AOTA-230929 - Joe Baughman and Julie Miller

This week on Art on the Air, they feature Joe Boffman, a music video director, stop-motion animator, and musician. They also highlight Julia Miller, a mixed media artist known for her vibrant art. They discuss the upcoming Drayden Family Concert and Opening Subscription Concert by the Port County Symphony. Larry and Esther are the hosts of Art on the Air, a weekly program covering the arts in Northwest Indiana. They mention their website, breck.com/aota, where listeners can find show archives and more. They also welcome guests from the Port County Symphony who talk about the Education Concert and Opening Subscription Concert. The Education Concert is in its 35th year and allows students to experience a live orchestra. The Opening Subscription Concert will feature Hungarian dances and guest artists. They briefly mention the Holiday Pops concert as well. They share information about the LaPorte Civic Auditorium and its recent upgrades. Listeners are encouraged to visit lcso.net for more This week on Art on the Air features music video director, stop-motion animator, and musician Joe Boffman, whose Crestle Arts Center exhibit runs through November 26th. Next we have mixed media artist Julia Miller, known for her vibrant art that explores movement, emotion, and nature. Our spotlights on the Port County Symphony's Drayden Family Concert on October 11th and Opening Subscription Concert on November 4th. Express yourself through art, 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. Welcome. You're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, WVLP 103.1 FM, and WDSO 88.3 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. 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 A-O-T-A. 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 from the Port County Symphony, and they'll be at the Civic Live Tournament. They have two concerts coming up, both mainstays of the thing, the Education Concert and, of course, then their Opening Subscription Concert, and they're going to talk about it. Of course, we have the new Executive Director, I should say, Amber Yiannas, and she's been on before, and now the Education Manager, Jared Collar. Welcome to Art on the Air Spotlight. Aloha, welcome. Thanks so much for having us. Well, we'll start off with just saying how well the Hoosier Star went. You just completed that not too long ago. We did, yes. Saturday, September 9th, it was fantastic, great turnout, nearly 800 people in the crowd cheering on our 10, well, 11 really finalists. We had one duet in the adult category, and everybody had a fantastic time. We raised over $60,000 for the symphony, and it was a really, really good event. So, Emily, you can ask for a raise now, I guess, now. Yeah, right. Well, your first concert coming up, the Education Concert, which has been kind of a mainstay. I think this is the 35th year, and I'm going to punt this over to the Education Manager, Jared, and tell us a little bit about the background of that, what we can expect. Yeah, so this is the 35th year for the Education Concert. Every year we do this, we have three separate concerts for close to 5,000. We're actually anticipating about 6,000 students this year from across the area, in Michigan, northwest Indiana, in grades 3, 4, 5, and even 6th grade. This is a chance for students to come and witness a live orchestra for the first time and get to experience live music. This year we're bringing up Rick DeYoung. He's a Nashville, Tennessee composer. He also grew up in LaPorte area and was a teacher in LaPorte as well for a couple of different elementary schools. He's writing and arranging all the music for this year's program, so we have some music from Star Wars. He's going to use emojis and talk about how emotion and music tie in together. He's going to bring up a couple of guest conductors to conduct John Phillips' Stars and Stripes Forever. We're going to play a game based on Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, and then he's going to be soloing himself on a piano concerto that he arranged based on some different movie themes and some very popular music that the kids are sure to love. Then he's going to dress up as Mario, and we're going to play a Super Mario Bros. medley of all the music from the Super Mario games and the movie that just came out this past year. Boy, this could not get more fantastic. I know. Lucky students. It will appeal to adults as well. I know. I was thinking this one goes beyond. My three-year-old grandson would be nuts about the Mario thing, but that sounds like a fantastic concert. I mean, you're almost like, jeez, you want to do that for the adults too. I know. What a day. Well, we want to move on, and really briefly, tell me what else you do, Jared, for the symphony in your role as education manager. Right. So I'm kind of the liaison between the orchestra and all the area educators. We have student apprentices, so high school students that get to audition and play with the orchestra throughout the season. And our 23-24 season apprentices will be announced very soon. And then I also work with some of the other community events. We have a couple events at the LaPorte County Library coming up in December. We'll be sure to share those details soon, as well as some other education community events throughout the year. Sounds like a wonderful program and a great outreach for young people. Well, Emily, let's move on to you and talk about the opening subscription concert November 4th. Tell us what Carolyn Watson has prepared for us. Sure. Absolutely. Yes. So our opening subscription concert on November 4th is at the LaPorte Civic Auditorium, and it is going to be a wonderful program featuring the Hungarian dances by Brahms