(bright jazz music) (bright jazz music continues) - In this edition of "WLIW Arts Beat," Creative Cookies.

- It's a small part of somebody's big day.

Even though it's just a cookie, they're just gonna eat it, it's really nice to know that I'm a small part of that celebration.

(boom lift beeping) - [Diane] Art that makes a difference.

- I'm always thinking about that, when can I paint?

Because that is my favorite thing to do.

(peaceful music) (gentle music) - [Diane] Depicting a changing landscape.

- [Mark] I think he looked at it as his responsibility not only to be true to himself how he painted but to capture the changes that occurred.

- It's all ahead in this edition of "WLIW Arts Beat."

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

Thank you.

Welcome to "WLIW Arts Beat," I'm Diane Masciale.

(bright jazz music) As the founder of The Sugared Squirrel, Roberta Cota-Montgomery creates custom-designed sugar cookies full of color, flavor, and adornment.

We take a trip to Gardnerville, Nevada, to find out more.

(cheerful music) - As a child, I was very creative.

I loved to bake, I loved to paint, and I made my own doll furniture out of matchboxes.

I mean, you name it, I was always creating.

I grew up in Lake Tahoe, lived there for 30 years.

Being able to go out my back door and go hiking and just be in such a beautiful place, it was just really special to grow up there.

My mom is such a nurturer, and my dad was an artist, and together they just gave me this environment of do whatever you want, do dance class.

They made it happen.

And so I was able to try everything I wanted to.

And, you know, they never said, "Oh, you can't do that."

They grew up with not a lot.

They grew up in families where they worked in the fields and picked fruit when they were little kids.

So knowing that they came from that and opened successful businesses, and I watched that happen, and then they helped me to do that is just so awesome to me.

(bright music) My name is Roberta Cota-Montgomery, and I am the founder of The Sugared Squirrel.

I was making gifts just for friends and family for Christmas one year, and a couple weeks after Christmas, I had people calling and going, "Oh, my friends saw those cookies that you gave me.

They wanna know if you'll make some for their child's birthday or their anniversary."

And by February, I got my cottage license and started doing this full-time (chuckles) because I was so busy.

The name, The Sugared Squirrel, came about because my friends and family are constantly telling me how I'm such a squirrel, I'm just one thing to the other.

So, it kind of fit, you know, Sugared Squirrel, for cookies.

I'm just all over the place with making things all the time.

(laughs) I definitely feel like a squirrel most of the time.

(laughs) Usually when I get an order, I'll ask for a theme and maybe an invitation or some of the stationary they're using, and then I go from there.

(elegant music) Sometimes I'll go on Pinterest and just look up fashion or things like that.

Most of the time, I won't look at other cookies on purpose.

I wanna come up with my own designs.

When I come up with a set, I usually try to tie in maybe like a wedding dress, say, for a wedding or a bridal shower.

I'll ask if I can see a picture of their wedding dress, and then I'll try to mimic the shape of the dress or put in the pattern somewhere on the cookies.

And I'll try to do multiple designs.

It could be a ring or the flowers that they're using for their wedding, things like that.

Just knowing a little bit about them before I design their set allows me to add something of their story into that set.

They're just cookies, but they're also special for that event.

That's part of what I love about making the cookies.

I usually start by making my icing, depending on how many orders I have.

(playful music) Usually it's about five pounds of icing (chuckles) at a time.

And then I'll move on to my colors.

So all of my icing bags, I usually don't use tips in my icing bags, but if I'm doing a floral or something like that, then I will use a special tip for that.

I always weigh my ingredients.

I don't use measuring cups, because it's a little more exact that way.

Once I roll out my dough and cut out my shapes, I always freeze them for about 10 minutes before putting them into the oven so that they don't spread as much.

I bake all of my cookies on perforated silicone mats, and that helps them not spread also.

After that, I let them cool for a few minutes, and then I transfer them to parchment-paper-lined sheets.

Once they're cool and ready to go, then I start decorating.

The way I give my cookies some depth is, I try to add texture wherever possible.

(cheerful music) I also sometimes will use airbrushing or using a paintbrush with edible color.

Decorating is definitely my favorite part.

(chuckles) It does become a family thing sometimes.

Everyone just comes together.

My dad, my mom, my kids, everybody's helping me packaging.

They are the best cheerleaders.

I am Mexican American, and our culture, I feel like everything revolves around food a lot.

(chuckles) As a family, everything was always cooking and baking and eating and celebrations and just a lot of people together all the time.

I think that all translates into a lot of my work as well, and I love being able to represent my culture in that way.

I definitely think of my cookies as edible art.

I do have a rule, though.

I always tell people, if you're gonna buy the cookies, you have to eat them, (laughs) 'cause a lot of people don't wanna eat them, but that's what they're there for, so you have to eat them.

