VOA – CONNECT
Episode 32
AIR DATE: 08 24 2018
TRANSCRIPT
FULL TRANSCRIPT
OPEN ((VO/NAT))
((Banner))
Expressing Art
((SOT))
I get an appetite to make art. I just feel something and I have to make it. Some people feel like they have to exercise, they have to run. I feel like I have to make art.
((Animation Transition)
((Banner))
Art in Public
((SOT))
I think there’s some little thing that says, like if you have a painting in a museum and you catch the viewers’ eye for more than like five seconds, and they’re contemplating whether they love it or hate it, you won either way.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Art in Exile
((SOT))
I was famous in my country and I hope to become famous in this country.
((Open Animation))
BLOCK A
((Banner: Alternatives to Canvas))
((PKG)) NYC -- TATTOO EXPO
((Banner: Skin))
((Reporter: Elena Wolf))
((Camera: Max Avloshenko))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: New York, New York City))
((Courtesy: Tattoo Expo))
((NATS))
((CARLOS, TATTOO ARTIST))
Everybody needs their tattoo. It’s a new way of life. It’s a way of conversation and a way of being and a way of people in general. I’ve been getting tattooed since I was 12 years old.
((CECILIA, EXPO VISITOR))
I was 18 when I had my first tattoo. But I made sure it was symbolic to me, which was just a little symbol of my zodiac sign on my wrist. But all of my tattoos I made sure whatever I got, I was never going to have any regrets for.
((JEFF, TATTOO ARTIST))
The reason the tattoo is permanent is because the tattoo molecules are larger than your white blood cells in your immune system. So, if you see, if you see like a 20-year-old tattoo, it’ll look blurry around the edges, because your body’s trying to get rid of it, but it’s just too big. The laser doesn’t burn it out of your skin. That would create a big scar. It just shatters the ink into tiny particles that are now small enough for your immune system to flush out of your body.
((ALEXIS, TATTOO ARTIST))
You got to invest into your life, you know, no matter what that is, especially if, let’s for instance, you're taking this to the grave. For the rest of your life, you can have beautiful artwork on you. So, I think it's worth investing, you know. If you consider your lifetime built up of hours, seconds and days, I mean, you’re, it’s not that much to have something beautiful on your body for the rest of your life.
((CARLOS, TATTOO ARTIST))
I have one tattoo. They all touch, so, therefore it’s only one.
((CECILIA, EXPO VISITOR))
Tattoos are being more and more accepted in our generation, or in this generation, and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be more accepted in generations to come, because the art is being seen as art. But it’s still a misunderstanding and people don’t really understand. There’s not enough information out there to explain how a tattoo is applied.
((ALEXIS, TATTOO ARTIST))
I love that you get to make something specific for someone. And each person, I try to make something specific for them and specifically for their story. I think that’s nice for the collector. They get to have something unique.
((CARLOS, TATTOO ARTIST))
Do a good tattoo, and really take pride in timing what you’re doing. Don’t just do it because it’s on TV.
((NATS))
((PKG)) DC MURAL ARTIST
((Banner: Walls))
((Reporter: Anna Rice))
((Camera: Artem Kohan))
((Adapted by: Philip Alexiou))
((Map: Washington, D.C.))
((KELLY TOWLES, MURAL ARTIST))
I just want to make people smile. Literally if I do a mural, hopefully the vibe is, or the thing is, that somebody walks by it, they’ll just smile and be content with seeing something like that.
((NATS))
((KELLY TOWLES, MURAL ARTIST))
I think there’s some little thing that says, like if you have a painting in a museum and you catch the viewers’ eye for more than like five seconds, and they’re contemplating whether they love it or hate it, you won either way.
((NATS))
((KELLY TOWLES, MURAL ARTIST))
When I was a pissed off kid, I was doing graffiti, really crappy graffiti. I wasn’t really good at graffiti. So basically, it was an outlet though and it was the first time I experienced like spray paint and stuff like that. But I had always drawn. I would always scribble and recreated album covers and like stuff like that.
((KELLY TOWLES, MURAL ARTIST))
D.C. is not known for creative scene. We’re not known for fashion, at least not until recently. I mean it’s been coming but, like were not known as these giant like icon monoliths of art and fashion. So, us to be growing into that phase is really, really amazing. It’s a kind of a renaissance cool thing that’s happening right now.
((NATS))
((KELLY TOWLES, MURAL ARTIST))
So like everyone says, ‘what’s your favorite mural that you’ve done? Or what’s your favorite painting?’ It’s like, it’s literally always the newest thing, the next thing I have coming up. That’s my favorite thing in the entire world because I get to, get to be a little kid. I get to get excited and hyper and like…..and then go paint and at the end of it, like I’m already thinking about the next one.