and a couple of other pieces by Hungarian composers. We have violinist Sally Kuh who is coming. She is an internationally known violinist, and she will be soloing with us. We also have Chester Englander on the cymbalom, which is a central European dulcimer percussion instrument. And he is one of the only people in the country who plays that instrument. So it's going to be really fantastic to have him here. And funny story, he actually, he's traveling quite a distance to come. He cannot fly on an airplane because he has to transport the cymbalom in his car. So he will be driving here and bringing his very large instrument with him. And so we're really excited to have him and Sally Kuh with us as the guest artists for that concert. And then you have, of course, the Holiday Pops. We'll talk about that on your next interview. That's right. Yeah. I know it is a beloved favorite of the community. Some of the changes in the auditorium is, well, not matter so much in this time of year, but air conditioning and new seating in the balcony areas. That's right. Yeah. So we got to experience that seating at Hoosier Star. People were really pleased with those padded balcony seats, cup holders. They've got new railings on the stairs. And the stairs have been rebuilt so that they're not as steep, which I think a lot of our patrons really appreciate. So just lots more accessibility there at the Civic. Real quick, contact information and how they can find out about the LaPorte County Symphony. Absolutely. Visit our website, lcso.net. Single tickets for concerts are now on sale and can be purchased online on our website, lcso.net. And if you have any questions, you can always email me at executive at lcso.net. We'd like to thank you for coming on our New Year Spotlight about the education concert and opening subscription concert for the LaPorte County Symphony. Education manager Jared Collar and Emily Yanis, thank you so much for coming on our New Year Spotlight. Thank you both. Thanks for having us. In the Spotlight Extra, singer-songwriter and runner-up on The Voice, Addison Agin will be having a special performance at Trinity Lutheran Church in Valparaiso on Sunday, October 1st at 2 p.m. With all the proceeds going to support WVLP, tickets are only $20. Go to Eventbrite, search Women 1 or on Facebook, WVLP Concert Women 1. Art on the Air Spotlight and the complete one-hour program on Lakeshore Public Media is brought to you by Macaulay Real Estate in Valparaiso, Ola Patrician Senior Broker. And as a reminder, if you'd like to have your event on Art on the Air Spotlight or have a longer feature interview, email us at aotaatbrek.com. That's aotaatbrek, B-R-E-C-H, dot com. I am writer, television and radio personality Mark Edward Willow, and you're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, and on WVLP, 103.1 FM. Thank you. We would like to welcome Joe Bossman to Art on the Air. Joe is a cinematographer, director, stop motion animator, and musician. He's also a sculptor, painter, and collage artist working with a multitude of media from clay to found objects. His exhibition at the Krasil Art Center will feature the inner workings of the stop motion process. Sets, props, and characters will be on view along with the completed music video. Aloha and welcome, Joe. Thank you so much for joining us. Oh, of course. Glad to be here. Well, Joe, we always like to find out your whole origin story for our audience, your background, like where you grew up, early influences in art and music, in your case because you have both. I always like to say how you got from where you were to where you are now. So tell us all about Joe. When I was a kid growing up in Koontz Lake, Indiana, we don't even have a post office. We're so small. But I, you know, to occupy my time, I was always kind of making little story lines with my toys and having fun creating that way. And then eventually I came across my grandfather's video camera and started making little short films and using his still camera as well to make little stop motion animations with my Legos and things like that. And the interest grew and grew and it became something that I occupied most of my time with. And, you know, I went to film school and then from there I just kept making stuff and that's what I do today. Where did you go to school? I went to a school called Regent University. I don't want to bash them. Not a great film school. Any school like that is a good experience though to like have some sort of guided, you know, I didn't have a lot of film exposure growing up. We didn't, you know, we lived in a small town and just didn't have access to a lot of things. So it was helpful just from that standpoint to see a lot of films every day. Did they have adequate equipment for you to do things? More or less. There's a grad school program there at the same time and they had just started undergrad. So the grad students got access to the best stuff and then we kind of got the leftovers. But, you know, I was still able to learn. Very good. How did music come into your life? We had a piano when I was a kid growing up and I would just play that. I started when I was two or three years old and just fiddled around on it and took lessons here and there and it was just something that brought me a lot of joy. So I always played throughout school. I didn't really start singing or writing songs until late high school and college because I just didn't really think I had a singing voice that people wanted to hear. But, yeah, the more I wrote and the more I started singing, the more I enjoyed the process. So, yeah, music's been a really strong part of my life, my whole life. And you've integrated that with your work and we'll talk more about your work down the road. So after