beads, stone.

The biggest thing I use is cut stained glass.

The first thing I think of is what substrate am I gonna put it on?

And that substrate is the bottom.

What am I gonna create it on?

We were out in the Santa Rosa Mountains in Nevada and I found this big deposit of these flat rocks.

And I was like, oh my gosh, these are going to be perfect for mosaics.

But then, I get down to my little pieces I'm nipping, so I hand-nip, nip, nip, nip, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut.

I'm gonna use silicone to glue those pieces down and then I'm gonna tape it off.

Here you have this beautiful piece of art you've created and you're gonna take a black grout and you're gonna smother the whole thing of your beautiful piece you've created, which is a little unnerving.

And then you clean and you clean and you clean and you clean.

The cleaning will be toothpicks and Q-tips, so you wanna get everything out so you can see every piece of glass in that piece.

So, it is a little crazy when you see this process when I'm doing that, but it's very meditative and it's, you know, I get some good music going and it's just, I can just get lost in what I'm doing.

So it's a wonderful way to relax.

[gentle music] - Cutty has over 50 colors of glass.

To get the shades and all of the inspiration, I actually have to mix the glass, you know, almost like a painter where if I put two colors of glass next to each other, they will start to give the illusion of another color.

And Cutty also has seven different colors of grout, and I took the time and you have to tape it off, grout one section, pull that off, grout the next section, tape the rest of it off.

It's a really intensive process.

I like that as my art has evolved, I use reclaimed materials literally in everything I do.

It's not about the economics of it.

I feel that the reclaimed materials I use add character to the piece.

So let's say I wanna make a sunflower, you know, you could put it in a simple frame and that's okay, that's okay.

But to put it in a, with a rusty piece of metal we found out in the desert, and then to put it on an old piece of barnwood just makes that sunflower so much more special.

And it makes it where you can envision that sunflower near an old barn or out in a field.

It's amazing the rusty things we have found in the desert and you're like, what is this?

What was this?

But what I see coming from this is, you know, I can see it in my mind, I see something happening.

And it's not just what people think.

You don't just smash dishes and glue them onto something, not to make it art-worthy.

You need to actually cut those into shapes and create things.

And it makes a beautiful, colorful piece.

And I think people really are like, wow, those were old dishes, and they can see that.

But I just think it's also environmentally a good thing to do.

If I'm taking something that's just rusting away in the desert, and why not?

And that adds something in character.

And I'm also just taking some garbage out of the desert and I'm making something out of it.

It's amazing when you put some cut stained glass and some beads, and it just turns it into this old thing you found in the desert into something very beautiful.

[gentle music] - [Diane] Discover more at elizabethwrightmosaics.com.

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.

[upbeat jazz music]