AOTA-240315 - David DeCesaris, Mary Porterfield. spotlight Melli Hoppe

Out of the Air features two artists in the South Shore Arts Neighbors Exhibit: David Cicero, who focuses on filling space with form, line, shape, and color, and Mary Porterfield, whose work reflects individual narratives from her healthcare experiences. The Dune Summer Theater's 2024 season will include plays like "Life Spirit" by Noel Coward, "Tally's Folly" by Lanford Wilson, and a musical adaptation of "The Bridges of Madison County." The theater also supports classes and camps. Season tickets are available for $150. The Lake County Public Library is hosting the Creative Arts Summit, and applications are due March 18th. David DeSaris, a painter, is part of the Neighbors Exhibit at South Shore Arts. He draws inspiration from artists like David Smith, Rodin, and Francis Bacon. This week on Out of the Air features two artists in the South Shore Arts Neighbors Exhibit. With David Cicero, whose art is about filling space with form, line, shape, and color, and Mary Porterfield, whose work reflects the individual narratives by her work in healthcare. Our spotlight is Dune Summer Theater's 2024 season with Artistic Director Steve Scott and Managing Director Elise Cremani. Welcome, you're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, WVLP, 103.1 FM, our weekly program covering the arts and arts events throughout Northwest Indiana and beyond. I'm Larry Breckner of New Perspectives Photography, right alongside here with Esther Golden of The Nest in Michigan City. Aloha, everyone. We're your hosts for Art on the Air. Art on the Air is supported by an Indiana Arts Commission Arts Project Grant, South Shore Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Art on the Air is heard every Sunday at 7 p.m. on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, also streaming live at lakeshorepublicmedia.org, and is available on Lakeshore Public Media's website as a podcast. Also heard on Friday at 11 a.m. and Monday at 5 p.m. on WVLP, 103.1 FM, streaming live at wvlp.org, and Tuesdays at 4 p.m. on WDSO 88.3 FM. Our spotlight interviews are also heard Wednesdays on Lakeshore Public Media. Information about Art on the Air is available at our website, breck.com slash aota. That includes a complete show archive, spotlight interviews, plus our show is available on multiple podcast platforms, including NPR One. Please like us on Facebook, Art on the Air, WVLP, for information about upcoming shows and interviews. We'd like to welcome to Art on the Air Spotlight, from the Dunes Summer Theater, we have the Artistic Director, of course, Steve Scott, and Elise Kamani, the Managing Director, and they're all part of the Dunes Arts Foundation. Welcome to Art on the Air Spotlight. Thank you. Very good to see both. Hi. Yes, very good to see both of you. So we first want to talk about your 2024 season, which you just had auditions for, and now you're getting ready to gear up for. So Steve, tell us about some of the shows you've picked, kind of a wide variety of things, and I guess your opening show will be on May 31st. So tell us about your season. Okay, well, yeah, it's a pretty varied season. The first show is a play that lots of people have heard of and probably seen in other productions, Life Spirit by Noel Cowart, which is a wonderful kind of farce about a man whose departed wife comes back to visit him as a ghost, and then, as we say, hilarity ensues. It's really, it's one of the funniest plays ever written. It's really a classic of its kind, and I think it's going to be a great way to kick off a really interesting season of the Dunes. So yes, that runs starting at the end of May through the middle of June, so happy about that. The second play is one of my personal favorite plays, a play that I've never been able to actually produce or direct. It's a play called Tally's Folly by Lanford Wilson, which is a really charming little play that takes place during World War II, and it's about two people, two kind of misfits in a small town of Missouri who find each other. There are lots of obstacles to their relationship, but ultimately everything ends very, very happy. It's a lovely play with lovely characters, and I think it's going to be a play that hasn't been done in a while, but I think it's a play that our audiences are really going to take to. And then our third major production is a musical of The Bridges of Madison County, which of course was a very popular film a number of years ago with Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood. Before that was a best-selling book, and it's the romantic story, again taking place in a small town, this time in Iowa, of a housewife who has found the boredom in her life, and all of a sudden is encountered by a photojournalist who is in town to document the bridge, the famous covered bridge that is in their town. And a wonderful romance, and I won't tell you how it ends, with a beautiful score by Jason Robert Brown. It's a play that hasn't been done much around here, so I'm anxious to introduce audiences' attitudes to it. I think, again, I think it's going to be something they take to a great deal. So Steve, was that kind of your overall theme? Because there seems to be quite a romantic spirit theme going on. You know, I didn't plan it that way, but it kind of does, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah. It's romance in three very different situations. So I guess it speaks to the romantic in me. So I hope it speaks to the romantic in a lot of people, and I think it will. I think it'll be a lot of fun. And then, of course, we have our Broadway Cabaret in August, followed by the second iteration of our New Plays Festival, which was very successful last year for us, featuring works by local playwrights, and kind of introducing you to some of the wonderful, creative people we have in Northwest Indiana. What a season, and how many plays do you do in that Voices from the Heartland? Last year, we did four, and I think we'll probably do the same number this year. But a couple of the plays that we did in the festival last year were so good that we're kind of thinking of them for future production. So it's a lovely thing. Isn't that kind of the goal? Well, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we're discovering writers and bringing