you went through college, what else do you do? I mean, are you producing? Did you go right into producing your stop animation or, you know, tell us a little bit about that work process. Yeah, so from college I kind of didn't know where to go. So I was substitute teaching for a while, living with my parents or sleeping on people's couches, depending on where I was subbing. And during that time, substitute teaching is great because you can read and write a lot. You don't have a whole lot of responsibilities, at least subbing for high school. So from there I just kind of kept working on ideas and writing things. In my free time I would animate or just mess around with things I would find. I would animate. My dad was a pastor growing up and I grew up in a church and he had all these flannel graph, it was called flannel graph like bible stories, which is felt characters on felt backgrounds. So I would take those and make funny little stop motions, stop motion animations with those. Eventually after subbing I got a job at a small studio in Fort Wayne, Indiana and I continued to just spend all of my time making, anytime I wasn't working there I was making my own animations or own shorts. I kind of got a weird fortunate break where an artist, Sufjan Stevens, who was one of my favorite artists at the time and still is, he somehow watched one of my animations on YouTube and it had like five views and he was one of them. He contacted me to make a music video for one of his Christmas songs. So that was my first real music video that I got to do and from there I fell in love with making music videos. You mentioned starting back with stop motion with the Legos. What was the impetus for doing stop motion? In what age range are we talking about? I think I was probably freshman, sophomore in high school when I started doing it. I was imagining like nine years old. I didn't quite have the tools at that time but I was given a Steven Spielberg stop motion Lego set so that came with a little camera and that really set me on my way for that. Wow, that's excellent. So tell us a little bit about your work and I'm also going to sample some of your music that goes with your work. I know you've also produced an album but let's go back to where do you work? Do you have a home studio? Tell us about your process and how you build your story line. So tell us all about that whole thing. Yeah, so for a long time I just would animate out of my house in my garage or in a spare bedroom building my sets there. But it got pretty cramped and it was getting kind of expensive to rent so I ended up just this summer buying a small church that I'm in currently. I haven't got to start working in it yet. I've been renovating the space but yeah, that will be my animation space. Sorry, what was the second part of that question? Well, your work process. So how do you develop your story lines and your characters are so interesting. So I mean, very creative. But just tell us about that whole creative process. Yeah, so usually because I do a lot of music videos I'll get a song from an artist either that I've contacted or that has contacted me and I'll listen to it hundreds of times over and over until I just feel like I see a story in my head that I write down. And from there I'll figure out how to make it. And usually I'm not very good at imagining things that are easy so I have to figure out how to go about creating what I envision. So from there I'll just start sculpting and buying materials that I think work right. I build a lot of my own armatures and I used to use more professional ball and socket armatures but because I make characters that have very specific builds I just started making my own out of wire and yeah, I don't know how specific you want me to get but. Yeah, I think it's very specific. Yeah, very specific. This is an art program so we were interested in your whole process. Yeah, so for example characters that I make I'll start with a wire armature and then from there that's just animation wire that I get at United Art and Education. You could find it at Hobby Lobby or Michaels or something like that. And from there I will throw some cotton or fabric to fatten up the different parts of the body and then I'll make a layer of, I just use gaff tape actually to make a skin so that it has something that I can adhere other pieces onto. Sometimes I'll use Barbie clothes if I need real life looking clothes or I'll have people make. I don't do intricate sewing so I'll have other people make those things but also I'll just use fake flowers or faux fur, other things that I can find in various stores around here to make different feathers or skins or furs. And then from there I'll just, sometimes I bake heads out of oven baked clay or I'll do air dry clay or I'll just use foam and duct tape skin and make really rudimentary heads. Yeah, and I'm interested in how big these sets are. As far as the sets go, those are usually around 8 feet wide by 4 to 8 feet deep for some of them. So pretty big. Sorry, I'm trying to think. Or the scale will be a little smaller sometimes but I'll build those out of, it just depends on the project. It will be all kinds of different things. I'll use faux fur for grass or I'll use a lot of styrofoam. That looks so wonderful and so does your moving water. You do the water so beautifully. Yeah, I've done a lot of water with just fabric. Fabric, yeah, so beautiful. Yeah, and a lot of like rocks and stuff I'll make out of just insulation foam that you would find in a Home Depot or Lowe's type store. And I'll carve it and I use a lot of, I don't want to name a brand but I don't know what else. It's okay. But I'll just use kind of like polyester or polyurethane kind of stuff to harden it and then I'll paint