AOTA-240301 - Maria Overlay, Mary Rooney, Spotlight LaPorte County Symphony

This is a podcast called "Art in the Air" which features interviews and discussions about various artists and art events in Northwest Indiana. In this episode, they feature a self-taught artist named Maria Overley and a woodworking artist named Mary Rooney. They also talk about the upcoming concert by the Ford County Symphony featuring composer Ingrid Stotl. They mention that "Art in the Air" is supported by various organizations and can be heard on multiple radio stations and podcast platforms. They also mention an annual singing competition called Hoosier Star, and auditions for it will be held soon. The host also asks Emily Yiannas, the Executive Director of the La Porte County Symphony, about their upcoming concert and plans for the next season. Overall, the podcast covers various art-related topics and events in the area. This week on Art in the Air features two artists featured in the Valparaiso Creative Council Winter Exhibit. First with self-taught artist Maria Overlay and next with woodworking artist Mary Rooney whose work will be on exhibit at Lower Lincoln and Roots Cafe through April 13th. Our spotlights on the Ford County Symphony's Sunday, March 10th concert featuring the work of composer Ingrid Sotl at Holcraft Performing Arts Center. Express yourself you art, and show the world your heart. Express yourself you 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 Mary and Esther, Art on the Air our way. Express yourself you art, and show the world your heart. Express yourself you art, 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 7pm 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 11am and Monday at 5pm on WVLP 103.1 FM streaming live at wvlp.org and Tuesdays at 4pm 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. We'd like to welcome to Art on the Air Spotlight, back again from LaPorte County Symphony, is Executive Director Emily Yiannas and she's going to tell us about what they have coming up. Two actual things coming up in terms of auditions and actual concerts and some exciting things and this of course will be the Holcraf Performing Arts Center in Michigan City. Emily, welcome back to Art on the Air Spotlight. Thanks so much. Excited to be here. Yeah, so good to see you Emily. Good to see you too as well. So tell us about our next concert. You've got guest composers, guest principal flutist, which is actually one of your regular ones. Tell us all about that. Yes, it's season number three already. I know, yeah, we're just flying through the season here. So we have a concert on March 10th, also at the Holcraf Performing Arts Center as was our February concert and we have a really exciting guest artist. Her name is Dr. Ingrid Stötzel. She is originally from Germany and she is a composer and the symphony will be playing her composition, City Beautiful. And so she's going to be in residence the whole week of rehearsals to work with the symphony and just bring this composition to life and we're really excited to have her and to play a living composer's work and get her feedback on the rehearsal process. Yeah, it's beyond exciting. I know, yeah, we're really excited to have her. Well, and see, I think a lot of times people think classical music are all dead composers and I know La Porte County Symphony especially has been featuring it seems like works of people, living composers in the classical genre. And your principal flautist, she's going to be on there. Yes, Alexandra Kemble, she is exceptionally talented. She is going to be playing a concertina by Cecile Chaminade, so another female composer from the 1800s and she will be playing that wonderful piece for us. Right, we'll get this at the end of the interview, but just remind us right now when the concert is and details. Yeah, it's March 10th, so it's a Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. at the Holdcraft Performing Arts Center in Michigan City. That's at 1200 Spring Street near the Uptown Arts District by Elston School. And you just completed your side-by-side concert. That must have been very enjoyable for all those band teachers, orchestra directors, everything to be up with the symphony. Yeah, that's right, absolutely. Great. Is that going to be a yearly thing? I don't, I'm not sure. We may take a break from it for a year and revisit it later, but it was super fun and we definitely want to do it again for sure. Now, a lot of people may not know if they've listened to our show, they probably do, but may not know about what the Hoosier Star is. So maybe explain to our audience what that is because you have auditions coming up. So tell us all about that. Yes, I would love to. So Hoosier Star is an annual singing competition. It has its roots in American Idol. So I believe it was 18 years ago that they had the first Hoosier Star. And we invite people to audition, adults and youth. So the youth division is 17 and under. The adult division is 18 and older. And we select five finalists from each category, so five youth finalists and five adult finalists. And they have the opportunity to perform a piece with the symphony and compete for the title of Hoosier Star. And the prize money is $1,000 for first place and $500 for second place. So it's a really fun event, and we get a huge, huge outpouring of support from the community and just lots of local talent. It's grown over the years, and now we're kind of pulling in talent from outside of La Porte County. We've reached into southwest Michigan and Elkhart and South Bend and other areas because people just want to come and compete to be named Hoosier Star. Yeah, it's wonderful to watch an event bloom over the years. Yes, and I think they thought, as Tim King has told me, they thought that this would last five or six years and they'd run out of local talent. But going on 18, 19 years and still have not run out of talent. So tell us about the audition process and, of course, when the audition is. I mean, someone's listening to this and saying, well, what