them to the fore, and hopefully we can kind of shepherd them into full production somewhere down the line. So that's one of the most exciting parts of my job for many years. Yeah. Your own version of Project Runway. Absolutely. Absolutely. Without Heidi and Tim. But yeah. I love kind of discovering people and kind of giving them their due as artists. Yeah. A boost. We'll see where that goes this year. I think you had one night that had a couple of short theater pieces. Is that correct? So maybe more than four. Yeah. Last year, one of the evenings had three short plays, and we'll just see what we get in submissions this year. We had four nights, but I think a few more plays. Yeah. Well, Elise, we want to kick it over to you and give you a little time there to talk about how Dunes Arts Foundation also supports classes and camps and things like that, and those are coming up. So tell us all about that. Sure. Before, can we talk about season tickets? Sure. Go ahead. So I don't know. Do we talk about prices here on this? You can. We can? Okay. So for $150, you get a season ticket. You're a subscriber to our season, and it's really the best deal because you will be invited to opening night champagne toast with the actors and crew, and we have a special event in May just for subscribers as well. So yeah. Our music theater starts July 9th through the 25th. It'll be Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for three weeks, three days a week, and then we have a performance on July 27th, and you can find out about that on dunesarts.org. You can get tickets by slash tickets, or to go to the education, you do slash education, but we've got lots of buttons on there that you can find your way around. Well, it's always a privilege to have you here. Dunes Arts Foundation, Dunes Summer Theater, and of course, their wonderful classes and camps. They offer Elise Kamani, Managing Director, Steve Scott, Artistic Director. Break a leg on your upcoming season. Thank you very much. It looks like a great forthcoming season. Congratulations. Thanks, Esther. And a quick spotlight extra. Applications for Lake County Public Library's third annual Creative Arts Summit are due March 18th. Information is at their website, lcpl.org slash cas. That's lcpl.org slash cas. Art of the Year Spotlight and the complete one hour program on Lakeshore Public Media is brought to you by McAuley Real Estate in Valparaiso, Ola Patrician, Senior Broker. This is Karen Maravilla with It's Just Serendipity, 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 David DeSaris to Art on the Air. David's art is about filling space with form, line, shape, and color, creating a visual balancing act. He began his career as a sculptor, but now painting is the mode in which he expresses his vision. He is part of the Neighbors Exhibit at South Shore Arts in Munster, Indiana. Thank you for joining us on Art on the Air. Aloha and welcome, David. It's very nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Well, David, and we met before at a Lebesnick happening, I guess a couple months ago, and it was nice to meet you face to face, but I'm so glad to have you on the show. And of course, like we do with all of our guests, we want to know a little bit more about you. I would call it your origin story, how you got from where you were to where you are now. So tell us all about yourself. Okay, so I was born and raised around the Washington, D.C. area. So I spent my younger days. D.C. was kind of my stomping ground, and I spent a lot of time in the museums there, which was really fortunate because I think they're some of the best in the country for sure. I saw a lot of retrospectives of David Smith and Rodin and Francis Bacon. So the art was just really good stuff to learn from. So the artists that you just mentioned, are those the ones that you feel really captured you, or were there others during your young age? Well, I mean, you know, when I was starting out, yeah, I mean, you know, I mean, the early, early, really, it's like an unlimited number of artists that have been influential and inspiring. You know, I was a, I started out as a sculptor. So I was always, at a younger age, I was always going for the sculpture, you know. That's what I was wondering. Yeah, yeah. I think, you know, when you're young and you're developing your vision, and you don't really, you know, you really, you don't have it yet, but then you start seeing things. And some of that comes through instruction and, but most of it comes from just looking at art. And, you know, as a sculptor at that time, I was in New York and I saw a retrospective of Henry Moore. I was just going to mention him, because that's who, that's what your paintings remind me of. They have that, they have that sense of Henry Moore. And when you mentioned Francis Bacon, I went, ah, it's coming together. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's, you know, I don't, like, I don't think they look like Henry Moore, but I think it's the power, you know, in those. Of the shape. Exactly. You know, and I remember that with that particular show, it was like the first time that I started to see forms in space. Yeah. I mean, it was like clicking, you know, it was like, and then it was just nonstop from there. And yeah, yeah. So, so I, you know, I grew up, so my young days in D.C. and then I went to, and I wasn't planning to be, you know, an artist. When I went to college, I went to college in North Carolina and, and I just happened to take a painting class. And I, you know, I, I remember I was painting this picture of, you know, this weird guy with his teeth. And this was in like a private Catholic college. And the, the painting instructor was a little nun, Sister Theothane. And she came in with this other girl and they start laughing and I'm like, well, what's so funny, you know? And they're like, well, nobody paints teeth. And I'm like, no, really? I didn't know that. But now I do, I do paint a lot of teeth these days. So, but so anyway, I, I was, you know, starting out like painting, like just about everyone does. And there was a really good printmaking program and photography. And I, you know, I took all of that stuff, you know, but somewhere along the way, people said to me, you know, you're a sculptor. And so all of a sudden I was a sculptor. What work were