it. Yeah, something I've really loved lately is air dry clay because I can make much bigger, more intricate pieces without having to break it down and bake it in the oven. Have you ever used paper clay? That's nice and light. I haven't. I should try that out. Yeah, anything I find I like to try to use. Joe, do you have anyone who works with you in the process or do you produce these all by yourself? For the most part I'm doing most of the work myself but my younger brother Mike will do a lot of like character design sometimes and I'll build things that he designs or he'll even help me sculpt because he's probably a little better sculptor than I am and a little bit, he's better at drawing as well. So sometimes when I need things visualized I'll have him help me do that. And he's the drummer, right? Yeah, he's my drummer. Well, we'll get to the music in a minute but I want to kind of set up so we can listen to some of your music and then we'll talk about your band also, Vacant Spaces. Tell us a little bit about the storyline and we'll take a listen to the music. The story of that song in particular? And you used that also for one of your animations, I think. Yeah, so I wrote that song several years ago and it was kind of about a lot of different things but one of them being both the passage of time and being a music video director, you kind of have other people take over your art or your work and they kind of enjoy the fruits of it a lot of times and so it's kind of just an interesting weird middle person to be. So it kind of stemmed from those feelings and then after writing and recording it, I just recorded it in my own home studio. I decided it would be a fun song to make a video for. I didn't know it would take me three years to make the video but it was the first time I'd ever made a video for myself so I wanted it to be like I'd never had the time to really work on new techniques or use different materials I'd never tried before. So I really took my time and learned a lot and was able to make something that I'm proud of. Let's take a listen to Joe Boffman's Vacant Spaces. Water, water, water You feast upon the fat of animals that I raised up from birth I thought I'd sit with kings in their kingdoms but here I sit on a seat of earth I'm joyless and I'm no use for riches and spoils of moral decay I'm faceless and my face is a seduction Don't look away, how long have I been gone? Water, water, water What can spare my feet and what can reconcile my journey? What can make it worth the heavy debts that I have paid? I listen for the music playing but all I hear are birds I sent my prayers before long before me but they fell short and none were heard What can spare my feet and what can reconcile my journey? What can make it worth the heavy debts that I have paid? In bitter abundance you wait for the burning of all that's behind But know this, as it was in the beginning, it will begin I'm coming home, I'm coming home We'll feast upon the fruit so bountiful and celebrate this place But once what's vacant has been filled again and joy returns, we'll dance and praise I'll dance beneath the trees with my friends and with my family I'll dance beneath the trees with my friends and with my family I'll dance beneath the trees with my friends and with my family I'll dance beneath the trees with my friends and with my family So raise your banner high and celebrate all night For a time will come when everything on earth will be made new And we're back. That was Vacant Spaces from the Joe Baughman and Righteous Few album. Interesting song and you can also see on YouTube the video you put with it. Let's talk a little bit about your band and your new CD release. Tell us a little bit about Joe Baughman and the Righteous Few. Yeah, so I have been playing with my younger brother who's my drummer for years and we've recorded several albums together but our most recent one is called Antichrist Complex that contains the song Vacant Spaces and it kind of stems with a lot of, you know, we both have the religious background and a lot of the members of the band do so there's a lot of those kind of themes and imagery that you would find in those kind of texts in those songs and I play piano and guitar and banjo and several other instruments on it and we have, in our band, we have a drummer, a sax player, a mandolin player and then we featured a flute player and a cellist and a trumpet player and a trombone player It was a lot of fun bringing in different people from the community to play on it. And you perform live. I know you're going to be performing on a Crassell Arts Center along with your exhibit and we'll talk a little bit about your exhibit in just a minute, but you also perform other places? Yeah, we generally play regionally. We've been up through, you know, Chicago and all of Indiana, Michigan, into Wisconsin. Generally I'll play solo shows a little further out, but yeah, we're taking a bit of a break soon so I can write some new material. So also at the Crassell, you'll also be teaching a class on wire armature sculpture. Yeah. What is the age range for that and could you tell us a little bit about it? I really think, I think they're gearing it towards high school students, but I think anyone who would be interested in that would be able to grasp, you know, younger or older what I'll be presenting there. We'll be building armatures together and I'll just walk everyone through what that looks like. It should be pretty straightforward but fun. Sounds fun. Yes, it does. Are you going to take your work on something beyond Crassell? I mean, you're going to be there right through November, I believe is the way I understand it, but are you looking to travel the exhibit and what will you experience at the exhibit? Is