(chuckles) Part of the fun of it is getting to destroy the work of art.

Seeing it so pretty and then taking a bite out of it.

(chuckles) - See more at thesugaredsquirrel.com and instagram.com/ thesugaredsquirrel.

And now, the Artist Quote of the Week.

(bright jazz music) Arris Cohen is the inaugural community artist-in-residence of the Ohio State University's Urban Arts Space.

Being a professional artist since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, he has developed a distinct creative vision that captivates the eye.

Here's his story.

(peaceful music) (peaceful music continues) - Responsibility is a big thing for me, so I have a responsibility to do work in the community and give back however I can.

That's why I teach art and have always wanted to, and that is why, you know, any underserved community that I can help do work in, I feel absolutely responsible to give back and help to have people understand that art is important.

Art is therapy, so.

(peaceful music continues) So my art is based in Afrofuturism, it's based in Afro-surrealism.

I primarily like to paint with acrylic paint on canvas or wood.

You know, although classically trained in a lot of different mediums, that's just my go-to now.

And I like to use vibrant colors, a lot of color, a lot of different shapes for backgrounds and mainly subjects, people.

Different ethnicities, but, you know, I was talking to someone earlier about my primary subject matter, and organically, the Black male, just because that's what I see in the mirror every day.

It does not take away from my love of culture and my love of people and just, you know, liking to look at people's faces and the structure of how they're made up.

And I love to recreate those things, so that's what most of my work is based in.

(calm music) My creative process would be, you know, searching for subject matter, thinking of a way to convey my thoughts and feelings visually, finding references, whether it be taking photos myself or looking at photos that maybe someone else has taken, changing them like a piece of music.

And then I digitally recreate or set up my composition.

I then either draw directly on canvas or I project it, depending on the scale, and begin to paint at that point.

Since I've been doing murals and since I've been kind of doing a lot of different things, I noticed that I like to take the hard road.

I tend to go the difficult route, but it's more of a processing thing for me.

Like, I like to see a white canvas.

Most people'll say it's scary to see a canvas with nothing on it, and then you gotta sit here and fill it all in, so if you tone the canvas first, it makes it easier for you.

Well, life isn't easy.

So, for me, I like to take the hard road, because that's my favorite piece, and I did not tone that canvas, and it came out great.

(laughs) It's my favorite, so.

The piece called "Conduit," which is picture of a marble sculpture of a slave in blue with a background that looks like a fingerprint.

It speaks to my journey as an artist.

He's looking to the future and to the light, but he's having a conversation with his past.

It really just speaks to who I am as an artist and what I've been through that led me to the point that I'm at and also looking at my trajectory going forward.

There's a piece at Hale Hall that's in their permanent collection called "Gravity," and it's Mother Earth with her arms around the Moon Child, and I just, the subject matter for that really stands out, it came to me organically.

And so those two pieces really are my favorite.

I have a lot of favorites.

Every piece that I've ever done I have a connection with.

(bell rings) As a high schooler and in art class, I learned that, you know, it's good to give back when you have a passion for something.

So I learned early that I wanted to be a teacher.

I need to give back.

I need to do something that's fulfilling.

And Franklinton High School, a charter school in a underserved community, gave me the opportunity, right?

They gave me the privilege to be able to figure that out, to really just go into the class and come up with my own curriculum, teach what I wanted to pertain into art.

And it's just been a blessing.

No, you don't know how?

You don't have to know how to draw.

You don't have to know how to paint.

I'm going to teach you.

But also use this time to take your mind off of whatever you might be going through at home, because we all have stuff going on at home, whatever class that you're taking that's, like, super difficult, and just create, because there is a release in that.

(gentle music) (boom lift beeping) There we go.

(ethereal music) - The mural on Franklinton High School that I was able to do this past summer, it's based on the community that the school is in.

The subject of the mural is one of the students at the school who every time he sees me, he gives me dappin'.

You know, he's so, like, happy to have been the subject matter.

And I was able to do it in tandem with J.M.

Hunter, who's one of my colleagues at the school.

And so, it was a real fun time, it was really hot, and we got to go up on the lift every day, you know, and so just being able to do something that I had never had the chance to do before.

It really isn't much different from what I usually do even on, you know, my larger-scale paintings.

It's like, there's a process, there's, you know, just all of this planning, and getting to this part is the easy thing, but the planning and the, you know, getting the composition that you want, that's all the hard part for me.

That was my first time using spray paint on a mural primarily and the largest mural to date that I've done.

Just, it checks so many boxes for me.

Receiving the inaugural community artist-in-residence for Urban Arts Space was very special.

Per my connection to the Ohio State University as a student, as a young scholar, it's always been a dream to do art in any place, but especially in Cleveland, where I'm from, and in Columbus.

And it's been life-changing.

My days are packed.

