VOA – CONNECT
EPISODE # 314
AIR DATE: 01 19 2024

FULL SHOW TRANSCRIPT

OPEN
((VO/NAT/SOT))
((Topic Banner))
Fungi Photographer
((SOT))
((Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist and Photographer))
So, that way I'm not stacking. I’m just taking a picture.
There’s a lot of reasons that it’s important to photograph nature. One of them is scientific documentation, so you can record all of the features that you see. The other is so you can really spark people’s enthusiasm and excitement about nature with a good photograph.
((NATS)) The light was just coming from behind the mushroom.
((Animation Transition))
((Topic Banner))
Balancing Rock Artist
((SOT))
((Michael Grab
Artist))
It has a way of channeling human attention to the surroundings going on all around that tunes the human brain into actually really paying close attention to nature.
((Animation Transition))
((Topic Banner))
A Carceral Aesthetic
((SOT))
((Jared Owens
Artist))
That was the thing that kept me going, was the challenge of saying, “Hey, I'm going to make it through this, you know, part of my life, and I'm going to get home, and I'm going to have a practice.” I studied like a lot. What paints are made out of, the materials, what the masters painted with.
((Topic Banner))
Nature: Valdez, Alaska
((NATS))
((Open Animation))



((PKG)) BALANCING ROCK ARTIST
((TRT: 08:15))
((Topic Banner: Balancing Rock Artist))
((Reporter/Camera: Aaron Fedor))
((Producer: Kathleen McLaughlin))
((Editor: Kyle Dubiel))
((Map: Boulder, Colorado))
((Main characters: 0 female; 1 male))
((Sub characters: 0 female; 0 male))
((Blurb: Artist Michael Grab shows us how he creates his balanced rock sculptures.))
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Michael Grab
Artist))
Like right now, I'm kind of just gathering a selection of rocks that I'm not sure if I'll use or not, but they're just possibilities to work in different sequences with other rocks. Boulder Creek is a bit of a gravity glue graveyard because I'll often find rocks that I balanced like four or five years ago. Like this one, for example, is balanced in 2019. This one in 2018.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Courtesy: Michael Grab))
Well, when I first started doing this, I just did it in the summer as a way to keep cool on hot days. But then I started to get fishing waders, and come out in the fall, and then the winter,
((Courtesy: Michael Grab))
and started noticing that there's all these different elements at play. Like the funnest thing about working in the winter is being able to splash water on this, and the whole thing starts to freeze and like gets icicles and things like that. So, there's just a very dynamic kind of land art element depending on the season. Generally, I push myself to get out here every day or as much as I can all throughout the year, but it also just depends where I am. Also, I'm not always like in a freezing environment in the winter, so…
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Courtesy: Michael Grab))
I call my work Gravity Glue, and that name came from just being at the creek here and people stopping with some kind of curiosity to the structures I'm building
((Courtesy: Michael Grab))
and asking if they're glued. So, I decided Gravity Glue is a good name because gravity is the only glue that holds it together. ((NATS/MUSIC))
((Michael Grab
Artist))
So I kind of, like I put this base rock here in this orientation because it's really heavy, just because it has, I don't know, a series of notches on this top face that can work in different ways to start a balance. That can maybe start with something like this, like just something extremely basic. It's kind of the first thing I teach in workshops, is just balancing a single rock on a tip.
((Courtesy: Michael Grab))
((Michael Grab
Artist))
The impermanent nature of it is part of the power and the beauty of the art form, the fact that it doesn't last. It's like any kind of beautiful experience that you have. Like it’s power comes from it’s temporary nature, but it also creates space for a different art form, which is the photography and the videography of recording it and kind of crystallizing it in this visual medium.
((Courtesy: Michael Grab))
So in that sense, it is a way of making it last forever. So, I can keep kind of a portfolio and a library of all the stuff I've created. But in the real world where it's created, it only lasts for a short time.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Michael Grab
Artist))
Going to make something that has legs. And this is working with some elements that I was using before in a previous structure a couple of weeks ago. Like I'm trying to kind of attach or connect these rocks in certain ways where I can still feel that stability wherever I want to put a new rock. So like right here, I could probably just stand on it and it'll support me.
((Michael Grab
Artist))
Well, I just…I started rock balancing basically by accident, just hanging out at the creek during August of 2008, and was hanging out with a friend, and just kind of in the middle of a psychedelic experience looking for certain rocks. We were just sitting in the creek and moving rocks around, and eventually we had piles of rocks. Eventually, we just stopped looking for a certain rocks and just started balancing them.
((NATS))
((Courtesy: Michael Grab))
Since my work started getting traction all around the world, I've started traveling a lot more to different environments, so I'll just kind of do it wherever I end up. As long as there's rocks and gravity, it just kind of works.
((Michael Grab
Artist))
And everything that's happening here is just physics essentially, and it does have a very explainable, tangible mechanics behind it. Like it is just using the edges of the rocks. Like I like to compare the rocks as kind of like a finger pointing at the moon, where the rocks are kind of the finger, and the rest of nature is the moon. So, like once this structure is standing, it has a way of channeling human attention to the surroundings going on all around.
((NATS))
((Courtesy: Michael Grab))
And I think that's part of the magic of it all, is it tunes the human brain into actually really paying close attention to nature. Like land art in general is much more of this collaboration with nature or like working with it, not against it. And there's not really any way you can control nature. It’s just the nature of it, is to not be in control. So, it requires myself to surrender to some degree and basically fall in line with what nature is doing. Like a structure like this, for example, is not going to exist unless nature allows it
((Courtesy: Michael Grab))
through whatever wind activity or weather is going on. Like, that's why I consider this a form of yoga or like stone yoga, because very literally, it's taking all these separate parts and balancing them in a certain way to become a unified whole. It's creating some kind of union, but also that's going on with myself, this sense of separate itself from nature. It's kind of like creating a yoga between myself and the natural environment. So, like when I'm building, and working with these vibrations, and tuning into the moment, and finally ending up at this zero point where it's all balanced, and I can let go, that zero point is where I can't really distinguish between myself and nature. It's like a very unified moment. My art was this huge leap into the unknown. For anyone that might be scared to take a leap into the unknown, I would say, you really have to trust your instinct and what your heart is telling you,
((Courtesy: Michael Grab))
and that may still end up in a situation that might not work, but it might. I guess, I want to translate some of what I feel to other people, which is just kind of this sense of peace and magic.
((Courtesy: Michael Grab))
((NATS))