it going to be all videos or how's that going to work? So at the exhibit, we'll have, I think, quite a few of my sets. We'll be all on a bunch of 8 by 4, 8 feet by 4 feet tables set up throughout the space and it'll kind of guide you through different areas of the stop motion music videos I've done over the years. There'll be some projection of some of the videos and some on LED screens, but most of it will just be the physical sets that I've built. You'll be able to see the characters and see the materials. It'll be a very raw experience to you because you'll see a little bit behind the scenes and the imperfections and kind of the junk that makes all that stuff work. So what do you have coming in the future? Do you have another album in the works, different storylines? Tell us about some of your plans for some of your future work. Yes, so I'm very excited about a new record that just got mastered that I'll be putting out hopefully sometime early next year that I recorded with a band out of Chicago called OK Cool. They're a super fun band and it was really fun making a record with them. But we will call that project Pocket Boy Solid and that'll be something to look out for at some point. And I'm hoping to do another music video for that project. I just need to clean up my new space and get that running and I'll be able to start. Hopefully it won't take me three years this time. You have some of the ideas fleshed out? Yeah, I have one. I probably have several ideas. I can't make them all, but I just need to pick the one I really want to go with and go for it. The picture that you have for your album with the band, where was that taken? Is that the church that you now own or is that someplace else? Oh, that was just another local church for our band photo. And then for the album cover for that project, a friend of mine is an art teacher and another friend of mine that is a tattoo artist collaborated on that art and did all of that. Well, we just have about one minute left. We want to give you a chance to tell about all the upcoming things you have at Crassle and elsewhere and how you can find you on the web, on YouTube and everything like that. Yeah, so the band website is jbrfband.com. My website is josephbaughman.com. You can follow us on Instagram at joebaughmanmusic or me at thejoebaughman. And we have Facebook as well, Joe Baughman and the Righteous View. Well, we appreciate you coming on Art in the Air. It's Joe Baughman. September 15th through the 26th, the stop motion world of Joe Baughman at the Crassle Arts Center. You can also hear him in concert on September 16th, Joe Baughman and the Righteous View. And take a look at his website. You will have a click on his picture on our website and it will take you right to one of his. Joe, thank you so much for coming on Art in the Air. No problem. Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. You're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media 89.1 FM on WVLP 103.1 FM. Art in the Air listeners, 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. We would like to welcome Julie Miller to Art on the Air. Julie is a mixed media artist from Northwest Indiana. Her artwork depicts explorations of movement, emotion and nature. She is also Vice President of Diversified Art Visionaries for the last two years. Thank you for joining us on Art on the Air. Aloha and welcome, Julie. Hello. Nice to meet you. Hello. Thank you so much for having me. I'm glad to be here. Well, I've known you for a while, Julie, and I'm so glad to finally get you on the show. I've been after you to do that, and I thought it'd be great for you to share your art and art practice with us. And how we usually like to start off is to find out a little bit about our guests, their background, their origin story. I like to say how you got from where you were to where you are now. So tell us all about Julie. OK, well, my name is Julie Miller and I am from Chereville, Indiana, and born and raised. Went to Andrean High School and went to Marion College in Indianapolis and studied fine arts there. And after college, I had to get a job to pay for college, so I didn't have a lot to do with art at that point. And I kind of got away for it for a few years. I took maybe about a 10 year break before I got back into doing art. And then once I started doing it again, it was it was kind of full force. You know, it just felt so good to create again that one thing led to another. And now I can't imagine not creating or doing something every day that has to do with the arts. So to where I am now. When you were early, like elementary school, high school, did you take art there? Was your family artistic or were you mostly, you know, but since you're I'm asking this because you focus on nature. So, you know, did you spend a lot of time outdoors? No, but I do now. And I love I love the outdoors. But my family is very artistic. My father was he was very naturally a gifted drawer and he could really just look at anything and draw it. And he was very talented with that. And my mother also is very creative. She's a fiber artist and she does absolutely beautiful stitching work. She does cross stitch and needlepoint. And so there's there's a lot of creativity that runs in our family on both sides. So with that, that's where it comes from. And when I had stepped away for art for that decade, I got my mom taught me how to needlepoint and then that led into cross stitch. So I do a lot with the fiber arts as well, too, because I like to always keep my hands busy. So I like to have something going on. I find that working with the fiber arts and stitching, it really calms the mind. Because you really just focus on the stitching and the steps and the counting and in the fibers and feeling