((NATS))
((KELLY TOWLES, MURAL ARTIST))
There’s no recipe for it. If there was that would be amazing. But, it doesn’t work like that. It’s not like Kool-Aid and you just open it and mix it up and then there you go, and there you have art and people want to buy it. You have to kill yourself for it. You have to, like work as hard as you can night and day. And like, literally, that’s what I’ve done. I’ve come from nothing. I’ve done everything I can to make that dream happen. And if you don’t’ do that, if you work at a job and you don’t like what you do, you’re not failing, but you should analyze that and figure out what you want to do.
((KELLY TOWLES, MURAL ARTIST))
I am putting a message out there. I’m not peace, love and hippie, but I’m definitely just like two seconds to try to make people happy. Two seconds to try to think about my community, try to build out and help make the community more beautiful.
((PKG)) BEER CAN ART
((Banner: Cans))
((Reporter: Anna Rice))
((Camera: Sergei Moskalev))
((Adapted by: Aisha Henderson))
((Map: Alexandria, Virginia))
((MIKE VAN HALL, ARTIST AND DESIGNER))
I’m Mike Van Hall. I’m an artist and graphic designer and I focus most of my work on the world of food and beverages, beer in particular.
((NATS))
((MIKE VAN HALL, ARTIST AND DESIGNER))
This silver can, when you turn it certain angles, it turns black.
I have an order to how I start my day. I don’t check email until I’m done going through my creative review, which I will research a furniture thing or try and find a design article that teaches me something, because that way I’m not immediately in a rush, “oh, there’s a deadline” or “that email came in overnight.” I wait to get to that.
((NATS))
((MIKE VAN HALL, ARTIST AND DESIGNER))
For this character, I started out sketching just to get the rough shape. It’s, a lot of other guys do this really well. They’ll draw it in pencil, bring it in to Illustrator, trace it out there, and then fix all the little bumps and things.
((NATS))
((MIKE VAN HALL, ARTIST AND DESIGNER))
I can more effectively see it in my head when I’m doing it just directly in Illustrator which takes longer because I am then moving all these little tiny dots of the vector in order to make it do what I want and look perfect.
((NATS))
((MIKE VAN HALL, ARTIST AND DESIGNER))
I try and use music to get myself in the right mindset for sure. So, if it’s a very intense name on a beer label then, I like heavy metal. I’ll listen to heavy metal and that will help me get in the right mindset to design in the appropriate direction. If it’s some bubble gum thing, then I’ll listen to 80’s Japanese music I really like, so.
((NATS))
((MIKE VAN HALL, ARTIST AND DESIGNER))
Everybody engages with beer and so, it’s a way to have a cultural conversation too. Cultural confrontations and ideas, it’s a place to explore art that allows some visceral reaction.
((PKG)) TOILET PAPER WEDDING DRESS
((Banner: Toilet Paper))
((Camera: Max Avloshenko))
((Reporter: Elena Wolf))
((Map: New York, New York City))
((NATS))
((RENALDO CRUZ, DRESS MAKER))
I think being creative. Just look around and you can find a lot of things to make and to do.
((NATS))
((RENALDO CRUZ, DRESS MAKER))
My name is Renaldo Cruz, but they usually call me Roy. I was born in the Philippines. When I was in the Philippines, I used to make gowns made up of indigenous materials, waste materials like coconut shells, dried corns, dried flowers, whatever I see around.
It took me a lot of time, hundreds of beads, hundreds of flowers. These beads, I rolled it one by one. I need to cut very thinly and glue all together one by one. In one square, I spent like 130 minutes every night. My sister told me, “oh my god, do you think you are going to finish that?”
((NATS))
((RENALDO CRUZ, DRESS MAKER))
My mom taught me how to sew, so everything I do, she is really my inspiration because I am so close to my mom. I am mom’s boy.
((NATS))
((RENALDO CRUZ, DRESS MAKER))
I was supposed not to join this contest because my mom is dying, so I stopped working on my dress. And I stop it because my mom is in the hospital. So, my nephew told me, “Uncle, you have to do this. Your mom will be happy.” And after a day my mom’s funeral, the nephew who told me to join, he died in a car accident.
((NATS))
And the winner of the grand prize for 2018 is Renaldo Cruz.
((RENALDO CRUZ, DRESS MAKER))
When they called my name, I was thinking, and when they said Renaldo, oh my God, I don’t know what to do. I mean this is like, are they correct? Did I hear correct? My name? They are calling my name? The grand prize? Oh my god!
((NATS))
((RENALDO CRUZ, DRESS MAKER))
I want to give advice to those people experiencing the loss or depressed. Just believe in yourself. Do whatever you want to do. Don’t stop.
((NATS))
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up….
((Banner))
Botanical Art
((SOT))
In addition to a final work having to be aesthetically pleasing and good to look at, it has to be scientifically correct. So, you have to show all the botanical details of the plant that you’re capturing.
