This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

In this edition of Arts Plus, artistry that glides through water.

And the thing about these boards is they're sculptures, you know, they're they're working sculptures, hydrofoils, you know, um, designed to do higher and higher performance surfing.

A mural project with a mission.

There are challenges to painting outside, but there are also benefits to painting outside.

So there are people who come while an artist paints multimedia performance.

I realized very quickly is that I, I didn't want to just be an actor.

I wanted to tell my own stories.

And a bronze sculptor.

My style is more realism.

I'd like to create the fantasy, whether it be in movement or color.

It's all coming up next on WEDU Arts Plus.

[music] Hello, I'm Gabe Ortiz, and this is WEDU Arts Plus.

Surfing isn't just about riding waves.

It's about the art, intuition, and craftsmanship that begins long before your feet ever touch the board.

Brett Tellinger of Gum Surfboards has been hand shaping boards for over 15 years, blending old school techniques with a deep understanding of Florida's waves to craft boards with purpose and soul.

It's being in a moment of, uh, of meditation where you're not thinking about anything other than the wave that you're on.

So it's like you're not even having to think about anything except for that moment.

It's gliding.

It's the closest thing to walking on water.

It's like flying without an engine.

[music] When I was in fourth grade, I went to the library and I saw a book on making surfboards.

And I thought it was really cool.

There was a guy glass and a board, some Hawaiian guy, and I was like, wow, this is pretty neat.

He's like, spreading this crazy liquid all over this thing.

So that is what got me into wanting to make surfboards through my aunt and my dad.

We knew of a guy here locally.

His name was Juan Rodriguez, and he's been making boards for, like, 60 years here.

And, um, so I knew of that guy.

And because you don't just go into making surfboards, like, you kind of have to have an idea of what to do.

And I had no idea.

So I went there to, like, apprentice, be a shop, do boy whatever I was told to do, and just started from the ground up.

Felt fortunate to have somebody that knew what they were doing, and had done it for so long that I could be around and be a part of something.

Starting is the hardest part.

Um, just getting having the idea of what you want to do.

Mostly when I'm shaving that, that's my favorite time.

You get into like what?

Like a like a Zen state.

A zone where you're just kind of, uh, operating and not really thinking, so where you're just kind of letting the process happen.

So it just starts with the idea of how you want to surf and where you're surfing.

Here in Florida, the waves are pretty small, so, you know, they're not the best.

My boards lean towards surfing and subpar, you know, conditions for Florida.

So I like to do longboards and fishes and mid-range mid length boards.

And then after that it's kind of, you know, the feeling and what you want to achieve.

When you have the ability to go to a shaper and explain to them the kind of surfing you want to do and the kind of boards you've been riding and what you're interested in, and then have you have them sculpt you literally sculpt you this high performance riding machine that's just for you.

I mean, of course it's going to ride better.

Like it's a no brainer.

And there's, you know, you're you're you're working with an artisan who's making a one of one for you.

And the thing about these boards is they're sculptures, you know, they're they're working sculptures, hydrofoils, you know, um, designed to do higher and higher performance surfing.

Now, the kind of surfing that I do is not like ripping with big airs and stuff, like, I'm an old guy now, so I ride longer equipment that makes it easier to get in.

It makes it easier to ride.

But like on a you know, I still have a 7'2 pintail for, um, hurricane surf for big glassy days, um, on the east coast or for travel to places that there are big, fast moving waves, you know.

Gum, surfboards.

It's kind of a metaphor for a lot of things.

Connection.

Like everybody's kind of connected.

Um, as it relates to surfboards, it's like a connection between the past and, like, going into the future.

Like stretching.

Like you're kind of stuck in one area, but you're also like taking ideas from the past and bringing them into the future.

[music] As soon as you think, oh, this is the perfect board, then like, you kind of like, stop stretching your ideas and like continually to push yourself.

So the perfect board is also like subjective to like you might make something that you think is going to be like not a good board and it ends up working really good.

So that's probably the perfect board, one that works really well.

But once you get the perfect board, it's hard to get another perfect board, you know, because they're not alike even if it's machine shaped.

Um, there's just so many little nuances like the blank, the material, how it was glass when it was glass.

There's just so many little variables to it to get the perfect board again.

[music] For more information, visit gumsurfboards.com.

The Audubon Mural Project is a public art initiative that brings awareness to the many species of birds threatened by climate change.

With the help of local artists, murals of these at risk birds appear in New York City.

[music] I had opened the gallery and wanted to bring some attention to the gallery, so I asked the one fine artist I knew who also did quote unquote, street art to paint a mural on the adjacent gates to this art gallery.

And he's from Florida.

And he said to me, I'm going to paint a flamingo for you because I'm from Florida and bring some Florida flavor.

And I made the connection John James Audubon Birds.

And that's how the project really got started.

I said, wow, this is a great idea.

Get get the word out about, you know, the threatened birds.

Beautify the neighborhood.

But let's let's be a little more ambitious.

