[pleasant jazz music] [pleasant jazz music continues] - In this edition of "WLIW Arts Beat," animals made out of paper.

- I think there is a, you know, element of this kind of paper craft that puts people into the mood of sort of a contemplative, meditative, you know, because you work with the hands.

- [Diane] The bright future of a young artist.

- What I'm looking forward to most with Victoria's work is seeing her trying different art styles, and seeing what comes of that.

- [Diane] A Navajo textile weaver.

- [Artist] It's just not, you know, an art or a craft, but it's a way of how to carry yourself, how to respect yourself, and of course, how to care for your family, and for the things around you.

- 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.

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

With skill and creativity, artist Hiroshi Hayakawa folds and cuts paper into an assortment of animals and masks.

We travel to Ohio to meet the artist, and learn more about his process.

[gentle music] - The paper crafts project, I started doing this mid-'90s when CCAD had a head librarian, Ms. Yu.

She used to have this Chinese New Year's party every year, and she asked me one day to make an animal from the Chinese Zodiacs with a small, out of paper, so she can decorate her dinner party tables.

[gentle music] And then, gradually, the number of animals expanded.

[gentle music continues] I published four books, and they're all small tabletop-size animals.

[gentle music continues] So, this was the very first book I made.

Starts with instruction, then start with a simpler, easier project.

As you go through the pages, the level gets higher and higher, more advanced.

Then, very end of the book has these templates.

So, you can take this book to a copy store, and make your own templates, turn them into an animal.

I used cardstock paper, which is the best material to use for this kind of craft.

And then, in order to make projects sort of more colorful, I started to paint.

[gentle music continues] [upbeat music] These paper animal night lights are a more recent project.

It is technically a combination of paper folding, and a paper cutting, both.

All the projects are constructed out of two sheets of paper, and the reason is so that the light will go through in between those two layers and create interesting patterns that are radiating from the center.

The other reason is it's easier to design that way.

[pleasant music] This is a template for giant panda.

So I'm gonna start with scoring the lines.

And the reason why I'm doing that is that way, when these are turned into three dimensional structure, I will have a nicer, neater folding lines.

So I'm gonna go over all the folding lines with this tool.

I'm just adding the light pressure.

I'm not really following the truthful representation of animals, but they're more stylized versions of it.

So I do have some source material to look, you know, like online, or books.

Then, once you got that sort of essence of the animal down, then I can use my artistic liberty to, you know, manipulate the shape a little bit.

The next step is cutting the template out.

So I will use this craft knife, or you can use any knife like X-Acto knife.

So I'm gonna start with the eyes.

Cut the eyeball out.

[no audio] Then, I'll take this rolled up sandpaper [sandpaper scraping] to smooth out the opening.

[sandpaper scraping] The simplicity and the complexity, I try to target somewhere in between.

The shapes are simple enough for the people to cut out, but the way those papers are folded, and constructed together is more complex.

So that is sort of a, you know, brain teaser.

These two templates, front sides and back sides are cut out.

So now, I can turn this into a three dimensional object.

[paper rustling] [paper continues rustling] [paper continues rustling] Okay, the front side is finished.

So now, I'm gonna work on the back template, which is just one folding around the ears.

Like this, and like that.

Now, I can put these two templates together.

Insert this tab into this cut I made earlier.

Now apply a little glue to the end of the Q-tip.

[no audio] Okay, then I'm going to work on these two joints next.

I'm gonna insert this tab into this cut right here, and this tab into this one.

[paper rustling] Then again, I'm gonna glue these two tabs to the front template.

Let's use.

Now, these two tabs are glued to the back, and now this giant panda is complete.

[upbeat music] I did a couple of workshops.

I remember one participant said she enjoyed it so much, because it's really calming.

So I think there is a, you know, element of this kind of paper craft that puts people into the mood of sort of a contemplative, meditative, you know, because you know, you work with the hands.

So that kind of stimulates the brain, you know, puts people into sort of a zone.

[upbeat music continues] I'd like to continue working on animal night lights.

Then, hopefully trying to find a sort of distribution network, so people can make their own animals.

[upbeat music continues] - [Diane] Discover more at hiroshi-hayakawa.com.

[pleasant jazz music] And now, the artist quote of the week.

[pleasant jazz music continues] [pleasant jazz music continues] Victoria Reyes started creating art at a very young age.

Inspired by anime, she began to render digital works on her iPad.

And today, she continues to do so, while also pursuing traditional art.

We head to Florida for her story.

[chimes clanging] [soothing music] [soothing music continues] - [Victoria] My name is Victoria Reyes, and I am a digital artist.

