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>>Narrator: THIS TIME, ON COLORES!
FOR 40 YEARS NEW MEXICO PHOTOGRAPHER ROBERT CHRISTENSEN HAS CAPTURED PORTRAITS OF BUILDINGS
THAT REFLECT THE RUGGED AND INDEPENDENT SPIRIT OF NEW MEXICO.
>> Christensen: "I've photographed an awful lot of buildings and the ones that look back
at me... are the ones that are meaningful."
>>Narrator: PAPERCUTTER ANDREA MARTIN SHARES HOW HER ART IS BASED ON HER BACKGROUND IN
THE SCIENCE OF BIOLOGY.
>>Martin: "I look at patterns in nature. Patters in nature really fascinate me."
>>Narrator: AFTER SOME TOUGH TIMES ARTISAN STEVE CINNAMON IS SAVED BY CREATING AN UNUSUAL
MUSICAL INSTRUMENT...THE CIGAR BOX GUITAR.
>>Cinnamon: "It gave me a feeling of worth, creativity and it was a lot of fun."
>>Narrator: ARNOLD ALANIZ IS ENAMOURED WITH THE CHANGING SEASONS AND CREATES WORKS AROUND
THE EVER CHANGING FOLIAGE AND SCENERY.
>>Alaniz: "I've always tried to convey the feeling of awe and kind of solitude that I
get in the scenes that I paint...."
>>Narrator: IT'S ALL AHEAD ON COLORES!
>>Narrator: NEW MEXICO PHOTOGRAPHER BOB CHRISTENSEN CAPTURES THE MANY FACES OF NEW MEXICO'S BUILDINGS.
>>Bob Christensen: I never set out to document old architecture around New Mexico. I stopped
and photographed buildings that I reacted to... responded to internally and if I could
get a print that could bring that out that was a success. If I couldn't that was just
another picture of another building. To me these photographs are all individuals. You
know if you look at them as a group there is a consistency of perspective and tonality
and all. But to me each building is an individual and I can remember standing there taking a
picture of everyone of those.
After my G.I. bill ran out, I got a job driving a produce truck for a greenhouse down in Tome
and that took me all over the state. I have to admit, at some point I started cheating
on my routes a little bit, getting creative with getting from point A to point B just
so I could go through different small towns and take different routes.
Paul Strand is one of the photographers that really influenced me. He did a lot of portraiture;
in fact he worked in New Mexico a lot. He said something to the effect that, a good
portrait leaves the viewer feeling as though they know the subject, they have met them
even though they never have met them. In other words, a portrait is going to say something
about that person. More than just what they look like. And that's what I am trying to
do with these buildings.
I have photographed an awful lot of buildings and the ones that look back at me, are the
ones that are meaningful to me. I think these places, as much as anything, reflect the personalities
of the people that made them. It's a lot different now with all the building codes. Buildings
are starting to take on a similarity that you just lose that kind of character.
There's a gas station down in Dexter, Wortman's Super Service. It was run by John Wortman,
for a lot of years. I took the photograph in 1977. From what his son says one day he
decided he was going to retire and so he closed up same as always, went home and never went
back. Well back in the mid to late 90's, Bud took me over to that gas station and we walked
around inside and it was like stepping through a time portal. Nobody had touched anything
in that gas station in twenty years. There were still candy bars under the counter, cigarettes
in the rack, on the wall fan belts, cans of oil all over the place. It was like a little
museum.
One particular photograph that I took of some garage doors... a little adobe garage down
in Belen. This young man had painted a bucolic scene on the front of it, it was starting
to get kind of weathered. That was Florencio Chavez who painted this. He was a young man
that had some mental disabilities, he was hearing impaired. He painted a lot of buildings
around Valencia County. Apparently the family had no records of these, he died when he was
thirty three. The family and I made contact and of course I was happy to give them a copy
of the prints cause that's the only record they had of his work. That building now is
an auto parts store. That building is gone, the site is an auto parts store.
The Joy Drive In marquee. I was just driving through Berino on one of my creative routes
in Brody's truck and I saw it and it was one of those things I call the brake slammer.
Just slammed on the brakes, whipped out the camera, grabbed the one frame and drove off.
