- Welcome to Kalamazoo Lively Arts, the show that takes you inside Kalamazoo's vibrant creative community and explores the people who breathe life into the arts.

(lively upbeat music) - [Announcer] Support for Kalamazoo Lively Arts is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.

- I'm Jennifer Moss here at Miller Auditorium.

On today's show we take you throughout Kalamazoo to meet people challenging the conventions of art and finding creative ways to bring their talents to the community.

(upbeat music) - Kylie Taft, I need a t-shirt.

Wow!

Look what you have for us here at Art Hop: T-shirts, screen printed shirts, and totes, I guess.

Baker Bear Studio, what are you all about?

- My art style is all about trying new things and trying new art mediums.

I like to explore a lot of painting.

I primarily work in gouache and watercolor.

I have recently explored screen printing.

I graduated with an emphasis in ceramics, so I do some of that too.

So, I really like to go all over the place.

- Well, I've chosen my favorite for you to talk about.

So talk about this screen printed shirt here with a chair and a table.

- Yeah.

So I really like this one because it's abstracted.

I really have been adventuring out with not only drawing from life like the way... like as much as possible but kind of putting my own twist on it.

So I think I really...

It was fun to explore it that way.

- So, take me through the process.

I bring you a blank t-shirt.

How are you getting that picture on it?

- Yeah.

So I have those wood frames built and then I stretch a curtain fabric over it, get my design printed on transparency.

- 'Cause you've drawn the design.

Is that right?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- I draw it on the iPad Pro.

Yeah, and then I send those off to print on a clear transparent sheet and then I coat the screen with an emulsion which is a photo sensitive chemical and I wait for the emulsion to dry.

Then I can set the transparency on top of the screen.

I take it outside, expose it for a very particular amount of time and it depends on the time of day.

Usually, studios that do screen printing, they have like a light, some kind of light studio where they can control the amount of light and how long, but I do it with what I have.

So I take it outside in the sun, kind of guess and hope that it works out and then I got a design on the screen that I can push in through.

- Tell me about your education.

- Yeah.

So I graduated from Western Michigan University with my Bachelor in Fine Arts in Art Education.

So I'm currently looking to get an art teaching job teaching elementary student.

- When you were an elementary, did you know you were gonna be an artist?

- Oh.

I didn't know I was gonna be an artist per se, but I knew that I really liked it.

Art was really important for me, especially moving to Michigan when I was seven from Okinawa, Japan.

So art was really a place where I could attract positive attention from everybody.

- [Shelley] Yes.

So, what do you paint?

- So recently I've been into painting still life.

So, like still life pictures I find on social media.

Sometimes I paint from life and I also like farm animals.

I don't live on a farm or anything but I really like ducks and cows and things like that.

- And you planned for these colors?

- [Kylie] Not exactly.

I limited myself to two colors 'cause I was just trying it out and those are just the colors.

I happened to pick a lighter color and then a darker color and then once I knew that I could get it to work, I ventured out into mixing other colors.

- There's a cat theme to this, isn't there?

- [Kylie] Yes.

I am really inspired by my cat, Baker Bear.

I used to not be a cat person but ever since I adopted him a couple years ago, I'm into cats now.

- Thank you for doing that and wonderful work that we see.

Tell me about your screen printing on your t-shirts.

- Yeah, so they're kind of really very much homemade.

So I made them at home at my parents' house where they have like a hose and stuff like that.

So I had my partner make a wood frame using scrap wood that my dad had and I really like to get my shirt second hand.

So, that's really important to me as well.

- Good for the environment too, I bet.

Right?

- I try as much as possible.

- You also deal with clay.

In what way?

- Most recently, I was creating mugs and bowls and I got into using slip and slip kind of allows you to paint with the colors.

I painted on some of the mugs still life imagery similar to what you see on my other things.

- I see a lot of your work has to do with food as well.

- Yeah.

So I really like still lives with food.

I'm not sure what it is about it.

I like eggs in particular.

I just liked how the light bounces off of the egg and the egg yolk.

- You're chasing your dreams, your goals.

Inspire us to do that ourselves.

- I think art is just really fun to do.

I think it's a way that people make themselves feel better sometimes.

And I think it's really good to do things that makes you feel good.

So, that's why I create art.

- Nice.

Is your room filled with art bike, Kylie?

- Yeah.

Yes, but not like displayed or anything.

Just like thrown around in different places of my home.

- And you're looking forward to teaching little kids?

- Yeah, I really like how they're so creative.

I just... That's something that you don't really... Like this perspective that you don't get back and I just love being around it.

I think it's really inspiring.

- Right.

Go get them, Ms. Taft.

- Thank you.

- Congratulations to you.

- Thank you.

