¡Colores!; 1905; Painter Laurence Sisson, Costume Designer Susan Hilferty, Artist El Anatsui, Japanese-American Author Allen Say

>>Narrator: IN THIS EDITION OF COLORESà >>LAURENCE SISSON MOVES FROM PAINTING THE SURF IN MAINE TO PAINTING NEW MEXICO'S DESERT LANDSCAPE. >>Sisson: The sea came through here long before anybody thought of a civilization would be coming. The landscape the desert was the floor of the sea. >>Narrator: SUSAN HILFERTY EXPLAINS THERE IS MORE TO DESIGNING COSTUMES THAN FASHION AND FABRIC. >>Hilferty: To be a good costume designer, you have to be interested in everything. >>Narrator: AMERICAN GALLERIES GET A TASTE OF EL ANATSUI'S LIFETIME OF AFRICAN ARTWORK >>Anatsui: It makes you question yourself and your place in the world and your relationship with other spaces. >>Narrator: AUTHOR ALLAN SAY HAS WON SOME OF THE HIGHEST HONORS IN HIS FIELD INCLUDING THE CALDECOTTMEDAL..

>>Say: I have no idea how the viewer, the editor or the world in general, the publisher, is going toreact to it. >>Narrator: IT'S ALL AHEAD ON COLORES! >>THIS PROGRAM IS MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY NEW MEXICO ARTS. A DIVISION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CULTURALAFFAIRS AND THE NATIONAL ENDOWNENT FOR THE ARTS. AFTER DECADES OF LIVING BY THE OCEAN, PAINTER LAURENCE SISSON GOES THROUGH A TRANSFORMATION AS HE FINDS INSPIRATION IN NEW MEXICO'S DESERT LANDSCAPE. ♪ (PIANO PLAYING) ♪

>>Lawrence Sisson: WHEN I GET TO THIS AGE IN MY PAINTINGS, I STILL HAVE THAT DESIRE, THAT PASSION, TO EXPRESS SOMETHING THAT HAS NEVER BEEN PAINTED BEFORE. I FOUND THIS WAY THAT I COULD PAINT TIDE POOLS AND I COULD THROW PAINT AT THE CANVASS AND DO IT IN A CONTROLLED WAY. SO, IT WAS LIKE CONTROLLED CHAOS. I DID A PAINTING AT ONE TIME, WHICH I WAS TOTALLY EXASPERATED WITH. I HAVE A TEMPER. I TOOK OUT A BRUSH FILLED WITH PAINT AND I THREW IT AT THE CANVASS, AT THE PANEL, AND NOW I HAVE REMORSE, BECAUSE I SCREWED UP A PERFECTLY GOOD PAINTING BECAUSE OF ONE PASSAGE. SO, I STARTED TO WIPE IT OFF. I TRIED TO BRUSH IT OFF.

WHEN I TRIED TO BRUSH IT OFF, I GOT THIS INCREDIBLE THREE-DIMENSIONAL QUALITY FROM THIS AREA. >> Sisson: AS A YOUNG KID WHEN I HAD CHICKENPOX MY PARENTS PUT ME IN A QUARANTINE. IN THOSE DAYS WE HAD TO GO IN A ROOM FOR A COUPLE OF WEEKS, LITERALLY, TO STAY AWAY FROM THE REST OF THE KIDS. THEY GAVE ME A LITTLE EASEL AND A LITTLE PAD AND SOME PAINTS AND THEY BASICALLY SHUT ME OFF FROM THE WORLD FOR THAT PERIOD OF TIME. AND, APPARENTLY, WHEN I GOT OUT OF QUARANTINE, THEY THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO BE A GREAT ARTIST. THEY JUST CAME OUT AND SAID, "LONNIE, THAT IS BEAUTIFUL WORK, YOU HAVE TO KEEP DRAWING AND PAINTING." SO, I DID. WHEN MY PARENTS HAD FRIENDS COME IN, THEY WOULD ALL COME IN AND SAY, "THIS IS FANTASTIC WORK." OF COURSE, I GOT SO MUCH ENCOURAGEMENT, THAT I ALMOST