do I need to do, where do I need to do it, and all that. Sure, absolutely. All the information is on our website, lcso.net. Auditions are March 16th and 17th at the Presbyterian Church of La Porte on Kingsbury Avenue. It's a $20 fee to audition. You can either mail it in or pay it online. And there's some forms to fill out online. Those are also on our website. And you have four minutes to sing a piece of your choosing. You either have to bring your own accompanist or bring your own recorded accompaniment on your phone. No accompanist is provided. But then there will be three judges who will be adjudicating and deciding who gets to be chosen as a finalist. And it's exciting. Now, looking ahead, last time we spoke, we asked you if you would kind of consolidate what may be up for the next season. Do you have anything nailed on yet? Oh, yeah. Well, we're going to be announcing that in a big press release soon. I can't quite disclose anything yet. But we have some very exciting pieces lined up for our 2024-2025 season that we're really excited about. That's good. And I hope there's an opportunity for you to sing again. I hope so, too. I had so much fun. That was excellent at that concert. Well, in our last minute, Emily, why don't you share us the details about the upcoming concert and also who's your star once again? That's right. So our upcoming concert is at the Holtcraft Performing Arts Center in Michigan City on March 10th. That's a Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at lcso.net. $25 for adults, $22 for seniors. And students, as always, are free. We also will take walk-ins at the door so you don't have to buy your tickets online ahead of time. And then we have our Hoosier Star auditions coming up March 16th and 17th at the Presbyterian Church of La Porte. And all of that information can be found online at lcso.net. Well, we appreciate you coming on Art in the Air Spotlight. Executive Director for the La Porte County Symphony is Emily Yanez. Thank you so much for sharing all that information. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks, Emily. Art in the Air Spotlight and the complete one-hour program on Lakeshore Public Media is brought to you by Macaulay Real Estate in Valparaiso, Olga Patrician, Senior Broker. And as a reminder, if you'd like to have your event on Art in the Air Spotlight or have a longer feature interview, email us at aotaatbrech.com. That's aotaatbrech, B-R-E-C-H, dot com. Hi, this is Rob Quick, author of Finding Your Voice with radio, audio, and podcast production. And you're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media 89.1 FM and on WVLP 103.1 FM. We would like to welcome Maria Overley to Art on the Air. Maria is a self-taught artist and nature is her primary inspiration for her work, both in photography and painting. She combines a series of different techniques to create her paintings. She is one of three featured artists this quarter for the Valparaiso Creative Council. Thank you for joining us on Art on the Air. Aloha and welcome, Maria. It's very nice to meet you. Hello, nice to meet you, too. Well, Maria, how we like to start our program is we always want artists to have a chance to tell about their origin story. And we say, how you got from where you were to where you are now. So tell us all about Maria. Well, I actually grew up in a small town in Monee, Illinois. And we moved here, oh gosh, it's been 13 years now since we've lived in Valparaiso. And I have two kids, both teenagers. They're 15 and 13. And then I've been married for 16 years. I had to think about that for a second. And yeah, just this past following year, in 2023, I decided to enroll in an art institute with the Milan Art Institute. They have a course called the Mastery Program. And I decided to enroll in that. It's a year-long program that teaches you everything from drawing, oil painting, mixed media. Is this course all online? It is. It's all online. And so it's self-paced, so you can take even longer than a year. You can even do it in six months, you know, if you're that fast. But they teach you how to find your voice, which is probably my favorite part of the program because I really found how I like to paint, kind of why I like to paint. And yeah, it just really helps. They also teach you how to market a little bit with like social media, emails, and then building a website, which is really cool, which I think is super fun. So yeah, and now I am graduated, so I can officially say I'm a professional artist. It's so interesting that you said that you found your voice there because actually, I do want to talk more about your childhood, but I am very fascinated as to how you came up with a particular style that you have. So what was the, what was, what do you feel the process of finding, like where did you start and then here you are now with the style that you have? Well, I've always loved animals and nature. I think that's a big part of it. And then I was doing photography for a few years, primarily nature photography, mostly birds, but other animals and nature as well. And I think that really kind of brought out, you know, what I wanted to paint as far as that part goes. And then I like to kind of give them a magical feeling, I guess. Completely. It's like another, it's like right here, but it's another realm as well. Yeah. Like a veil that you put over everything. Yes, yes, yes, exactly. So yeah, that's, yeah, animals and nature are definitely the biggest inspiration. I'm a big reader too. I wouldn't say fantasy books, but kind of, no, I wouldn't say realism books either. So I just, I have a huge imagination myself. So I'm always, I feel like I'm always thinking of a new painting, even while I'm painting, you know, a certain painting, it's like another one's coming, which is awesome. Hopefully that doesn't stop. No, it shouldn't. So back to your childhood, what was elementary, did you have elementary school art or was the family very creative and artistic? I was always artistic in elementary school. Actually, I had