- [Narrator] Funding for "The Art Show" is made possible by The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr. U.S. Bank Foundation, and the Virginia W. Kettering Foundation, proud supporter of the arts in our community.

Additional funding provided by.

And viewers like you, thank you.

- In this edition of "The Art Show," celebrating 140 years of pottery production.

(upbeat music) Taking what nature has discarded and giving it a second life.

Tracking the night sky to take awe-inspiring photographs.

And redefining how to perform live music during the pandemic.

It's all ahead on this edition of "The Art Show."

(upbeat music) Hi, I'm Rodney Veal, and welcome to "The Art Show," where each week we provide access to local, regional, and national artists and arts organizations.

Cincinnati's historic Rookwood Pottery is celebrating its 140th year of distinctive pottery production.

As the first business founded and owned by a woman in the United States in 1880, Rookwood continues to be a leader in female empowerment.

Guided by current owner, Marilyn Scripps, who employs a workforce that's 70% female, Rookwood Pottery's commitment to its female artisans is still at the center of its creative mission.

Here is their story.

- I think the great thing about clay is that it kind of like is a give and take.

So you definitely have a power over the clay, but the clay also kind of does this thing where it talks to you back.

And I think it's really interesting, especially with taking a piece of the earth and making it something that will live here forever.

So, I think the process, not just of the piece itself but the whole learning process of clay, is what kind of drew me into it.

(upbeat music) My day to day is making.

I spend all day getting my hands dirty, whether it's doing one-of-a-kind pieces or even prototyping things like the Emilia Collection.

I'm definitely a 3D thinker.

So I just kind of jump in and start throwing.

And from there it's just like doing little things that I think will work, and that's how every single one of those Emilia Collection pieces came out, more or less.

The design specifically, we were going into the Spring Open House, so I definitely had natural, flowers, spring newness on the mind, and I think that kind of sheds light on that star bursty pattern there.

I definitely have a draw towards natural, organic, plants, flowers.

My dad is an arborist, and so I definitely grew up being very indulged in that kind of thing, and I think that definitely comes out in my work.

The most important thing is the productionality of it.

Definitely the way that we are gonna go through the process of things definitely limit or kind of give way to what the design needs to be.

I think that kind of pattern definitely allows the glaze to kind of use it as a canvas, more or less.

And I think it's just a really great piece not just for the fact that it is functional and it's produceable, but also it's beautiful as a stand alone thing.

(machine whirring) - Color inspires me more than anything.

Very interested in how colors play together.

When I first started, I was taught from scratch.

You learn basics like bases of the glazes, so like how different glazes react in the kilns, and then you start getting more into color.

I had a very skilled master.

He kind of took me under his wing, taught me a lot of things that a lot of basic sprayers don't know.

You know, what your speed might dictate, your distance might dictate, from spraying piece to piece, and how to apply that technique to other pieces that you might not have sprayed before.

So first, shape and size dictate how we're gonna apply glaze to a piece.

And glazes, when you apply them, they're like wet material, like clay, and the color's not true, so what you're seeing in its raw form is not what you'll see when it's finished.

So sometimes with us, especially with hand thrown pottery, we get to throw two glazes together, four glazes together, and we don't know what it's gonna turn out to.

(machine whirring) My favorite part is the reveal.

It's like when we open that kiln and we see these vases and like it didn't stick to the shelf and we can sell it, and it's like something you never thought it was gonna be.

So, that's my favorite part.

It's really fun for us to make our own glazes.

There's a glaze we offer called Carnival.

It's called a joker, that's like its base, because it switches from gloss to matte on one tile.

And it almost looks like bamboo bark, like when it gets dryer and then when it gets heavier or glossier, it turns purple.

So, that's my favorite one.

A lot of what we offer, even when we're putting two glazes together, you won't find anywhere else in any other ceramic company.

So, I like the fact that we're kind of unique in that sense.

Our glazes are very true to who we are here at Rookwood, so I think that's nice.

- When Rookwood came back to Cincinnati, it was a ridiculously joyful day for myself and other collectors.

The continuing idea, especially that Rookwood would return to where it started in 1880, was phenomenal.