you doing at that point to have them say that? So what was your sculpture like? Well, I think I took one sculpture class and made one piece of sculpture, which was not very good, you know, but I think, I think you get into schools and, you know, people see you and they kind of project, you know, their expectation or who they think you are. And sometimes it has nothing to do with what you're doing. It might just be the way you look, you know, long hair and a beard. And I kind of looked like a sculptor, maybe, I don't know, you know, but so I, but I spent a long time, you know, 40 years making sculpture. I, I apprenticed with a local figurative sculptor in North Carolina for a couple years that he taught me techniques and, you know, and I found out that I had kind of a natural facility for the human form. And, you know, so he had me doing, I was doing like life-size pieces and really, really got me going in sculpture, you know, so, yeah, so I did that. And then, you know, I, I, I did the focused on, you know, human form and figures for a long time. And then when I got out of school, I started carving wood and started going a little more toward non-objective, you know, large-scale steel and wood constructed pieces. In fact, I have a piece that I did in 1989. It's at Purdue, Calumet. You know that piece? So a little interesting story about that piece is, you know, that was in, in 89. That was a long, long time ago. And my daughter went to Purdue when she was graduating and she's like, oh, dad, we got, we have to get a, a picture of, you know, us together in front of your, your piece, you know, in front of your sculpture. I'm like, yeah, sure, you know. So we did the graduation and we went outside and we had to wait in line to, to get the picture. And, and it occurred to me that like all these years, you know, they're having graduations and, you know, kids are getting their picture in front of that sculpture with their family. That's so elegant. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, she had the idea, well, maybe we should like do a book and get all the people that send their pictures in and we haven't done it, but I think it would be a great idea. That's a great idea. Yes. And you're talking 20 years plus, it's, you know, it's a long time. It could be your own yearbook. Right. Well, since we're radio, why don't you describe that sculpture briefly to our audience, if you can. So it's a, it's kind of a, it's like a 20 foot span. It's an arching aluminum and wood piece. It kind of, when I was in grad school, I, I was really into like buck knives and, and so I, I kind of did that as a project working with another, with the, the jewelry professor who was pretty cool. And, and that was what I was going to do. I was going to make these large scale things that kind of emulated buck knives or knives. And, you know, people used to tell me that my pieces were a little dangerous. But, but yeah, so that, that piece kind of came from that and it was commissioned by, you know, by the school at the time. And Rose Trachtenberg, I think, made that. She was around in that area. She made that deal for me. She had a gallery in Merrillville. So should I keep going? Oh, yeah. Well, yeah. Well, the other thing, the other question I have is, and this is true of many artists, is that you have a day job and an artist's job at some point and how those intersect, you know, and does that help you with your sculpture, what you do as your day job? And I don't know if you do your day job anymore, but tell us a little bit about the intersection of your art and day job. Well, I mean, early on, you know, when I was 18, 20, you know, I worked, my family was in the construction business outings. So I worked as a carpenter and as a bricklayer and as a laborer. And, you know, so I got a lot of skills and knowledge of the construction business, or, you know, especially as, you know, as a hands-on. And yeah, I would say it was an asset to the sculpture for sure. And even now with my paintings, you know, because I paint on wood panels, you know, so I frame everything myself and I build all the panels. And, you know, so it's good to have those skills. And yeah, I mean, I used to, when I was carving that wood, I told you, I started carving wood. It was in the early or the late 70s, maybe. But yeah, I would work all day and then I would come back and I was in my parents' garage and I would have a big old chainsaw and I would carve wood, you know, and assemble. They're kind of large, you know, well, they were like six, seven, eight feet, you know, tall. And I was like assembling these things that, you know, like a tripod, you know, these, you know, I'd go out into the woods in my van with the shag rug and, you know, load up. What color was it? It was like gold. Yeah, I can see it. Yeah, yeah. But I ruined it because I, I mean, I was loaded all the time, falling logs and stuff and taking them home. But yeah, so I did that. And then I, so I was after undergrad school and I was doing the wood carving and I was off for like a couple of years. I didn't, then I went back to grad school, you know, and I went into grad school and I was learning to weld and making these kind of large scale, wooden steel, non-objective pieces for, you know, almost two years. And then when my thesis show came around, you know, the whole time I'm doing these, you know, non-objective work, I was drawling. I was like doing portraits and I was making these little like, you know, 10 inch tall wax figures, you know, human forms. It was just kind of like, I just never really stopped drawing and making. So were those in preparation for casting them or were they just for the experience of? I was just, just doing them because it's just kind of like, you know, what I did. I would do this and then I would do that and then. So I'm going to, I'm going to ask you a quick question, going back to those first wood sculptures in your parents' garage. So when you, when you would go out and collect your wood and then bring it back, were you then doing drawings or were you just going right into the sculpture? No, I would go right into the sculpture. I really like people, sculptors like David Smith and Mark DiSuvero. And I mean, like Mark DiSuvero is, you know, he goes with a crane. You know, it's like, it's just like real intuitive. And