classmates that would always ask me to draw for them, like if they couldn't draw, they were like, oh, yeah. So I'm like, oh, but so that was pretty cool. My parents weren't like necessarily artistic, but they did know how to draw. And then my mom took up oil painting for a while, just as a hobby, just for fun. But yeah, otherwise I'm, oh, and I should say, actually, I have, I have a lot of siblings. I have six brothers and one sister. Oh, that's fun. Yeah, big family. All of my siblings play some sort of instrument. So, except for me and my younger brother. So we're kind of, I'm artistic in a different way. And now he has been picking up drawing. Which is pretty cool. Yeah, I guess we all have, all the kids have something artistic, you know, going on. So when you did, back to kind of photography, so you were doing that. Tell us a little bit how you got into just doing that and how that maybe also, like, does that inform your work? Like, do you photograph something, then later paint it? Or, you know, so tell us a little bit about your photography influence. Sure, yeah. Well, photography, I feel like, has been with me for a long time. I want to say my first camera was a Polaroid when I was, like, maybe 10 or 11. Ever since then, I would take pictures of anything I could think of. You know, just playing around. In high school, I would bring a camera with me. So it's like, you know, kids have cell phones now. I had an actual, like, film camera. And I would just take pictures of, you know, whoever, friends or whatever. And, yeah, it kind of dropped off a little bit, I would say, later teenage years. And then when I had my kids, I kind of brought it back a little bit because I wanted to take pictures of them. So that kind of brought it back on and then made me think, you know, get into it a little more of, like, taking pictures of flowers, you know, landscapes and things like that. Then I decided... I want to say maybe... I was the dog groomer for a long time. So around that time I was grooming at my home, I decided to buy a nice camera. Like, a nicer camera, anyways. Started kind of taking it a little more seriously. Kind of as, like, a side thing. And then, yeah, it kind of just kept rolling from there. Yeah, if you look at your portfolio for photography, I just look at the amount of patience you must have to get that little chipmunk and the squirrel. Oh, my gosh, how many hours were you there just waiting? Luckily for me, I'm... My house has a wooded lot behind it. So I always have, like, peanuts, bird feed. I always have that stuff on hand. I feel like if I'm feeding them, they'll come. You know? So, yeah, that makes it a little bit less challenging. You know, the waiting game, anyways. But, yeah, they're pretty... I think they're pretty used to me, too, from just kind of seeing me out there. I have chickens and... I know, your chickens are adorable. Thank you. Oh, yeah, they're part of the photography, too, for sure. And the paintings. What kind of post-processing do you do? I assume you're into digital photography. Do you use Lightroom, or how do you post-process? Yeah, I use Photoshop mostly. A little bit of Lightroom, but that's more on my phone if I'm just doing, like, a post for Instagram or something like that. But mostly Photoshop. When I was doing more photography on the photography side, I would make a lot of composites, which is layering photos, which I'm sure you know, and creating kind of like a fine art painting, but a picture. Yeah, I guess that's how I could explain it. But, yeah, it's super fun to just kind of take a bird picture and, I don't know, create kind of like a magical scene with it. Right. So that's how it gets to the paintings? You're superimposing all this stuff ahead of time so you can figure out the composition? Yeah, and same with paintings. To create sources, I will sometimes use free photos that are online, like Pexels or one of those websites, just if I'm looking for a particular animal that I might have a picture of. Like, I'm painting a picture of a horse, so I don't really have many pictures of horses. Not that I can think of. Maybe somewhere on a hard drive somewhere. But, yeah, sometimes I'll use that and kind of create a source in Photoshop, which is pretty cool. Yeah. Do you take commissions by any chance? I do, yes. Yes, I do. Yeah, I think the only offering I don't offer for commissions is portraits of people. Yeah. But everything else, pretty much, yeah. That's where I've recently done a few houses for Christmas ornaments. So that was pretty fun. So how did you get connected to the Valpo Creative Council? And we'll talk more about the exhibit later, but how did you get into that to be one of the exhibitors? I get their emails, and I signed up. I believe I sent out an email. They had a call for artists for the exhibit, and I signed up for the quarterly exhibit. And I said, really, any date was good for me. And then I got a call from Jessica a few weeks ago about it. So I was excited. I was like, oh, good, I get to, you know, all my paintings hanging on my walls can go. So, yeah, it's so cool. I know it's really nice to see them in a different venue. It's really the whole atmosphere of the painting sometimes. It does. It does for sure, yeah. And I'm glad to, you know, get other eyes on it besides just mine. Have your kids taken a painting? No. Sometimes I can get them to paint with me a little bit, and they end up really liking it. But otherwise they don't have the drive to do it on their own. I kind of wish they would get into it a little more because I think it's just really freeing to, even if you're not being serious about it, just to put some color on a paper or a canvas, you know. Do they get the music scene then? Yes, my daughter, actually. She plays the cello, so, yeah. My son doesn't play an instrument, but he has, you know, found interest in it a little bit. But I don't know. I think he's just a little too shy to play. But it would be nice to get him in. He has brought up drawing, so he might take that up a little bit. It