the fabrics. And it's a very relaxing thing for me to do. So I'm not creating some fine art. I'm working on fiber art. We consider fiber art also a fine art also. So you're you describe what we do is mixed media, which is kind of a broad category. But for you, what does that mean? What media do you pull together in your art? Well, I work in several different mediums. I I started. Well, Esther had asked me also if I had taken art classes in high school and I have. I took a lot of art classes in high school and that's where I really started working a lot with acrylic and oil painting. I don't work so much now with oil paints. I work primarily with acrylic and alcohol inks. And then I do a lot of drawing and like pen and ink drawings with watercolors. So I work in a different variety of things. So in college, what did you gravitate toward and what did you what was your focus then? Did you get to try a lot of media? I did. I got to try everything and really expand on painting and drawing and photography. I did some ceramics. I really got to try everything. And then I minored in psychology and I was going to go into art therapy, but it turns out that's not a really big field to get into. So that's where I had to get a job and then I couldn't find anything in that field. So I worked in retail for a very long time for about 13 years. And now I work for State Farm Insurance for Kyle Dempsey and I've worked for him for about the past six years. And I've worked at the company for just over 10. So that's what I do during the day. And then, you know, also my art. So tell us about some of the groups that you're involved with. And you had talked about, well, originally it was the Dyer group. I know I did an exhibit with them at one of the salons that Tony installed. But tell us about your involvement with the various groups that you're with. And you're vice president of that, but some of the other ones that you have worked with. OK, well, I work with the Dyer Arts Visionaries and I've been involved with them for maybe like the past five years. And I've been the vice president for the past two. I also am a member of the Southlake Artist Co-op and I participate in their shows as well. With the Dyer Arts Visionaries, we also have been partnering with South Shore Arts. Recently, we've done a show at Substation 9 with them and we're looking to do more in the future. So that's something we're looking forward to as well. And then I've participated and I've been able to exhibit and show my artwork at Promise You Art House in Highland since they've opened, which I believe they opened in 2019, if I'm correct. And I can't believe it's been that long. I don't know where time goes. A pandemic. Yeah. That's where the time went. And it might even have been longer that they've been open. But don't quote me on that directly. But I've been showing art there since they've opened. And they're a great group of people who really embrace the art community on all levels and really encourage creativity. And they've been great to work with. I constantly have things on exhibit there and I'm creating new things for their gallery space. Why don't you describe your work for us? Well, thank you. Your process. Like, where do you start? So you've got this blank paper or canvas. That's a big question. Yeah. I do a lot. I draw a lot of my inspiration from nature. So I did a lot of plain air painting during the pandemic. And I continue to try and spend a lot of time outside in nature, taking photo references that I use for a lot of my pictures. Also with florals and other things like that. I try to always use my own reference pictures for most all of my art. Yeah. One of the groups we were involved with that you were actually an officer of for a while that since went defunct was the Hobart Art League. Yeah. Both you and your mother were part of that group. Yes, we were. We were. That was a nice community-based group where we were able to have a couple of different art shows and work on supporting local artists while they were active. So that's where I got to know you well, actually. Yeah. We tried to keep it afloat until it just became almost impossible. It was kind of sad. But at least, I guess, the ladies that still have their meeting, whoever bought the hall that Hobart Art League actually owned, they're still, I guess, being allowed to meet there and have their little art class there. So that part's still working. Well, good. I'm glad to hear it. I'm glad to hear that. So let's talk about the pandemic. You maybe touched on it a little bit, but how did that influence you? A lot of artists, you know, they kind of shut down, and others had a creative blossom during that. And I realize you were still working in the working world, non-art. But tell us how that affected you. Well, I feel like I really blossomed personally, artistically, because I spent so much time outside in nature. And it was a safe place to meet up with other artists in such an isolated time where we could meet up and we could socially distance and wear masks. I really thrived on that, being able to – I had never done a lot of clean air drying. I just kind of always just taken pictures and painted from my photographs. And in that instance, that's where I was invited to go with a couple of other artists and meet them to paint. And I just fell in love with the whole process because I felt like I was really creating something special that was on – that I was creating onsite and then continue working on in my studio. And it gave me a whole new feel and appreciation for nature and art and how I could make it work together. And then I find that like during the first year that I was doing it, I was really trying to paint everything as I saw it in the colors of nature. And then