you start seeing the same way I kind of approach the paintings the same way. You know, you start, you know, you put a mark down and then you see the next mark and you see the next one and, and it just kind of goes from there. And you, you know, sometimes you might have a little bit of an idea, but you don't really know. Yeah, just a bit. I just, I just did these three paintings, you know, last month I was working on them and I was having a hard time. I was, usually I don't have a difficult time, you know, coming up with ideas, but I lost my brother recently. And so I was like, feeling like, yeah, I don't know if I could even do this anymore. And, and I put out two of them and one of them I was, I was fighting with. I was painting over it and going over and over. And you start having a conversation with the panel you're working on. It's like the panel is saying to me, well, you made three of us and the other two you gave, you know, you did pretty good. And now you're going to skimp on me. Mine always goes. What's that? No, I say mine is, I'm always, I'm always asking, what do you want next? Right. Yeah. I don't know if that's healthy, but maybe, I guess it is. It's worked out. But yeah, so, so grad school. And then some of my thesis exhibit for grad school, I had all these, you know, they were like five feet tall, kind of linear. You know, a lot of people compared them to Giacometti, kind of. They were more, they were similar, but different. Very different, but very similar. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's okay. You know, they weren't copies, which is, but, and then I had like the perimeter of the room with all these self-portraits that I did, just my head, you know. And, and there was, it was a little, you know, people were like, well, where'd this come from? You know, you were doing this other stuff, and now you're doing this. But, you know, and Larry, you might be interested. I was, I minored in photography. So, so, you know, a lot of photographers are Irving Penn and, you know, I was always looking at photography, just always, compositionally, I think that's always helped me out. But I guess I, I guess I always, I think, like, it doesn't really matter what you're doing. It's like, well, I could have been a sculptor. I could have been a painter. I could have been a, it's, you got to be doing something. Like, you're, if you're an artist, you know, if you don't have the, you know, the facilities, you know, of the darkroom, or you don't have a big sculpture studio and the capacity to do what you want to do there, then you do something else. Well, I think they all inform each other. I mean, you look at the painting, especially the one behind you, you can see your sculptural background. You can see photographic composition and lights. And I mean, it's all there. Right. Thanks. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. And so you're, and so you're paintings now. Right. You know, I was quite, and in fact, like, in my, in my notes, as I was looking into your work, it's so funny. I had put, like, Henry Moore down. That's what I got from your painting. Yeah. It's like someone, you mentioned him. I was going to mention him. But there is that, that quality, like a huge quality of that shape. But then it's so amazing how, you know, the color palette. I'm very interested in how you came about your skin palette. But you have this amazing ability to take something of, like, substance, and yet it's still skeletal at the same time. So you've got this, these two things happening in these images. So I'm just so curious about how you view your, your painting. Um, well, again, I, I did a, I just posted something the other day on my Facebook story. And it was like this little container of paint, and I had Jesus written on top of it. And I just, last year, I did a series of, I did 14 paintings of the Stations of the Cross. And so I wanted Jesus to be the same color all the way through. So I, I had to, I marked the jar where I mixed up the Jesus color, and I wrote Jesus on it. And one person did ask me about it, like, what, what is that about? Um, yeah, I don't know if I'm answering your question. I don't. I just like, but your skin tones, like, like the painting that's behind you, you've chosen, um, you know, and they are consistent throughout the paintings. And so I'm just wondering, what was that first painting like when you're, you're, you know, you're in front of your canvas and you're deciding what you're going to do? So I, I don't really think, I'm not like a, I'm a painter. I consider myself a painter now, but I'm not, I mean, there are people out there who, they're really painters. I mean, they know how to mix paint and how to apply paint and manipulate it. And, um, before I started painting, I was drawing, you know, and I drew and I drew when I was doing these, you know, six foot tall drawings of charcoal. And, and I still, I think I kind of still approach the painting, you know, with a lot of drawing. Yeah. You know, it's like, like the one you're looking at behind me. I mean, I draw it in and like, sometimes I think, well, maybe I should just leave this as a drawing because they come out, the drawings look pretty good. And, uh, you know, but I want to go further with them and I want to introduce the color. So I think there's a lot of drawing, um, incorporated and there's, and, you know, in terms of like the relation to the sculpture, there's a lot of tactile sensibility, you know, I mean, cause that's when I was doing sculpture, you know, like if I was doing an arm, I'd like, you know, feel my arm or, you know, there's a lot of sensory, uh, you know, transformation like that. Right. You know, a question I ask a lot of our artists, is there a medium that you have not explored that you've been wanting to outside of, you know, you've gone from sculptor and you've touched on photography and of course your current painting work. Is there something that you want to do that you haven't done or thinking about? Um, well, no, not, you know, I'm not real curious about different mediums at this stage. I mean, I'm more, you know, like I did some circular paintings and, but I do want to do some more sculpture. I mean, I want to, you know, there was a reason I didn't have the space and, you know, so, but I would, I would like to, I think I'm feeling