Let's not do just a dozen birds.

Let's do all 314, you know, threatened birds do murals of all of them on gates and walls all over this neighborhood.

And Avi crazily said, sure, let's do it.

And we've been, you know, chasing our 314 number ever since.

So it's really nice to sort of publicize one of the great Americans and really one of the most interesting Americans to people who are familiar with the name but unfamiliar with the actual person.

John James Audubon was possibly America's greatest bird and natural world artist and an extraordinary pioneering ornithologist.

He spent the last ten years of his life here in Washington Heights.

The center of the project really has has shifted to what was once the Audubon estate, between a 155th and 156th Street and Broadway.

And it's appropriate because John James Audubon's final resting place is in Trinity Cemetery on 155th.

We made the decision to paint from approximately 135th Street West to 193rd Street, which is the end of Audubon Avenue, and there's no great logic to it, but we sort of thought it would be nice to keep the project uptown.

Picking the locations is a bit of a challenge, but one of the things we decided from the beginning was we weren't just going to paint anywhere.

We're looking to beautify.

So we're seeking out spaces that are in need of some sort of fix, some sort of improvement.

So, you know, the big walls that we've painted all had crumbling paint and really were in a state of disrepair.

We've worked with landlords to secure spaces like empty alcoves that are boarded up, and we can work with studio artists who are painting panels that we then install into the building.

We're mostly working with artists who are from the neighborhood or from the greater New York area.

We work with them to choose a bird.

We try not to paint the same birds twice.

We really ask them to do what they want within reason.

[music] Some of the murals contain more than one bird, so we've painted about 70 birds so far.

There are challenges to painting outside, but there are also benefits to painting outside.

So there are people who come while an artist paints and they're engaging the artist, and it's a little bit distracting, but the positive is that they're engaging the artist and they're learning about the project, and they're learning not just about global warming, they're learning about art.

I'm from the neighborhood originally, and I wanted people uptown to be able to see the sort of art that you would normally have to go to Chelsea or the Lower East Side, or maybe parts of Brooklyn for.

[music] One of the things I love about coming up here to look at and for the murals is that you can't be sure on any given visit which ones you're going to see, or that you're going to see them all in that way.

It's sort of like going out for a birding expedition.

You can't know which birds you're going to see.

[music] When you're talking about half of all North American birds being threatened, you're going to see some birds there that you wouldn't expect to see.

They will shift.

They will move.

The Baltimore Oriole is predicted to no longer be able to be seen in Baltimore.

The common loon, which is the state bird of Minnesota, is projected not to be able to be found in Minnesota.

I think that the that sort of seeing these murals of birds in this urban environment, in a particularly urban sort of art form.

It's something that gets people's attention, and I hope they will sort of investigate and see, like, what is this?

Why are these murals all here and really learn about this threat to the birds that we are used to seeing around us, even in an urban environment?

I hope that it inspires people to think about that and to and to kind of be inspired to do something about it.

On 163rd, we have one of my favorite murals.

It's by the artist Cruz, who's a New York based artist, and it's a painting of three tricolored herons.

In the mural, the polar ice caps have melted and sea levels are rising, and the three herons are sort of fighting for the last food, in this case a snake.

[music] There are so many things I'd love for people to take away from the murals and understanding of the threats that the environment faces.

More neighborhood pride for uptown Manhattan a sense that art is accessible.

I strongly encourage people to get up here because it's really an extraordinary experience.

[music] Discover more at audubonmuralproject.org.

Natasha Tsakos is a filmmaker who combines technology with live performance to create new, dynamic experiences in her work.

She reimagines what theater could be.

[music] Here, I want to show you something.

My name is Natasha Tsakos, and I am.

Are you ready?

A show maker.

[music] I went to New World School of the Arts for college, I realized very quickly is that I, I didn't want to just be an actor.

I wanted to tell my own stories.

I was excited about the potential of theater, but not so much about its execution at the moment.

I create things that do not exist yet.

Meanwhile, a new world.

I was performing in nightclubs and performing in the streets to support myself.

When you're street performing or when you're interacting this level of interaction, you're sharing a a magic moment.

And so all these worlds sort of collapsed and coalesced naturally, right?

The club culture elements came in and the rawness and the interactivity from the streets, the classical training.

[music] And so I think, naturally, when I graduated, I realized, well, I want to write my own shows.

And I started doing that, and the result was so rigid and linear.

You know, what I was imagining was shape shifting.

It was like a like a drug trip.

I don't do drugs, but I feel like I naturally trip, and I feel like that is how I want to express the stories and the journeys, um, that I want to share.

[music] As I realized that I didn't want to produce the shows, those linear, rigid shows, I.

[music] I had this epiphany and realized the words were the very problem because the words grounded us in the literal instead of lifting us up to another level.

And that is what's interesting.

So I stripped the words from the equation and I said, well, where do I go from from there?

[music] So I started doodling literally my next story and just and the doodles took form and one doodle and next to the next and the next and the next.

