AOTA-231208 - Raina Douris, James Jankowiak, Chesterton Art Center

This week on Art in the Air, the host of NPR's World Cafe, Raina Doris, discusses her journey from Canada's CBC to Pittsburgh's WXVN. The spotlight is on Chesterton Arts Center's member exhibit opening on December 9th. The exhibit features various art forms and is open to the public. The Chesterton Arts District is hosting a collaborative holiday shopping promotion throughout December, encouraging people to support local businesses. The Chesterton Arts Center also has upcoming workshops and will be featuring artist Brianna Bibbs in January. This week on Art in the Air, we feature award-winning host of the NPR Daily Music Program, World Cafe Raina Doris, discussing her journey from Canada's CBC to Pittsburgh's WXVN. Next, outstanding Midwest series artist, James Mikoviak's exhibit talk on Saturday, January 6th. Our spotlight's on Chesterton Arts Center's December 2023 member exhibit, opening reception December 9th. Express yourself you are, and show the world your heart. Express yourself you are, and show the world your heart. Express yourself you are, and show the world your heart. Express yourself you are, and show the world your heart. Express yourself you are, and show the world your heart. Express yourself you are, and show the world your heart. Express yourself you are, and show the world your heart. You're in the know with Esther and Larry, Art on the Air today. They're in the know with Larry and Esther, Art on the Air our way. Express yourself you are, and show the world your heart. Express yourself you are, and show the world your heart. Welcome. You're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, WVLP 103.1 FM, our weekly program covering the arts and arts events throughout Northwest Indiana and beyond. I'm Larry Breckner of New Perspectives Photography, right alongside here with Esther Golden of The Nest in Michigan City. Aloha, everyone. We're your hosts for Art on the Air. Art on the Air is supported by an Indiana Arts Commission Arts Project Grant, South Shore Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Art on the Air is heard every Sunday at 7 p.m. on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, also streaming live at lakeshorepublicmedia.org, and is available on Lakeshore Public Media's website as a podcast. Also heard on Friday at 11 a.m. and Monday at 5 p.m. on WVLP, 103.1 FM, streaming live at wvlp.org, and Tuesdays at 4 p.m. on WDSO 88.3 FM. Our spotlight interviews are also heard Wednesdays on Lakeshore Public Media. Information about Art on the Air is available at our website, breck.com slash aota. That includes a complete show archive, spotlight interviews, plus our show is available on multiple podcast platforms, including NPR One. Please like us on Facebook, Art on the Air, WVLP, for information about upcoming shows and interviews. I would like to welcome to, or I should say back to, Art on the Air Spotlight from the Chesterton Arts Center, the Executive Director, Hannah Hammond-Hagman. She's going to talk about all the things going on there. They just closed some shows and what they've got coming up in December, and even maybe a little to January. So, Hannah, welcome back to Art on the Air Spotlight. Thanks for having me. Always good to be with you guys. Yeah. Hi. Hi. You just wrapped up. Great exhibit there for the Doolin Photography Club. Talk to us a little bit about that before we got what's coming up next. Yeah, absolutely. All of November, we hosted the Doolin Photography Club, and 18 of the photographic artists from that club. It was a really varied exhibition, including some scientific photography, some landscape and portrait work. It was a really beautiful exhibit, and we were happy to have them with us for the month. Yeah. They're a great group. They are a great group. And I, you know, anytime that we can show these kind of close-knit, collaborative artist groups from, you know, locally, it's really part of who we are and what we do. So, it's always a pleasure to have those folks with us. And then this December, we're launching our annual members exhibition, which is a huge tradition here for the organization. We easily host 60 or 70 of our member artists and makers. The show will open December 2nd and run through January 4th. It'll be all kinds of media. It'll be glass and sculpture and painting and printmaking and photography. So it's always just a real showing of the depth and talent of our regional local creative community. It's a highlight of ours every year. The reception will be Saturday, December 9th, from noon to 2. So come on out. It's free, open to the public. Meet the artists. Enjoy some delicious food and some refreshments, and just kind of kick off the holidays with us and all the end of the show. So Hannah, are these works for sale generally? Absolutely. The majority of the works are for sale, and there are a huge variety of price points. So you can think about some gifts giving of original handmade local art. It's always the best gift out there, of course. It is. It is. Anytime of year. Anytime of year. I'm with you, Esther. So our member gift shop and artisan gift shop and the member gallery walls are also full of local unique handmade works for the holiday gift giving season. We're loading up on inventory, so come on out and see all of that as well. And then on December 6th in the evening, we'll be open late from 6 to 8 p.m. after hours for a little sip and shop event where you can look at the members' exhibit, and you can also see all of the works in our gift shop and member galleries. It will be a cash bar and some light bites, and it will be a wonderful evening. So I hope folks will consider us a destination when they're looking for those perfect unique gifts for loved ones and friends for the holidays. You're participating in some throughout December. Tell us a little bit about that. Yeah. So the Chesterton Arts District is hosting a special collaborative holiday shopping promotion which will launch Small Business Saturday and then go through the entire month through December 30th. And so there are 10 businesses and organizations throughout downtown Chesterton that are collaborating in a bit of an elf hunt. It's adorable. So each location will have a very naughty, sweet little elf named Chester that'll be hiding in each of our spots, and folks can grab a passport at any one of the locations. And then you have the entire month to visit all of the shops, do some shopping or gallery viewing, and then collect information about Chester and what he's up to at each location. And then you can turn your completed passport to one of the partners, which is Three Moon Fiberworks here in Chesterton. And if you complete your passport and turn it in there, you enter a chance to win a gift basket that has a little something from all of the participating stores and businesses. So it's fantastic. And it'll get people moving through downtown and seeing all of the unique shopping opportunities here. Support local artists. Yeah. That's kind of an extension of your Third Friday thing, the whole Chesterton Arts District idea. Yes. We had a wonderful season, first season, inaugural