like I want to make some more sculpture. So it's a good palate cleanse anyway. I like to jump. Like if I've been really stuck on one thing, I do like to go like in a different direction, just to like a breath of fresh air. Right. Tell us how you got hooked up with the neighbors exhibit and like, what are some of the pieces that you have in that? Um, well, I mean, I've known Tom and Linda for a long time. And, uh, I think, you know, when I started doing the pain, I mean, I, I was doing sculpture, just the sculpture when I first met Linda, when she was working at the, uh, was NIA at that time. But, uh, yeah, I mean, Tom really started relating to my paintings and, uh, you know, he had said, well, we're going to have an exhibit at some point. We're going to have you in it. And I think, you know, I think it was just a matter of, well, this one seemed to fit. And, uh, you know, and they looked at some paintings and selected some, and then, you know, we kind of edited and, um, yeah, all the, all the paintings that are in there and, and a lot of my paintings all have to do with relationships, you know, and, uh, I, I see them a lot as like, you know, relationships of, uh, of love, you know, and, uh, you know, it doesn't have to be a romantic love. It could be, you know, brothers or, you know, sister and brother or parents and, you know, but some kind of love there's usually like a lot of religious symbolism from my, from my upbringing, you know, my, I was jaded by the church, but it's never cynical. It's always, you know, some kind of a passionate, uh, thing, you know, something, you know, right. But, but yeah, yeah. I mean, so, so some of the, uh, the paintings that they picked and that we picked together, you know, I think reflect a lot of that. Well, we only have about a minute left here. We want to give you a chance to talk about not only that current exhibit, which is, uh, running through, uh, I think the end of this month in March, but also, um, what you have, any upcoming exhibits, how people can find your work online, how they can get in touch with you, maybe for a commission. Yeah. I mean, uh, well, I'm on Instagram and I post a lot of my work, you know, new and in progress on Instagram and it's at Desaris David, uh, last name, then my first name. And then I have my website, which is DavidDesarisArt.com. And, uh, you know, I try to keep that updated on the website. You know, there's sculpture and there's, uh, paintings. And I think I have some literature, you know, my story written in there. Um, yeah. So, so there's a lot of stuff on the website that, uh, that I've got. Um, I think it's a great exhibit. I think it's, uh, one of the best uses of that space that I've seen Tom and Linda. They just did, uh, an amazing job and, uh, really appreciative of that. The other artists are, you know, it's good company to be in. So we've interviewed and you'll be our fourth of six interviews of the people that are in the neighbors exhibit. It's David Desaris. He's, uh, currently at the, uh, neighbors exhibit, South Shore Arts. So it's going to be closing out the end of the month here. And his website is DavidDesarisArt.com. And there'll be a link on our website. David, thank you so much for coming on Art of the Air and sharing your art journey. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Yeah. It's nice to meet you. Yeah. It's nice spending time. Thank you. Hi, this is Dorsey Graydon. I'm a contemporary artist in Northwest Indiana. 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 Mary Porterfield to Art on the Air. Mary is an occupational therapist, art educator, and painter. She has created a very personal body of work charting the progression of changes families and bodies endure as we adapt to aging and all the physicality and paraphernalia that is part of that process. She deeply conveys the emotions creating large works using oils that are layered on transparent materials. She is part of the Neighbors Exhibit at South Shore Arts in Munster, Indiana. Thank you for joining us on Art on the Air. Aloha and welcome, Mary. It's very nice to meet you. It's so nice to meet you. And I really want to thank you for this opportunity. And of course, like we do with all of our guests, we want to know a little bit more about you. I call it your origin story. How you got from where you were to where you are now. So tell us all about yourself. Thanks. Thanks again for having me. I guess I have a unique background, as you mentioned, in that I have my original history as an occupational therapist. I went to Wash U in St. Louis, and I got my master's in OT in December 93. And I was so in love with art at the time. I kept taking night classes at the community college. And I just loved art so much. But I never believed I could make a living from it. So after taking a number of classes for a few years, just with complete serendipity, I had an instructor who was a nurse by day, but then went on to get her master's in fine arts and sculpture. And I thought, well, she can do it. I can do it. Why does my education have to end? I love art so much. So I was thankfully accepted to Arizona State, and I moved there, I believe, in 99 to receive my MFA. I work weekends as a therapist, put myself through school. And then I moved to Chicago in 2004. And I have a unique lifestyle, I guess, in that I work three days a week as an occupational therapist, but I teach two days a week at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, where I teach both beginning and advanced painting. So it took quite a while, but I do have the life I longed for. I'm able to teach. I'm able to be involved with the arts. I'm grateful for the stability of my occupational therapy job. And I have to honestly say in this long journey, my work as an occupational therapist has really impacted my artwork on so many levels. So I'm grateful that my life has taken the path that it has. Really nice balance. Well, one thing we want to do, too, is kind of dial you back to your origin. I mean, where you grew up, early influences in art, like when you were in school, elementary, high school, middle school, and that. So how you got to that point? You know, I went to Catholic schools where we didn't have art classes when I was young. So when I couldn't pay attention, I would simply draw in the classroom, always drew