It says to me so much about New Mexico. The Spanish language films... it draws me in whenever
I look at it. I could almost see all the local Spanish families in their 1930's and 1940's
cars driving in for their weekend treat.
In the time when these buildings went up, it was also almost a necessity for people
to design their own ways of surviving. There weren't a lot of jobs. So well let's go open
a store and we'll sell some groceries or sell beer or whatever and we'll make our money
that way. So yeah there was definitely a sense of independence.
The people in the small villages, they were, they are a reflection of these places. That's where
the villages came from, that is their history. These places say as much about the people
behind them as they do about my response to the buildings.
>>Narrator: BIOLOGIST ANDREA MARTIN USES HER SCIENCE SKILLS TO BRING NATURE TO LIFE.
>>Andrea Martin: I tell stories.... by cutting designs in paper with an X-Acto Knife.
My name is Andrea Martin and I'm a paper cutter.
I've been drawing all my life. I love drawing and I really like representational art and
I like the very graphic nature of the black and white, but I also really like the challenge
of looking at something and saying well how can I make that into a paper cut, how can
I make that two dimensional, how can I show something without color?
Um, you have to kind of trick the eye into seeing something that's not really there.
I want the fox to look like he's hidden behind these leaves and I think I can do that by
making hatch marks to show his fur and that will make the leaves stand out and look like
he's behind it.
The piece that I'm currently working on is a piece for the Roseville Library. I was asked
to do a paper cut of the garden that would show the different plants and animals that
are found in their garden at the library. I spent a long time researching what plants
and animals were native to Minnesota. For example, what kind of rabbits live in Minnesota,
what kind of grasshoppers was I seeing, so in some ways I wish I could just cut a grasshopper,
you know, without doing the research, but I actually enjoy that part as much as I do
the paper cutting.
When I first went to college, I had to decide between being a biology major and being an
art major, and I chose biology. I'm really glad that I did take biology classes. It taught
me observation. You know, it taught me to see the world a little bit differently and
I think that it shows up in my paper cutting. It shows up details, um, I love the details
in my work.
I had my own scientific illustration business, so I drew graphs and I drew pictures of animals
and things like that in pen and ink and then I became a teacher- taught science for many
years, always incorporating art somehow into the work that I was doing with the kids and
the science.
It's really important as a scientist to observe. I do a lot of daily walking and I look at
the animals and plants and how they are interacting with each other. I look for sources of water
for animals. I look at patterns in nature. Patters in nature really fascinate me, and
so if I'm out and I see a leaf that has been eaten by a Japanese beetle, I look at that
and I say oh, that's a paper cut. It's beautiful! People don't like Japanese beetles- they're
an invasive species, but they actually make beautiful paper cuts.
The paper cutting that I do I think have some messages sort of hidden in them. I mean, I'm
interested in putting a smile on people's faces, but I'm also interested, um, in people
getting messages about how the environment is affecting the animals. I did a piece called
"View from the Other Side" and it shows a woodpecker all by itself in dead trees. In
the background, you can see the city. I was thinking about loss of habitat for animals
when cities are built and expand especially and what animals would survive and what wouldn't.
My next paper cut, I'm interested in doing something along the lines of global warming.
And so I'm planning images and things that will be on this paper, but also looking at
color in my work too and how I could use that to an advantage to get my message across better.
But, I also like just pretty pictures. [Laughs].
>>Narrator: ARTISAN STEVE CINNAMON SHARES HOW A 150-YEAR OLD BLUES INSTRUMENT LIFTED
HIM OUT OF DEPRESSION AND INTO A DIFFERENT KIND OF BLUES...THE COTTON-PICKIN' KIND.
It's taste is acquired. It's aroma distinct. But who knew that the cigar's container could
create a sound so rich?
>>Steve Cinnamon: This goes back a good 100 years to the deep, deep South. When people
wanted their music, everyone loves music, the first one was called the "diddley-bo,"
and obviously, if you turn those two words around, you get "Bo Diddley," which is one
of the most famous blues players ever.
>>Narrator: Steve Cinnamon doesn't smoke cigars and he claims he's no skilled guitarist, but
he's an admirer and artisan of the cigar box guitar.