season, if you will, of our Third Fridays, and we'll be back to that in the warmer months. May through the fall of next year, we'll be back with Third Fridays. So people should keep an eye out for all information on that, too. How fun. It is fun. During this time of year, do you have some activities going on with TAG? You know, not really. But also to celebrate the holidays, we have a number of upcoming workshops for families and adults as well. You can make some ornaments with us. So yeah, everybody should always check the website. It's chestertonarts.org for more information about upcoming classes and events and programs here at the Chesterton Arts Center. And we're going to interview this artist, but you have someone new coming in in January, which I know you're very excited about. And of course, one of the missions when Chesterton brought you on board was have the best of the local art, but bring in some really more substantial outside artists. So tell us a little bit about that artist in January. You're right. I'm super excited about this. January through February, we will welcome Chicago-based artist Brianna Bibbs, who is a non-traditional fiber artist. And our gallery will be full of almost 70 of her small off-loom weaving pieces. And she uses weaving and fiber arts as a journaling process. So it's going to be a glorious exhibition. And yes, obviously the Chesterton Arts Center champions our local creative community and artist community. And we're just kind of expanding what we mean by local. Well, in our last minute here, let's recap what's going on there in December. Oh my God, there's so much. So join us for our annual members exhibit, December 2nd through January 4th, with an opening on the 9th in the afternoon from noon to 2. Please join us for our Sip and Shop event the evening of December 6th from 6 to 8. There's a special member preview for Sip and Shop from 5 to 6. So if you're a member, please join us early that evening. And we look forward to seeing everybody through this holiday season. Sounds like a busy time at Chesterton Arts Center, located there on 4th Street in Chesterton. That was Hannah Hagman, Executive Director of the Chesterton Arts Center. Thank you for coming on Art of the Year Spotlight. Thank you, Hannah. Thank you, guys. Thanks, Esther. And a spotlight extra. Michigan City's Footlight Players presents Fred Carmichael's mystery, Murder on the Rerun, which is running through December 10th. More information is at footlightplayers.org. Art of the Year Spotlight and the complete one-hour program on Lakeshore Public Media is brought to you by Macaulay Real Estate in Valparaiso, Oval Patrician Senior Broker. And as a reminder, if you'd like to have your events on Art of the Year Spotlight or have a longer feature interview, email us at aotaatbrech.com. That's aotaatbrech, B-R-E-C-H, dot com. Hi there, this is public radio theme composer B.J. Liederman, and you're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Radio 89.1 FM and on WVLP 103.1 FM. We are pleased to welcome Raina Doris to Art on the Air. Raina grew up in Toronto, Ontario, in a musical household. She had her first radio experience in high school. The merge of these two dynamics is now exhibited in her being an award-winning radio personality. Raina is host and writer of NPR's daily nationally syndicated music interview and discovery program, World Cafe. Thank you for joining us on Art on the Air. Aloha and welcome, Raina. Very nice to meet you. It's so nice to be here. Thank you for having me. And so, and I'm a fan of the show. We hear it on Lakeshore Public Media five days a week, though I think occasionally we do bump you for when we do on Fridays, we do a thing called Game Night, where we cover local prep sports. But otherwise, you're on all the time, so I appreciate you coming on the show. Our audience always likes to know about our guests, kind of their origin story. I'd like to say, how you got from where you were to where you are now, so tell us all about Raina. All right. So I was born in Canada. I was actually, I was born in Toronto, then grew up in a suburb of Toronto called Stouffville. And yeah, I had a musical upbringing. I took piano lessons. My dad was always in bands when he was young as well, and music was always playing in our house. I was in a high school band, played the trumpet. It was, I don't actually play instruments now, but I have that background, and I think that was really, really important for me, just kind of growing up and finding my interest. And bands were always just kind of part of my life. It felt like something that was very, I don't know, like I would go out and see my dad play, and it was always something really cool. He played guitar and he sang. He was like the front man of the band. Like what kind of genre of music? He did like rock music. When he was younger, he would do like rock, punk rock, new wave stuff. And then when he got older, like my experience of watching my dad was mostly watching him do like covers with his friends at like local festivals and stuff like that. But I just, I adored it. I loved it. And yeah, as I got older and got into music on my own outside of the stuff that my parents were listening to, it just, I was a kid at school when I would carry around my Discman and my humongous binder of CDs. It would just be huge. It would take up most of my backpack. And so that was me growing up. And like, I would make my parents mixtapes and I'd sit in the car and be like, you have to listen to this song. You got to listen to this part of the song. Like, it's so good. It's so important. So I was like doing the DJ thing before I even knew what the DJ thing was. Fabulous. My father also, my father was so instrumental in my music love. I mean, he could just, he introduced me to the greatest music and could always say, now listen to that piano and listen to those drums. And yeah. Yeah. I mean, growing up, it's funny. I remember being really little and my parents would listen to a lot of like Dylan and Neil Young and Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits. And when you're really little, none of those people have voices that you want to hear because they're like, so there is so idiosyncratic and strange. Right. And when I was little, I was like, I hate this. This sounds so bad. And then when I got older, I was like, oh, I'm really glad I have that like basis of this music and I know it and I can appreciate it now. And I've been listening to it since I was like old enough to even understand what music was. Two questions. Trumpets an unusual instrument for women. I know I, in my era, which I'm quite a bit older than you are, I'm sure. But I had a trumpet teacher that wouldn't allow women to even, he wouldn't teach them because he said, oh, it's a man's instrument. But also by having the music background in your music selection process, how does it help? I mean, can you still kind of read music or is that even important to you now? I can kind of, I think like I'm better with the treble or the treble clef than the bass clef for sure. I can still read it, but it takes me a lot longer. Actually, I have my trumpet in this studio here at World Cafe because