[soothing music continues] I started art in preschool, with crayons and drawing on paper.

- Like most kids, Victoria's interest in art was immediate through the scribbles of young people.

Victoria was about four years old when I noticed that her art started advancing at an accelerated rate.

[soothing music continues] - My dad got me an iPad, and that's when I started to kick off, and I started to practice by going on YouTube.

Around the age of seven and eight, I started to get really serious about my art.

- One of her drawings in her room was actually taking shape a lot better than I would draw at the age of 30, or whatever it was.

[pleasant music] - [Victoria] My interest in Japanese culture first sparked when I watched my very first anime in 2016.

It was "Sailor Moon," and then I just got very into anime, and then at some point, I started to do research on Japanese culture.

Then I got into the food, and its history, and that's how it all started.

[pleasant music continues] - Myself and my wife are a dual military couple.

Due to the needs of the military, and the timeframe that we served, there was always a war going on.

There was always training going on for the next deployment to support the ongoing war.

And there was also missions that Maxine had to deal with.

So all throughout that phase, there was always someone gone for the first maybe like, 10 years of her life.

[pleasant music] - There was definitely a lot of moving involved, and going into different schools, making new friends, and also having to leave a lot of friends.

- [Kenneth] Being away from both of your parents at such a young age, you can imagine the stress.

- I would play music that would match how I was feeling, and draw whatever I was feeling in the moment.

It all helped me escape from what was happening.

- That span frame is when her art really took root, when she starts comforting herself as a self-soothing tool to be able to express herself through her art.

[soothing music] - [Victoria] Other stuff that have influenced my art style is watching other people make their art, seeing other people post about their art.

I always like to experiment, and try out their art style, and I think that all kind of mixes up together, and that's how I draw now.

- [Kenneth] Something that I think is unique about Victoria's art, in particular, a lot of her female characters are always strong women, and they're definitely not drawn as a woman in distress.

It's always a woman in a powerful position.

My wife really pushes Victoria out of her comfort zone of just being quiet and reserved, and placing her in situations where she has to talk about her art.

She's also encouraged Victoria to move in different types of mediums of art, like paint, oils.

- You see the shadows that's going on right here?

You can block it out, and actually you can take like a pencil, and sort of real, just block it out.

You don't have to do the sketchy thing, or anything like that, but.

Well, the way I came about mentoring Victoria was through an event that took place at the Epicurean Hotel.

It was a art show, and she was actually the youngest artist that was there.

- Meeting Mr. Anderson at the art show was really cool, because his art is very impressive, and I think it was awesome that I got to collaborate with him.

- I'm always looking to collab with other artists, and most of the artists that I work with tend to be around the same age.

And I never collabed with a younger artist, and I really wasn't looking at her, necessarily, as a mentor.

I was looking at her as just a fellow artist, and how great that would be to combine her anime style along with the type of art that I do.

I work with traditional oils and paint.

So the challenge was, how can we combine that?

So stepping outside of her comfort zone, she decided to do some work with acrylics, and a paintbrush.

- Doing traditional art is very, it's a bit uncomfortable, and very foreign to me because I'm always with digital, and I'm free to make mistakes, and I can undo and erase everything, and there won't be any evidence of it.

But once I do traditional art, I have to be very careful.

- [Noland] A part of growth is stepping outside of your zone, trying different techniques, different things, different mediums.

We're creating this piece right here.

It's anime themed, but doing it with traditional paint.

- I've noticed Victoria's growth as an artist to be very exponential.

- I started a merchandising company, and it's called Blossom.

I am excited about seeing children, teens, hopefully wearing my merchandise in the future.

- What I'm looking forward to most with Victoria's work is seeing her trying different art styles, and seeing what comes of that.

I mean, it may be a combination of digital art along with traditional art, you know, cut and paste.

- For my future, I love doing art, but I'm very interested in becoming an animator, or doing something for movies.

♪ Oh yeah ♪ [pleasant jazz music] - [Diane] See more of Reyes's art at victoriareyes.com.

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

[pleasant jazz music continues] [pleasant jazz music continues] Venancio Aragon is a Navajo textile weaver.

With an appreciation for culture, history, and identity, he uses the ancient techniques of his ancestors to create expressive, polychromatic textiles.

We visit New Mexico to find out more.

[gentle guitar music] [gentle guitar music continues] - In our traditional culture, concerning weaving, each of the tools and the loom itself all have names and symbolism that are inherited from the holy people.

They have this sort of life-giving essence to them.

They're very sacred things, and they have almost a life on their own.

- How did learning how to weave from your mother impact your process as an artist?