FELT I MUST GO ON TO BE AN ARTIST. THAT IS ALL THERE WAS TO IT. >> Sisson: HE IS PAINTING A VISUAL EMOTION. YOU LOOK AT THEM AND YOU CAN'T WALK ON BY. YOU HAVE TO STOP AND LOOK. HOW DID HE DO THAT? >> Sisson: WHAT YOU SEE AROUND HERE, THEY ARE VIBRANT, LOTS OF CLOUDS, LOTS OF BLUE, LOTS OF COLORS. >> Sisson: WHEN I WAS DETERMINED I WAS GOING TO BE A PAINTER, I ENROLLED AT THE WORCESTER MUSEUM SCHOOL, WHICH WAS A WONDERFUL SMALL SCHOOL. AND AT THAT POINT, I KNEW I WOULD HAVE TO GO IN THE ARMY SO I ENLISTED WHEN I WAS 17, BUT THEY SENT US TO JAPAN. I TRAVELED ALL OVER JAPAN. I WOUND UP EVENTUALLY PLAYING PIANO, ENJOYED IT ALL THE TIME. PLAYED THE PIANO AT NIGHT. DURING THE DAY, I WAS ABLE TO GO INTO THE SMALL TOWNS AND I TRADED PIPE TOBACCO FOR HIROSHIGES, HOKUSAIS AND UTAMARO PRINTS AND I JUST FELL IN LOVE WITH THE ART OF JAPAN. AND, THAT STAYED WITH ME.

I JUST LOVED THE IMAGES AND THE KIND OF ANGULAR QUALITY AND THE RHYTHMIC, ARABESQUE QUALITY OF SOME OF THE PRINTMAKERS. I WENT BACK TO JAPAN 40 YEARS FUJI AND THERE IT WAS, THE MOST MAJESTIC SINGLE THING I HAD EVER SEEN. SOMETHING ABOUT FUJI IS SO MAGNIFICENT AND SO SPIRITUAL, EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT A BUDDHIST OR A HINDU. >> Sisson: WHEN I REALLY HAD SOMETHING I WANTED TO SAY, OR IF I HAD A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING THAT I WANTED TO PAINT, SOMETHING IN NATURE THAT WAS A FANTASTIC PASSAGE OF FOREST AND SNOW OR SOME BEAUTIFUL WAVE BREAKING OFF OF BURNT ISLAND OR A GREAT SKY THAT I SAW, IF I SAW SOMETHING LIKE THAT, I WANTED TO HAVE ENOUGH SKILL SO THAT

IMMEDIATELY, I COULD PICK UP A BRUSH AND PAINT IT IN LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES. AND I DEVELOPED A LANGUAGE THAT I COULD USE TO EXPRESS MY FEELINGS ABOUT THE OCEAN, MY FEELINGS ABOUT MAINE. I HAD A SHOW ONCE CALLED "MAINE, THE MOON AND ME," BECAUSE IT WAS ALL ABOUT THE MOON AND ABOUT MAINE AND IT WAS ABOUT MY FEELINGS ABOUT THE OCEAN AND HOW THE MOON AFFECTS THE TIDES. >> Sisson: RIGHT AT THE TOP OF THE EDGE OF THE MOON AND THE SEA, EVERYTHING ELSE FLOWS UP TO THAT POINT IN THE PAINTING, THEORETICALLY. BUT, I JUST LOVE THE MOVEMENT OF THE OCEAN AND I LOVE TRYING TO PAINT SURF. SANTA FE CAPTURED MY I IMAGINATION BECAUSE I HAD SEEN WORK BY TAOS FATHERS AND I BEGAN TO FIND IMAGES THAT I WOULD NEVER SEE IN MAINE. ALTHOUGH, I THOUGHT WHEN I

CAME OUT HERE, I WAS GOING TO GO NUTS BECAUSE THERE WOULDN'T BE PEBBLES OR ROCKS OR SHALE. >> Sisson: THERE WOULDN'T BE ANY OF THE BEACHES THAT I MISS SO MUCH IN MAINE. YET THE VERY FIRST TIME I WENT UP TO THE NAMBE FALLS AND AT THE BASE OF THE FALLS, HERE ARE ALL MY ROCKS, AGAIN, ALL THE PEBBLES, ALL THE ROCKS, PLUS INDIAN SHARDS AND WONDERFUL LITTLE PIECES OF ADOBE AND CHIPS OFF THE RED STONE AND CHINLE ROCK AND IT WAS MARVELOUS. THEN I REALIZED, WHY NOT? THE SEA CAME THROUGH HERE LONG BEFORE ANYBODY THOUGHT CIVILIZATION WOULD BE COMING. SO, THE LANDSCAPE, THE DESERT WAS THE FLOOR OF THE SEA. AND OUT HERE, THE ISLANDS BECAME THE MESAS AND THE OCEAN BECAME THE DESERT FLOOR, BUT THERE WAS CERTAIN ELEMENTS OF MAINE SEASCAPES THAT WERE BECOMING THE UNDERLYING