it's the only sound proof place in my life where I won't be bothering other people when I practice it, you know, once every two months. So I can kind of, but it's something that I haven't kept up as much as I wish I had. I know I lost the bass clef when I started playing trumpet. I, my mom started me on piano and things early, but I was just real briefly, I was a musical theater director for many years and I could cut scores. So, I mean, I knew what to do. Okay, we'll cut from here to here because, you know, doing non-professional theater in many cases, you like, okay, there's several hundreds of measures of dance music. Now let's cut from this measure to this. So I did retain that part of it. So, yeah, I would say musical theater actually was probably like my first real love when it came to music, as far as wanting to perform music, my sister and I making costumes so we could perform cats in our living room. And I used to make my next door neighbor come over and we would take, we would divide all the roles in Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat and we would perform it in the backyard. Wow. So yeah. Did you ever do it on stage? You ever perform in any? Yeah, I did like community theater and stuff like that. I think I did chess. I was in chess. Wow, that's a tough one. Which is a weird, I was like, this is a strange one to like get a bunch of ninth graders to perform. I don't think we really understood the intricacies of like the Cold War references happening. And yeah, I'm trying to think of them. It feels like it was so long ago, but it was always, community theater was always something that I just loved. Any idea of doing theater? I know you're busy with what you're currently doing, but any chance of doing something now? Actually, yeah. I'm thinking of, I was so busy up until the last little while with the show and, you know, wedding stuff. I got married recently and I have been planning to go audit an acting class in Silly. So I want to start doing that. I'm a little nervous, but I'm excited to do it again. You'll do the podcast? The, sorry. Yeah. So that we've recorded a whole bunch of episodes. The second season hasn't come out yet, but we recorded, I think most of it. So that'll be. So do you do any of the writing on that? I don't do any of the writing on that. That is all Charles Austin and his crew over at episode one podcast and Pretty Dim are sort of tied together. And I just get to come in and read their funny scripts. That's great. It reminds me of like mystery science theater sort of. Yeah. It's really neat. Yeah. They're so funny. So it got you through high school and then with college, let's take us through the kind of the rest of your journey. Yeah. So in high school, I actually, you kind of mentioned off the top. I had my first taste of radio when my, it was right around when the Iraq war was happening and my economics teacher, he was like, Hey, you've got a lot of opinions and you're very loud. Would you want to be on this panel? The CBC, which is like the Canadian NPR is doing a morning show panel where they're asking a bunch of high schoolers about their opinions about the Iraq war. I don't know what producer came up with that idea, but we did it. And I remember doing it and just being like, I love this so much. It just felt great. And I wasn't a hundred percent sure at that point that that's where I wanted to go, but it was the first time I tried it and I really loved it in university. I went to school for radio and television arts and we would get notifications that there were internships available. And I just started to get involved in the Toronto music scene. I was going to see a lot of shows and we were told about an opportunity at the local alternative rock station. And I went out, I interviewed for it and I got to be an intern for them, which really meant going up to concerts and like handing out samples of stuff or high-fiving people as they came out. But it was to me at the time, it was like, this is the greatest job in the whole wide world. I know, going to concerts is so glamorous. Exactly. And so, and that, like I stayed at that, it was a radio station cluster called Chorus in Toronto. And I stayed there for quite a while. That's where I got my first summer air gig. It's where I was an intern in the digital department. And that was really where I got my actual radio start. Okay. And you were there for how long? And then what brought you to the States? I was there, gosh, I don't even remember how long I was there for. Few years. I mean, I was an overnight host and I was a weekend evening host and I would be a swinging out there. Then I went to, I helped start an indie rock radio station in Toronto called Indie 88. That was my first like major day part show where I was an afternoon host and I was at the beginning, the music director until that kind of became too much to do both. Then I went to CBC and hosted the morning show there. And, you know, one, the previous host of World Cafe, Talia Schlanger, is also Canadian. And she went to the same university as I did. And we were never close, but we were acquaintances who would see each other. We kind of both got into radio. We knew each other. We're in the same universe. And I hadn't heard from her in ages. And then one day she messaged me and was like, Hey, I just wanted you to know, like, I just passed your info along to the program director at WXPN. And I was like, cool. That's awesome. Didn't hear anything about that for a while. And then I heard from Bruce Warren, who's the program director here. And he was like, hey, you sound great. And then I didn't hear anything for a while. And then that job came up and I decided to apply. And here we are. Okay. So coming to the state, you know, there's a lot of differences between Canada. And so what do you what's kind of your feeling in general? Nothing you have to be terrible, but I mean, that's got to be a little bit of a culture shock. It is a bit. I mean, the there's a lot more in common than there is different. I think when I was when I first moved down about four years ago, it was right before the election. It was felt like a very volatile time. And I remember my parents being like, Are you sure you want to move there? And I'm like, it's not a different planet. It's like a nine hour drive. And Philly and Toronto aren't that different, really. Like when you get down to it, I mean, the things that the biggest difference and everybody talks about this is the health care. That was the one that was really a shock and very confusing. And I think culturally, it's really interesting because the way public radio is set up in Canada is very different than how it's set up in America. In Canada, the CDC is the public radio entity, and it's paid for by tax dollars. And it is basically if you want to do public radio, that's the only game in town. And here, I actually really love how, you know, you have NPR, but you have stations doing things independently that are listener supported. So you feel a real connection to the people who are supporting you. And I think that's a really cool thing. I mean, there are benefits, of course, to having it funded by the government. But there's