BREAK ONE
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK B:
((Banner: Perceptions))
((PKG)) NYC MET BLIND TOURS
((Banner: Touching Beauty))
((Reporter: Elena Wolf))
((Camera: Max Avloshenko))
((Adapted by: Philip Alexiou))
((Map: New York, New York City))
((Banner: In 2010, Emilie Gossiaux lost her sight in a bicycle accident that a traumatic brain injury. She lost her sight))
((EMILIE GOSSIAUX, ARTIST))
My name is Emilie Gossiaux and I’m an artist.
((NATS))
((EMILIE GOSSIAUX, ARTIST))
I live in New York City, and right now I’m a second year at the Yale University Sculpture program. So, I’m getting my MFA, and this is my first solo show in New York City.
Making work, making art, is more meaningful to me now, because, I don’t know. It just feels good to make something physical, something that I imagine and making it real.
((NATS))
((EMILIE GOSSIAUX, ARTIST))
This one is called “Looking Through the Leaves at Two People Making Out.”
This is a twin bed sheet. The fact that it’s a bed sheet, I was thinking about, you know, what we do in bed. We lay down and we make romances. So, it’s about love and about desire. I’ve been painting since I was 13. 13 was when I started taking oil painting classes, and I just like always been a painter. But I also do sculptures and I think of these paintings on fabric and paintings on drywall as, more as objects. It’s like a crossover between painting and sculpture. This is the first drawing I did of the two people making out.
((KIRBY KERSELS, BOYFRIEND))
To me, she’s been warm, extroverted, bubbly, happy, so I don’t know what she was like before the accident.
((EMILIE GOSSIAUX, ARTIST))
I was really shy, and like I wasn’t very talkative. I was really withdrawn and introverted, and now I feel like I’m a little bit more, I have more of an awareness, I guess, of myself.
((NATS))
((Banner: Gissiaux also is a tour guide for the blind at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.))
((EMILIE GOSSIAUX, ARTIST))
She can do a high five! London, touch, touch! Good girl! Good girl, London!
I really enjoy the educators and the tours here. I feel like I am learning a lot from every experience, engaging with my audiences also.
Okay, so, this is a Chinese artifact, a figure of a dog. The dog actually has a really menacing face like I don’t think we mentioned that before but it looks like it’s growling. It’s snarling at someone.
((REBECCA MCGINNIS, SENIOR MUSEUM EDUCATOR, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART))
What I have always found and I think all of the educators who do descriptive tours for people who are blind or partially sighted, say that they really find that the description, having to articulate what you’re looking at helps them see better, but also helps sighted visitors see better too because they are being guided by the words to look, and therefore their looking is extended.
((EMILIE GOSSIAUX, ARTIST))
This dog also has a collar with studs on it, which is how we know that it was owned by a very wealthy person.
It’s more than a job, you know. It’s just, like, you know, you get an appetite, you’re hungry. I get an appetite to make art. I just feel something and I have to make it. Some people feel like they have to exercise, they have to run. I feel like I have to make art.
((PKG)) BOTANICAL ART EXHIBIT
((Banner: Beauty in Science))
((Reporter: Deborah Block))
((Camera: Deborah Block, Adam Greenbaum, Mike Burke))
((Adapted by: Martin Secrest))
((Map: Washington, D.C.))
((NATS))
((Locator: United States Botanic Garden))
((Popup Banner:
“Botanical Art Worldwide 2018” exhibits are underway in 25 different countries.
The exhibits and events call attention to plant diversity and botanical art))
((NATS))
((CAROL WOODIN, BOTANICAL ARTIST))
Well, botanical art is sort of a hybrid between science and art. In addition to a final work having to be aesthetically pleasing and good to look at, it has to be scientifically correct. So, you have to show all the botanical details of the plant that you’re capturing. The kind of people that are drawn to botanical art? You might think that people have to be very patient, but there’s kind of a challenge to it. There’s so much learning that goes on, and it’s just an extremely enjoyable way to spend your time.
((NATS))
((EILEEN MALONE-BROWN, BOTANICAL ARTIST))
Plants are ephemeral. Some things bloom just for an hour or two and then the petals fall off. So, you’re in constant search of a specimen that tells you the story that’s germane to that particular plant. What view, what drawing really is most authentic to that plant and best tells the story.
((NATS))
((EILEEN MALONE-BROWN, BOTANICAL ARTIST))
And it is probably about a third of the way done. I think I have, this is my fourth layer of watercolor that I’m putting down. So, I have quite a few more to do. I’m building its form right now. It’s three-dimensional aspect, and once you get that foundation down, then you continue to correct the color, and, or make more statements about the color, and begin to work on some of the details. But I am still working on the form, getting the very lows, low tones down, the darkest tones, and then protecting the highlights from a lot of paint.