the figure, always loved art, and never really was exposed to it to the degree I wanted to until I kept taking those night classes at community college. And that's when I can say I truly fell in love with it. But I think I have to say, strangely enough, my training in occupational therapy helped me become so interested in the genre of the figure. Because to be an occupational therapist, you have to take a year of anatomy, and you would dissect cadavers. And I remember having these tests where you'd go from cadaver to cadaver, and there'd be little flags on all the muscles. And you had to identify virtually every muscle in the body, the nerves. You had to talk about the origin and insertion. And so later then, when I took these night classes in figure drawing, figure drawing became so much more interesting to me because I wasn't just drawing a model. I was drawing a living, breathing person. And I was imagining the muscles that were engaged at the time of the pose. So I can say that really kind of led to the art I'm making and still interested in making. So the Neighbors Exhibit, to Tom and Melinda for that, how they hooked up with you and how you got brought into the South Shore Arts Neighbors Exhibit. Thank you. They were kind enough to email me. And they said they had followed my work for some time and always wanted to include me in the exhibition. And I was really touched by that. And I knew of Tom's work. I had seen a show at the Hyde Park Art Center years prior. And I knew of Linda. They both have such great reputations. So it was an absolute yes for me when I got that email. And I'm so happy with the artists I've gotten to meet from that show. I think if you haven't seen it already, the work is extraordinary. And there's so much talent in one room that I'm very, very grateful for them reaching out to me. And it's up through March 16th at the South Shore Arts at the Bachman Gallery. And of course, we have David just before your interview in this show. And we've interviewed several of the artists involved with the exhibit. So we're happy that Tom and Linda got us connected with you. So you told us how your work has sort of evolved because of your occupational therapy. But sort of explain to our audience, because obviously this is radio, we can't show them your pieces, what they could look for. Well, I have different periods in the Neighbors show. I have some earlier paintings, some drawings from a couple years ago. And then I have a few recent works. And the paintings that are in the exhibition really deal or evolve around the patients I've had with dementia. Because working in healthcare, one of the hardest things to witness is someone that shows signs of dementia, because it's something we can't change. All the therapy in the world cannot reverse Alzheimer's. And when I was a young therapist, I was asked to do long evaluations to determinative patients that showed early signs of memory loss were safe to continue living at home. And to some degree, I still do that. But when I was entering the field, I was always haunted by the fact that my role and my assessment may have played a part in this person being taken from their home to, say, a nursing home. And in all actuality, many people led into that decision. There's doctors and nurses and social workers. But I think that that led to just me thinking quite a bit about what it must be like to have dementia, what it must be like to be placed in an alternative environment. And that's really where the paintings arose from, was this fact that thinking about memory loss and what that must be like to experience. So what I did is I created these paintings that had an illusion of normality from a distance. Take, for example, the Neighbors exhibition. There's a painting of a blue geyser. From a distance, it looks relatively normal in its shape. But then as you come closer, you see that the painting is comprised of hundreds of multi-figured narratives. And I did that because with dementia, these patients appear so normal from a distance. But then as you get closer and you converse with them, you can see the deficits in memory or executive functioning or the slight changes in speech pattern. And these things aren't noticed initially. And I wanted my paintings to represent the topic that I was seeing. And then as I got further along in my career, I had to ask myself, why was I so drawn to this topic? What is it about dementia? And I realized that because dementia represents something I can't change. And I happened to be raised in a very religious upbringing. I was raised Catholic. My mom goes to church every day. And when I was a young girl, the stories of saints were my bedtime stories. So I was raised to believe that a good person makes a difference always and just is unconditional in their love and always strives to constantly give. And I realized later in health care that there were times this wasn't possible to live up to these ideals. So in these paintings, I have narratives where you actually may see saints giving to other people, but you see other moments where young figures are turning away from these things. And it's my own struggle reconciling the fact that I may not live up to these expectations. And so these paintings were really an exploration of what I was coming to terms with and what I saw at work. So thank you for asking. And I hope that addressed your question. Oh, yeah. So what brought you to using the transparent materials in your work? Thank you. It initially started realizing that the narratives within my work weren't being seen. And to back up just a little bit, I know you recently interviewed Tim Lowley, who I adore. And I've been a fan of his work forever. And he came to see my show. And he's actually part of the reason I made a shift. I had a show at the Packer Shop there in Chicago. And Tim Lowley was there. And he said, how does it feel that no one knows what you're saying? And sometimes you have to hear it out loud. And I thought, you know what? He's right. I've got all these narratives, all these thoughts I'm having. But they're so embedded in the landscape. And you have to get so close to the painting to see what I'm trying to say that my stories that mattered so much weren't being seen. So then I went to drawing. And these drawings are actually also at the neighbor's show. I would