I really geared towards wanting to express nature in the way that I felt like the colors would feel. And just show the beauty of nature and all the bright, vivid colors that exist, not just like greens and browns. So I really like that. And I feel like that's something unique in my style is that I use a lot of purples and bright colors – purples, fuchsias, greens, blues, yellows – to express trees and forests and that type of thing. Just feeling how alive the forest can feel. So I've heard two things. Like when you talked about plein air, in the beginning you talked about drawing. And then this part you mentioned about painting. So are you referring to drawing it and then painting it outside? Or do you do your drawings and then come back to your studio and paint? Or is it a combination of both? It's a combination of both. And that's a really good question. My normal practice that I found from the first time I've done it is I always do a sketch first in my sketchbook. So I always do a sketch and then I color it in with watercolor and then I do a painting afterwards of my sketches. So like everything that I have paintings of, I've sketched it all out first and colored it and then I've painted it afterwards. So I have sketchbooks upon sketchbooks full of that. And sometimes when I'm looking to enter shows or things, I'll go through. And that's when you'll see my artwork places where I've done like my pen drawings. They're all sketches I've done plein air painting for paintings a lot of times. Yeah, so it's kind of like a preview. I do it before my paintings. And then I always like to start a painting when I'm on site, but I don't always get to finish it. The time just goes away so quickly when you're there. But I can take notes in my sketchbook too of lights and colors and things I want to pay attention to on the canvas. You're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media 89.1 FM on WVLP 103.1 FM. You said you work with an alcohol ink. Tell us about that, like especially for some people that may not even know what that is. Okay, well, it's very, very pigmented ink that comes in these little tiny bottles. And you use just a few. It really kind of works like watercolors, except you use rubbing alcohol instead of water as what you move the ink around with, which is like where you would move the paint. So the ink will only really go where you put the ink or the alcohol. The colors are so condensed and pigmented. That's where you just get such beautiful bright colors. I just fell in love with it the minute I started using it because I've never seen such bright colors that you can get anywhere with that. And it's difficult to learn how to control. I've spent a lot of years learning how to control it and paint with it like a watercolor because it really spreads out. It's something that I primarily paint on Yupo paper with, which is a synthetic paper. So it sits on top of the paper. It doesn't soak into it. And that's how it retains so much color as well. But you have to learn how to paint with it. It took a lot of trial and error, but I really love doing it. And I would say that's probably my favorite medium at the moment because I've just been really happy with the results of things that I'm working with on that. But I like to do that, and then I like to mix drawing on top of it. So I'll do a nature scene most likely, and then after I've worked several layers of it, then I'll enhance it with acrylic markers and fine-tune some of the detail work. I was going to say, and again, all of these have been pre-drawn out and colored before I've even started, yeah. Do you have a particular size you like to work within? Probably my favorite would be like 11 by 14. I think that's a really nice size to work with. 16 by 20 is nice. That's a bit bigger, but 11 by 14 is probably my favorite. Yeah. And then all my drawings are mostly about 8 by 10. How does your day work? You work in the insurance biz, but then does your art practice an evening thing or weekends? How does that kind of fit into your whole overall schedule? Yeah. I work 9 to 5 Monday through Friday at Tate Farm, and then I try to at least get an hour of artwork in a day, be it if I'm doing some sketching or working on a project I've already started. A couple of nights a week I'll get pretty involved with it and spend several hours. I try, especially like on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I'll try to work two or three hours in the evening on things, and then also devote some time on the weekends as well. So, yeah, you have to really plan your time wisely. It keeps me very busy. It keeps me very busy. I'm married, and I have three fur babies. We have two cats and a dog that keep us busy. So, yeah, it keeps me busy. Yeah, those fur babies do take up your time a lot, I know. They certainly do. They certainly do. The past couple of years I've also taken art classes at South Shore Arts. I'm currently not taking any right now, but I have, and I was taking them on Tuesday nights from 6 to 9, and so that was like a nice three-hour block I had every week that I was working on painting. It was studio time. It was a water-based media class with Tom Terlemke where I could really work on whatever I want, and he would give me critique and guidance, and he would do lessons, and they were great classes. I really enjoyed it. I've tried to keep up the practice of that's my studio time during the week, doing that on Tuesday nights and then either a Wednesday or Thursday, and then I'll try to get some studio time on Saturday mornings, too, usually. Time just slips away, doesn't it? I mean, especially when you have that weekend, and two hours turns into six hours, turns into ten hours. It does. So I'm glad you have those weekends. Yeah, me