And then I suddenly had suddenly I had an adventure.

I had a journey.

I had a story.

Upwake tells the story of zero, who is a modern day toon character, going to work with his life in a suitcase stuck between dream and reality and not able to make out the two.

And it's definitely a commentary on modern day life.

In a way.

I wanted to make it dynamic, and I wanted drawers to open and crazy things to come out, and I wanted Zero's coworkers to be headless.

Um, of course.

Um, because zero, while he's always dreaming, is the only one who has his head on his shoulder and then and then making his way to a ginormous almost like what?

What what is now a data room, right?

Uh, of folders and files where all these headless men come out of poop.

And then, of course, has to scan himself because we know we need to be more than one in order to do anything these days.

We're living the, the, the literal life.

All of us.

The literal is so much more the abstract, right?

It's so much more interesting.

And and that is sort of the realm in which I like to, to live in.

[music] The story always comes first, and then the technology needs to support that process.

But then there's sort of a feedback loop because as we then start to go into production, technology will also inspire other possibilities that I might not have thought of.

So I'm not trying to do anything with the stage.

I'm trying to do something to people.

And that leads me to to human mode, which is what I've been working on for for four and a half years nearly.

So I went to a program called Singularity University, based in NASA in Moffett Field, California.

We are tasked to come up with an idea that will positively impact the lives of a billion people.

How can we convert the emotions and energy generated during a show into tangible actions that have positive impact, and then scale that?

Humanoid tells the story of the last human brain kept captive in a surreal scientific traveling show led by a demented headmaster.

And tonight, the brain escapes into people's phones as it tries to make sense of the world.

We're going through this extraordinary ride, right?

That highlights and raises awareness on some of the most important causes.

And then at key moments, your phone is being triggered to do something about it.

If you wanted to, you'll actually get to donate.

sign petitions.

It will be a live epic production when the time is right, but it can also be an interactive reality movie.

[music] I push the envelope by asking, what now?

What next?

And what if.

I am imagination?

[music] To see more, go to natashatsakos.com.

In Reno, Nevada, artist June Towill Brown creates bronze sculptures from humans to animals.

She embraces realism and reproduces the structure and personality of her subjects.

[music] My style is more realism.

I'd like to create the fantasy, whether it be in movement or color.

I want people to see my pieces and know what it is.

[music] So I'd like to do a series of three, and the reason is I would get very bored doing nothing but Native Americans or horses.

So that allows me to create a story for my collectors.

Right now I'm doing The Wild Animals, which consists of a baby giraffe, then the ostrich.

And right now I'm working on the lion.

The male lion.

[music] When I start, I will create a storyboard and the storyboard will have different images.

And this case is the male lion standing running close up of the face.

And then I will work out a wire armature so I get the proportions right.

So from the proportions then I start bulking out.

Then I'll apply the clay on top of it, and I have to put all the clay on first, like the crumb coat of a cake, and it starts giving me the energy of the image.

Then I must do the face.

I have to have some concept of the face where the eyes are going, and to me that gives it the soul.

[music] It's rough until you start the final process.

Final process could be so detailed that you're using a fine brush.

So once the clay is done and I'm happy with it, then I will get it to the foundry.

I sculpt in a clay that never hardens, which allows me to have molds made from the molds.

It is now cast into bronze.

So after the mold is completed, they break the mold.

And that way my clients know that it's a limited edition.

[music] See, many of my pieces have color on them.

It's not paint, it is a color patina and that's applied with a heated torch.

Heating up the metal.

And then they apply the types of acid and they build up the color.

And it really brings even more dimension to the piece.

[music] There's one that I've done is Lady Hawk, and she's a mythical and she's holding a hawk.

And it started with wanting to do partial nude and not be offensive and have that flow.

Many times you'll see my pieces that are contrapposto, meaning counterbalance.

And just like the statue of David, you see, that's curve and which is very sensual, if you will, for the eye.

The eye moves around the art, and that's what people seem to gravitate to.

And I wanted her to be more of a that coloration neutral, but I wanted the hawk to stand out.

So he was black patina.

[music] The town of Incline Village was having a 80 foot roundabout created where Mount Rose and highway 28 meet right at the Lake Tahoe, and I was selected to create eight life size animals, the largest being the bear There.

There's a mule deer.

[music] A coyote.

[music] A bobcat, a blue jay, and squirrels.

At the time when this was being done, 3 million people would enter that intersection.

So I know that there's a lot more people that are visiting it.

[music] There's a passion when you're sculpting, regardless of what it is, when you lose yourself, you know, all of a sudden four hours go by and you don't even notice.

That's the passion.

That's the excitement that I enjoy.

You get into it.

It's just not picking up clay and going for it.

And that to me, is exciting.

[music] Learn more at junetowillbrown.com And that wraps it up for this edition of WEDU Arts Plus.

To view more, visit wedu.org/artsplus.

Or follow us on social.

Until next time, I'm Gabe Ortiz.

Thanks for watching.

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