tone the paper with pastel. And I started exploring some of these narratives, now focused more on caregiving, where the caregiver was risking her life to care for her loved one. And those were topics I was interested in exploring. And I did these carefully rendered drawings on pastel paper. But yet I somehow felt I could go further. And I remember hearing about that time that really great art makes you—the media should support the content. And I did not feel that using pastel really supported this content that mattered so much to me, the topic of dementia, the topic of people disappearing. So I knew that I had to make a change. You're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, on WVLP, 103.1 FM. So about this time— Because pastel is so pretty. You know, it's inherently so pretty. So it would be hard to— You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. And then what truly changed things was I was in a show at the Detroit Museum of New Art. And part of being in the show was we had a 15-minute critique with the art critic Jerry Saltz. And it's amazing how he's so insanely smart, where 15 minutes can change your life. But he looked at one of my drawings, and it kind of speaks to what you just said. And he said, what's a carefully rendered drawing such as this going to do in today's contemporary art world? And when he said that, I knew exactly what he meant. When I did those drawings, maybe my content was somewhat unique, but my method was not. I was simply following the pattern of artists that went hundreds of years prior. And I did not want to be that type of artist. I wanted to forge a new path. And I wanted to have my content be represented in a more authentic way with a different medium. So he suggested that I look at the drawings of Eric Fischel. And I don't know if you're familiar with this work. I was not until I got the suggestion. But Eric Fischel did these beautiful oil drawings on glassine paper. And if you're not familiar with glassine, glassine is like a wax paper. Back in the old days, they would use glassine to wrap up meat. That's how it's got its origin. And then later, it was used to protect pastel drawings. Because if you cover your pastel drawings with glassine, the pastel won't wipe away. So I looked at these images. I thought they were beautiful. And he would take one contour line drawing done with oil paint on a glassine piece of paper and place it over another contour line drawing and then got these very unexpected narratives that I found very edgy, unique. I was really mesmerized by them. So then I started working that way. And two of the works at The Neighbors Show represent this. I have an image of a caregiver who's overlapped. And you can see her at multiple levels. Some of her images are light and faint. Some of her images are layered to have stronger contour line drawings. And then you see her shielding and protecting her loved one from these menacing birds. Because I would see that a lot where the caregiver was putting their lives at risk to protect the loved one. So I started to explore these topics that mattered so much to me on glassine. And it seemed to make sense to me because I was talking about the patient's disappearance. But I was also talking about the lack of identity that caregivers face. When you're caring for someone, it's so difficult to pursue your passions, to eat well, to do the things you love. Oftentimes your life is consumed with the care of another person. So layering these images and having these ghost-like qualities was a way for me to more fully represent this topic. But then what happened was working on glassine because the paper is so thin. And again, when I say wax paper, that's the closest comparison I can give your viewers. It's so thin that I had to put it behind a frame. And I couldn't come up with these very unexpected angled narratives that an official had, which is what I wanted to do. So then I shifted to working on Duralar film. And Duralar film is quite a bit more durable. It doesn't rip hardly at all. I can cut it out. I can pin it to the wall. I can make these images life-size because, you know, seeing also how my mother cared for my father during the pandemic, I wanted to do this topic justice. I wanted the images to be large and bold and not be lost as they were in my painting. But I did want certain parts of the image to gradually disappear because I did see my father's identity disappearing from the person I remembered as was my mother's and caring for him. So this Duralar film seems to have been the perfect fit for me, and it's what I'm really engaged with right now. And I do not have those at the Neighbors show, but they're seen elsewhere at the Miller Art Museum and Wabansi Community College will be featuring those works on the Duralar film. Yes, when I saw those, there was such a musicality of movement and your mom was like a dancer to me in those. And I think it's the quality of, you know, using that film as well. It was really, you know, you could feel the weight of what she's doing, but she was doing it very gracefully. Thank you. And I wanted to show the beauty of that, too. Not everyone can take that on. It's very, very difficult. So the musicality that I wanted to show the beauty of it to the admiration I have for what she did. Yeah, that comes through. You know, I was struck by I think it's a drawing where you have skeletal, you know, looks like they might be herons or people on the ground. And tell us about that. The Echoes of Flight one. That's kind of very engaging in so many ways. Well, thanks for asking. I've always found animals as interesting symbolism to express what I want to say. And I've been enamored by birds because they represent freedom and escape, but yet they can be so threatening and they can symbolize the end of someone's life. So I did a residency in New York and I remember spending a half day at the Museum of Natural History and I was just in awe by the bird skeletons because it's one thing to symbolically represent flight, but yet to show their skeletons to me represented the lack of freedom. And you see both the caregiver and the patient collapse below because I wanted to show how the caregiver many times is going through just as much hardship as the patient. And sadly with dementia, you know, that and maybe this isn't entirely