would be pretty cool. Our audience can't see, but it looks like you have a home studio. So tell us about that. Yeah. So I have a home studio in my downstairs area of my house. Luckily I have some pretty decent lighting. And, yeah, it's pretty spacious, actually, and I can keep all of my supplies in here. I have a printer that I use to print my own prints, which I just got recently. And then I have a smaller printer as well. And, yeah, I have all my computer stuff down here, basically everything. And I sit around on my stool and print and do all kinds of fun stuff. Do you have a discipline to your, like, a practice? Like, say, okay, every day I'm going to do this much, kind of like a writer a lot of times says, well, I'm going to write from such and such. Do you have that type of thing, or it's all just like, okay, I'm inspired to go do this? Oh, yeah. No, I definitely have a plan every day. I always go outside first, early in the morning. I take my dogs outside. We go on a walk, a journey, because I feel like that's good exercise. I'm going outside, and I feel like it kind of clears my mind. And then I paint usually for, usually at least four hours. And then usually after that I work on my website or my newsletter, any computer stuff that I don't want to do. Usually it's at the end. So I feel like my, when I'm feeling inspired and energetic, I'm keeping that for painting. So I'm very interested in this mastery program that you took. So was there, what were the critiques like? Is that done with, like, on Zoom with an actual person, or is it just emails? And what do you think was the most valuable part of that whole experience for you? So there are pre-recorded classes, and then you can pay monthly for them or pay the whole year off. Then you have all the classes right there for yourself. So you can kind of go back and forth. You have it for a lifetime, too. So you can go, so even if I forget something, I can kind of go back, you know, look back on a class and be like, oh, oh, yeah, that's right. But, yeah, they're pre-recorded. And they do offer other classes. Some are free, like the workshops. Some are paid. Just what was your, like, during that, because you said it was like a year process, what was the most valuable part of it for you? Yes, yes. I think the most valuable part of the mastery program was, I definitely think it was finding my voice and I would say building the portfolio as well because then you kind of see your art come together in a very cohesive way. You know, it's not all, you know, this and that. You can definitely see that it's all from the same artist. You know, I definitely have style. So I think that was definitely my favorite part of it, for sure. When you talk about style, what would you self-describe what your style is? I originally would say abstract realism, but I don't think I go that realism because I don't think I use the colors that would be realistic to say a blue jay or a horse. I like to add in all these crazy colors and then kind of bring it down, you know, tighten it up a little bit to make it a little more realistic. But I think it ends up being whimsical. It's like I try to go realism and it ends up whimsical. So, yeah, I would say ultimately I would say it's whimsical, yeah. How did COVID impact you? Did, you know, a lot of artists kind of withdrew and, of course, you were in maybe the sense of becoming an artist, so to speak, or actually developing that. So tell us about how that whole pandemic changed your art and you. Oh, yeah, that was definitely challenging because everybody's home, you know, the kids were at home and they were doing school on the computer, so it was definitely a challenge. At the time I was doing photography, so I could still, you know, take my pictures, edit them, and share them. But as far as events go, you know, there was nothing like that going on, obviously, you know, and purchasing anything online, like prints, it just wasn't happening. So, yeah, it was definitely, it was challenging, but it was kind of a little bit of a reset too, like maybe we always don't have to be in fast motion. You know, we can slow down a little bit and think about it, you know, take our time. That's the good thing I've seen out of it. But yeah, yeah, otherwise, yeah, it was OK. Just challenging mostly because we're all together on top of each other. It made things like concentrating was out of the question, unless you locked yourself in another room. But yeah, it wasn't too bad. Which you sort of have in your basement, right? You could say. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, around COVID, I want to say, is when I started to have my studio down here. So I was, I think I was like painting the walls and things. Now that I'm thinking about it, yeah, I was painting and kind of prepping the room for it. So besides the VCC exhibit going on, and we'll talk more about the dates and things like that, what else do you have down the road? Do you have any other things coming up in terms of exhibits? I do have my art up at a nail salon that I go to called JLR Nail Design. So she has my art up on her wall. So if any of her clients go there, they can see them. And then I do have a market coming up. It is by the Chicago Artisan Market. And that is in Oakbrook, Oakbrook, Illinois, in June 8th and 9th. And is your art still on the utility in Valparaiso? Yes, yes it is. Yeah. Yeah, right across the post office. Do you want to give that address? Is it only on one or is it on several? It is on the one, that one. Let's see, it's on the corner of Val Park and Valparaiso Street. Right across the street from the main post office, right on the walking trail. So it goes perfectly over there because there's always deer over there. The art fits really well. That must have been so exciting to see it so gigantic. Yeah, definitely. Like, oh my gosh, this is so cool. Really cool. Is there any medium that you have not explored that you want to? You know, you work in, well, you've done photography, but there's something like, oh, I'd really like to. What is that? I would say, I've been really wanting to try pastels, like pan pastels. I've tried them a little bit here and there, but I can't seem, I don't have the patience, but I don't know if that's the right word for it. I just don't know how to use them properly, maybe. I have found that I like the pencils, which are really cool. It's a little more tedious than working on a larger painting, so maybe that's why, too. But I think if I practice, you know, give myself some more time to practice on it, I think it would be, it would be really cool and fun, fun to try. Yeah, the colors are so saturated. They're really beautiful. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Tell us a little bit about the VCC exhibit, some of the pieces you have in it, and we'll also talk about the dates and times of how, when it's running. And where it's at. Yes. Oh, yeah, yeah. So the VCC exhibit is, it's going on currently until April 12th, and there will be an artist reception on March, is it March 14th? March 14th, yes. Yeah, sorry. I was like, 12, 14, sorry. On the 14th, from 4.30pm to 6.30pm. And I have three paintings at Roots Cafe, which is part of it. And then 12 over at Lower Lincoln, which is right below Buffalo Wild Wings, for those who don't know. And I have a pretty large painting there that has gotten a bit of attention, which I'm kind of surprised it's available still, is the Koi painting, which is named Balance. So it's sort of a yin and yang type of feeling. It was a painting that definitely took me a little while. I knew what I wanted to paint, but it wasn't coming out. Like, I knew in my mind what I wanted to paint, but it wasn't coming out with the paint. So it took me a little bit of time to get it right. Actually, it's kind of a funny story about that painting, is I figured out what else to do on it after going to the mall. Which sounds kind of random, but my daughter wanted to go to the mall. She's never been there, so I took her. And we went to Bath and Body Works. And I found some lotion in their, you know, their sale bin. And they were very celestial-looking stars, moons, things like that. And the colors, I found two of them. The colors were both the colors of the Koi, the Koi painting. I was like, oh, my gosh. Oh, I know what I can paint on there now, which was the little stars and things like that. It was, yeah, it just came together really well. So the works are for sale then? Yes, yes. Well, in our last few moments here, we want to give you a chance to have people tell how they can find you online, your social media, websites, and things like that. Sure, yeah. I have a website. It is mariaoverlaysfineart.com. And you can purchase prints, my originals. And then I have my Instagram, which is mariaoverlayart. And Facebook, mariaoverlaysfineart. That sounds great. Well, you can see her work at the Roots Cafe and also Lower Lincoln in Valparaiso downtown. You can also see her online at mariaoverlayfineart.com. And that will be going through mid-April. And reception is March 14th, 430 to 630. Maria, thank you so much for coming on Art of the Year and sharing your art journey. Thank you. Thank you. It's delightful. Yeah, so it's great to talk to you guys. Do you have a suggestion for a possible guest on our show, whether it's an artist, musician, author, gallery, theater, concert, or some other artistic endeavor that you are aware of or a topic of interest to our listeners? Email us at aota.brech.com. That's aota.brech.com. Did you know that you can also listen to Art of the Year anytime as a podcast at Lakeshore Public Media's website through Lakeshore's app or from NPR? Plus, it's available on demand from your favorite podcast website, including TuneIn, Spotify, Amazon Music, Pandora, Apple Music, iHeartRadio, and many more. This is Alan Harrison, author of Scene Change, a new bestselling book on the subject of nonprofit arts organizations. And you're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media 89.1 FM and on WVLP 103.1 FM. Thanks for listening. We would like to welcome Mary Rooney to Art on the Air. Mary is a woodworker and is known for her puzzle-like images and scenes. Her business is named Sandpiper Woodworking. She is one of three exhibiting artists featured this quarter for Valparaiso Creative Council. Thank you for joining us on Art on the Air. Aloha and welcome, Mary. It's very nice to meet you. Thank you very much. It's very nice to be here and kind of surreal. Well, we're so glad to have you part of that and part of the exhibit there in Valparaiso. And we'll talk more about that later. But what our audience would like to know is like your origin story, how you got from where you were to where you are now. So tell us all about Mary. OK, I'll start from the beginning. I was born in Michigan City, which is where I live right now. I am almost 70 years old. Not quite. I am a retired secretary. The job I retired from was the St. Joseph County Health Department. And I retired from there right before COVID hit. So I dodged a bullet. Very, very happy to have dodged that bullet. So my woodworking background actually didn't start till about 2000. I attend the Mark Adams School of Woodworking in Franklin, Indiana. I try to take at least one week-long class and maybe a couple weekend classes per year. And I've tried different classes. I've tried carving. I've tried marquetry, which is working with veneer. But my favorite class of all has been intarsia. And I love doing it. It's fun. I kind of make my own patterns and just have a lot of fun with it. What is that week like for you? The week at the school, it goes fast, and you feel like you're there forever. It's one of those things. There's usually a limit of 10 to 12 students per class, so you get a lot of one-on-one instruction. The facilities are top-notch. They're absolutely fantastic. Mark Adams is a truly gifted and wonderful human being. He started the school 35 years ago and has just built it up into the largest woodworking school in North America. So I try to go down for one