- So, learning from my mother was a profound, you know, moment in my life that totally influenced the way I weave today.

My ancestors had no writing system.

They were an oral culture, and so knowledge was transmitted through stories, and song, and prayers, and so on.

And to be able to do these techniques, you have to have a lot of memory.

And some of the techniques that I utilize today, like the tufting, you know, where you see these locks of fiber inserted into weavings to create sort of like a shag carpet effect, my mom never made those, but she told me stories of her mother.

And through my mother's remembrance, and retelling of that technique, I was able to reconstruct it with her help.

So in a lot of ways, it's not as if, you know, my mom taught me everything she knew.

She taught me more than she knew through those stories of hers.

- How does that impact, or influence your experience as an artist?

- Two of our principal deities, Spider Woman and Spider Man, were credited with gifting us this knowledge, this weaving.

But the teachings of Spider Woman and Spider Man are sort of a quintessential element of our cultural identities.

And it's said that in the ancient times, when those deities gifted us this knowledge, they made a promise to us that if the Navajo people, we their children, would continue this work, we actively practice it, and create beautiful things, that we'll never be in a moment where we find ourselves not having the ability to feed ourselves, clothe ourselves, and shelter our children.

And so, this weaving that we do is more than just, you know, an occupation.

It's something that relates to self-sufficiency, to you know, the ways that we think, and construct the world, and those thoughts that we have get manifested into a physical form.

So it's part of our Navajo philosophical worldview, I suppose, and weaving is one of the central elements that teaches us how to be Navajo people.

- How does critical queer theory play into your work as a modern artist?

- Weaving was always practiced by both male and female people.

And it wasn't until, you know, the colonialism, the settler colonialism of my people that these sort of Western subjectivities were applied, and weaving became purely a woman's realm.

I think the notions of gender roles in Indigenous cultures, as they've been written by Western anthropologists and historians, it deserves some deconstruction.

- [Ebony] What were other impacts of settler colonialism on weaving in Navajo culture?

- Well, certainly it's survival,.

At certain points, weaving became less practiced than it was once was.

But also, you have the importation of materials.

Weaving in the ancient Southwest was done primarily with cotton, and other plant fibers.

And with the coming of the Spanish, you get sheep, and the wool now is, you know, synonymous with Navajo weavings, that they have to be made from wool.

And then you also have imagery.

So when the trading posts were established on the reservation after the Treaty of 1868, trading post men were bringing in images of, you know, European, or Middle Eastern, and Eastern tapestries, and showing those pictures to Navajo people, asking them to weave those so that they could be more marketable to places outside of the reservation.

So some of the imagery that we regard today as traditional, actually has been taken from other cultures.

- How does incorporating modern techniques, tools, and designs incorporate into your artistry?

- I think it speaks to the adaptability of Navajo people in general.

[gentle guitar music] That somehow, throughout our history, we were always able to take on new materials, new ways of thinking, and incorporate them into, you know, how we live as Navajo people.

So, time is a big constraint if you're a weaver.

And in order for weavers to actively make a living from their work, many people use commercially spun yarns, and that just eliminates a big portion of the time it takes to actually create a textile.

So, people are very adaptable.

And I myself find that I love to use tools and techniques from all over the world, from different places, even modern technology to design and execute my textiles.

It just speaks to who we are at the present moment.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music continues] - What does your art say about your role in continuing this culture, and this practice?

- It's so remarkable that this most ancient of human technology, a very fundamental part of our collective human culture, because, you know, we all wear weavings today.

We all have clothing, and attire.

The very basic element of interlocking warp and weft is sort of a universal human language.

And I don't think that we have given weaving enough attention as a high art form.

And as far as Navajo weaving goes, it's so remarkable that, you know, through all of the historical formations that our ancestors lived through, that we have persevered, and that our weavings have enabled us to survive in the ways that we have.

It's a philosophical way of living.

It's just not, you know, an art or a craft, but it's a way of how to carry yourself, how to respect yourself, and of course, how to care for your family, and for the things around you.

Because without, you know, the sheep, and without the water, and without the plants that you all utilize in this process to create a tapestry, you really don't have anything.

And so it's a way about how to be stewards of these precious resources that we call the earth, right?

And so to do something like weaving is to become a steward of your home.

And I think that's something that everybody needs to to focus on right now.

- For more information about the artist, go to venancioaragon.com.

[pleasant jazz music] And here's a look at this week's art history.

[pleasant jazz music continues] [pleasant 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 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."

[pleasant jazz music continues] Funding for "WLIW Arts Beat" was made possible by viewers like you, thank you.

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