also there are downsides to that because you have to the government, whoever is in charge of the government can kind of change how things work. And I think it's really cool to have the connection with listeners that we have in public radio here. You're right, that local, each community has its local flavor. It's a real community. It really is like a real community. And I think I was almost surprised when I got here, just how much people care about their radio stations, like how much a part of your identity it is. And how I don't know, it's just a very powerful thing that I really, really did love when I came down here. So what's the first touristy thing you did in Philadelphia? I mean, did you like? Oh, that's a great question. I mean, I had a cheesesteak. I think you only need to have one cheesesteak a year, probably. I saw the Liberty Bell and I still don't tell. I mean, I'm saying this on the radio. Don't tell. I still am not exactly sure what the significance of the Liberty Bell is. I have to remind myself. Every time someone comes to town and asks me, I'm like, hang on. I just have to look. Yeah, I mean, Philly is cool because you just walk around on the streets and it feels like you're in a museum. There's plaques being like, this is the first this. This is the first Rocky Steps. Of course I did that. I went to the art museum and I did the Rocky Steps and I embarrassed my partner when I ran up and did the thing and he was like, I don't want to look like a tourist. And I was like, I don't care. Fun. It is fun. Well, we'd like to hear about the history of the World Cafe. I mean, you only came on board in 2017, but tell us a little bit about the development of that and then we'll talk a little bit about how you do your music selection. Yeah, I mean, it's really wild to come onto a show that has such a legacy. It's 30, I guess, 32 years this year. We celebrated that 30 year anniversary two years ago and it was amazing going through all of these archives, especially as a relatively new host on the show. There would be times I'd be in our archive closet and just like, oh my God, this person was here. Wow, I can't believe it. Learning about the history of it was really fascinating and it was kind of great as a new host stepping into the role to get that crash course on what it had all been like. And David, he's so loved here and he's such a great interviewer and getting to hear some of his older stuff that I wasn't here for was really, really cool. And the building that we make it in has changed since then. The technology has changed since then. The music has changed since then. But the core of what the show is, is really the same. And it's about, I mean, there's the music discovery side of things and then there's the connecting with human beings who are super creative, hearing about their process, hearing about, they're talking about the way music creates empathy. I think that's my favorite thing is hearing a song, talking about a song. It's like you can get a peek into somebody else's life and their emotions and their thought processes. And it's like, it's really like nothing else. And so that is still the priority for us, the conversation and finding great music. Great. And structuring the show, tell us about like, what's your typical day? And there may never be a typical day, I say this because, but what is your typical day or maybe week in laying out shows? Because you're putting this on five days a week and what, two hours of everything. I mean, we're doing a little art in the air here. We're doing, and I know how much work this is. We put out one show once a week, an hour long thing with the multiple guests. So that's got to be a heck of a lot of work. Oh, yeah. I mean, our team is amazing. And I, there's a lot of it that I don't have anything to do with that they do that I, I find incredible. I mean, our bookings person is, we have, I'll kind of go through it this way. We have a booking meeting once a week where we go through the list of potential bookings or pitch things or whatever. Then those get given to the booking person. She chases them, puts them into our schedule. I, so this week, for instance, tomorrow, I'm interviewing PJ Harvey and I have spent a bunch of time prepping that. I'm going to spend this afternoon prepping it some more, getting my questions cemented. And then I'll come in tomorrow. I will interview her. When that's over, that will go to my producer who does some edits on that for time and for clarity. And then that little piece will get slotted into the show that I will read probably in a couple of weeks where I'll write the introduction and I'll write all the stuff around all the other songs that we're going to be playing in the show. So each show, it's like it takes weeks to create. And our producers, especially our senior producer, Kimberly Junaud, who's been doing this job for longer than I've been here, she is, she's like a magician with scheduling. I don't know. It confuses me when I think about trying to figure out how this show gets made and then put on the air. So, but yes, for me, it's a lot of, it's mostly writing, to be honest. It's a lot of research and it's a lot of writing. Well, I know it's like pure delight for me. I mean, like all these decades of listening to World Cafe has introduced me to just the most amazing music that I would have had no other way of hearing. I just, it's really enriching. So I have a question for you. Like, let's say you're two people and your first person is World Cafe having to produce this, this program, you know, five days a week, which takes much more than five days a week, as Larry just said, you know, this is a full-time job for us and it's just one day a week. So you're two people and your, your responsibilities with World Cafe would not falter. Now, what would your other version of yourself be doing? Like if you didn't have all those other responsibilities, what, what are your desires and what would you be doing? I love that question. Um, I guess, okay, so there's a few things and I mean, it's kind of easy. If you walk into my house, you could see what all that person would be doing. Cause I have like a room of half started projects. So like painting, poetry, uh, writing has always been something that I've loved to do. And it's something that I still do, but I've never been able to really, you know, make it into something that either I would read live or into a book that I would self-publish. It's still like a dream I would love to do. I love to write. And, uh, I mean, travel is, it's my favorite thing. I love, I mean, I feel like who doesn't love traveling, right? But it is, I really do love it. I mean, we get to do that for the show, which is great. But, um, yeah, if I could, I'd be, I'd be doing this show all over the world. I'd have like basic World Cafe studios everywhere. Literally the World Cafe in Paris and everything that you think the NPR and, uh, your, uh, your station would pick up the tab on that. Oh, sure. It's in the name World Cafe. Right. Let's do a pledge drive just for that. Right. Let's send Raina to Paris. The painting, this is so interesting because I'm working on a poetry book right now too, that I'm illustrating. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. And that's actually like, um, that's a COVID, that was a COVID thing for me. I don't know how it affected you, but I had to shut down my art gallery and I spent all these years promoting everybody else's art. Well, I finally had this time and space to, to work on mine and to, you know, work on the poetry and work on my physical art. Yeah. I mean, I think when I was young, I painted a lot. I was, I mean, I, my first thing I ever wanted to be when I grew up as an artist and I would draw constantly and I would paint constantly. And then as I got busier and busier painting, I would still draw, but painting, I kind of left behind, um, and just because it's a little more work intensive. And, um, when I started again recently, I just decided because I had to get out of the mindset of, oh, I'm going to paint and it's not going to be good. Instead. I'm like, I'm going to paint just because it's fun and I enjoy it. It feels good. Right. Yeah. And so I was just painting. This actually ties into the travel thing. I would like paint places, imaginary places that I would like to be in. I, the last thing I did was like a big lush rainforest scene. Um, just because it was like, the colors were fun to use. It's not good. Like I'm not going to do anything with it, but it felt good. Um, and I think coming back to it after so long, I needed to do that before I tried to like, you know, put any sort of standards on it. Yeah. Well, it's very healing. It doesn't really matter. I mean, the quality is subjective anyway, but yeah, it just feels good to create. Yeah, absolutely. Is there any guests that you've been wanting to have on World Cafe? And I realize you have a team that works on this that you haven't been able to nail down. Um, Missy Elliott. She was just inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Um, I just think she's a visionary and she's so cool and I would be very nervous, uh, but she would be great. And, uh, they've had Paul McCartney on before. I have never spoken to Paul McCartney. I would love to do that. Recently this year, we got Bruce Springsteen, which I know for them was kind of a white whale. Uh, they've been trying to get him for years and we finally got him. So that was very exciting. Is there, um, anyone that you had that, and I don't, you can't name the name, but you think, oh my gosh, this interview, what am I going to do with this after you're doing it? And don't tell us who that is, obviously, but. Usually I will say there have been, there have been artists or interviews where there have been tense moments, awkward moments. Rarely things where it's like, oh, that was not great, but almost always, I think every single one we've used. And that's partly because of our prep. And that is partly because of our amazing editors who could almost always salvage something. That's true. Yeah, that's true. And the way we hear it in the way, the way we hear it when we're in the moment and the way we hear it after the moment, it's usually, sometimes it's like worlds apart. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we try to, we try to stay as close as we can, but you know, there are some times where one thing I always tell artists before we talk is this isn't live. So if you get partway through an answer and you want to say it again or in a different way to start at the beginning of your sentence, and we can clean that up. And I've had artists who've had to do that on almost every answer. And when you hear it on air, it sounds, you know, beautiful. Yeah. Well, we only have a minute left. We want to give you a chance to tell us about maybe what's coming up. This is going to air like early December, but some of your stuff coming up and how people can find out more about you in the World Cafe. Well, we've got that PJ Harvey interview that I'll be doing. Olivia Rodrigo was on the show. So that'll be really cool. And yeah, I just interviewed an artist yesterday named Petey, who I'm really excited about. He's a, he's a young guy and I just, he did a great performance as well as there's another one Leve, her name is spelled L-A-U-S-E-Y. So it doesn't look like she's Icelandic. Her name is Leve and she's talented. It's like a jazz, indie rock, classical combination. It's really wonderful. And she's so talented. So all of those should be coming up soon. And yeah, if you want to find me on social media, you can do that. It's at R-A-H-R-A-H-R-A-I-N-A. So Ra Ra Raina on pretty much every single one and then at World Cafe for everything except for TikTok, which is at the underscore world underscore cafe, which we're just starting to use. And we're all figuring out right now. I know I put our stuff on TikTok also just to promote the show. That's Raina Doris from World Cafe. These are guests for today on Art in the Air. We appreciate you coming on the, and finally hooking up with you. I know we kind of bounced around the schedule, but I guess getting married was more important there at one point. So now that we got you nailed down, thank you so much for coming on Art in the Air. Oh, my pleasure. Thank you so much. Thank you. Hi, this is singer songwriter Kenny White, and you are listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Radio 89.1 FM and on WVLP 103.1 FM. We would like to welcome James Jankowiak to Art on the Air. James is a painter, installation artist, and educator. He makes abstract paintings that explore the metaphysical properties of light and color while also investigating the use of repetition. He is a dedicated teaching artist and currently teaches throughout the city of Chicago. His current show, The Song That Doesn't End, is with South Shore Arts at the Center for Visual and Performing Arts in Munster, Indiana. It is a survey of his work from the past 10 years. Thank you for joining us on Art on the Air. Aloha and welcome. Thanks for having me. Nice to meet you too. How we always like to start on our show, James, is finding out your background. I call it your origin story. I always like to say how you got from where you were to where you are now. Tell us all about James. Yeah, I'm a visual artist, primarily painter. I'm a teaching artist. I've been working with young people in the Chicago area for about 25 years. I run a painting program called Contemporary Painting Studio. It's an After School Matters program that is entering its 19th year. I've got a really great group of students from Hancock College Crutch that I work with intermittently through the year. I love being a teaching artist because it also allows me to have ample studio time to keep up a pretty robust studio practice. I've kind of intertwined my studio work with my teaching work and also music as well. I've been playing the piano since I was a kid and a lot of musical language fits with what I do in the studio. I'm just kind of working with these three aspects of my life in a kind of integrated, synchronized kind of way where everything kind of feels the same. Can you explain? Can you give us an example of what that means when you're integrating the music and the art? How does it play out for you in the studio? Well, when I'm painting, I'm breathing. When