class, as I said, a couple weekend classes. This year I will be doing oval shaker boxes, which are very thin-walled, but then they nest inside of each other. I am going to take a turning class because that's my other love, is turning. And then the third class I'm taking is working with alabaster. I'm going to try to incorporate that into my intarsia pieces, like maybe a mountain scene or something like that. Oh, beautiful. I want to take you back, though, in your childhood and, like, in school and everything. Did you have any interest in the arts or anything, like, growing up, elementary, middle school, high school, beyond, or college? Was there anything in there? Or, you know, like you said, you kind of started this woodworking class after you retired. But tell us a little bit about that journey. Well, that journey, I went to St. Mary's for eight years and then the public schools for the remaining four. Girls weren't allowed to do anything like this. I loved art class. I wasn't very good at math. Still, I'm not good at math. But I loved anything creative. When I went to Barker, when I was in ninth grade, I got to take crocheting and cooking and sewing. And that was a little bit more fun. Now, my brother got to take the woodshop class. And I was extremely jealous because I wanted to do that. But they said, no, you can't do that. You're a girl. I've always remembered that. It really stuck in my craw. I was like, why? You know, why can't my brother learn how to boil water and I can learn how to, you know, cut a piece of wood? So I didn't really have any kind of training. When I was out on my own and I was a single mom with two kids, I moved into a house in La Porte. And the bathroom didn't have any storage, like to put shampoo bottles or towels or something like that. So I went to Von Tobel's lumberyard. And I got a piece of wood and I brought it home. And I thought I had a saw, but I didn't. I had a steak knife. I took the steak knife and cut the piece of wood into four pieces, too long, too short. And I did have a hammer and I found some nails. And I made myself a very simple little rectangle box that sat on the back of the toilet. And that's what held our towels and shampoo bottles and lotion bottles for years. When my son saw me working with the steak knife, he thought, you know, Mom, we can do better than this. So for that Christmas, he got me my very first hand saw. And after that, I was hooked. I couldn't get enough woodworking. And I wasn't very good at it, but I went to the library and checked books out because we didn't have YouTube back in the 80s. And later in the 80s is when I discovered Mark Adams. But I didn't go there until like a decade later. But I've always loved working with wood. It's fun. It's beautiful. You can do lots of things to it. And it always tells a story. Well, that story was just so lovely that you just told. What a great beginning. Do you have a favorite kind of wood you like to work with now that you're doing this type of thing? Is there something like, oh, I really like working with, let's say, mahogany? What's your favorite wood? My favorite wood that I've started working with is poplar, which is available from Lowe's, which is another reason why I liked it. There's a Lowe's in Michigan City. Michigan City doesn't really have a woodworking store. There's one in South Bend that carries, you know, everything from ash to zebra wood. But poplar is very easy to work with. It's inexpensive, but you can stain it. You can shape it very easily. It stands well. It takes paint well if you want to paint it. But I prefer just to use the natural grain. And seeing when you work with intarsia, the grain can go in different directions to give you a different effect. The piece I'm working on right now is actually a horse with a horse's mane. And so the grain can go down and up and sideways. And I have a lot of fun with poplar. Walnut is gorgeous. That's one of my, I love working with walnut. And it smells good, too, when you cut it. It smells like chocolate. So can you explain intarsia to our listeners, please? Sure. Intarsia is, if you think of a puzzle, you cut out puzzle pieces and then fit them back together again. It's matching wood together to make, you start with a pattern and you cut the pieces out according to the pattern. And if you do it correctly, they should all fit back together again and make the picture you're trying to do. That's intarsia. And that makes up a good portion of the body of your work. I've seen some of it at the exhibit when I got there. And, yeah, I saw some of that type of thing. So the process, how do you do that? Do you lay out something like on paper first and how you're going to make these pieces before they fit together? What's your process? My process is, it's kind of interesting. I like to use the pattern if I have one. If I don't have a pattern, but say I want to make a teddy bear, I'll go to Google and Google children's coloring pages. And print that out. Boom, there's my pattern. I lay it out on a piece of tracing paper and trace around it, trace around the outline of the bear, and then put the tracing paper on a piece of wood with a piece of carbon paper, which I don't know if your listeners know what carbon paper is, but old secretaries do. And I use the carbon paper to trace around the different designs of the teddy bear. And then when everything's all traced out, I have the pattern on the wood. And then I take it to my scroll saw and cut it out. Once I have all the pieces cut out, I take it over to the sander, round off all the edges and make them look real pretty. And then glue the pieces back together again and put just a nice beeswax finish on it just to bring out the grain. I try not to paint it unless, like a lake, you might need to paint a lake because there's no blue wood. But once I get it all glued back together again and I put a backer board on it for stability, that's pretty much it. From start to finish, it's probably three days' worth of work. But it's fun and it's relaxing and every piece I