gallery 609

Sonic's Got It!

Oklahoma City’s Cliff Hudson is like no other corporate CEO in America. Instead of the corner office on the top floor of a downtown high rise he runs SONIC Corporation from a desk out in the middle of all the action and all the fun at the company’s new low rise building in Bricktown. From the beginning Cliff Hudson has used creativity to achieve success in school and now in business. He’s a talented musician and a big fan of the arts. He and some of his employees even have a band they call The SONIC Tones. As if running a major fast food drive-in restaurant chain wasn’t enough to keep him occupied he’s also Chairman of the Oklahoma City School Board. As OETA continues to explore creativity in Oklahoma we’ll show you how this corporate executive has risen to the top thanks to creative thinking.

The Music Man

Guthrie’s Craig White is a musician, a professor, a songwriter and a very talented sound engineer. But Craig considers himself to be much more of a scientist than anything else. If something doesn’t quite sound right, or isn’t quite working correctly Craig will study it long enough to figure out why and then he’ll fix it. He has created his own area of study at Rose State College. He developed the Liberal Studies Degree with an emphasis on music recording. He’s been working with students and young musicians since 1980. In 1983 he launched the White Rose Recording Studio where he has produced his own material along with that of regional and even national recording artists. He has a passion for teaching, not from a textbook but from real life. His are valuable lessons for students still searching for their direction.

Stristed Art

Make no bones about it Lawton’s Mike Saas is not like any other sculptor in Oklahoma. It’s not so much what he creates but how he does it and what he uses as his primary material. Most sculptors use clay. Some prefer wood. A few even use rocks like granite and limestone. Not Mike Saas. Every one of his sculptures is made entirely from bones. His workshop is stacked floor to ceiling with bones. Bones he’s found, bones people have brought to him, bones he’s harvested. And when he has a bone to pick, Mike Saas knows right where to go.

“I’ve got a rancher south of town he has cow bones and he hunts coyotes that do a lot of damage to his property and I have full access to all of that.”

Mike likes to call his work “Stristed Art” because it’s straight and twisted all at the same time. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before.

Airdate:June 4, 2006

Gallery 608

An Artist's Artist

He’s inspired hundreds of artists over the years and is considered by many critics to have world class talent. D.J. Lafon has lived and worked in Oklahoma for more than 40 years. For three decades he was chairman of the Art Department at East Central University in Ada. He focused not so much on his own work then as in bringing forth new generations of artists. After he retired from the university his focus changed and his future as an important artist became clear. D. J. Lafon is a master at the use of color but many people would say it’s his appeal intellectually that really resonates. His works tend to have meaning, a meaning that strikes a cord with most people who see Lafon’s paintings. His works are in galleries and museums across the country. He is truly an artist’s artist…a master at his craft.

Backyard Dreams

Dale Chlouber began collecting things before he could walk and he hasn’t stopped since. First what he’d gathered filled a room and then part of his backyard and then his barn and now he has an entire building full of things he’s collected. Some of it is local, like the arrowheads he found near his childhood home. Some of his neighbors have helped too, bringing in cannon shells from Civil War battles and pistols used by outlaws. But Dale has also acquired rare pieces from the Crusades and Dark Ages of Europe. Even a meteorite that fell to earth in South America 500 years ago. Dale’s wife Carla helps him keep track of everything at their Washington Irving Trail Museum just outside Ripley. It is a stunning collection preserved forever by two people who have dedicated their lives to the past so it will always be here for the future.

Airdate: May 2nd, 2006

Gallery 607

All in the Family

Oklahoma City’s Nicole Moan likes to play with mud. Always has. Now she’s able to play for profit not just fun. She creates “wearable art” and she did it on a whim a few years ago. She and her husband Jason accidentally missed a deadline for registering for a local art show. Nicole designed and then made a pair of ceramic vests she and her husband wore to the show. They were an instant hit. She now creates ceramic vests and corsets specifically molded to fit the person who’s buying the work. Her fashionable art is so unique she was one of only 60 artists and designers worldwide invited to participate in the Swatch Watch Alternative Fashion Week in London, England. But Nicole Moan is just part of the story, her husband Jason Moan, her father Albert Riddle and her mother Deborah Eilers Riddle all work out of the same studio and each create wildly different sculptures and paintings.

