This time on Art rocks, a renowned muralist tasked with preserving an educational legacy.

The idea was that there wanted to do a memorial picture to this man, Julian White.

He was the first African American teacher at LSU.

Transformations wrought in bronze.

I think that that's amazingly positive message to just put on a piece of bronze art used to help veterans heal.

This is about mental health and healing and suicide prevention through the arts, i.e.

alternative therapies and fashion that defies definition.

I definitely wanted to build a high fashion collection inspired by the Victorian art collection here at the hotel.

All that.

next on, rocks.

Art rocks is made possible by the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and by viewers like you.

Hello.

Thank you for tuning in for, rocks with me, James Fox Smith from Country Roads magazine.

When the chance came for Robert David to pay tribute to the first black professor at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, the renowned Louisiana muralist leapt at the chance to canvas the walls of LSU's College of Art and design, where his work will supply inspiration and insight to art students now and into the future.

He is the Lafayette based artist to tell us how he approached this singular project.

A mural in the Art building at LSU was a huge, huge honor for me.

I've been very excited that such huge responsibility.

LSU was always the flagship of modernism in Louisiana, and my work is so much more traditional.

Painting and oriented towards helping.

Communities have mostly been doing community work most of my life.

The idea was that there wanted to do a memorial picture to this man, Julian White.

He was the first African-American teacher at LSU.

They hired him in 1970.

He was an architect working in Houston and came here to become a teacher.

He eventually became director of, art and architecture at LSU and beloved, I've met a few other professors who worked with him, knew him well, and they loved him.

I know several architects around the state who worked with him on various state and national boards.

They all thought he was just the greatest guy, so I felt a huge responsibility to try to portray him correctly.

And in meeting with other professors and with his family, his wife, Loretta White, his sons.

What came out of those discussions was that he opened the doors for so many who followed him minorities, women, people of color, all kinds of strata in social and business, people in the state.

We thought to try to come up with a composition that would portray that.

And we ended up deciding on that all the way back to pre renaissance.

The idea of a procession.

And so there was a procession traveling all through all three panels.

The three panels were given.

That's what I had to work with.

Three panels.

Procession goes on off through the university and we portrayed buildings he built in Baton Rouge, designed and built.

That middle panel where the doors are opening into are all buildings of his own design.

And at the top, we have a picture of him teaching in a classroom and leaning on the balcony of his office space.

When he first came here, after he got established, he wanted to register to practice as an architect in Louisiana, and he was standing in line with the other guys.

The white fellows at the window when he got to everyone and said, oh no, your office is over there.

He had to go outside to go to the office to register as a black man.

Years later, that became his office.

And he's the only office with a balcony.

You had to go outside to go see.

And so we've portrayed him on his balcony, looking down over the over the courtyard there with the trees, all the oaks and the moss and it's such a beautiful campus.

We've pulled that in as much as we could.

And it all comes down to the bottom, like rolling out like a red carpet.

And you'll see he is stepping into the light, out of the shadows, moving forward.

that was the the gist of the ideas we came up with him in talking about how to portray, how to honor.

It's 65ft up to the top.

That's pretty high up there.

Yeah, I've done a lot of larger paintings, but, this one is pretty big.

It is pretty complex.

The three panels are each 12ft high and 25ft wide.

There's actually 36ft of canvas and a 25ft wide.

It's a lot of square footage.

And with the proximity here, you have to have good detail on each of the four floors where it's that it's visible from, usually in really large, very, very high up things that are ten stories or 20 stories.

You you have to change how you treat the detail.

The farther up you go, it has to be bigger, bolder, simpler, more graphic, or it gets lost in the distance.

Fine, fine tuning gets lost it with range, but this one you can see into it from every level.

So it has to have a lot of fine tuning each level.

And on that scale it's a lot of work.

It is.

Yes, a lot of work.

I've known throughout my career of Conrado, Brazil's work at LSU, and I've seen a few.

In fact, I worked to do restoration of a big canvas at the Dupré Library in Lafayette.

That style, in the WPA style and Cubism and all those things that were operating in that era, had a lot to do with the establishment of modernism at LSU.