TEASE
((VO/NAT/SOT))
More after the break…
((Topic Banner))
Fungi Photographer
((SOT))
((Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist and Photographer))
This one, like most of my images, like most of my photos are image stacked. And so, I combine a whole lot of pictures into one picture. I can tell its image stacked because you can see that this is really sharp but the background is really blurry, and that’s because it had the aperture all the way open. So, the aperture is what controls the depth of field, so that controls how blurry your background is.


BUMP IN ((ANIM))
((Social Media PKG)) CREATING SCULPTURES
((Topic Title: Painting Altoid Tins))
((Original Producer/Camera: Aaron Fedor))
((Producer: Kathleen McLaughlin))
((Editor: Kyle Dubiel))
((Social Media Producer/Editor: Lisa Vohra))
((TRT: 1:00))
((Blurb/Caption: Meet Remington Robinson, an artist who paints miniature oil paintings in Altoid Tins.))
((Courtesy: Remington Robinson))
((Remington Robinson
Artist))
The number one thing that inspires my art is nature itself.
((Remington Robinson
Artist))
This is a landscape of Boulder [Colorado]. There are the Flatirons [rock formations near Boulder, Colorado] right there, at sunset during a rainstorm. I was painting on the overlook off of Highway 93 in South Boulder.
((Courtesy: Remington Robinson))
You can see a little bit of rain coming down there.
((Remington Robinson
Artist))
I’m just setting up my tin so I can start another painting. This is a brand-new tin. I don't always use the same colors. I like to kind of keep it fresh and experiment a little bit.
((Courtesy: Remington Robinson))
((Remington Robinson
Artist))
For younger artists starting out, what I would recommend is find a niche of something that you like to paint but also something that sets you apart from other people. And if you really feel strongly about your work and you like it a lot, then other people will like it too, I think.
BUMP OUT ((ANIM))

