[MUSIC] In this edition of WLIW Arts Beat, an extraordinary child prodigy.

To me, an artist is a person who has an idea in their head and they just share it with the world.

[MUSIC] One of a kind yarn graffiti.

I need to make something and give it out so that someone can find it and maybe their day is a little bit better.

And if their day is better, then maybe that spreads.

[MUSIC] Rediscovering art.

I want my paintings to not just be nice to look at, but I want them to penetrate that soul, because it comes from my soul.

[MUSIC] 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.

At only 8 years old, Juliette Leong is a force to be reckoned with.

Based in Sparks, Nevada, Leong is a skilled violinist, art prodigy, philanthropist, and a kid who loves to roller skate and just have fun.

Here's her story.

[MUSIC] My name is Juliette Leong , and I'm 8 years old.

My most favorite thing to do is play with my friends.

Second is reading.

I like graphic novels, fiction, nonfiction.

I love reading so, so much.

I get in trouble for reading.

And I love painting.

I started painting when I was 8 months old.

My parents put me on the dining room table and gave me paint and paper to play with.

I guess they wish they didn't really do that because I made a mess on my table.

I just like splattered my hand in the paint and like basically fingerprinted the whole table.

I use colored pencils, acrylic paint, watercolor paint, and gouache paint.

And I've tried oil paint, but it took forever to dry, and I don't like waiting forever.

I'm impatient.

[laughs] [music] Gathering materials is kind of the first step of painting, but an idea is really the first step.

I paint landscapes, abstracts, animals, and portraits.

Oh, and abstract realism.

Sometimes I feel stressed when I'm doing it in live competitions or I have to like paint in person with other people that are not kids.

But when I'm just painting for fun, I feel happy and excited.

I donate the proceeds from the sale of my paintings to raise money for nonprofit organizations that help others, such as AADP, or Asian American Donor Program, Race to Erase, MS, Ladies Who Rock for a Cause, and many more.

It makes me feel great, helping people and trying to save their lives.

When I'm not painting, I'm usually playing my violin.

[music] I first saw a violinist play at San Francisco City Hall when I was about 2 years old.

And then after I saw Ray Chen perform, then I really wanted to play the violin, so that's what got me started.

[music] I love practicing my violin while roller skating.

[music] You learn how to hold your bow straight, it has to be straight and not like crooked, because then it'll go off the fingerboard, it'll be all over the place.

[music] I got to play with the Reno Chamber Orchestra because I won the Concerto competition in March, and it was so exciting.

[applause] They like made a big box for me to stand on.

That was funny.

[music] My favorite concerto is the Mozart Violin Concerto, No.

3 in G Major.

[music] The Reno Chamber Orchestra is a really fun orchestra.

I get to meet some of the solo violinists, they always come out, and I love the Reno Chamber Orchestra.

[music] I wasn't nervous because I just think of it as another public performance, or if I'm practicing at home.

[music] I love performing so much.

To me an artist is a person who has an idea in their head, and they just share it with the world.

[music] [applause] Find out more at JulietLeong.com And now, the Artist Quote of the Week.

[music] Up next, we take a trip to the Museum of Graffiti in Florida to meet Kern Myrtle, a yarn graffiti artist and painter.

Using crocheted acrylic yarn and spray paint, they leave their distinct mark on the streets of Miami.

Take a look.

[music] When you find, like, you find something cool on the street, or anywhere, you have this feeling, it's like, "Oh, what's this?"

You know, "Oh, I can take this, this is for me."

That's something that you don't find very often in life.

[music] I am Kern Myrtle, and I am an artist.

[music] Well, I do a lot of weird things.

[laughs] [music] I use yarn as a form of street art, which is known around the world as yarn bombing, where you put your yarn in a public space for people to find or see.

The way I tend to do it is leaving little pieces for people to find, and with the intention of spreading joy and having that joy of discovery.

There's a tag on it, and it says, "Hello, this is for you.

Please take it with you," or "Please give it a home."

And it has my name and my social media on it.

So if people find it and they want to tell me they found it, that's great.

I moved to Miami a few years ago, and I didn't really know people, and it was a new place to me, and I was very, I was trying to find my place here.

It just occurred to me that I needed to do something, and I can't, I mean, I don't, the only way I can explain this is I was sort of called to do it.

I felt compelled to do it.

I was like, I need to make something and give it out so that someone can find it, and maybe their day's a little bit better, and if their day is better, then maybe that spreads.

These little weird, like, they kind of look like jellyfish, these strange organic little objects, and I had a few of them, and that was what I just decided.

I was like, I feel I've got to, I feel I have to do this.

I put it out the first time in May 9, 2019.

It was my street art birthday, and the person who found it, it posted it on Instagram, and I had like zero followers, but I had started a little account, and he, it turns out he is a really important graffiti artist and general creative, amazing creative person, and I was like, well, if he thought it was art, maybe it is.