I'm playing, I'm breathing. I'm also obsessed with rhythm and counting and the centering that that brings to myself. You know, it's a meditation in a way. There's a lot of similarities between a lot of the patterns that I use in my work and the patterns that go into creating chords on the piano. I like to use fields of color. It's pretty common to see a base with a certain field of color or a certain gradient kind of juxtaposed with something a little busier. Kind of like that vibe. For me, it's the vibration. The vibration of your painting sort of equals the vibration of music in some of them. I get a sense of that musicality in them. I definitely, I'm kind of pursuing this idea of how do you take a beautiful chord and make it visible? By you comparing it to a vibration, it's perfect. That's what a chord is. It's a beautiful vibration. And yeah, if you could see... For me personally, I don't know how other people feel, but the only time that the hair stands up on the ends of my arms from digesting a work of art only comes through music. For me, at least. Not even through painting. I love painting. I think I'm trying to get there, if possible. But for me, it's music. And there's a certain kind of... One of the paintings that's in my show is called The Deepest Cut. And it's kind of a reference to those songs that are really particularly special to you and might not be so special to other people. But also kind of like how... I mean, it's not physical because it sounds brutal, but how music really just cuts through you and comes into you and gives you a physical kind of sensation. How it's possible for a sound to affect other feelings like that is... I don't know. That to me is just... It's like one of the joys of life, right? So that's essentially what I'm chasing, is I'm trying to... I mean, I'm immersed in joy right now in the studio with that. And I think with the condition of the world right now, it's... You know, we need some sort of balance. James, I'd like to kind of take you back a little bit about your origin story. You know, you talked briefly about, you know, taking piano. But what were the early influences like where you grew up? Also about like any influences in art, like people that you may have had early in life, or maybe that didn't happen. But tell us a little bit about the early James before you got to where you are now. Early James used to sit at his grandparents' kitchen table with his grandfather, who was really in charge. My grandma was... She was always kind of bedridden. So my grandfather was the main guy, and him giving me paper and pencils and encouraging me. He was an artist himself. He was a self-taught artist, and he played the piano by ear. Apparently, he used to play at silent movie theaters when he was a kid. He would talk to me about how much fun he used to have back in St. Louis when he was a kid. He got hired to play the piano, and it sparked this dream of his to go to Hollywood. He went to Hollywood early days. He was a stuntman. He supposedly met Lon Chaney Sr. Like, this is all the stuff he used to talk about. And then when I would see the movies and the TV shows, and when I would approach music, all this stuff kind of felt normal. It all felt like that's just life. And his encouragement, I really do feel like his encouragement was key, because he always used to talk about his cousin, John, all the time, who was this mythical figure in my grandfather's life. I never got to meet him. He always used to talk about his cousin, John Mahegan, and how his cousin, John, proved to the world that you could make it as an artist. And don't ever listen to anybody if they tell you how hard it's going to be to be an artist. And you know what a starving artist is? A starving artist, that's a lazy artist. You know, his whole thing was about work ethic and going forward and being gusty. Anyways, years passed by, and this is when I was like 12, 13 years old. He passed away when I was 14. And the internet age comes, and I was like, well, who is this John Mahegan guy? Who is this guy that my grandfather bragged about? And I looked him up, and I learned that he was one of the first jazz professors ever at Juilliard. He used to hang out with Leonard Bernstein. He had a young Charles Mingus play bass on a record that he made that was... The record was made from the standpoint of an instructor, of a teacher teaching jazz. So he didn't kind of strike out as an artist as much as an educator. And it's kind of strange because when I learned all this stuff about him, and then I looked at my own life, I really kind of saw a reflection. And also, when I found out who he was and what he did and what he accomplished, I just had this real genuine sense of pride that... I always love my family. I'm not trying to dismiss them. But I come from a really dysfunctional family. It was just really nice to hear this success story, like somebody in my family tree who did these really wonderful things that I deeply admire. So yeah, it definitely sparked, like re-sparked an interest in music for me, because my mom made me take piano lessons from the time I was seven until I was 16. And so you're asking about my origin story. I mean, and I got pretty good, you know, but like by the time I was like 13, 14 years old, I was starting to kind of do like a lot of bad stuff that the boys in the neighborhood... I grew up in the back of the yards in Chicago. I'm from the South Side. So at that time, in the early 80s, living in the back of the yards, it was a white flight neighborhood. There was a lot of racism in the neighborhood. A lot of it left once, like when the first Black family like moved on my block, like within months, all the white people split. So like I witnessed all this stuff as a kid, you know, like when I was like... This started when I was like 10, 11, you know. Our landlord even came to our... I lived upstairs from my grandfather. So to kind of stress to you how important my grandfather was, you know, we lived together. And anyways, our landlord came over and said that he needed to talk, you know, and it was really serious. And basically he was trying to get my grandparents to move out of the neighborhood because he wanted to set the building on fire. And, you know, I was like about 11 years old, you know, and I remember when that was happening. The same landlord, when I was a little boy, you know, like he used to like give me money to get candy. You know, there was a store like right next door to us, you know, and he'd be like, here, you know, go get yourself something. And then all of a sudden, you know, it turns out, you know, like I find out that he wants us to move, you know, and that he wants to set the building on fire. And that was kind of like my introduction to like institutional racism, you know, and kind of like learning about that stuff in a really direct kind of way. And like, anyways... You're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM on WVLP, 103.1 FM. I started doing graffiti because I was an artist from the time I was a baby. And when graffiti art came along, you know, I saw something that I could do, you know, because I love hip hop. I was listening to Isha's interview last night. So