(soft orchestral music) (exciting music) - [Jade] Print pigs and pineapples onto the art of Roberto Juarez.

Learn about the Sanctuary for Independent Media with Kristen Holler.

And catch a performance from Mark Oppenier.

It's all ahead on this episode of "AHA: A House for Arts."

- [Announcer] Funding for AHA has been provided by your contribution and contributions to the WMHT venture fund.

Contributors include the Leo Cox Beach Philanthropic Foundation, Chet and Karen Opalka, Robert and Doris Fischer Malesardi, and The Robison Family Foundation.

- At M&T Bank, we understand that the vitality of our communities is crucial to our continued success.

That's why we take an active role in our community.

M&T Bank is pleased to support WMHT programming that highlights the arts and we invite you to do the same.

(exciting music) - Hi, I'm Jade Warrick, and this is AHA, "A House for Arts," a place for all things creative.

Let's send it right over to Matt for today's film segment.

(soft orchestral music) - I'm here at the studio of Roberto Juarez to get a behind the scenes look at the pineapples and pigs featured in his current work.

Let's go.

(exciting orchestral music) - I'm a painter, a printmaker, an artist.

I make large scale paintings for public buildings, I paint in my studio for exhibitions and galleries, I keep everything and make collages out of them, and use them as source materials for larger paintings.

So little to big is, I think, the thing that I love doing.

(exciting orchestral music) So Matt, these are the collages I make in my studio almost daily and from this little collage that was made in 2018, I made this painting a couple days ago that is one of the newest works in the room.

So you can see how the design of this collage gets translated to a larger picture.

(soft piano music) I always knew I was gonna be an artist, even as a child.

In fact, as a child, I would draw constantly and my parents didn't really support it.

There wasn't a lot of art in the house, so I figured out that if I drew under tables and under chairs, no one would find them.

And so, that's where it was my secret place to draw and paint.

In seventh grade, I was taken to the Art Institute for the first time in Chicago.

Mrs. Sundale, my art teacher, took us to see Van Gogh paintings and it changed my life.

I was, you know, this little kid, but I knew that that was the important thing, the thing that I cared about.

I'm painting these paintings that I call "In My Grandmother's Front Yard" because of these images of the pineapple and the pig, once I printed them on Chinese paper, I started remembering the first time I saw her front yard and I was probably 12, had never left Chicago, and there was a gigantic pig tied to a mango tree in the front yard of my grandmother.

And her kitchen was on the porch, so she would cook outside, and it was just a different world.

It opened a whole idea of who I was and what, you know, what could be out there.

As a kid, it's a fond memory, it's a warm memory.

And so, once I saw this, I thought, okay, I'm here, I'm gonna be playing in my grandmother's back yard, or front yard, so to speak, and that gave me an extra kind of joy of working.

So what I do is I print on the Chinese paper these images and gather them and give them different sgraffito and different textures.

This is a horse brush for, like, brushing horses and it was given to me as a gift and I never knew what to use it for because it's kind of too coarse for the kind of marks I make on canvas, but it's perfect for printing.

I'll show you.

(exciting orchestral music) And then I start painting on the underpainting.

Underpaintings are made, in my process, by collaging small collages and that's how I work out the dynamic of what I want to save visually.

And once I have that, I blow it up, and then on top of that I started adhering these pigs and pineapple and then what happens in that interface, I respond to my own painting, my own tearing, my own drawing on top of it, so that it becomes one.

(soft orchestral music) I also do public work.

I do gigantic murals for mostly courthouses.

I did a federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida.

We're in the room where it was painted and it is a 20 foot tall by 10 foot stretched piece of linen.

They were kind of surreal in a sense because they were flowers from aboveground all underwater and there were microscopic kind of life living with these flowers and there were two sides to this gigantic entryway, one side was nature, and that was the painting you saw as you left because it helped kind of bring you back into the world, and on the other side of the wall as you approached or entered the building, you saw this kind of more abstract idea of culture.