By 10 o'clock at night, I'm thinking, okay, the kids are asleep.

So now I need to go in the basement and paint.

And primarily I'm an artist, primarily I create visually, so I'm always thinking about that.

Like, I literally think about it all day long, when can I paint?

Because that is my favorite thing to do.

And so, I find time for it whenever I can, my free time is painting.

(chuckles) - Discover more at arriscreates.art.

(bright jazz music) Now here's a look at this month's Fun Fact.

(bright jazz music continues) Artist Maynard Dixon is known for his depictions of the American West.

During his career, he traveled to New Mexico to paint and draw the land and its inhabitants.

In doing so, he captured a changing world.

Take a look.

(pensive piano music) - One of the main things Dixon really wanted to do through his paintings is he wanted to capture what he was seeing.

He recognized from that first trip in 1900 that things were changing dramatically.

(pensive piano music continues) I think he looked at it as his responsibility not only to be true to himself how he painted but to capture the changes that occurred.

He captures it on site at the time with the light, with the people, with the emotion.

(pensive piano music continues) (pensive piano music continues) He's born before the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and he lives through the Great Depression, World War I, World War II.

And he sees so many things change in the America West, from a area that was really agricultural to an industrial society.

In October 24th of 1929, the stock market crash.

And that completely devastates all artists, including Maynard Dixon.

So he goes from being extremely productive, making lots of sales, to, all of a sudden, nothing.

Things start to show up in his work, like "Shapes of Fear."

And when he painted this painting, he even says in his writings that, "It was like there was a vice around my neck, that I was depressed, and the only way I could find my way out was to do this painting."

There's very few options for a man like Maynard Dixon.

He wants to go where he can paint and get inspired, and Mabel Dodge Luhan invites him to come and stay, and, you know, this is free lodging and a free studio and a place that he's always wanted to get back to, he really hasn't been there since the turn of the century.

So he goes and he explores New Mexico, specifically Taos in that area.

(gentle piano music) So you have no money, but you have a roof over your head, and you have your three kids and your wife, so you're happy, and it allows you to reach out and try to find that deeper inspiration, and he was able to do that in Taos.

He did 20 pieces that were the sky series, just skies.

So he was allowing himself to find inspiration, and one of those was in "Earth Knower."

And that painting represented to Dixon not only a Native American and what that individual has to do with being grounded to Mother Earth, but it also represented his hope that maybe that America would have a place for being a part of the land, not just destroying the land, not just industrialization, but more than that, a respect of the land and the people.

He felt that there was unjust problems for the Native Americans, they weren't treated correctly, there was lots of poverty.

But yet he could see through all that, that there was a spirit there that he didn't see in Western civilization.

And in fact, when he was leaving Taos, going back to San Francisco, Juan Mirabal said, "Stay if you want, there's a house right here.

It won't charge you anything."

(gentle piano music continues) Dixon respected the Native American culture for that giving, that ability to go, "Come and stay with us," which he did many times, not only in Taos, but in Hopi too, he did the same thing.

(pensive piano music) I don't think Dixon really romanticizes a lot.

He really is more documenting what he sees.

In fact, you'll see a lot of his drawings have, you know, mundane chores.

In 1939, Maynard Dixon gets a commission, important commission for the BIA, Bureau of Indian Affairs.

And Dixon being Dixon and how he feels about Native Americans, he presents mural studies, and in these, he shows the Native Americans as they were before, free, and then he shows them as they were afterwards, which was basically broken and at the mercy of the White man.

And of course these didn't fly very well with BIA, so he had to redo them and he had to make them less controversial.

Dixon knows what has happened to the Native American culture, and he comments as much as is allowable through his work, and they can still be found.

This 8 by 25 mural's still found in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

What he really emphasizes, especially from about 1925 on, is these big clouds, vistas that go on forever.

And when you see people or structures, they're small and insignificant.

And I think that was what Dixon really felt the West was about, that, you know, we're just here as bypass.

The land is gonna be there.

He even said when he left Boulder Dam, which he went to in 1934 with the PWPA, and he sees this huge monolith that man has made and these small, little figures working against it.

He said, "The last laugh will come with earth," because ultimately the dam won't last but the land will.

(ethereal music) (ethereal music continues) So as all artists, Dixon struggled to find who he was artistically.

And he had lots of influence.

Impressionists, he saw them, he lived in New York, you know, he knew the Hoppers and the Glackens of the world.

And he finally came to the conclusion that being an American regionalist, capturing what you see, and being true to that throughout your life, wherever it might take you, through highs and lows, that if you could stay on that path of originality and an honesty to what you see and paint, then you've managed to accomplish something, and Maynard Dixon clearly did that.

- And here's a look at this week's Art History.

(bright jazz music) (bright jazz music continues) 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 X, and visit our webpage to watch more 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.

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