he's part of my origin story, you know, like we're all kind of like cut from the same cloth when it comes to like the reasons why we navigated towards graffiti art. And I really do believe that for me, in my situation, like I said, everybody was moving out of the neighborhood, but my family wasn't ready to go anywhere, you know. So a lot of the hardships and the difficulties that came along with the neglect of that neighborhood directly affected me and my friends. And, you know, a lot of the kids that I knew from the time I was, you know, six, seven years old, like started joining gangs. And it started getting kind of scary for me, you know, because the block that we lived on was one particular gang. And like all the surrounding area was the gang that wanted to kill that gang on my block. And I was super easily identifiable. People knew where I lived. They knew who my friends were. And I was just kind of like just complicit by where I lived, you know, and who I grew up with. Like I think that's something like a lot of people don't really get or understand, you know, about like growing up in Chicago and like being a kid and like trying to understand like how cycles of violence kind of continue in the city. But anyways, that's an important part of my story, because I used graffiti as a form of identity more than anything. I became Casper, which, of course, is the nickname for the white kid, you know, in the neighborhood, which was fine, though. I got to use the character Casper. For me, it was perfect. I love the way the letters look together. And I just thought it was a cool name. It was like to me, it was like one of the three kings, you know, that visited Jesus, you know, like that name was deeper than just a cartoon character to me. And anyways, that moniker allowed me to navigate the city in my teen years in a way that my friends couldn't, you know, because they were stuck on the block, you know. And I never took that freedom for granted. And doing graffiti, the goal back then was to get up everywhere, not just in your own neighborhood. So I was traveling all over the city and making friends and networking with people, idealistic people, ambitious people who believe that, you know, that what we're doing was like really mattered, that graffiti art, you know, it has this kind of like utopian kind of overtone. When you're a teenager, and you're involved in a subculture that like crosses every economic, racial, religious line and gets such a diverse group of people. And, you know, back then it was a lot of young men, which is actually kind of one of the reasons why I kind of abandoned it, to be honest with you, you know, because a lot of the dudes were getting on my nerves. That's another story. But anyways, you know, we really believed we were on a mission. And it was a good like, you know, we were hustling when we were like 16, 17 years old, you know, like our friends were working at McDonald's and Burger King. And we're going to the, you know, the neighborhood stores and, you know, anybody to throw money at. And, you know, back then, there was a lot of gang graffiti all over the place. So that was like our calling card, you know, we'd go to a place that was like plastered with gang graffiti and be like, hey, you want your wall to look beautiful? You know, and then we would talk them into giving us like, you know, spray paint money, maybe we'd have a little left over to eat or whatever. But we're, we're professionals. We're getting paid for what we're doing. We're kids using an art form that was created by kids, you know. And I asked forward, I was just going to say real quick, after when you fast forward to 2016, and then all of a sudden now the CTA commissioned me to do Union Station. Um, that's a good juxtaposition to kind of like start off business, like kind of like graffiti kids. And they're like, well, one day the CTA would hire you to do something, you know, like I didn't expect all that back then. Well, James, we spoke to Marco Salazar, who said that, um, the community challenged that graffiti by opening, like allowing these artists, these young graffiti artists to paint the garage doors in the alleys. Did your community embrace? Oh, yeah. No, I did tons of those. Yeah. That was, there was a lot of that going on. And the thing that was really beautiful too, that I think like, like for me that I get nostalgic about is, uh, is the performative aspect of it. The fact that you're out on the street, you know, like when we're doing stuff like that in the middle of the day and your neighbors get to see you, especially when we're doing those walls that were completely plastered with gang graffiti, the community appreciated us. They, they, like we, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. There would always be some haters that would pop in and whatever, but the majority of the people in the neighborhood didn't give us a thumbs up. And it just felt like we're doing something for our community. Yeah. Yeah. Did you ever get any pushback from the gangs who's overpainting their graffiti? Was there any like threats or anything like that? Yeah, yeah. That happened a lot, but I'm still here. I mean, it's like, you know, you got to deal with that. You know, like when you're living in the city, I mean, there's just a lot of knuckleheads living in the city. You know, there's a lot, a lot of beautiful people too. I don't, that's one thing, you know, I'm very proud of, of, of living in Chicago. I'm proud of the people of Chicago. And I, it gets annoying to, um, to hear people bad from out the city, you know, and I'm not trying to do that, you know, but I mean, there's, there's just certain realities, um, that exist. And, um, and those were the realities that I experienced. And so I just, you know, you asked my origin story. So I'm just, that's, that's a big part of it. And also, I mean, like the, the, the spirit of my grandfather though, I think is really important. Like he, he really did try to instill this idea of like a, like a hustler kind of mentality as well. Um, which is stuff that they don't really teach you in school, you know? Well, and I think this is important to understanding your art and, uh, your whole origin story. I mean, this is, this is what we want to know about is know all, all about James and how that's important. So, uh, moving on though, how does art develop later in your life here? Uh, you know, now that you're, you're, you talked about it early on, but you're teaching, you're doing things like that. And now you of course have the great exhibit at the Bachman Gallery at South Shore Arts. So tell us a little bit about that part of you. Well, I, um, you know, I decided to go to art school. I went to Columbia College first, um, and, um, very confused. Uh, took advertising, hated it. Took film because I loved film. My film teacher, uh, told me this in the second semester, uh, um, in a one-on-one critique, he said, James, if I thought you were a serious film student, I'd fail you. He's like, but I could see you're searching. So I'm going to make a deal with you. Um, I'm willing to give you a C, uh, if, uh, you transfer to the art institute and take some drawing classes and I never