So it was culture and nature together.

To be able to be given a piece of architecture like the courthouse and say what and how could art affect this space?

And part of it is the psychology of the space, what is happening with the people who enter this space, and that's the challenge.

Grand Central Station was the perfect example of that.

It was a pivotal or important point in my career because I was a young artist, I was competing with, like, these big names for this very kind of sought after commission and there was a tie, so to speak, and they couldn't decide between me and this other artist, and somebody, a friend of mine who's a prominent artist, came in and said, "Give the kid a chance."

And they did.

It's about kind of comforting, cloistering to passengers, the travelers, and the smaller room inside of this cathedral of travel which is Grand Central, which I love.

It was historic and it's still there.

In this latest work, which is in the room right now, there's a lot of vibrant color and I think that's a need for some kind of excitement and joy that I wasn't feeling from the outside world right now.

The pandemic has been a little hard on me.

It took me work to start to work again and once I started to work, I didn't want to be dreadful in what I was saying or doing, I wanted to enjoy my life again and not worry about living or dying or, you know, the politics of the moment.

I really wanted to create, like, an oasis or a place that I could go that had these feelings from my past.

And so, I think the colors speak to that, they're very bright, there's not a lot of pastels or soft tones, they're very graphic, and not pop, but almost pop.

I often wonder what do people do who don't do art?

I mean, it's like it's so part of my everyday.

It gives me life and I love sharing what I can share in art.

I mean, that's part of the whole process, not just the making, it's wonderful, but when you put it out in the world, like what we have in Pittsfield now.

People respond, and it's something they wanna see right now, and it makes me feel like I have a purpose.

Which I do.

I mean, I think it's real, it's a real purpose.

- The Sanctuary for Independent Media is a production facility in Troy, New York dedicated to community media arts.

I sat down with the Sanctuary's new executive director Kristen Holler to learn more about her creative background.

Welcome to "House for Arts," Kristen, it's nice to have you here today.

- Thank you for having me.

- I'm ready to talk about all things artistic, media, your own background, so to begin, I wanna learn a little bit more about your creative background.

Who is KP Kristen, the creative soul?

(both chuckle) - I think creative soul is on point.

I think I've just always been, you know, creative, highly curious, almost to a fault, I would say.

And so, I think I just grew up, like, loving the creative arts.

My grandparents really inspired a lot of that, taking me to theater and dance.

But I also had a very practical upbringing, and so at the time when it came down to choosing what to do for a career, you know, the voices behind me were saying, "Go do something practical, go do something, you know, that's gonna pay the bills."

And I took a, you know, a sharp turn and went into, you know, more of a science and engineering space, I studied business for a while.

I had this, like, academic unrest, I couldn't really find where I wanted to be.

- So starting from, like, oh, I'm gonna go to school to become a scientist or a doctor and an engineer, so what was that one moment that made you be like, no, this is not the craft for me?

- You know, I was so deeply immersed in music and theater especially as a young person and it really shaped who I was, but, you know, a combination of influences, being a little shy, and just not really having that desire to perform, you know, like I said, I went and did something else.

And at a point in my college career when I was kind of feeling a bit lost, I was looking for activities to do for a philanthropy organization student group that I was a part of and I came across this MySpace profile for the Albany Barn and I read all about, you know, creating this space where, you know, artists could come and live and work and take that creative energy and do good, you know, sort of out in the world and that that required support and maybe I didn't want to be one of those performing artists or visual artists, but, like, I could be the support and that was such a light bulb moment that had never been shown to me, you know, sort of as a path to take and I was all in.

You know, I sort of from that moment learned all about the organization, I signed up to do an internship, which required changing my major in college, and it just sort of really literally changed the entire course of my life.

- Oh, that's amazing.

That's kind of related to my next question I was gonna ask, why do you enjoy working within creative nonprofit?