make makes me smile some more than others. Now, you have your own shop in your home? I have my very own workshop in my backyard. I moved from South Bend to this home in 2018. And with the help of some family members, I have one of those Amish structures that they actually deliver right to your backyard. It was fascinating to watch this guy drive this building into my backyard, but he did a great job with it. And I've got electricity and I've got heat. I don't have running water, but that's okay. It's just my building that's my piece of heaven out here. And my building is named Dusty. How appropriate. Because it usually is. And how long have you had your Dusty building? Dusty building has been here since 2019. Okay. And that was the year I retired, so it worked out perfectly. So these pieces are stabilized, but do you also do puzzles that are not adhered to another substrate? I have done some puzzles for some customers. You know, can you do like a very simple puzzle for a two-year-old? Yes, I can do those. I did a beach ball for somebody. I did a lighthouse for somebody. And I thought they were coming back to buy the pieces because I exhibit at the Edge of Liberty craft show. They didn't show up. So I've made puzzles, but they didn't come back to buy them. So I don't make many puzzles. I enjoy intarsia. It's more fun to have something just to look on the wall. But if somebody wants a puzzle, I can definitely do it. Is there any kind of art besides your woodworking that you would like to explore or do? We've talked to artists, and they sometimes are very skilled in their area, but is there anything that you would really like to explore that's completely different from woodworking? I would love to do painting, like watercolor. I think that would be a lot of fun. I think I have a creative knack, and some of my family members will say, yes, definitely you have a creative knack. I have taken drawing classes, like charcoal and pencil, and I really enjoyed that. But I haven't seen any classes around here lately. I mean, maybe with COVID, you know, things kind of folded up a little bit. But I've tried sewing. I'm not – I think I have a sewing machine somewhere in the house. I'm not sure. I've tried crocheting. I've never got the knack of knitting. Cooking, I can survive on what I make. But I think anything like painting or watercolor, I think that would be fun. That's true, because then you could apply that to your pieces as well, I mean, that color sense. Yes. I also do wood burning, which is another class I took down at Mark Adams. And the class that I took was a couple years ago. It was just a weekend class. We also explored using colored pencils just to bring a little bit of depth and dimension to the flowers we were working on. And that was wonderful. I'd love to take another class on that, but I just haven't got around to it yet. You're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, on WVLP, 103.1 FM. So was that class mostly traditional design, or did you get to design your patterns yourself? I'm sorry. It was just a weekend class, so we kind of did what the instructor told us to. Her name is Sherry Beck, and she's awesome. But it gave me a chance to explore further on my own at home. Like, what else can I do? You know, if I use this different tip on my wood burner, what effects am I going to get? You know, if I press deeper, if I crank it up to broil, you know, you're going to get a lot different than when you crank it down to, like, two or three, and you're going to get much lighter shadowing effects and things like that. So have you applied that technique? Because, you know, I saw the images of, like, the tags, like the... Oh, the hang-alongs. Right, right. Yeah. I use wood burning probably in all of my intarsia pieces now for shadowing or usually the eye, the nose on animals that I do. Wood burning is a lot easier than trying to cut a piece the size of a dime. And so what kind of protective equipment do you have? Because, like, Dusty is named Dusty for a reason. Yeah. When I do turning, I use a full face shield just because I don't want anything flying up into my beautiful blue eyes. I do wear a dust mask occasionally. I don't do it a lot because it fogs up my glasses. I was curious how you got connected to the Valpo Creative Council for the current exhibit that's running. How did you find out about it and everything? That's an interesting story. My older sister and I participate in the Edge of Liberty craft shows that are in Valparaiso on North Cal UNET. It's an every-other-Sunday type craft show. Not very much traffic, but it's calm. We enjoy doing it. It gives us a chance to see each other. And one lady came up to my booth in August, and she was looking at my stuff, and she said, I said, thank you very much. I appreciate that. And she said, would you be interested maybe in showing your pieces at a restaurant that I manage? And I said, sure. I thought, yeah, right. Okay. I've heard, you know, promises before. But I thought, okay, you know, I'll be nice to her. So, anyway, she said, okay, well, I'll be in touch with you. And we exchanged business cards. And I thought, okay, that's fine. I didn't think anything of it because I didn't think anything would come of it. Well, come to find out, in November, she contacted me. Her name is Marissa, and she manages Roots. And she said, I'm really interested in having you as a featured artist for January and February. Are you interested? I said, sure. I'd love to. So, she told me she needed 20 to 25 pieces. I only had 13 on hand, and I said, I'll start making them. So, I cranked up my scroll saw and started busting out pieces. And on January 2nd, we got everything hung up in her shop. And a week or so later, she contacted me, and she said, there's a group called the Valparaiso Creative Council that's interested in maybe, you know, looking at your work, too. Would you be interested in that? I said, sure. You know, why not? And so, then Jessica contacted me and asked me if I could provide a couple pieces for the location