too. And when you're doing something you enjoy, it just goes so quickly, too. It does. That's why I really enjoy doing it in the evenings after work because my job is very black and white, and it's very statistical, and it's nice to have my art as something totally different where I can be as creative as I want. Yeah, so it's a very good balance. It is. It's a terrific balance because as I was teaching art, I expended so much art energy doing that that my own personal practice, you know, I had expended so much art energy doing that, it takes on a different flavor at home, I guess. So I think that's a great balance. Julie, is there anything that you would like, that you haven't done in art that you'd like to explore? I mean, you know, you've touched on a variety of things, but say, you know, I'd really like to, or get back into, like you mentioned you touched on acrylics and oils earlier, but maybe like, well, maybe I'd like to go back into that direction. I don't know. Is there something like that, or a different subject matter? Yeah. You know, I think part of being a mixed-media artist is you always are wanting to explore and try new things. Like, I'd like to go back to oil painting. I haven't done that in a very, very long time, and I'd like to get back to that. And yeah, different subject matters. Drawing-wise, I've been touching on architecture drawing, drawing buildings a little bit lately. That's something that I haven't done in a very long time, and I've kind of been circling back to that. Yeah, that's very interesting. Something very detailed and very, very different. Detailed and structured and not as loose as my other work, but it's something I'm coming back to, so that's been quite challenging, but I've been enjoying it. So, you have an upcoming show. What kind of work will be in it? Where is it going to be? Oh, yes. It is going to be at Promise You Art House in Highland. It's called Turn Left at the Light is the name of the art show, and it opens on September 30th during the Highland Art Walk, and it's from 11 to 4. I'll be showing with two other artists, Carrie Mommer and Danuta Pierkoszewski. Sorry, Danuta. I know I butchered your name, but the artwork is an illuminating show showcasing exploring destinations, maps, trails, roads, paths, directions, and more. So, I strongly encourage everyone listening to please come check it out. Support your local arts. I'd love to meet you and share my art with you. And how long is that show running until, if they can't make the opening? I believe it will be up until November 4th. Excellent. And you have another one. You want to describe the piece that you have in the current salon show, because they had the member opening and everything, and of course, we saw each other there to catch up. Yeah, so that was very nice, and congratulations, Larry, to yourself for getting in. I'm very excited and honored to have gotten into that this year. It's my first year getting into the salon show, and I painted a vintage window, and I painted on the glass, and so the frame is the window frame, and I painted on the glass for it. And I painted a field of flowers and sunflowers that are in the foreground, and then a wildflower mixture in the background, and then there's a tree seen behind it in the sky, and the whole thing is illuminated with a fluorescent orange background that kind of peeks through the loose abstract flower painting. So, I'm very excited that I got in. I hope you come check it out also. Yeah, the awards, I think, are in October, and I think it's running through, I believe, November and everything. Ishmael Hammond was the juror there, so he did a very nice show for, I mean, looking at the overall thing, not just because we're in it, but it's a very balanced show with a lot of different things that are in it. It is. It's a lot different than things I've seen before, too. Just a nice variety is there. Yeah, I believe it's through November 4th is what I see. Right. And the awards ceremony for that's actually worked at 15th from, I think, 1 to 3. Sure. I want to see your work. Where can I find it? Well, you can check me out on Instagram at Julie Miller Creates. My Facebook page is Julie Miller. I also have work locally at Promise You Art House. Can't say enough about them. They're great people. I have work at Substation 9 in Hammond. I have work at the Sip Coffee House in Crown Point and in Highland at Wild Rose in Griffith. And I think that is it. Yeah, I think that's where I have, that's it. That's where I have everything at right now. Well, that's pretty good. And so I'm finally glad I got to talk to you into coming on the show and sharing your art. We've known each other for quite a few years, and it just was wonderful to share with our audience. It's Julie Miller, and she'll be in the Salon Show and all the other places, a mixed media artist in northwest Indiana. And she does a lot of things with vibrant explorations of movement, emotion, nature through her art. Julie, thank you for coming on Art on the Air. You guys, thank you so much for having me. And come check out our show September 30th at the Art House. Thank you so much for having me. I look forward to meeting all of you in person. Thank you. Yeah, nice meeting 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. 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 an 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, Ola 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 A-O-T-A, 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 A-O-T-A at breck.com. That's A-O-T-A 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. 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, with 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. Express yourself you art.