405-414-7723
Nicole1259@cox.net

www.4anythingart.com

The Days we Danced

Once upon a time Doris Eaton was the youngest member of the famed Ziegfeld Follies taking the Broadway stage in 1918 when she was just 14. Today at 102 Doris Eaton Travis is the last one left, the last surviving Follies Girl. And she can still dance. She goes back to Broadway every year to perform at a benefit gala held the New Amsterdam Theatre, the same stage where she sang and danced decades ago. At one time four members of her family were starring on Broadway in different shows. When times changed and attention shifted from Broadway shows to movies Doris changed too and opened more than a dozen Arthur Murray Dance Studios in Michigan. The later when most people her age were retiring she moved to Oklahoma with her husband Paul and started a horse ranch. She went to college too and got a degree, with honors, from the University of Oklahoma at age 88. Now she’s written a book to honor her family’s history on Broadway.  After 102 years old age is finally beginning to slow her down but you can still find Doris and her friends dancing at a club in Norman most every Friday night.

To Purchase "The Days we Danced" Memoirs of Doris Eaton

www.marquand.com

Airdate: 4/4/2006

Gallery #606

Mr. "B"

To say that Al Bostick is an artist and a storyteller is a bit of an understatement. He is so much more. He also likes to teach at elementary schools and libraries. He’s an actor, a dancer and a writer. He appears on stage frequently in a variety of roles. He also is a talented mask maker and is involved in several different kinds of visual arts. His paintings reflect his culture as an African-American. He’s proud of his heritage and hopes to pass it on through the arts.

You can see some of his works inside the historic “Gold Dome”, the former bank building at 23rd and Classen in Oklahoma City. It’s now home to the Gold Dome Multicultural Society. It is an organization designed to help provide an “invitation to awareness” engaging the public and bringing the diverse community together.

Al Bostick tends to do the same thing, whether it’s through acting, dancing, painting or storytelling.

Contact Info: Al Bostick

405-521-8040
405-848-6466

http://www.arts.ok.gov/artists/air/theatre/abostick.html

Airdate: Feb 7th, 2006

Gallery #605

Funksculp

A mixture of "Fun" "Funky" and Sculptures made of Junk by Artist Freeman Loughridge

Ardmore artist Freeman Loughridge likes to say he’s, ”recycling the world one sculpture at a time.” And for the type of sculpture he creates he uses several different ingredients, love, truth, humor, junk and a little rust. As you might have guessed by now Freeman Loughridge isn’t like many other sculptors. He tries to make his sculpture "about" something. And he says he’s always been impressed by the ridiculous. The sublime doesn't appeal to him at all. Loughridge likes to take a perfectly simple thing, like a sculpture of a horse, and add a twist, such as a Stick Shift. He likes for people to see his work from afar and think they know what it is only to be surprised upon closer inspection. He sold his first piece when he was 8 years old. A buddy bought a drawing of his for a nickel to impress a girl.

He was a professional potter for over 30 years. He retired from the clay medium about five years ago and picked up a torch. Loughridge has always been fascinated by junk and discarded things that no one else wanted. He loves to take someone else’s junk and turn it into a treasure.

www.funksculp.com

funksculp@mail.com

Plus:

"Keeper of the Past"

A family tradition of silversmithing is explored in Anadarko. Intricate pieces of jewelry made by hand with amazing Indian artistry. Talents honed over generations, from grandfather, to father to son a tradition is passed down. Bruce Caesar learned from his father who learned from his father. Bruce’s son Adam now works as a silversmith too. The works of Bruce Caesar are known and respected by Indian tribes across the Americas and appreciated by art loves around the world. He was name a Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1998. His heritage is Pawnee, Sac & Fox but Bruce Caesar’s artistry speaks the language of every tribe.

For More Information:

www.jacobsonhouse.com

Airdate:Jan 3rd, 2006

Gallery #604

Launching of "The Oklahoma Creativity Project”

What will Oklahoma look like 100, 50 or even just five years from now? Recently 150 Oklahomans were invited to the Governor’s Mansion to take part in discussions sponsored by OETA, The Kirkpatrick Foundation, Oklahoma A+ Schools and The DaVinci Institute to help design future education initiatives through the Oklahoma Creativity Project. It is dedicated to facilitating and supporting creativity and innovation across the state. The Project will discover, document and promote how a state can transform itself through the creative process. The very establishment of Oklahoma was a creative act. The dedication and commitment of our state's founders to pursue their dreams, released by their creativity and entrepreneurial spirit, lie at the heart of Oklahoma's success as a state and as a people. Creativity and innovation are essential and irreplaceable elements of humanity. Our ability to invent new ideas, things, and ways of relating to one-another has been the engine that created this country and drives our economic and spiritual well being.