ARCHITECTURE OF MY DESERT WORK. IT BECAME A PERFECT SYMBIOSIS FOR ME. >> Sisson: SOMEONE ASKED ME THE OTHER DAY, WHAT IS ON YOUR BUCKET LIST? THE ONLY THING ON MY BUCKET LIST RELATIVE TO PAINTING THAT I WOULD LIKE TO DO AND THAT IS, I WOULD LOVE -- IT IS IMPOSSIBLE -- BUT I WOULD LOVE TO HIRE A WAREHOUSE AND GET EVERY PAINTING I HAVE EVER DONE AND PUT IT IN THAT WAREHOUSE. IT WOULD HAVE TO BE AWFULLY BIG SO I COULD ONCE IN MY LIFE SEE WHAT THE HELL IT IS I PAINTED. >> Sisson: I THINK THAT IS ENOUGH FOR NOW. ♪ (PIANO PLAYING) ♪ >> Narrator: SUSAN HILFERTY HAS WORKED ON SEVERAL TONY NOMINATED SHOWS. NOW SHE TAKES US INTO HER WORKSHOP AND SHOWS THAT IT REQUIRES MORE THAN GOOD FASHION SENSE TO BRING CHARACTERS TO LIFE. >>Hilferty: Hi I'm Susan Hilferty. I'm a costume designer, and I'm designing the new production of Annie.

People are always surprised at what a costume designer really does. They have ideas about being a fashion designer, about clothes or somebody who only does pretty dresses. >> What I like to tell people is that I'm a storyteller, and my medium is clothing. So what I'm doing is trying to identify specific things about a character in relationship to a story that everybody is trying to tell. So the way I begin is by reading the play and listening to the music. The story of Annie I know takes place in New York City. >> I know that I'm going to have very rich people, and very poor people. My job is to create the people who live in my New York City. Because, in fact, I have to invent this world. As you can see, by my space, I love books. And books, to me, are a great way for me

to look for inspiration. >> The other thing that's really important is that you touch things. So it is easy to look at a picture of a dress, but if you actually want to understand what that dress was and how it was made, you have to feel it. So I sit at my table, I start to sketch, I use my research, I've already had a conversation with the actor and we've talked about how we want to transform. >> I have in my mind visions of colors and textures and then I do the drawing. A lot of my work is drawing because I get to think visually. So the drawing is something in which I explore what a garment might look like. As soon as I have the sketch, I take it right to the people who are going to makethe clothes, and the makers will include a cobbler and a dressmaker, dyers, painters, a milliner û

who is someone who makes the hats. >> And then we start to move forward. We start to build an idea, sketch in 3-D what the costume willlook like. Every single actor will come in for at least three fittings. And we call them fittings because that's what we're doing. We're going to fit all the pieces together. We're looking at these variations and hoping that they'll all go together to make the vision that I've already put together when I made my sketch in the first place. >>I find that costume designers in the theater come from every different kind of background. Some ofthem were interested in fashion, some were interested in history, some were interested in art. WhatI do find is that to be a good costume designer, you have to be interested in everything. History class û what we do is all about history. >>It's about storytelling.

Read plays, read books, draw. You need to be feeling things, fabrics û and I don't care if it's knitting or sewing or jewelry making or fixing a car. All of these things make you connect your hands and your brain. And that's really the most important thing about being any kind of designer, if you want to be an architect, if you want to design clothes, if you want to design anything. >>The one thing that we all have in common is that we work with our hands and we take that from our hands and bring it to our heads and our eyes. I am so excited to be designing this new version of Annie. It is a great musical, it has great characters, it's about New York û so many things that I cancelebrate! You, when you're watching the performance, are seeing a window. >>But if you can imagine outside the window there are all of the stage hands, all the wardrobe people, the stage management, all the makers of the clothes and the scenery

whose skill and work have brought it all together for you to be able to enjoy this performance of Annie. >>Narrator: ARTIST EL ANATSUI IS ALL ABOUT TRANSFORMATION. USING FOUND MATERIALS SUCH AS PRINTING PLATES, CONDENSED MILK TINS AND ALUMINUM BOTTLE CAPS, EL'S ARTWORK DRAWS ON AESTHETIC TRADITIONS FROM HIS NATIVE COUNTRY AS WELL AS WESTERN ART FORMS. >> Host: I think art should allow us to question our own experiences and challenge us to want to know more about others. Specifically for the work of El Anatsui it's very easy to do that. You come to his work and you see that cleary it's something from Africa or from a place that you're not familiarwith and it makes you question yourself and your place in the world and your relationship with other spaces. This is a retrospective of his 40 year career. >>ANATSUI: Seeing 40 years of my work and brought together under one roof is