Just when I think we've reached our peak in terms of beauty and artistry, we top that ceiling one more time.

And so everything that is continuing to evolve is better and better each and every year that we're in production.

One of the cool things about Rookwood, especially if you come down for a tour or one of our Open House events, you get to meet the employees that work here.

And so you can possibly watch the potters throw on the wheel.

You can watch some of the items being glazed in the spray department.

And a lot of our employees are degreed folks coming from University of Cincinnati or possibly the Art Academy, and that's analogous to what was happening back in the day, where a lot of the artists back in the 1880s were being pulled from local art schools, as well as across the country, because of the reputation of Maria plus the name of Rookwood.

- That's one of the things that really has kept me here this long, is the history within it.

It's honestly an honor to work for a company that did so much for not just females, but female artists in history, that it's really empowering to be a part of that.

- If you'd like to learn more about this or any other story on today's show, visit us online at cetconnect.org or thinktv.org.

Michigan artist, Steve Kolpacke, enjoys finding the imperfections in pieces of dead trees.

In giving this wood a second life, he recently discovered his passion, woodturning.

Check out these one-of-a kind pieces.

(gentle music) - It matches nature and life, that things aren't perfect, that there's always something different there.

And it's just the little hidden surprises that I think you find on the inside.

I like the outdoors.

Working with trees, with wood is just pleasureful.

Eight or nine years ago, I started it.

Pretty much all was self-taught.

I have always wanted to make stuff.

So I started building furniture probably about 25 years ago.

And occasionally I had a need to turn something.

So I've got a machine lathe in the garage that I've used to make stuff, and then once I started using that for furniture pieces and other functional things, it started turning into art.

To me it gives a second life to the tree.

It served its primary function, and then it could be either used for construction, for furniture, for fire, but to me, turning it into an object of art is special.

The process is almost all manual, so there's a motor driving the object, but everything, everything is by hand.

You move the tool bit by hand.

You do all the sanding by hand, and you do the finishing by hand.

A lot of people are amazed at the object you're starting with.

I start with something that looks like it should be thrown into a fire pit or in a dump, and start taking away from it.

The tool that I use is a lathe.

So a lathe is a machine that you attach an object to, you spin it around, so you get a general, circular form to it, but as you start cutting away at the piece, you start to see more of what's inside.

Today you're gonna see various stages.

You'll see it all the way from the raw material to getting chunks of wood into a shape that you can actually start to cut them.

We'll see some rough turning of the outside to get it to its rough shape.

We'll see some finish cutting on that.

With every piece, it gets attached more than once.

So you'll attach it one direction, you have to turn it around to finish the other side.

So we'll see an example of finishing the other side.

We'll see an example of some hollowing out.

And throughout this we'll see various parts in different stages, it won't be the same part, 'cause it can take up to weeks to create a part.

Or if you're starting with wet wood, it takes months 'cause you need to dry it out in between some of those.

I look at a piece of wood and I have an idea of what I wanna do.

And nine times out of 10, it comes out completely different.

As you start to cut away, you start to see, and instead of you telling the wood what you want it to do, the wood more tells you the shape that it wants to be.

I see what a lot of people look at that are defects or voids, and to me it brings out the character of it.

So you start to see the grain inside.

You start to see different objects in there.

You'll find out that a branch came out of one side, so there's additional features that you start to see.

You can see this one's got a lot of character.

There is the pith here which is the center of the tree that's got a hole going all the way through it.

We'll try to keep that as much as we can.

And then there's this other one here that appears that maybe there was a branch in here, and we're also trying to keep that.

It's addictive.

There's a rhythm of actually doing the cutting, and I can find that I can stand at the lathe for, sometimes six to eight hours a day doing it.

And it's exciting because as you keep cutting away at it, you see something new, so it's kind of an adventure.

A vast majority of it is art.

So, I do vases, I do vessels.

So a vessel is something that has a very small opening at the top of it, it's hollowed out on the inside.

And of course a favorite is Christmas ornaments.

And I do functional stuff.

On the functional side, salad bowls and rolling pins, stuff like that.

I would say 95% of what I use is not only local, but probably within about 50 miles.