sad because the patient doesn't realize the ramifications of the disease process. But, you know, the caregiver can be caring so much for someone, but not be heard those verbalizations of gratitude because of a loved one facing this degenerative illness that affects their speech and their cognition, the ability to express themselves. So a lot of times the caregiver is really in really a difficult position as much if not more so as the patient. Well, they get the full brunt of it. You know, lots of times when somebody else comes in, be it, you know, a physical therapist visitor, there is something that clicks on in that brain that has dementia and it's a different person. It's more, it's, you know, I don't know. I don't know if you have experienced that where with, you know, the full-time caregiver, there's a different personality and freedom of, you know, there's a relaxing of like those social niceties that we, you know, have to do. So it's very confusing because, you know, my experience was like the other auxiliary people that came in would be like, what are you talking about? So you're absolutely right. A lot of layers. Yes. Sometimes you can see agitation. You can see bliss. I mean, every person's experience with memory loss, Alzheimer's disease and dementia. My dad actually had a Parkinsonian disease along with multiple strokes and Alzheimer's. I mean, it can manifest itself in so many ways and, you know, two people's experiences really are the same. It can be a very difficult road and a very isolating road too. As unique as our memories, you know. Yes. Yes. Very true. So Mary, beyond this, do you have other work that you want to do that may be outside of this body of work, something completely different that you haven't done before? You know, thanks for asking. I am thinking a lot about when someone passes, how really the world continues and you don't know what's going to be our future in this world. And there's a group of paintings by Thomas Cole that I got to see in LA and they talk about the history of the world. So the first painting is when the world forms and it's beautiful and it's exciting. And the second painting is when man and the world are in harmony with each other. The third painting, man causes wars. And the fourth painting, man disappears, but nature survives. And I think a lot about that. Like when someone passes, like what does our future hold? What has been our impact? And I'm thinking now with the Stirlar film of exploring scenes from nature again, but painting the scenes from nature in an opaque way, because nature is not disappearing. It's changing form, but it's our loved ones that leave us and it's the nature that's left behind. And I've also been experiencing, experimenting with sculptures. The show at Waubonsie, I'm really excited about because I'm diving into some new work I've never done. It's not even been photographed. And I have a giant sculpture that's about 10 feet high. It might even be eight feet wide. And it's a giant mound of walkers that I purchased, used online. And I spray painted them white. And there's this giant mound and there's crutches coming out at different angles because I'm also struck by the fact that when a loved one passes, it's the equipment that remains and yet the soul leaves. And there's such a magnitude of that too. And there's also, there can be a lot of loneliness too. When all the equipment is left behind and the person you love is no longer there. Psychologically, it can be very, very difficult for the loved one. So I've been exploring those types of themes. Well, we have a couple of minutes left. Do you have any, obviously the Neighbors exhibit goes through March 16th, but is there any other exhibits coming down the road, you know, later in March, April? Yes, thank you for asking. I'm in a two-person show at the Miller Art Museum in Sturgeon Bay. And I'm showing with my friend Ellen Holtzblatt, who does the most beautiful painting of her hundred-year-old mother. And I have to also say, it means a lot to me to have the elderly be more visible in the art world. And you don't see that very often. And Ellen does that beautifully. And it's an honor to show with her. And even if you can't get up to Sturgeon Bay, I highly recommend just checking out the show online. Check out her Instagram page. Check out the website for the Miller Art Museum. I'll also be in a show, as I mentioned, at Waubonsie Community College, which opens February 6th, runs until March 29th. And I'll be giving an artist talk on March 19th at 2 p.m. All are welcome. It's at the Arrowhead Gallery. And lastly, the new work from Waubonsie will be traveling to the Flex Space at Riverside Art Center. And that opens April 7th and runs until May 11th. So I'm excited to share that with your viewers. Please come by and introduce yourself. And I just really want to thank you for this opportunity today. And very quickly, your website. Thank you. It's maryportofield.com. Okay. I remember once I was asked by a collector, what's your website? I was so nervous I forgot. And then I thought, how could I have forgotten? I got to my car. I'm like, oh my gosh, it's just my name. But maryportofield.com is my website. And you can reach me there, email, message me there at any time. And there'll be a link on our website, on your picture that's on our website. Mary Porterfield, artist who's in the Neighbors exhibit. And it's running at South Shore Arts through March 16th. And if you have a chance to swing by, Mary, thank you so much for coming on Art on the Air and sharing your art journey. Thank you. It's been a pleasure. Thank you both. Thank you, Mary. 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 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 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, Olga 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 BREC.com slash AOTA, where you can find out how to become a supporter or underwriter of our program in whatever amount you are able. And like I say every week, don't give till it hurts. Give till it feels good. You'll feel so good about supporting Art on the Air. If you're interested in being a guest or send us information about your arts, arts related event or exhibit, please email us at AOTA at BREC.com. That's AOTA at BREC, 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.