- It definitely stretches those creative muscles, you know, really plays to my passions, but I also, you know, and getting into this work have figured out that so many people, you know, like those voices behind me telling me to get a real job and figure out how to pay the bills, you know, people really miss the point on what type of impact creatives, artists, creative thinkers, problem solvers have on our community.

And I just really believe in that because I've seen it and I love hearing the ideas of creative thinkers, of people who see an obstacle and go, nope, I will figure out how to get over that, how to get around it, how to break it down completely.

And that's just, it's not something you get in other work environments.

And so, for me, it's been as much about sharing that side of the experience as it has been, you know, standing in spaces and seeing really amazing performing and visual arts happening all around me, which is just like the cherry on the sundae.

- Right?

So I wanna go a little bit over your new role, you are the executive director at the Sanctuary for Independent Media.

Give us a little bit of background about that organization and what services do they provide for the community.

- So, you know, I just told you about my odd road into, you know, being an arts administrator, right, and it touched on engineering and science and math and music and dance all of these other things, and so finding a place like the Sanctuary for Independent Media, which started as, you know, a collective of independent media makers and activists who were looking for a space to do their own work and then built this really beautiful community around the idea of independent media being important, and it's blossomed and grown into this incredible, you know, presenting organization.

You know, then there came community gardens and permaculture projects, and from that a community science lab, and from the community science lab grew this incredible mutual aid health and wellness space.

So it's just this beautiful marriage of, like, art and science and media all tied together in this pursuit of social justice and environmental justice and the freedom to express ourselves.

And so, for a person like me, that eternally curious, creative person, it's like a playground, I could not be happier to be, you know, sort of where I am.

- And do you think, since, you know, media, they are at their roots, a media company, do you think that that comes at a strength because there's naturally that organic active listening piece to it?

- Yeah, I think that, you know, sort of journalistic root of the organization, again, it fuels that curiosity, that desire to stay up on what is currently impacting the people around you.

You know, one of the initiatives of the Sanctuary is the Hudson Mohawk Magazine, it's a one hour totally locally produced, locally focused news magazine.

It covers headlines, it covers environmental topics, it covers what's going on in our schools, our libraries, politics.

So there is this inherent collection and sharing of stories that's so woven through the media element.

And then because the media element is brought into all of our programming, everything is really about telling the story and not just the Sanctuary as an organization telling stories of a community, but about creating space for everybody to share their own stories and to talk about the things that are really important to them.

And so, it does happen on this very local level with, you know, our low powered FM station, but then that gets streamed over the internet and our reach is, you know, multi-state, multi-national.

- I was gonna say national.

- That's really cool, you know, to be a high school student or a college student or a retiree coming in to volunteer as a radio producer and knowing that your story about something that's happening in Troy or Schenectady or Albany is reaching, you know, all over the nation and potentially internationally.

- Have you seen any students or any folks who have been involved in these programs just, like, flourish within them?

Have you seen any success stories or anything personally yet?

- One of the things I'm just continuously blown away by as I'm, you know, onboarding and have been in this role for, you know, only about a month and a half now is all of the success stories, all of the people who have really leveraged internship opportunities or come in as a volunteer presenter at the Sanctuary and connected with others who supported their work and, you know, opened other connections, made other introductions, and now these folks are, you know, creating documentaries, writing books, going and pursuing advanced degrees, and going on to really work in these important fields of, you know, independent media and art because they got a start or just got the support that they were looking for and a community of encouraging people at the Sanctuary to help move that forward.

- And how dedicated do you think the Sanctuary is to supporting local not only artists, but folks who wanna be in media or science?

Like, how do they provide that support?

- There are just so many opportunities to get involved and to direct your own involvement.

And that's the thing that I think is really also very special for me, you know, as someone who doesn't fit into a traditional artist role, for example, or, you know, someone who likes to dabble in a lot of different things, you could come in and you could produce a segment for the radio on some topic that you're interested in, or cover a local event that you think is important and not getting covered, you know, other places in the media, and then maybe you come in and volunteer to film one of our live performances and do some post-production and learn editing and this development of skills that you can, you know, kind of have here and direct how that happens for you is really great.