I work with just about anything I get my hands on.

I've used walnut, oak, box elder, and ash.

So, ash with the ash borer, again, there's a lot of wood available there.

In a short period of time, probably very little will be available because there's no more ash trees.

But each species has different texture, different ability to cut.

So, some are very easy to cut the grain and the fibers in it are easy to cut through, but they may not leave a good finish on the outside, and others that are very hard, tougher to cut, but they polish out very well.

I cannot reproduce any piece, they're all different.

They all start from a different piece of wood.

I can make maybe shapes that are the same, but I can't get the textures the same.

I can't get the same voids and other things like that.

So to me, art is important because it's unique.

The message for people is just to enjoy it.

To enjoy that it's another reuse for the tree.

That also, it's tactile, it's something that you can touch and feel.

A common theme I find is people look at it and it fills a void somewhere either in their life or in their home.

So a lot of people have looked at it and said, "I've got a perfect spot for that."

I learn something new every day.

It's actually a big stress relief.

So, as you go through life, there are certain challenges here and there, and to be able to have something that you can go home to and thoroughly enjoy it is great.

(upbeat music) - "The Art Show" is gonna be traveling around Southwest Ohio.

You might see this logo in your neighborhood.

Follow the travels of "The Art Show" on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at thinktv and cetconnect.

And check out "The Art Show" hashtag.

When we look to the night sky, our eyes can only see so much.

Astrophotographer, Taimur Kahn, will sometimes take nights of shooting to create one celestial photo.

He and fellow enthusiasts come together at The Winter Star Party to create some spectacular photographs.

(upbeat music) - My name is Taimur Kahn.

I'm the director of the Winter Star Party here at Big Pine Key.

An astrophotographer is basically somebody who points a camera up to the sky and tracks the sky and takes long exposures.

And sometimes these exposures could last over several days.

So we might start and take 10-minute exposures and take 100 10-minute exposures in one night and then continue in another night and even a third night.

And we'll take all these images and put them together to get a photograph.

And the photograph will reveal things that you just cannot see with your naked eye looking through a telescope.

The light is so dim that it takes hours or even perhaps days to gather all that light to make the image, so you cannot just see it instantly with your eye.

When I first got into the hobby, it used to be like, let me see how many I can do in one night.

And it's the other way around, I would try to do three images in one night.

But you don't get a good image, you get very grainy, noisy images when you do that.

The trick is to do one object over three nights.

A favorite is the Orion constellation.

Where Bellatrix is, the top trail is the head of Alfred Hitchcock.

And you'll see an arc, which is called Bernard's loop, that is the stomach.

And then you have an arm, a very faint reddish arm, and Betelgeuse is like the cigar that he typically smokes.

So that's why we call it the Alfred Hitchcock Nebula.

This is Omega Centauri, and this entire constellation.

This is one of the largest globular clusters with millions of stars in it.

Don't know exactly how many millions, but they're several million stars in this cluster, all orbiting each other.

The neat thing about it, they say, scientists say, is that if our solar system was inside that cluster, it would never be dark.

There will always be light.

It's a very interesting cluster.

Everybody loves to come down and see it because it's so big and large, it's the largest one that we get to see.

This is a great place to have a star party.

We have a lot of people that come down, about 600 astronomers that set up telescopes on the beaches.

Because its one of the southern most places where you can see objects that are below 67 degrees declination, which basically means we can see certain objects that you just cannot see anywhere else in the continental United States.

So because of that, it draws a lot of people down to point their telescopes low in the horizon and see objects such as Edicarina, which is one of the largest nebulas that are out there.

So, here at the Winter Star Party, you'll notice that we don't use regular flashlights.

We use a red flashlight.

And the reason why we use red flashlight is because your eyes get dark adapted, and it takes roughly 25 minutes for your eyes to be truly adapted to the dark.

You're at the mercy of the weather, you're at the mercy of your equipment, things go wrong.

Even the wires hanging off the scope can cause trailing in the stars, 'cause you're following the star, so the motion of the stars going across this night sky is so smooth and so precise that there's really not much man made mechanical equipment that can accurately move in the same way.