>>Cinnamon: So they wanted their music and they didn't have the money, they didn't have
the means, they didn't have the instruments. They basically took a poll, a cigar box, and
a piece of wire off a screen door, strung it together, ran their finger up it and down
it and all of a sudden, they had music.
>>Narrator: Making something from nothing - a resourceful trait that Steve appreciates.
Perhaps because he knows a little bit about it himself. We came down here for the American
dream. Retired, new pretty bride, on the beach, we got married at sunset. It was everything.
We had the boat, the cars, we had the house.
At first, times were good for Steve and his wife, Sue Anne. Then, like with many others,
the recession hit, crushing their comfortable life.
>>Steve Cinnamon: We lost everything basically. And the American dream became the American
nightmare, unfortunately. And resulted in myself having a heart attack.
>>Narrator: His condition was treated, but it triggered more distress.
>>Sue Anne Cinnamon: He went into a deep depression. He was full of fear and he just wasn't himself.
I don't know what it feels like because I never had a heart attack, so he was just not
the man that I married.
>>Narrator: With the help of friends and families, Steve slowly started to improve. The turning
point, reconnecting with an old friend he hadn't seen in 45 years.
>>Steve Cinnamon: He called me one day and said I've made a cigar box guitar. And I said,
what is that?
>>Narrator: The curious instrument intrigued Steve. He wanted to learn more.
>>Cinnamon: When I started doing the researching after that, I found out that the originals
were either one string, or three strings.
>>Narrator: So he started tinkering with the concept. Friends who saw his early work were
impressed.
>>Cinnamon: A made one and someone saw me making it and said, I want one of those, I'll
pay you for it. That was the beginning.
>>Narrator: And the end of something else.
>>Sue Anne: I gradually started to see a change in him. I saw the spark, that life to start
to come back and I started to see the man that I married.
>>Narrator: Something about building those cigar box guitars was therapeutic.
>>Cinnamon: I have to credit this whole guitar venture on as part of the reason I snapped
out of the depression. It gave me a feeling of worth, creativity, and it was a lot of
fun.
>>Narrator: Interest in his recycled riffs began to rise and not just from musicians.
>>Cinnamon: There's a lot of people that buy them from me just to put on the wall as a
wall hanger. It's kinda like for the guy that has everything.
>>Narrator: And just like that, cottin' pickin' blues was born.
>>Cinnamon: It's definitely an instrument and it's definitely a piece of art.
>>Narrator: Steve makes both acoustic and electric versions. From so many different
boxes, the possibilities are endless.
>>Cinnamon: The best part about it is that I could do whatever I wanted. There's no right
way, there's no wrong way. It gives me total creative license as long as it sounds good.
>>Narrator: To accessorize his guitars, Steve likes to think outside the box.
>>Cinnamon: The resonated sound, this is basically a bath tub drain believe it or not. As far
as the corners go, I pick them up at one of the big hardware stores. The frets are actually
finishing nails. I just buzz off the edges so no one gets scratched and their perfect.
It's real homemade, I try to keep it as homemade as possible.
>>Narrator: Put the creation of a craftsman in the hands of a gifted guitarist and the
results are heavenly.
>>Cinnamon: I would sooner build the guitars and watched them be played by people who really
know what they're doing, actually in amazement.
>>Narrator: Ironic that the heart attack that could have killed Steve actually saved him.
>>Cinnamon: I mean, I'll keep making these things until god forbid, a hundred years from
now when the close the box. And then I'll take one with me, you never know who you'll
meet.
>>Narrator: ARNOLD ALANIZ IS INSPIRED BY THE CLIMATE AND SEASONS IN HIS NEW HOME, WISCONSIN.
>>Arnold: I like to keep the background coming through the front so it isn't so solid, and
so I leave some spaces in between
>>Voiceover: He's known for his delicate landscapes of Wisconsin's north woods, but Arnold Alaniz
grew up under the hot Texas sun, miles away from what has become his favorite subject.