((PKG)) FUNGI PHOTOGRAPHER
((TRT: 07:40))
((Topic Banner: Fungi Photographer))
((Reporter/Camera: Aaron Fedor))
((Producer: Kathleen McLaughlin))
((Editor: Kyle Dubiel))
((Map: Manchester by the Sea, Massachusetts))
((Main characters: 0 female; 1 male))
((Sub characters: 2 female; 3 male))
((Blurb: Mycologist and photographer Alan Rockefeller teaches a class in how to photograph mushrooms.))
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Courtesy: Alan Rockefeller))
((NATS))
((Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist and Photographer))
Here's how I took this picture. You can see I took one of these Ulanzi lights and put it right next to the lens.
((NATS))
((Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist and Photographer))
It's not super fluorescent, but if it was pitch dark, we could make it good fluorescent.
((Speaker 1))
Should we save it for tonight then?
((Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist and Photographer))
Yeah.
((Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist and Photographer))
So, I got into mushrooms first, and then I got into photography later, so I could document my mushrooms. And I really did learn photography the wrong way, and that's just by taking bad photos for years and years.
((Courtesy: Alan Rockefeller))
So anything before 2010 is completely unusable. You know, what I really should have done is just ask like my dad or someone like, “Hey, how do I take a really good picture of a mushroom?” But instead, I just got a camera and started just using it and it was so bad. So now, I can teach someone how to take really good mushroom pictures in,
((end Courtesy))
you know, a pretty short amount of time. Just like in a day, I can, you know, teach everybody the things that it took me probably
20 years to learn to teach myself because I’m stubborn.
((Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist and Photographer))
Oh, and the other way to get a good picture of this would just be to close the aperture down. So, that way I'm not stacking. I'm just taking a picture. There's a lot of reasons that it's important to photograph nature. One of them is
((Courtesy: Alan Rockefeller))
scientific documentation, so you can record all of the features that you see.
((end Courtesy))
((Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist and Photographer))
The other is just to get people excited about nature. So, if you can take a really good picture of something out in nature, you can share it on social media, and thousands of people will see this picture and they'll be like, “Wow, that thing is really cool.
((Courtesy: Alan Rockefeller))
I want to see something like that. I want to be able to take pictures like that.” So, you can really spark people's enthusiasm and excitement about nature with a good photograph.
((end Courtesy))
((Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist and Photographer))
The light was just coming from behind the mushroom, so the light was like, the sunbeam was kind of coming at me, and I'm just kind of on the shadow side. That's the only picture I've ever taken like that. I love how it turned out.
((Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist and Photographer))
Mushrooms are just really interesting. One reason is that, you know, I've always liked to be out in nature, but I would kind of feel like I wasn't really making good use of my time when I was out in nature. Because sure I get a little bit of exercise, and sure it's pretty out there, but, you know, am I really furthering any of my goals when I'm out in nature? So, I almost felt guilty, just like spending all my weekends wandering around trails. But then when I got into mushrooms, I have an actual objective
((Courtesy: Alan Rockefeller))
and I tell myself, “No, I'm not wasting my time.” You know, I'm out there getting the best picture I possibly can of all these mushrooms. You know, I got an actual goal out there. And so, it's definitely makes me feel like I have more of a sense of purpose. But also, mushrooms are just really mysterious, so they never get old. The more you look, the closer you look at them, the more interesting they become. You start to learn all the mushrooms, and then you see a mushroom that you've learned. It's like seeing an old friend and you're like, “Oh, cool. It's this one again.” You know, maybe, I haven't seen this one in five or 10 years.
I’m always looking for the nicest example of something. So, I can take a really good picture of a mushroom, but somewhere out there, there's always going to be a better example of it. You know, better shape, bigger, more of them and more stages of development. There’s always, you know, you’re always going to be able to get different, better pictures of mushrooms.
((end Courtesy))
((NATS))
((Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist and Photographer))