OKLAHOMA IS THE STATE OF CREATIVITY

www.oklahomacreativity.org

Sound Dreams

What’s it take to become a symphony musician? It can be a long raod and we’ll show you some of the twists and turns. While many of his peers in high school rocked out to the sounds of Brooks and Dunn, Brian Perry preferred the classical sounds of Beethoven and Dvorak. It has paid off. The Oklahoma City native is now a bassist with the critically acclaimed Ft. Worth Symphony. We’ll show you some of his beginnings with the bass, the struggles and the triumphs. The tense auditions where the futures of 150 musicians hinge on the whims of fate. A dream come true for just one, a dream at best delayed for all the others.

www.fwsymphony.org

1-817-665-6000

Airdate:11/08/05

gallery #603

Oklahoma Heritage

The Oklahoma Heritage Association is set to move into a glorious new home for the state centennial celebration in 2007. The O.H.A is working right now on a huge 15 million dollar capital campaign which includes re-modeling and updating the old Mid-Continent Life Building near downtown Oklahoma City. The massive structure was originally designed and built by architect Solomon Andrew Layton. It opened in 1926. Layton also designed the state capitol building. We’ll show you the plans for the restoration and take you behind the scenes of this dramatic effort to bring some of the personalities of Oklahoma history to life. We’ll also take you inside the current home of the OHA, Oklahoma City’s Hefner Mansion.

Contact Info : www.oklahomaheritage.com

405.235.4458

888.501.2059

Plus:

A "Wild" Imagination

The eastern red cedar tree is slowly taking over farmers’ fields and ranchers’ grazing lands all over Oklahoma. More trees are growing and maturing in places they’re not wanted than can be removed. But Oklahoma artist Curt Brooks is taking care of the problem one tree at a time. He and his family don’t merely cut the trees down they “disassemble”

Contact Info: www.CedarBrookFurniture.com

Airdate:10/4/05

Gallery #602

Theatre Upon A Star Dance Swan

 Just the company’s name evokes wonder. StarDanceSwan’s classes, workshops and performances touch and stir the creative spirit.. StarDanceSwan has gathered all ages to dream and to dance. It allows you to explore the magic that movement, music, poetry and visual arts bring into our lives. There is simply no place like it for children who want to learn the movement of dance where space, gravity, balance and energy involved in the discipline connects them to their world.

StarDanceSwan has developed three dance companies involving all ages which have performed throughout the state. Director Lorrie Keller grew up in a musical family. Her father a violinist and member of a musical band, The Gypsies, performed for thousands of Oklahomans in the forties all the way through the  seventies. As a 5 year old, Lorrie danced for her mother while she sang gypsie songs on stage. Lorrie continued to dance her way through college, eventually becoming a professional modern dancer who would travel the United States. She returned home in 1982,  to fulfill a lifelong dream of beginning a dance company based on the infusion of education and modern dance. All of her past experiences heavily influenced Lorrie’s love for dance, music and appreciation for the arts, reflected in the way she transforms children into what she calls dancing swans. Many of her students have gone on to have professional dance careers themselves.

Theatre Upon A StarDanceSwan has been recognized by Dance and Child International as one of the leading children’s companies in the world. It is a rare jewel in Oklahoma’s growing treasure that is this state’s arts community.

Join us for a touching look inside " Theatre Upon A StarDanceSwan".
We'll take you from practice to street peformance on a visual journey well worth the trip.

For more Information:

(405) 557-7827

Lorrie Keller - Director
StarDanceSwan Studios
3022 Paseo, Oklahoma City, OK
73103

www.ThePaseo.com/stardance

Airdate: 9/6/05

Gallery #601

The Paseo

Oklahoma City’s Paseo District is a vibrant arts community. A few blocks north of downtown, the district is home to art galleries and artist’s studios.  On the main tree lined street you’ll find painters, photographers, writers, actors and potters. Within the Paseo’s small two block area you can visit a shop where stained glass is made, a pottery studio, watch a painter at work, see a performance of a children’s theatre group, have dinner and shop.

It’s also home to annual festivals and parades. In 1929 The Paseo was built as Oklahoma City’s first commercial shopping district. Its stores and shops fell into disrepair and then were almost torn down in the late 70’s.

On the next “Gallery” we’ll introduce you to the man who saved The Paseo and turned it into what it is today.

Plus:

Living Statue

Oklahoma City’s Troy Scott can clown around all day or stand perfectly still for hours. He is a talented artist and an officially licensed street performer. He can thrill children with his clown routines featuring magic, juggling and balloons. He also amazes audiences and stuns unsuspecting visitors when he becomes the Living Bronze Cowboy Statue. It’s a mix of artistry, humor and even shock you won’t soon forget.

 Contact Info: www.outstandingshows.com

“Gallery” Exploring the Art and Culture of Oklahoma!

Airdate:7/5/05