♪ May the road rise to meet you ♪ ♪ May the wind be always at your back ♪ ♪ May the sunshine warm upon your face ♪ ♪ And the rain fall soft upon your fields ♪ ♪ And until we meet again ♪ ♪ Until we meet again ♪ ♪ May God hold you in the palm of his hand ♪ ♪ Of his hand ♪ (upbeat music) - John Winjberg, what art is on the wall?

This is beautiful.

- Thank you very much.

- Yes.

When did you first pick up our paintbrush?

- Probably around 1980 when I was a student in Buffalo.

- Did you purposefully study art?

- Yes.

- Yes.

- Yes, I started out to be a designer.

That didn't work out for me, but I'm okay with that.

I never loved design as much as fine art anyway.

- I think it did work out okay.

So what are you displaying here at the Arts Council?

- Most of these are in a vain of a regionalist painting.

I paint about life and the issues and things like that that people have in the different regions where I reside.

I've lived here.

I've lived in Petoskey.

I've lived in Chicago.

So, yeah.

- Tell me about this one.

- This one is Curtis Park in Petoskey and that was done outdoors on location.

- So, how do you paint?

Tell me your process.

- Well, I first start with a canvas and a stretcher.

- A blank canvas?

- Blank canvas.

I usually lay down the ground in yellow ochre or gold ochre and it's just a wash that gives a painting kind of a brown- It gives a surface a kind of brownish color.

And then I go into it with some deeper browns and draw it out with washes.

And then I start painting on top of the washes when I got everything in position the way I wanted it, yeah.

- Did you say you studied art?

- Yes, I also have a bachelor's degree for the School of the Art Institute in Chicago.

In 2007, I went back to school.

- What questions do your... Those who buy your paintings, what questions do they have for you?

Do they have reactions to your work?

- [John] Most of the time they just say "it's beautiful", or "it was interesting" or "I never really looked at this one before" or something like that.

- What inspires you to find the different settings?

- That's not easy, actually.

I have to find a setting first that I think I can make a reproduction of it in paint, okay?

So I don't just paint anything and there is a fair amount of thought that goes into the different settings that I paint at.

I can investigate an area for several days before I start painting and a lot of times I'll do drawings in my sketchbooks and get the idea of what I wanna use, yeah.

- Do you paint indoors or outdoors?

- Both.

- Tell me about painting outdoors.

- Well, I have a triple weasel and I'm painting and try everything out there.

I recently bought one of those wagons.

They have cloth sides.

They fold up and put stuff in there and haul it out in different areas.

- Why should the community be supporting artists in Kalamazoo?

- Well, they...

I don't know what to say.

I guess everybody's different.

So, they have different reasons for supporting different people.

I think that art is important to the culture of the area where you live.

So in that sense, I think that the artist in this community should get support, yeah.

- What's still left to be painted?

- In around here?

- [Shelley] Yes.

- I don't know.

I was thinking of doing more paintings around Milan Road in Portage Creek.

Most of my paintings have water in them.

I don't know if you notice that.

Not all but in a little lot of them.

- Why is that?

- I don't know.

I just decided that the landscape in this area is more interesting when you could include some kind water with the landscape.

So that's what I came up with, yeah.

- What's your favorite painting in closing?

- I like this one.

The Portage Creek, yeah.

It's three by four feet.

And yeah, I liked it very much.

Out of this group of paintings, yes.

- Yeah, keep up your good work.

- Thank you.

Thank you very much.

(instrumental violin music) (instrumental violin music) (upbeat music) - Tell me more about Art Hop and why this is an important day event for a person like yourself.

- With the community of Kalamazoo, I came here 18 years ago and one of the first things that I attended was the Art Hop.

Friends of mine took me to a Art Hop and I was just so fascinated at how the community supports their local artists.

Then I eventually moved here and I opened up a studio and the Art Hop's art is just the support that the community gives the local artists.

- What's it like displaying your art at Art Hop?

- It's nerve wracking and exciting and it's fun at the same time.

It's really interesting to watch people with how they react to my art.

- [Shelley] Give me an example.

How are they reacting?

- Everybody... People are drawn to this one, but they like it.

Everybody likes it.

And I have made a couple sales tonight and you know, I'm proud of it.

- Last month was the first hop that I did and I plan on signing up every single month, and I actually signed up for this next month.

So, I'll be there again.

- And why is it important that the community come and support Art Hop and artists like yourself?

- I think because artists, they don't often get recognition.

And I think Art Hop is a great way to bring people into the art space and make it feel accessible for them and to talk to artists and to better understand why art is important.

- The Art Hop really gave us a great platform.

So, the book was a nice vehicle for Austin to start working on something directly out of high school that would keep him productive and happy.

And the Art Hop gave us a platform to show off his work.