Yeah, so this is Penicillium Vulpinum. And so, I just focus this all the way close, and I'm going to tell it to take 100 photos because 78 was not enough. I take all of my mushroom photographs and put them all on iNaturalist and Mushroom Observer. So, these are these citizen science websites where I upload my photos there
((Courtesy: Alan Rockefeller))
and they get saved forever, sort of like a digital online herbarium. So, I can just go on iNaturalist, and it'll tell me exactly how many mushrooms I've photographed. And last I checked, it was around 2,200 different species of mushrooms, and I think I got about 2,500 different species of plants, and then I got, you know, a few hundred species of insects.
((end Courtesy))
((Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist and Photographer))
So, it's a really good way to keep track of everything that I've been finding out in nature. When I was in high school, I got really into computer hacking. So, I was doing a lot of illegal breaking into computers, because when you're 14 years old, like breaking in an army base is like super cool. But when I graduated from high school, then I started working in industry doing computer hacking for companies and governments.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist and Photographer))
So, this is a Crust Fungus, and it is a strongly fluorescent one.
I like doing nighttime photography. It's kind of cool because you're adding your own light for the most part. So, you can add ultraviolet light. You can have light of any color. You can put the light from any direction. So, you can get some really unique shots. And then some mushrooms glow in the dark, so they make their own light. So, I can do a long exposure and pick up the light that the mushrooms make themselves.
((Courtesy: Alan Rockefeller))
But usually at night, I'm doing ultraviolet photography, so I'm just shining ultraviolet light. In that way, I'm showing the fluorescence of the mushrooms and I get all sorts of really cool, you know, vivid colors that you can't get during the day.
((NATS))
((Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist and Photographer))
You hit the menu button
((Gary Gilbert
Executive Committee Boston Mycological Club))
Yeah.
((Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist and Photographer))
And it's under the photo shooting menu. So, you hit left to get back out of here.
((Gary Gilbert
Executive Committee Boston Mycological Club))
He's really even keeled, very affable, shares his knowledge without holding back at all. I said, “Hey, you want to come up to New England and give a photography workshop?” Because I couldn't make it to the workshop he's holding in Wisconsin because it's an isolated island. And he said, “Sure.” And then I said, “Hey, why don't you stay a few extra days, and we can take you up into the woods of New England.”
((NATS))
((Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist and Photographer))
Shooting start. And put some light.
((Gary Gilbert
Executive Committee Boston Mycological Club))
You're adding light just for the sake of it.
((Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist and Photographer))
Just a little bit of extra light because there was kind of a shadow on that side.
((Ruthie Ristich
Member, Boston Mycology Club, Maine Mycological Association))
I've been following him on Instagram probably for the last year and a half. And when I saw the announcement that he was coming to town, I just instantly emailed Gary. I've been shooting myself for a number of years, but I'm really interested in what he talked a lot about today, which is focus stacking.
((Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist and Photographer))
This one, like most of my images, like most of my photos are image stacked, and so I combine a whole lot of pictures into one picture. I can tell it's image stacked because you can see that this is really sharp, but the background is really blurry. And that's because I had the aperture all the way open. So, the aperture is what controls your depth of field, so that controls how blurry your background is. So, this is probably like 60 photos combined into one. It's true that computer hacking and nature photography and the study of mushrooms are complete opposites, and that's why I like them so much. Because, you know, its…you can do a lot of powerful things on the computer, but then you're sitting indoors at a desk all the time, and it's really cool to be out in nature, but you kind of need the computers to record
((Courtesy: Alan Rockefeller))
and share what you're finding in nature. And, you know, if I spend half my time indoors on the computer and the computer or in the laboratory, and half my time outdoors in nature,
((end Courtesy))
it adds really good balance to my life, so I don't get tired of either one.
((Courtesy: Alan Rockefeller))
((NATS/MUSIC))