And I thought it was really important to reference that.

So I have some of those tenets operating in my composition.

Deliberate reference to Brazil.

I want to acknowledge the masters that went before me, you know, and often too.

There's something about, there's a little bit about social issues in his work, but this is entirely what this picture started as a reference to Mr. White being a pioneer in that area.

My assistant on this project, Miguel, was also an architect, also having an interest in being in this building.

landscape architecture particular.

But Miguel is an artist and a filmmaker, and he's been a great partner to have working on this project.

Instantly recognizable though, Robert, his work is it's follows in the footsteps of another iconic muralist, Conrad Al Rizzio, whose name has been associated with the most prominent artwork on campus for decades.

Those murals, though, were completed mostly by Al Breezier students, but this piece is almost entirely by had himself a master in his own right.

TV's great all, but not even the best camerawork can convey the experience of connecting with art firsthand.

So here are a handful of standout exhibits happening at museums and galleries near you.

For more about these and many more events in the arts, subscribe to US monthly, the new free e-newsletter from the editors at LPB and Country Roads Magazine.

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Eyeborgs.

Art rocks.

And while you're there, the Art rocks website features every episode of the program, so to see or share any episode again, visit lpb.org/art rocks.

Now we're off to Williamsburg, Virginia to spend time with a sculptor who employs that most difficult and durable media runs.

Marilee Cleveland lets her experiences as an artist, a wife, and a mother inform her creative process.

The result pieces that audiences can relate to and connect with on lots of levels.

Watch closely.

Casting the work in metal.

It's just a medium that I become really comfortable with and that I really, for lack of a better word, I can really shine.

There's that sense and coming out again, bronze is really the lighter of metals.

It is very cast a ball very well.

The ball.

It's great to hand file.

It's great to sand.

Very tunable.

In short, you can control it.

That's that sunshine.

There's a little a little kid I used to play in dirt piles a lot, you know, but I remember finding this huge cast iron gear and feeling like, wow, how did it get here?

Like it just came down from space and got planted there.

For me, it's sort of suspending disbelief with your artwork.

They shouldn't be able to see all the work that came into it.

They should just be like, wow, like, how did that get here?

How did she make it?

You know, I try to do things that complement are attractive and make people happy.

And I know there's a place for political work and controversial artwork, but I don't think that's me buried under the play.

As a kid, I remember looking at, the sky and trying to figure out how somebody could see a bear in the stars or, a dipper that I read a lot of books about star lore.

All the here there are types of figures.

Some of these characters are like our modern day superheroes.

There's something for everybody.

There.

When everything changes, I typically sketch in 3D and in wax.

This is a microcrystalline wax is developed for sculpture purposes.

They can be three figures based on Hopi catchiness, but our my own take on.

So I have modified them a lot.

One of them's like a sun god.

He has a rainbow.

I mean, if something doesn't make me smile, I will throw it back and melt it down.

It didn't make it.

Some things don't get committed to bronze, okay?

When James and I got together and I moved here, I continue to cast my work at foundries in Loveland, Colorado, which is where I moved here from.

I'm not currently pouring bronze in my studio, so we did, visit some dear friends of mine who are professors at East Carolina University, and they open their foundry up.

What's the largest thing you've poured here is the easy you pirate.

The pirate that's here on campus.

Here on campus.

Jodi made and I help.

Oh, we're just pouring little stuff.

Today was a wonderful opportunity.

I think for all of us.

And to let my daughter and my husband be involved too, which was pretty great for me to share that with.

Folks, this is Quinn Elizabeth.

She's our greatest work of art and collaboration.

It's mostly a visual, experience.

I think for her, one of the things that I concentrate on now is just teaching her to be comfortable in the environment where her mom creates.

I figured out early the women in my family play with fire more questions than their answers.

Let us start not seeing the hot metal flow.

I really do feel at home in that environment, kind of kind of a tribal feel.

It's very social at that level.

You really need to do the dance with your team because if you're not right on track with them, you could end in disaster.

Lower.

All right.

For the finish, please.

Thank you.

I don't I don't find tell me when we're up.