see you again for the rest of my life. And, uh, I stood up and I shook his hand and I took his advice and I transferred. I went to the art institute and I loved it there. And, um, I decided to take electives when I first got there to get them out of the way. So I took my time arts class. It was a performance art class. And, uh, and I ended up really loving it and did pretty great with performance. Uh, at the time I was influenced by, uh, Spalding Gray, like storytellers, um, type performance artists. Um, um, and I think that that, that love is also a direct line to, uh, to my teaching life, you know? So, um, but, uh, yeah, anyways, I, I ended up dropping out of art school and, um, I had a son when I was pretty young and I, I needed to go to work and I needed to take care of him. Um, the good thing that I got though was, uh, out of school was that I did create a small network of people who, uh, continue to give me advice that I continue to reach out to. And, um, I learned a ton on my own. You know, I had to kind of, uh, you know, I was this, you know, graffiti kid who was like, wanted to be serious about, you know, trying to contribute to, to the bigger dialogue what's happening in, in, in the art world right now. And, um, so I, I started immersing myself within the places where I felt really strange at first, uh, doing a lot of this stuff on my own and alone and feeling awkward and feeling uncomfortable. Um, but I found my, I found my people over a long period of time, you know, like, uh, it took a lot of years, you know, but, uh, I found my people that, that, that's the way I feel about it now. Now, do you have your own studio? Is that the space you're in right now? Your studio? Yes. Yeah. This, and behind me is, uh, this, this takes over my, my entire space right now. Um, it's even behind this, uh, I had some, I had a class from the Art Institute in my studio, uh, Sunday. My friend Maria Gaspar, uh, brought her kids in and, um, gave them a little pep talk. It was fun. I love it. Yeah. I know those interactions are so wonderful when they can come into the studio. Yeah. Yeah. It was great. It was really cool. But this project behind me is for, uh, the West Lawn Library. It's a, uh, Department of Cultural Affairs special event, city of Chicago. It's going into a library here on the Southwest side of Chicago and supposed to be done before Christmas. I don't know if we're going to make it or not, but we're trying. Tell us a little bit about what you have in the Bachman Gallery of South Shore Arts real quickly. So, uh, uh, Bridget Colbert, uh, invited me to, uh, to participate in this exhibition, uh, before COVID happened. And, um, uh, when, when COVID happened, uh, we kind of kind of dropped out and, uh, out of touch, you know, for like, like a lot of people did and a lot of things that were going to the wayside, you know, um, nothing was expected anymore. Everything seemed like the world was upended and what have you. And then, um, Tom Terlemke and Linda Dorman, uh, Indiana legends, um, they became curators at the space and they asked me to be a part of the show and they wanted to basically make a, like a 10 year survey, like kind of like they wanted to get an impression of like where it was a decade ago to now, because they, they see this as like a, you know, a decade that's worth showing off there. So, um, but most of the pieces are pretty new. Most are like within the last few years, um, there's way less pieces from the past than newer ones. And the show went up in November. Uh, tell us briefly, you have a gallery talk coming up in January. Tell us a little bit about the time and date on that. Um, right now the, the gallery talk is scheduled for, uh, I believe it's Sunday, uh, January 6th at 2 PM. Um, so, um, people could expect to, uh, of course, to meet me, ask me questions. Uh, I will give them, uh, most likely I'll bring a PowerPoint with me. I like to, I like to show pictures. Uh, I think I'm a fun storyteller. The majority of people that come out, uh, to support me, uh, are entertained. I do believe that, uh, you know, so I, I'm, I'm always trying, I want to make sure that people are having a good time and that, that it's open, it's accessible and that they have fun and they, they learn something. Yeah, I know. I'm sorry this is ending so quickly. I have so many questions for you about your painting. Oh, it's okay. It's okay. Are we already at the end? I didn't realize that. We are. Well, James, we'd like to thank you for coming on Art on the Air. Uh, it's a great sharing your whole story. It's, uh, the song that never ends, Bachman Gallery, South Shore. It's the Center of Visual and Performing Arts. It'll be running through January. January 6th is his artist talk. We appreciate you coming on. That's James Jankowiak. Thank you for coming on the show. Thank you, James. Thanks to both of you. I appreciate it. Take care. We'd like to thank our guests this week on Art on the Air, our weekly program covering the arts and arts events throughout Northwest Indiana and beyond. Art on the Air is heard Sunday at 7 p.m. on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, also streaming live at lakeshorepublicmedia.org, and is available on Lakeshore Public Media's website as a podcast. Art on the Air is also heard Friday at 11 a.m. and Monday at 5 p.m. on WVLP, 103.1 FM, streaming live at wvlp.org. Our spotlight interviews are heard every Wednesday on Lakeshore Public Media. Thanks to Tom Maloney, Vice President of Radio Operation for Lakeshore Public Media, and Greg Kovach, WVLP's Station Manager. Our theme music is by Billy Foster with a vocal by Renee Foster. Art on the Air is supported by the Indiana Arts Commission, Arts Project Grant, South Shore Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. We'd like to thank our current underwriters for Lakeshore Public Media, Macaulay Real Estate and Valparaiso, Poga Patrician, Senior Broker. And for WVLP, Walt Redinger of Paragon Investments. So we may continue to bring you Art on the Air. We rely on you, our listeners and underwriters, for ongoing financial support. If you're looking to support Art on the Air, we have information on our website at breck.com slash aota, where you can find out how to become a supporter or underwriter of our program in whatever amount you are able. And like I say every week, don't give till it hurts. Give till it feels good. You'll feel so good about supporting Art on the Air. If you're interested in being a guest or send us information about your arts, arts-related event or exhibit, please email us at aota at breck.com. That's aota at breck, b-r-e-c-h dot com. Or contact us through our Facebook page. Your hosts were Larry Breckner and Esther Golden. And we invite you back next week for another episode of Art on the Air. Aloha, everyone. Have a splendid week. And show the world your heart, express yourself through art, and show the world your heart. You're in the know with Esther and Larry, Art on the Air today. They're in the know with Larry and Esther, Art on the Air our way. Express yourself through art, and show the world your heart, express yourself through art, and show the world your heart, express yourself through art.