And then maybe you wanna take a break from the technology side of things and go and get your hands dirty in the garden.

You can do that too.

- Wow, well, there's a little bit for everyone then.

Well, you heard that, folks.

Get in touch with the Media Sanctuary, befriend Kristen, an amazing creative, and thank you again for taking the time to talk to us today.

I appreciate you.

- Thanks.

Yeah, thanks so much for having me, always fun.

- Please welcome Mark Oppenier.

(somber piano music) ♪ Another night of silent sleep ♪ ♪ I wake up in the morning ♪ ♪ And wipe the dry from my eyes ♪ ♪ And it seems I'm crying in my dreams ♪ ♪ In my dream I am a little child ♪ ♪ Holding my father's hand ♪ ♪ I think he says to me ♪ ♪ Look out for the storm ♪ ♪ La da da da da da ♪ ♪ I made it to the hallway mirror ♪ ♪ Gotta take a look at me ♪ ♪ I'm all worn around the edges and it seems ♪ ♪ I've been crying my dreams ♪ ♪ In my dream I am a little child ♪ ♪ Still that little child today ♪ ♪ No matter what my dad might say ♪ ♪ Look out for the storm ♪ ♪ La da da da da da ♪ ♪ Saint Christopher where have you been ♪ ♪ I prayed your name again and again ♪ ♪ Forsaken I stand ♪ ♪ As the clouds come rolling in ♪ ♪ Always at night ♪ ♪ When I sleep ♪ ♪ Always at night ♪ ♪ When I dream ♪ ♪ In my dream I am a little child ♪ ♪ Still that little child today ♪ ♪ No matter what my dad might say ♪ ♪ Look out for the storm ♪ ♪ La da da da da da ♪ ♪ Another night of silent sleep ♪ ♪ I wake up in the morning ♪ ♪ And wipe the dry from my eyes ♪ ♪ And it seems ♪ ♪ I've been crying in my dreams ♪ (tender piano music) ♪ I have been seeking higher ground ♪ ♪ And the rain is coming down ♪ ♪ Don't wanna be a fool who's unprepared for what's to come ♪ ♪ I don't wanna be the one who drowns ♪ ♪ And I've seen this all before ♪ ♪ Ten years of fair weather ♪ ♪ Feet solid on the floor ♪ ♪ Then the world goes sideways ♪ ♪ And I'm spinning in the dark ♪ ♪ Don't want to be caught up in the storm ♪ ♪ I am still holding on ♪ ♪ Until this tempest calms ♪ ♪ I am still holding on ♪ ♪ Until this dark is gone ♪ ♪ I am caught up in the flow ♪ ♪ And I'm never letting go ♪ ♪ Too stubborn to surrender ♪ ♪ Too proud to sacrifice ♪ ♪ And I'm the one who'd know ♪ ♪ I am still holding on ♪ ♪ Until this tempest calms ♪ ♪ I am still holding on ♪ ♪ Until this dark is gone ♪ ♪ Tired of rebuilding ♪ ♪ Tired of remorse ♪ ♪ So tired of the feeling ♪ ♪ And being blown off course ♪ ♪ I am still holding on ♪ ♪ Until this tempest calms ♪ ♪ I am still holding on ♪ ♪ Until this dark is gone ♪ (soft music) - Thanks for joining us.

For more art, visit WMHT.org/AHA and be sure to connect with us on social.

I'm Jade Warrick, thanks for watching.

(soft music) - [Announcer] Funding for AHA has been provided by your contribution and by contributions to the WMHT venture fund.

Contributors include the Leo Cox Beach Philanthropic Foundation, Chet and Karen Opalka, Robert and Doris Fischer Malesardi, and The Robison Family Foundation.

- At M&T Bank, we understand that the vitality of our communities is crucial to our continued success.

That's why we take an active role in our community.

M&T Bank is pleased to support WMHT programming that highlights the arts and we invite you to do the same.