That's it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hold up.

All right.

Okay.

Done.

Yep.

We do that.

As an artist and a mother, a lot of people can't make that decision or don't make that job.

They decide to pick one or the other.

I think about it, too.

And just in my life is, how can I make this situation the best it can be?

I think that that's amazingly positive message to just put on a piece of bronze.

We'd kind of been on our own professional tracks and had not really contemplated having a family, and that's a huge transformation.

I've always like the saying that the same fire, the melted butter, hardened steel, and I think that the crucible of childbirth and parenthood and marriage has totally made us stronger.

I thought he didn't know what he was getting into, and I'm still wondering.

It was too late now.

I've been excited to be in the Williamsburg Art Gallery in Merchant Square.

It's a beautiful setting, a very intimate experience with fine arts.

The three dimensional piece of artwork.

People should want to walk around the backside.

There should be a question enough that you want to see the other side, that it's a story.

Still, even though it's all there at one time.

Could you talk the Cosmo dancers, when you see somebody have an emotional response to work that you've done, then you go, yeah, learning to communicate through a three dimensional visual language.

I want to inspire some curiosity and wonder.

That's the story.

This is.

United States military veterans in Tampa Bay, Florida, are on a mission to heal.

How?

By providing active military veterans, first responders, and their families access to teaching resources and supplies through the veterans Art center, an organization that strives to provide its community with strength through the power of art.

I'm a mac maximum, and I'm a United States.

I'm a retired major, and I am the founder and executive director for the Veterans Arts Center, Tampa Bay has.

Had.

This is Florida's first center, and it's dedicated for our military, veterans, first responders and families.

And we provide therapy, healing, wellness and educational programing.

When I started the program at USF Saint Petersburg, the officer's training program literally running in downtown Saint Petersburg at 530 in the morning with our guys and gals, our cadets.

And it just hit me like an epiphany.

And I thought, where is there a place for military veteran artists?

There has to be military artists and veteran artists out there.

And so since 2014, we started the programs, we started the foundation of the Veterans Arts Center, Tampa Bay.

And this is about mental health and healing and suicide prevention through the arts.

I alternate therapies.

We currently have ten programs.

Right now we're growing.

We're doing things like veteran Art boot camp, how to do drawing.

Last year we done a program called amplify where we brought in eight veterans together.

They created lyrics, a song and a production and a performance called Coming Together.

I don't sing, I don't play any instruments, I don't dance.

But I thought, well, why not?

So we came together and we wrote a song and we made a music video.

It was just enjoyable to do something completely out of my comfort zone.

While I was in the service years ago, while we were waiting around for let be assigned to an aircraft for to go out on our various patrols, I started sketching fellow pilots as they were sitting around the table, ready to go.

And during these sketching, I would occasionally throw one in the basket and the pilot would jump it over to say, don't do it, I paid, I want to send that home to my mother.

So I realized that perhaps some of my talents could be devoted to another way of expressing people as I saw them, and also just giving them something to remember.

That's durable.

I found an art because it relaxes you.

It keeps your mind off your personal problems and your physical problems.

Better than taking any of the opioids or pain relievers that are present on the market today.

Since 2017, we've reached out to 332 veterans, military and first responders.

And now we have prevented two suicides.

So we're very, very quietly doing things.

We partnered with the Veterans History Project with the Library of Congress, and today we are recording nine stories of veterans from World War two to today.

And they are being interviewed by volunteers.

And this has been a really, really special day for me.

I think this is a very powerful for the.

I was just getting out of high school and with my social background, so to speak, my race, I was headed straight for rice that in Vietnam way.

Straight for rice made in Vietnam didn't do any of that.

Were.

And this is what I did in the military.

I played in units with Filipino, Japanese, Germans a couple of notches, people from all over the world.

But we all speak the same language, which is music.

So we're doing various things through the arts.

We're growing.

We're gathering the data, the surveys, the testimonials.

That the arts is therapeutic, healing, wellness, and add a little bit of a unique niche for Tampa Bay.

We have funded the center through individual contributions and individual fundraisers that we've had because we're not in the art sales business.