(upbeat music) It is a form of art in its own right, in its own way.

Because different people have different ways of manipulating the data and showing the photograph, or how they do it and how they image it.

And each one is a little bit different.

- Did you miss an episode of "The Art Show"?

No problem.

You can watch it on demand at cetconnect.org and thinktv.org.

You'll find all the previous episodes, as well as current episodes, and links to the artists we feature.

For over a decade, the Classical Tahoe Festival has been bringing the best musicians from all over the world to Incline Village, Nevada, to perform for enthusiastic crowds.

With the pandemic, this changed the celebration, and with the loss of their principal conductor threatening to cancel this year's event, the festival had to re-imagined.

(gentle music) - Classical Tahoe started in 2012 as a vision of building community at Lake Tahoe.

Some of the finest musicians in the world have made Lake Tahoe their summer home under the auspices of Classical Tahoe where three-week classical music festival takes place on the campus of Sierra Nevada University.

And it's in a popup pavilion.

Seats about 400 people.

Full orchestra of about 60.

And audience of about 400 in these incredible acoustics in the forest.

And we do about a dozen concerts over three weeks.

Every night is different.

Joel Revson, who was our founding Artistic Director and Conductor, he threw a group of people, assembled this incredible orchestra and put together the orchestra concerts.

So it's intense, it's fabulous, and it's a really great opportunity to have music at the highest level, community building in a way that people at the end of three weeks have made lifetime friends and feel embedded in the community.

While the pandemics unfolding in March and April, and Joel got sick at the very beginning.

Maybe the third week in March, came down with COVID, and fought it for the better part of 60 days, maybe 70, in and out of the hospital.

But even as he was getting sicker and we knew we couldn't have the orchestra festival, I think the piece that became more and more important was that Joel loved this orchestra, I think more than anything, besides his wife, Cindy, in the world.

It seemed more important than ever in honor of Joel, both before he died, but then more important after he passed, was to gather this group together to make music, because that's what he would've wanted more than anything.

And that's what all of us wanted.

Organizations are canceling.

Spring, summer, we weren't gonna be able to gather, it didn't make sense to build a popup pavilion that held 400 people.

How do you space an orchestra on a stage if they all have to be six feet apart?

What do you do with an audience that can sit with their husband or wife or partner or family, but not near anybody else?

Not getting limited by what we couldn't do, we started thinking about what we could do.

What we could do was a series of chamber music concerts.

We started imagining places in the forest and on the lake where you could gather and create a concert setting in a venue.

So we had to break down what's normally about 60 people to groups of 10 coming each week.

That's how we began to build probably version C plus of what was possible.

We put together three weeks of 10 musicians, and we had to address a number of things.

We wanted everyone to get COVID tests before they came.

We had a medical advisor that worked with us.

We were studying the best practices about how far the winds and the vocalist should be.

We had wind tapes.

So we knew which way we were singing and sitting.

We had positioned our French horn so that the horn was away from anybody to the back.

So we actually had done a ton of research and consultations to find out the safest ways to make music possible.

(upbeat music) The arts are transformative in that they have held people up in the hardest times.

And they're always what give you a reason to get back together when the hardest times have passed.

I think had we stepped back and waited, I don't know that that joy of what Joel created for this festival could be kindled in the same way that it absolutely became a beacon this summer and something that will never be lost.

Everybody has been asking, "Please let's do chamber music in the forest again."

I think the one thing that comes out of something as complicated as a year of a pandemic and losing your founding Artistic Director is you can treat it as a tragedy and roll it up, or you can look at it as an opportunity to say, what can we be?

- If you want to see more from "The Art Show," connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

You'll find us at thinktv and cetconnect.

And don't forget to check out "The Art Show" channel on YouTube.

And that wraps it up for this edition of "The Art Show."

Until next time, I'm Rodney Veal, thanks for watching.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Funding for "The Art Show" is made possible by The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr. U.S. Bank Foundation, and the Virginia W. Kettering Foundation, proud supporter of the arts in our community.

Additional funding provided by.

And viewers like you.

Closed captioning in part has been made possible through a grant from The Bahmann Foundation.

Thank you.