>>Arnold: When I grew up, it was in South Texas, along the Gulf coast, and my idea of
landscapes were sand dunes, cactus, palm trees. When I received a scholarship to come to Madison
to attend the University of Wisconsin, I came face to face with maple trees and oaks and
beautiful foliage that changed color in the fall. I saw snow, and trees that, evergreens
that we only had at Christmas, they were cut down and decorated with lights and ornaments,
but here they were growing in the wild. I was so impressed that I think to this day,
I still paint those images because of that wonderful change of season and color. And
the woods, I had no woods where I lived. It was scrub grass and mesquite... These are
just the preliminary undertones to the piece. It's going to change dramatically over time.
But I'm creating the atmospheric look to it, the softness of the background. It has to
go in the very beginning; it's not just something that you put on in one coat. My pieces are
inspired by life by scenes that I see. Especially lately, I've been doing long walks in the
woods in some of the parks here in Door(?) County. And coming upon scenes that I normally
would never have seen, and those have found their way into my work. I work primarily in
the studio, even though I get ideas from nature, I am a studio artist. My work is a combination
of large broad areas of color and detail (mostly detail) and those are hard to do in the field,
so I don't really consider myself a plain-air painter, as such.
>>Voiceover: Alaniz is known for his landscapes with their soft, gentle treatment of light
and subtle gradations of colors.
>>Arnold: The large flat areas of color take the longest, because they're layers upon layers,
one over the other, and they have to dry. I work with acrylic, and because of that,
the layer that lies on top of the one below, becomes transparent. You can see the colors
coming through if you work it thin enough, so it gives you the glow, that atmospheric
look that is so prevalent in my work. That's the hardest, to lay down the tones, and then
of course the details, which many people think is the hardest, but to me I enjoy that. It's
like therapy. That's the part that takes the longest, the building of the tone and the
branches. The little details are easiest.
>>Voiceover: Alaniz drew his inspiration from artists from another time.
Arnold: I think some of the strongest influences during my education were in the work of the
Hudson River School artists, and also in the work of the French Impressionists for their
colors. I think, some of the landscapes of Turner, and some of the school of impressionism
made strong impressions on me, even though I wasn't aware of it at the time. And I think
perhaps those are some of the strongest influences, not so much artists living in my time. My
work is somewhat romantic, and when I was in school, that wasn't the end thing to be
painting, but I survived it, and I came out doing the same thing that I loved to do, and
I can go over it.
>>Voiceover: For Alaniz, each work is a delicate blending of realism, romanticism, and impressionism
that reveals the tranquil, reflective side of nature.
>>Arnold: I've always tried to convey the feeling of awe and kind of solitude that I
get in the scenes that I paint, so they're the awe-inspiring things to me and I use my
technique to meet those ends. So I have to say, it's the scene itself, or the image.
If it has a message, it's to make people stop and look at the everyday things we take for
granted. Scenes that I paint are not necessarily sensational or extraordinary: they're very
mundane in their own way, and yet the way that I paint them gives them a certain importance,
a certain majesty. Even the simplest trees have a certain dignity about them that I think
is inherent, and it makes people stop and say "Oh, look at what I see every day and
appreciate it more" and that's part of my message, and my work.
>>Narrator: NEXT TIME ON COLORES!
NEW MEXICAN STACEY NEFF TALKS ABOUT THE FEMINIE ASPECT OF NATURE AND HOW THE SENSE OF GESTURE
IS INHERENT IN HER CHOSEN MEDIUM OF BLOWN GLASS.
>>Neff: "You're working with gravity and heat so the glass is falling always down, that's
predictable and it's always getting more solid as it cools."
>>Narrator: AFTER AN ALMOST FATAL CAR ACCIDENT ARTIST KARIN RICHARDSON CHANGES FROM GLASS
BLOWING TO CREATIONS MADE OF FOUND OBJECTS.
>>Richardson: "What interests me about natural materials, there's...such a magnificence.
There's this wonder and this awe. And it's always changing. It's never the same.."
>>Narrator: MASTER GLASS MAKER ERIC MEEK OF THE CORNING MUSUEM OF GLASS SHARES HIS PROCESS.
>>Meek: "If you are a professional you have to be able to work with the glass be able
to control the outcome of the glass. So I would say for myself personally and for most
of the glass makers here at the Corning Museum you have a pretty clear picture of what you
want to make and you control the glass to create that object."
>>Narrator: UNTIL NEXT TIME, THANK YOU FOR WATCHING.