But I give everybody the stage the opportunity to show, to sell their artwork and to bring the community together through this thing called art and the power of art.

Working in the veteran community is very different than when you're working with civilians.

So there's a certain type of attitude and like just sort of care that you need to have when you're working with that kind of community because you don't know what they've been through, you don't know how sensitive they are.

And when it comes to art, it's super personal.

So I think that was a big lesson for me is that whatever they have here, it's from their heart.

I think that it depends on who comes in.

May it be female.

That's who've been sexually assaulted, or Vietnam vets or Korea vets or OIF and all that transit all depends.

And first responders too.

I'm more crafty than artsy.

I do jewelry, I do, you know, I do woodwork leatherwork stuff like that.

We made this patriotic angel earrings.

It's therapeutic actually, for everybody.

You got to get away from your TV and your video games and your telephones and use your creative mind.

It takes your mind off your pain.

It takes your mind off your past.

It helps you take your mind off of the bad stuff that's going on.

Now let's slip into something more comfortable.

The world of fashion in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, designer Stephanie Schultz showcases original garments in a gallery space at the Pfister Hotel.

Her unique designs incorporate historical elements that defy easy categorization.

Fashion is the armor that every single person wears.

It's a way to externalize who you are inside.

My name is Stephanie Schultz and I am a fashion designer.

To me, fashion design is more than just making clothes.

It's about also telling a narrative and telling a story.

With what I'm making.

At least I feel like that's my responsibility as a fashion designer.

especially being a couturier and working in in more of high fashion.

They're a bit, they're a bit tight, but they look so good.

The difference between ready to wear and couture or high fashion, it's more about like, when do you want to use it, when do you want to wear it?

And everybody's personal style is different.

So for me, what I wear as my casual, maybe somebody is like way out there, super fancy outfit.

I think I have a distinctly unique look about my work, especially if you're looking at my work.

compared to other Milwaukee designers, I'm the only one who does, like, historically influenced high fashion.

so.

And I've never really felt like I personally fit into any kind of subculture completely.

I think I don't completely fit into goth subculture.

I don't completely fit into Japanese street fashion culture.

I don't completely fit into steampunk.

I'm an amalgamation of all of these things, and so is my work.

Part of what my responsibility is as a designer is showcasing the beauty comes in a lot of different forms.

I've always been a person who's a little bit outside the box.

That's why couture is great because it allows me to be rebellious.

But with my fashion.

Couture doesn't have to follow any kind of rules, which is really exciting.

The hardest part of being a designer is when you are designing something first and then figuring out, okay, what's the geometry of the shape that's happening here?

How do I make that into a 3D piece?

So when I'm designing, I like to create pieces that do have lacing in the back or a little bit of stretch or cut on the bias so that they conform to the body a little bit better.

Because I like to to make sure that the piece that somebody is getting from me is going to last them for a really long time.

When I'm making things that are really feminine, I use a lot of ruffles and I use a lot of flouncy kinds of fabrics, and I use a lot of really nice high end textiles and things that are very delicate.

I definitely wanted to build a high fashion collection inspired by the Victorian art collection here at the hotel, and the Pfister has the largest collection of Victorian art anywhere in the country.

It gives me, a place to start.

But it's not that I'm making exact replicas of what's in the paintings.

It's me interpreting what's there into something that's high fashion and into something that's modern, with that historic element to it.

There were some interesting elements in all of these paintings that I really wanted to draw inspiration from and translate into fabric, and have I have a living painting and do my interpretation of them, where you get the general idea of, will you look at them and you say, oh yeah, it's that painting.

Definitely.

People are so far removed from the making process of things.

People will be able to see the actual process of how a thing is made, and I'm hoping that it'll give them a greater appreciation for clothing, whether or not it's ready to wear.

What's.

Fashion is more than clothing.

Fashion is art.

And that will be that for this edition of Art rocks.

Oh, well, you can always watch episodes of the show at lpb.org/art rocks and between programs, country Roads magazine makes a great resource for learning more about what makes Louisiana culture unique, close to home and all around the state.

So until next week, I've been James Fox Smith and thank you for watching.