And so I was like, well, that was fun.

I want to do that again, and I just started doing it.

I mean, I've probably left, I think by the count, it's around 300 or more pieces like that on the street to be found.

So that's just something I haven't, I haven't stopped.

I still do it.

[music] It started with yarn, and then over time, I began to work, well, I got to know other people who painted here in Wynwood, because Wynwood is really where this all starts for me.

It's a story about yarn, that one-to-one dialogue with one person finding it, but then starting to meet people who taught me about spray paint and taught me about the world of graffiti and street art.

[music] So in 2020, I did an installation all by myself called "This is for You," with giant letters that said "This is for You," and all the little things I like to give out.

I probably put out 50 of those throughout that week, and I just did it.

I was like, I'm going to stage my own art show on a fence.

I'm not really waiting for somebody to tell me it's okay or this is art or whatever.

And the reaction was great.

I mean, people were taking stuff and then watching it change through the week, because I didn't know if anyone would even notice it.

And then over the week, almost all of it was gone, and I just kept rearranging it and playing with it.

And so that was my first time doing that.

In 2021, I started to meet some more yarn artists on Instagram, which is kind of where our community hangs out, the yarn community that I'm a part of.

And I just sort of kind of casually said, "Hey, anybody want to join me?

I'm going to do something called 'Why Not?'

And you can send me anything you want based on the prompt 'Why Not?'

and I'll put it up with my thing."

And I got a lot of responses, and these are not people who I knew personally.

I've never met most of them in real life.

And they were so excited.

They were like, "We're in Wynwood."

I'm like, "Yeah, you're in Wynwood.

You're at Art Week.

You're at Art Basel."

And that was really cool to see that.

And I did a small one last year in '22, but it was smaller because I was doing two murals at the same time, so I didn't have as much time to do that project.

But I did put out a few from people, some of the same people.

And we call ourselves the yarn weirdos because we're not really following the yarn rules.

[laughs] [music] In 2023, we did "Yes, Yes, Yes."

So I said, "Same thing.

The prompt is so simple.

It's just 'Respond.'

I'm going to do something about yes or yes, no choice.

And I got all kinds of things.

I got more than 20 pieces from the UK, from Mexico, from all over the U.S. And some people, again, who I don't know, I've never met in real life, and they just send me their stuff.

And we put it up and then watch people respond to it, take it.

And then I rearrange things, and we just keep it going as long as possible.

When I was putting this up the other day, a little girl, the original stuff I put up, a little girl walked by, and she goes, "What is this?"

And I go, "It's some art made with yarn."

She was on her way to school.

She was like, she went, "Ah, I've seen my grandma do that."

Okay, you hear that a lot.

Every time I do an installation like that, a bigger installation, I make a sign just like a gallery sign that explains what this piece is, gives it a name, lists the artists, and shows a QR code to my Instagram where I'm always talking about all the other people who are involved.

Because I think it's important for people to understand that you don't have to be in a place with white walls or a place where a curator said it was okay to show your art.

I mean, I want to show my art to everybody.

I want anyone who's walking down the street, no matter whether they care about art or think they're going to see art that day, I want them to have a chance to see it.

And if they respond to it, that's great.

And if it doesn't strike their fancy, or they even notice it at all, that's also fine.

But I think every person should have a chance to see it and experience it and touch it.

I mean, you can touch it, you can take it down, you can just touch it, you can take a photo with it.

You know, I want to share it that way, completely open to all.

So knowing people who are expert muralists helped me take an abstract design that I was doing based on my yarn on paper with watercolors, and then bring that onto a wall.

And I'm interested in that design and how this abstraction based on these yarn patterns is a whole 'nother thing, you know, it's a whole 'nother place to go.

And it isn't, it isn't anything, it is not trying to be something.

I am not painting a flower or a house.

So it's living way out in abstraction, but it is grounded in this reality, it's grounded in this reality, very much so.

And if you look at my wall, different walls I've done, you'll see these elements, this kind of, the holes and the strands, it's part of it.

It's interesting, and I like that it comes from a real physical item that I made.

It isn't just like a random design or like a pretty piece of lace, it's something that I made, and now it's huge on a wall.

I love it, I want to do more.

I want to do more of everything!

[laughs] The joy of discovery is really where this is at for me, and this extends to all, everything I do.

When I do my name in yarn, it is, I am writing my name in yarn.

If you call it graffiti or not, whatever, but I'm putting my name there.

I'm not just putting flowers, I'm not just wrapping a pole like a lot of people do, which is fine if that's what they want to do, but I want to put my name out there, and that's that part of graffiti.

That's why we're here at the Museum of Graffiti, because graffiti is part of what influenced this whole process for me, like appreciation for the history of graffiti, and people who really know how to use paint, spray paint, in a way that you wouldn't believe.

I just didn't know about all this before.

None of this, it just, Miami changed everything for me.

♪ For more information, go to kernmyrtle.com.