So he could have it in this book that would get published and depending on where it gets published, how many people look into it varies.

But at least we know when we come here, there's gonna be quite a bit of foot traffic and Austin has made quite a few really great connections through Art Hop, so.

- It's really nice to see all artists and what they make and I've never met most of those people.

And it's like there's a lot... Like knowing that so many people in Kalamazoo are like you that make art and see how their art is different and similar to yours.

- And the fact that people are very open to different styles and different forms of art and not everyone's art is gonna look the exact same.

That's the beautiful thing about Art Hop.

You can have someone be as expressive as Jackson Pollock.

You can have someone paint similar to Basquiat.

You can have someone that paint similar as Norman Rockwell.

But at the end of the day, everyone is still painting in their own style and they're still expressing in their own way.

Not every artist in Art Hop is going to look the exact same.

They're all gonna be painting something different.

They're all gonna be drawing and expressing their selves in different ways.

Like Art Hop is something that I have never seen before.

- At Art Hop, I started... My first one was in March and it was a really good way for me to enter the art scene.

And from there, I'm venturing out into doing the farmer's market and vintage in the zoo.

So, it's really exciting.

- It's an opportunity to meet people and particularly after COVID.

It is just so nice to talk to people in person and be able to get their ideas and responses to the world.

So, I'm very grateful to the Kalamazoo Arts Council and also to Art Hop for letting me be here.

- One of the great aspects of working with the Art Hop, it gave Austin the ability to connect with a lot of different people.

We've met with marketing directors which is not our lane that we have any kind of experience in but we had some really great connections with the Kalamazoo Valley Museum and Kalamazoo Valley Community College.

Those two first connections were made here at Art Hop.

They got introduced to Austin's artwork.

They loved it.

They loved his story and then we just started slowly building this partnership.

You know, meeting with their exec board, discussing with them the book, all of Austin's illustrations, things he wants to work on in the future, and they started putting together ideas for several exhibits.

So, Austin's gonna have exhibits at the Center for New Media.

So yeah, the Art Hop really gave us a really good opportunity to make connections with people that we would not have normally have met.

- I even made some new friends while attending at the Art Hop.

You know, some other fellow artists that I made friends with.

- It's kinda what it's all about.

- Yep.

Well, creating art and making friends along the way.

- So what has this experience of Art Hop been like for you?

- It has been pure, amazing to be in such a positive community as Kalamazoo.

It's been so rich here culturally and it has been a life changing experience for me.

It's been something that I'm looking forward to keep on doing for many years now.

I just...

It's so amazing.

I can't find the words for it.

I can't.

- Thank you for joining us on this week's episode of Kalamazoo Lively Arts.

Check out today's show and other content at wgvu.org.

We leave you tonight with another spectacular performance.

I'm Jennifer Moss, have a great night.

(instrumental music plays) ♪ 525,600 minutes ♪ ♪ 525,000 moments so dear ♪ ♪ 525,600 minutes ♪ ♪ How do you measure ♪ ♪ Measure a year ♪ ♪ In daylight ♪ ♪ In sunsets ♪ ♪ In midnights ♪ ♪ In cups of coffee ♪ ♪ In inches ♪ ♪ In miles, in laughter, in strife ♪ ♪ 525,600 minutes ♪ ♪ How do you measure a year in the life ♪ ♪ How about love ♪ ♪ How about love ♪ ♪ How about love ♪ ♪ Measure in love ♪ ♪ Seasons of love ♪ ♪ Seasons of love ♪ ♪ 525,600 minutes ♪ ♪ 525,000 journeys to plan ♪ ♪ 525,600 minutes ♪ ♪ How do you measure the life of a woman or a man ♪ ♪ In truth that she learns ♪ ♪ Or in times that he cried ♪ ♪ In bridges he burned ♪ ♪ Or the way that she dies ♪ ♪ It's time now to sing out ♪ ♪ Though the story never ends ♪ ♪ Let's celebrate ♪ ♪ Remember a year in the life of friends ♪ ♪ Remember the love ♪ ♪ Remember the love ♪ ♪ Remember the love ♪ ♪ Measure in love ♪ ♪ Seasons of love ♪ ♪ Seasons of love ♪ (audience applauds) - [Announcer] Support for Kalamazoo Lively Arts is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.

(upbeat music) ♪ Can you whisper ♪ ♪ Can you whisper ♪ ♪ Can you whisper ♪ ♪ The bittersweet between my teeth ♪ ♪ Trying to find the in-between ♪ ♪ Fall back in love eventually ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Can you whisper ♪ ♪ The bittersweet between my teeth ♪ ♪ Can you whisper ♪ ♪ Trying to find the in-between ♪ ♪ Can you whisper ♪ ♪ Fall back in love eventually ♪ ♪ Can you whisper ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