((PKG)) JARED OWENS - ARTIST
((Previously aired February, 2023))
((TRT: 07:50))
((Topic Banner: A Carceral Aesthetic))
((Reporter/Camera: Aaron Fedor))
((Producer: Kathleen McLaughlin))
((Editor: Kyle Dubiel))
((Map: New York City, New York))
((Main characters: 0 female; 1 male))
((Sub characters: 0 female; 0 male))
((Blurb: Jared Owens shares his different techniques and creative process to create one-of-a-kind art.))
((NATS))
((Jared Owens
Artist))
Oh, we’re in luck. Yes, we are. Yeah. We got some live paint here. You gotta…try to…yeah…get it across and then, like that.

((Jared Owens
Artist))
My name is Jared Scott Owens. I’m a visual artist. My practice is still developing. I'm incorporating found objects. I have a background in ceramics and assemblage and some installation art.
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Courtesy: Jared Owens))
((Jared Owens
Artist))
I went to prison for conspiracy to possess narcotics, cocaine. Life in the federal prison was like waiting at DMV [Department of Motor Vehicles] with stabbings in between.
((Text on screen: Jared Owens served 13 years, 3 months at Fairton Federal Prison in New Jersey from February 2000 to April 2013.))
((MUSIC))
((Jared Owens
Artist))
It was like my fifth year. I was walking through the rec [recreation] yard and they had a ceramic program there.
((Courtesy: Jared Owens))
And I remember that I did ceramics as a child. That was my first love. So, I started going in there. I got the ceramic bug, which is a weird bug to get, but the ceramic bug is good because it's very Zen like, sort of take your mind off, you know, your situation. So, I needed that.
((Courtesy: Jared Owens))
And then eventually, wound up teaching classes, taking over a lot of responsibilities inside the ceramic room itself, teaching other guys throughout the years. I segued into painting because I always painted too. I had a[n] easel in junior high school and high school. And then I just, I knew, I started really looking at art in magazines and I said, you know what? I need to paint. I understand the language, what it takes to do it. And I didn't have the material to do it, but I could visualize what it was to paint.
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Jared Owens
Artist))
How art helped me in prison was definitely a coping mechanism, but it was also an exercise in seeing what I can get away with while I was in there. I always need to feel like I'm breaking the law for some reason. And art made me feel like I was breaking the law while I was in prison without really doing anything that's going to get me in big trouble. Even making pieces inside, anything that was made, to me, was valuable because it was creativity in a place that was supposed to oppress you. That was the thing that kept me going, was the challenge of saying, “Hey, I'm going to make it through this, you know, part of my life, and I'm going to get home, and I'm going to have a practice.” I studied like a lot. What paints are made out of, the materials, what the masters painted with, what they had, what they didn't have, the first cadmiums, when they were on a canvas, you know, like who was the first one to do that, like I was interested in all that. And that kept me going.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Courtesy: Jared Owens))
((Jared Owens
Artist))
So, in this jar is soil from FCI [Federal Correctional Institution] Fairton. This is a peanut butter jar that’s sold in commissary. I would just clean these out. I would go to the yard and scoop up some dirt. It's a pretty soil. Like this is the soil from like that part of New Jersey, and it's unlike the soil here in New York, believe it or not. It's got a different color to it.
I was looking for a conceptual, physical element from inside the prison that spoke about everybody that's inside the prison. And this is the only thing I could find and had the DNA, the blood, sweat and tears of every, you know, person whoever came through the prison was probably on, in this soil from the weight pile. So for me, the idea was, you know, it came from watching “Saving Private Ryan”, when the guy was
((Courtesy: Jared Owens))
taking the soil from all the battlefield and stick it in his backpack. And this is kind of like the same thing for me. You know, like there's a finite amount of it. I'll never go back and get any more of it. So for me, it's a precious material.
((Jared Owens
Artist))
And I actually cut it with sand. Like this little bit that’s left might make into like 15 paintings. It's ever present. It's in all the work.
((NATS/MUSIC))

((Jared Owens
Artist))