♪ Now here's a look at this month's Fun Fact.

♪ In his youth in Egypt, Hani Hara loved to paint.

After having to leave his home country at a young age, he built a new life for himself in America and was able to rediscover his love of art.

We head to Columbus, Ohio, to learn more about his vibrant creations.

♪ I was born in Heliopolis, Egypt, which is a suburb of Cairo.

In 1951 or 2, President Nasser took over the country, and at that time, especially around 1956, the Suez War, and so at that time, the Jews were asked to leave.

A smoking Fort Said greets British expeditionary forces as they arrive for an assault landing.

The city had been consistently bombed for days before the amphibious operation.

The dams go up in flames under the pounding, and the harbor is littered with sunken vessels, some bomb victims, others scuttled by the Egyptians.

We had bombs coming down.

I was sleeping in my parents' bed.

The whole family was in there just because we could hear all the bombs going off, and that's when my dad decided that's it, and he applied for a visa, and so we went to Paris for one year, waiting for our turn to come into the United States, and in 1959, I was 11 years old, we arrived in New York and took a train right to Columbus.

We were sponsored by HIAS, the Hebrew Immigration Aid Society, which really helps a lot of people, not just Jews, but anybody that wants to go to another country because they're being abused, they'll pay their way, and then you have to pay them back.

I remember my dad, every month we'd just put that check in until he paid it all off, and again, we just lucked out so much that we got to come to the United States.

I love this country.

As a child, you know, it took a year or so to get accustomed to it.

They put me back a grade because of my language, but eventually I caught up pretty nicely, and my parents, God bless them, they're both gone, but they really wanted us to speak English at home.

If you speak English at home, we're going to learn English as well.

And so it wasn't, you know, keeping the old country in, it was welcoming the new country.

I loved painting as a child, and I would always doodle, and my relatives would say, "Oh, you're good at this.

You should keep going."

And then in high school I did it.

Went to college for one--two semesters in fine arts, but then my dad said, "How about switching to something that makes money?"

which I should have never done.

I went to mechanical drawing, and then Ohio State asked me to leave after that because I wasn't doing so well.

But I didn't really do any art until I turned about 40, 41.

I took a class with a local artist here in town, Lindsay Staff, and she really was so supportive, and she says, "You've got to keep going, you've got to keep going, you've got talent."

And from that I was able to create a career in the art as well as sales and business.

You better love color.

It's my thing.

I love color.

I started out with watercolors originally when I turned 40, after I took that class, and it was a watercolor class with Lindsay.

And the colors for me weren't bright enough, they weren't striking enough, so I switched to acrylic.

And the way I start, I really have no idea what the piece is going to look like at the end.

I kind of start with colors and shapes.

And then if you notice my art, the faces are all-- it's all about faces.

And my faces, as primitive as they are sometimes, they really do exude a feeling, a mood.

And a lot of times my collectors will say, "You know, I see something different every time, every time I look at it."

And to me it's more about that you change every day.

You know, we all get up in a certain mood, so that painting may strike you a little bit different.

So yeah, I love my faces because I get lost in them, and in reality they're all the mood I'm in when I'm doing it.

As the painting comes together, a lot of today's topics come out in it.

That whole thing about immigrants, how we get here, how we strive here, how our country is really-- it's so great because of the immigrants.

And now when I see people wanting to keep them out, I'm thinking, that's crazy.

So that does come out in the paintings a lot.

The people against other people-- I'll do some paintings that way that eventually will come out.

I did a show on the homeless one time.

Those topics somehow come out in the paintings.

I travel a lot, so those inspirations come out when I walk around the streets of Brazil, Mexico, Europe.

You come back and you can't wait to start painting again.

Those travels come out in the paintings.

So to me it's about everyday life that shows up.

A couple years ago, my son said, "Dad, you should try the digital art."

And he got me started with a couple of the apps.

And what happened is over time, I became pretty good at figuring out what brushes, what colors.

And so it's the kind of thing that I could be watching TV with one eye and drawing on the other-- with the other.

And so over time, it really became the way that I could create.

Here's one walking by the pyramids.

Talk about my background.

So it does come out.

There's a parking-- I mean a coin for the parking in the middle of it.

This came out too.

"Let My People Go" in a sense.

That was also the theme.

It's funny how it just comes out.

It's not like I really plan it.

But listen, if it's going to come out, it's going to come out.

I love this piece that I did about family.

You know, even grandma cooking with her love-- the food that she makes.

I just get lost in it.

I want my paintings to not just be nice to look at, but I want them to penetrate that soul.

Because it comes from my soul, in a sense.

And when somebody looks at a painting, I want them to at least take a few minutes and look at it and see what I'm trying to portray in there.

[music] And here's a look at this week's Art History.

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

Visit our web page to watch more episodes of the show.

We hope to see you next time.

I'm Diane Masciale.

Thank you for watching.

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

Thank you.

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