((NATS))
((EILEEN MALONE-BROWN, BOTANICAL ARTIST))
Botanical accuracy is where we begin, and because we’re giving very important information about something that is alive and can be seen by others, and we don’t want them to be confused about what they’re viewing. But it’s up to us to make it artistically interesting, not in a way that compromises the accuracy, but that tells the story of the plant. But accuracy is first and foremost the primary (objective), because so many plants are closely related to each other, and you could give bad information if you didn’t really adhere to the accuracy part of it.
((NATS))
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up….
((Banner))
Awareness Through Art
((SOT))
We’d been looking at the refugee crisis as a topic, so, I kind of wanted to combine making a big project and the refugee crisis into one.
BREAK TWO
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK C:
((Banner: Art and Refugees))
((PKG)) REFUGEE ART
((Banner: Refugee as Subject))
((Reporter/Camera: Mike O’Sullivan))
((Adapted by: Bronwyn Benito))
((Additional Video Courtesy: Achilleas Souras))
((Map: Los Angeles, California))
((Banner: 17 year old artist, Achilleas Souras has a traveling art exhibit called SOS – Save Our Souls))
((ACHILLEAS SOURAS, ARTIST, BARCELONA, SPAIN))
The project isn’t really meant to influence somebody’s point of view. It’s really just meant to make somebody feel more inspired to explore more about the crisis, like I did.
((ACHILLEAS SOURAS, ARTIST, BARCELONA, SPAIN))
The idea came at school. We’d been looking at the refugee crisis as a topic, so, I kind of wanted to combine making a big project and the refugee crisis into one.
((ACHILLEAS SOURAS, ARTIST, BARCELONA, SPAIN))
It culminated in me reaching out to get actual life jackets from Lesbos in Greece, where many migrants would arrive. Life jackets create an environmental problem on the shores, and housing is a human right. So, those two factors amalgamated into the main premise of the project.
((ACHILLEAS SOURAS, ARTIST, BARCELONA, SPAIN))
Initially, everybody would draw on them or make something out of them, but then when I finally got them, I also decided to make a shelter out of them, something more powerful, because when I touched them, I realized that each one of these life jackets represented a human life, and it also had the smell of the sea, so it just made it much more impactful than I thought initially.
((ACHILLEAS SOURAS, ARTIST, BARCELONA, SPAIN))
I realized that there were many parallels between an actual igloo and the igloo that I had made. Real igloos tend to be in the northern part of the world where there’s colder climates, and they’re made out of the only other possible surrounding which is ice. And in this case, this igloo was made out of the only possible surrounding that the people would have. And then, it’s also the idea that it managed to take two very objective strands out of the very complex and controversial refugee crisis and make something objective and impactful out of it that people can’t really disagree with, to serve as an impetus rather than as something to sway somebody’s point of view.
((PKG)) IRAQI REFUGEE ARTIST
((Banner: Refugee as Artist))
((Reporter/Camera: June Soh))
((Adapted by: Philip Alexiou))
((Map: Riverdale, Maryland))
((AHMAD ALKARKHI, REFUGEE ARTIST FROM IRAQ))
The painting for me (is) like music. I don’t care about the color or the white canvas or board, because I just tell myself, let me dance with color on canvas. I graduate from University in Baghdad for art. And I have a lot of friend, my family there and all time when I do painting I remember my country. In my country, we don't have a lot of color there, just grey and brown. The reason I left my country because the war, because of the war. When the war begin in Iraq 2003, I moved to Syria. After that, I stayed in Syria and then I came to America 2009 with my wife and two kids. My day job I do maintenance. I fix many things like electric or something in apartment like door or window. When I have time, like if I have any space or any time, free time, I do my painting because I love painting a lot.
((Locater: Sandy Spring, Maryland))
((Banner: Ahmad Alkarkhi is one of the six refugee artists whose works are spotlighted at a museum exhibit in Sandy Spring, Maryland))
((NATS))
((ALLISON WEISS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SANDY SPRING MUSEUM))
There's so much talk in the news now about refugees and how many people we should let into the country and what are they contributing. And I think this exhibit shows that there's individuals behind the word refugees and they have all sorts of talents that maybe we're not hearing about from the news.
((AHMAD ALKARKHI, REFUGEE ARTIST FROM IRAQ))
This horse like refugees. Some, they come from Europe, some from Africa, some come from Middle East, and they coming here and they work together, live together and we need to send message for human beings. We different color but we need to help each other for this life. America give to refugee a lot of thing. I was famous in my country and I hope to become famous in this country. I hope one gallery, he say, come, I will be sponsor with you or I can work together with you, to do exhibit or to still work with this gallery because difficult of I find one gallery to work together. I want to do a beautiful painting and I give to this country and to people to enjoy with my art.
CLOSING ((ANIM))
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BREAK THREE
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
SHOW ENDS