at Lower Lincoln. And I said, sure. So, it's kind of snowballed, you know, from a craft show to now I'm involved as a featured artist. It's very exciting, but again, it's kind of surreal. From your social media, I gather the pieces have been selling already. They have been selling, yeah. I'm very happy to see that, you know, people enjoy what I make. So, I mean, that always makes an artist feel good. And my pieces are going to good homes, and that makes me feel good, too, because we become friends. Right. I see something else that you do that's not exactly art, but is kind of creativity, scrapbooking. You've done that for quite some time. Tell us a little bit about that scrapbooking now. The scrapbooking started back in the late 90s. My mother lived in Arizona, and I went out to visit her at one point. And we were talking about scrapbooks. And she said, you were thinking of getting into scrapbooking. And I said, yeah, actually, I am. I've got, you know, a couple albums going. And she said, okay, do you want any family pictures? I said, yeah, I'd love them. I would love to, you know, like preserve them. And she said, okay, well, you know, tell you what, let me get the boxes. She got some boxes out, and she said, with my blessings and condolences. Because they were all loose, but she had everything named and dated. So that made it a lot easier. I put everything into chronological order starting back in the 1800s. And I've done three what I call heritage albums with mom's side of the family, dad's side of the family. And I did a 52-page Boomer album that has everything from 1948 up to 1972. And I just, I love scrapbooking. It's another creative outlet for me. I have used some wood burning on the pages, which is kind of interesting. And I have done a scrapbook for Mark Adams, too. So I can chronological my journey with school. That's so lovely. Have you taught any classes? I mean, I know you've been taking classes, but it seemed like, you know, you have a level of experience and creativity that if someone said, hey, I'd really like to find out about woodworking. Have you done that? I haven't done. He actually asked me to teach a scrapbooking class. Because when he saw the Mark Adams scrapbook, he said, would you teach a class on this? And I said, I would love to. Unfortunately, they didn't get enough people to sign up for the class, so it was canceled. But I would love to teach a scrapbooking class. Woodworking, I'm not sure I'm the best person to teach. I know how to do it, and I can learn really well. But maybe teaching somebody else, I'm not sure if I could do that. If anybody is interested in woodworking, go to markadams.com and sign up for their brochure, and they would love to teach you. Well, plus there's a higher liability with woodworking. You know, you might cut a body part off and burn the house down, burn Dusty down. They do frown on that, yeah. So with those classes, is it always a specific thing? Or is it also like whatever you want to learn, that's a possibility? Or are they all, like, very structured? Most of the classes at Mark Adams are very structured. They tell you we're going to build a theater chest, or we're going to learn how to do intarsia, or we're going to turn a thin-walled vessel on the lathe. It's usually pretty specific. Towards the end of the week, if you want to try something a little bit different, they're more than happy to help you and say, okay, let's see what we can do with this. But for the most part, it's pretty structured. When you have a school that large and that detailed, they have to keep things a little more structured. But they do want you to explore your own creativity. Do they have private classes for that then? Was that something could you book like a week privately? Not that I've ever heard of, no. That would be really cool, but probably very expensive too. Yeah, probably. Yeah, if you had a specific project. Would he be a resource? Like let's say you're working on something that may be a little bit out of your mainstream. It would be someone that would say, hey, I have a question. Could you answer how to do da-da-da-da-da? Would he help you with that? I'm sure he would. At the end of the week, the instructor always gives us their contact information. We can call them and say, hey, I'm working on this. I'm trying to finish up this particular piece, but I don't remember how to finish it. And they're more than happy to walk you through it or whatever help you need. They're absolutely fantastic. Well, we only have about a minute left here, so I want to give you a chance to tell us how people can find you and a little bit about the exhibit times and dates and everything like that. Okay, well, my email is marooney23 at hotmail.com. I have a Facebook page called Sandpiper Woodworking. I will be at the Edge of Liberty pretty much every other Sunday starting on Mother's Day. You can come out and see me then and reach out, and I'll be glad to tell you what we got and what I can do for you. Sounds wonderful. She'll also be at the Valpo Creative Council. It's been hanging there. It's running January 26th through April 13th with a reception on Thursday, March 14th, 430 to 6, I believe it is. And you can see her work there at, I think it's both at the Roots Cafe and at Lower Lincoln in downtown Valparaiso, so fantastic. Mary, thank you so much for being on this. Mary Rooney, woodworker extraordinaire. Appreciate you sharing your art journey on Art on the Air. Thank you so very much. This was wonderful. Yeah, thank you, Mary. Thank you. 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 aired 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. If you have a smart speaker like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple Siri, just tell it to play Art on the Air to hear the latest episode. 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. 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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. See you next week. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.