So, the other thing that I incorporate into my practice is, like I call it, ‘The Carceral Palette’ or ‘The Prison Pallet’, which is,
((Courtesy: Jared Owens))
the hues are usually cadmiums, Indian yellows, just really dull colors, but they're bright, but they're dulled. The only place you're going to find this pallet is inside prison. It's just I’m an antenna. So I grab things out of the way they feel.
((Jared Owens
Artist))
So, like the work behind me is titled, ‘Nemesis’. I don't really do figurative painting, but I like this one because I did it by accident, and it's got everything that I love. It's just a loose painting. And it was a painting I did during when we had the upheavals because of the George Floyd killing.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Jared Owens
Artist))

The bricks that are inside this dumpster there, they are really over 50, 60 years old, maybe even older. They don't fire them like that anymore. So, it’s a, it’s a…to me, it's a material that's valuable because it can't be replicated. And as far as applying it to a cultural aesthetic,
((Courtesy: Jared Owens))
I mean, bricks are used to build buildings. And unfortunately, some of the buildings that bricks build are prisons.
((Jared Owens
Artist))

And yeah, I just wish I can get in here to grab some of them.
((NATS/MUSIC))

Silver Art Residency decided, in its second year, to incorporate individuals that are affected by mass incarceration of mainly formerly incarcerated artists. We have three slots open every year for people who fit that criteria. And this first iteration of that is artist, Jesse Krimes, also my good friend. Mary Baxter is also my good friend. And Russell Craig, also one of my good friends. All formerly incarcerated, all in the nonprofit world, and all making contributions to end mass incarceration.
((NATS/MUSIC))

((Jared Owens
Artist))

And I'm into these found objects and they're everywhere, you know. I see beauty and I see a carceral aesthetic in a lot of these objects. I get a lot of feedback on the work and there's really…
((Courtesy: Jared Owens))
I don't try to message in the work, but they, you know, people extrapolate messages from the work on their own, and that's fine with me. It's fascinating to hear people, to have subject matter that's really dark, and then present it in a way that is more palatable to the eyes and to the senses, but it's still dark subject matter.
((Jared Owens
Artist))
The first time I saw this, this piece was in a reclamation yard. And the reclamation yard is in wine country in the North Fork of Long Island. So, I'm assuming that somebody had a, in a winery, you know, they commissioned somebody to build this thing, and then store wine in it, you know, bottles would have went this way. But, you know, when I see it, I see cells, I see tiers, I see prison, I see a carceral aesthetic that I just can't escape. It looks like it was designed as a prison.
((NATS/MUSIC))

((Jared Owens
Artist))
I never really think about…I just think about my practice as it's just going. I don't really think about past, present. There's no linear aspect to anything that I'm doing. It's kind of like a lot of happenstances in the work, and I'm just going with the flow. I don't have a calendar that says, “I'm going to be at this point, this point. Where will you be in five years?” I just, I try to live every day as if, you know, what am I doing today?
((NATS: Jared Owens))
I might mess with this today. See what comes of it.
((NATS/MUSIC))

((PKG)) NATURE KICKER: The Great Outdoors of Valdez, Alaska
((TRT: 2:00))
((Topic Banner: Nature: The Great Outdoors of Valdez, Alaska))
((Camera/Editor/Producer: Gabrielle Weiss))
((Location: Valdez, Alaska))
((Short Description: An assortment of unparalleled natural scenery from Valdez, Alaska.))


IN COMING WEEKS
((VO/NAT/SOT))
((Topic Banner))
In coming weeks…
Plant Enthusiast
((SOT))
((Tracey Hairston
Interior design, plant, lifestyle Content Creator))
It might kind of act like it wants to act funny on you because you’re messing with the roots, but don't worry. It's just getting acclimated to its new spot.
In general, never fill up your pot all the way up to the rim with soil because when you water it, you don't want the soil overflowing on the outside.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Topic Banner))
Wood Sculptor
((SOT))
You want me to cut it up in half?? Just kidding.
One of my clients is in the National Association of Homebuilders, and they put out a statistic that said within five years, 50% of all carpenters are going to be retiring. It is the most endangered trade in this country and in Europe. We wrote a grant to build a Mobile Woodshop and train a new generation of carpenters.


CLOSING BUMPER
((ANIM))
voanews.com/connect


SHOW ENDS