humbling, gives me a feeling of exhilaration. It's like having a reunion of people I've met so many years back. You go to some of the earlier works and it gives you the sense that you actually didn't take a big leap but that what you were doing was taking little steps to get to this stage. >>NANCY BLOMBERG: This is an extraordinary opportunity for people to really look at an artist. How he has changed. How his ideas have changed over time and you don't often see that. >> LISA BINDER: El is a very quiet man, very private person but someone who loves to engage with individuals that he meets all over the world and he loves to engage with people about art. >>BLOMBERG: Well, he is certainly an internationally known artist. He was pretty well known in Africa

for the first 30 years and known in Europe as well. >> BINDER: He remains very important in Africa specifically West Africa. He's from Ghana but has lived and worked in Nigeria since 1975 and is very well-known there. >>BLOMBERG: But, he really burst onto the international scene in about 2007 when he began creating aseries of these metal wall sculptures. >>AMANDA THOMPSON: For me the amazing thing about El Anatsui's work is that it is so accessible. Design people can engage with it, crafts people can engage with it, painters can engage with it and theback story of it, the use of recycled, reused bottle caps it's so very current to issues going on in the world and the story is intimate to the history of West Africa as well. >>ANATSUI: There came a time when I developed the affinity for only material that has seen some use,that had had

some contact with people. I find that they have something rich about them. Maybe something psychic or spiritual it's kind of builds a bond between me and anybody who has had reaction with the object. >>BINDER: His work is made of the things of life. Of the things that we experience in our every day world and so we are able to come to it with our own experiences and say ok I understand that that's some thing that is in my world too. >>ANATSUI: I like the idea of picking commonplace things and giving them a new lease of life. Most of the time the media I worked with came inadvertently. It has to announce itself or bring itself in surreptitiously. >>BLOMBERG: El uses very ordinary materials to create incredible works of art. He uses these pieces

in installations or in single works to tell very personal stories. Sometimes his own personal stories and other times to tell universal stories or stories about African history. >>ANATSUI: Almost all the work I've done, all the phases that I've passed through, could be linked one way or another with history. Not that I was trying to recount history but was kind of looking at history as something that reflects back to me. >>THOMPSON: This is my 5th time installing this exhibition. So it's wonderful for me to see it installed in a different space each time because the pieces take on a whole new life. The Denver Art Museum is going to be fantastic because of all the angles. >>BINDER: The Libeskind building is perfect for an artist such as El who makes works specifically toadapt to the environment in which it is displayed. It can be, it's meant to be, different every time it

installed. >>BLOMBERG: Our walls are challenging they slant outward. And so, how do you hang them because they can't be hung flat on the wall? So, we worked with forklifts. >>We work with teams of people to shape them. And that's what I get to do. So, I have someone in theback and I'm in the front and I'm literally lifting up the pieces and saying "okay, let's put a hook here" and then I'll step back and say "um, that doesn't work. Take that out". So, it's a process that you work on for a couple of hours to shape each of these pieces. And, it is great fun because I get to create along with the artist. It is a complete joy to hang his works. >>Whether they are hanging, whether they are on platforms, there's no one right way to do it. Most artists have a particular way that they like the piece to be seen, they create it in a certain way and they like it presented in a certain way. El encourages everyone to shape the pieces as they see fit for their spaces. I think art should inspire

you. You can walk through here and see a just a tremendous amount of beauty. I think it should tell stories, I think it should matter to you. :NARRATOR: JAPANESE-BORN ILLUSTRATOR AND AUTHOR ALLEN SAY IS BEST KNOWN FOR HIS BOOK GRANDFATHER'S JOURNEY. SAY DRIVE TO TELL STORIES û OFTEN DEEPLY PERSONAL ONES - IS WHAT DRIVES HIM. >>ALLEN SAY: This is the time when I feel most vulnerable. I have no control over it. I have no ideahow the viewer, or editor or the world in general, the publisher is going to react to it. >>NARRATOR: The twenty-third book Allen Say has both written and illustrated will soon be winging its way to Scholastic Books. He's putting a few final touches on the book.

But he still has to write it. >>SAY: I really couldn't write the text until I had all the art ready >>NARRATOR: He walks us through some of his ideas. >>SAY: My father lives with a 20-pound cat named Tofu. He calls me his favorite daughter. I'm an only child."She comes home. She's glum and she's devastated. Everybody laughed at her "Who's ever heard of a Japanese doll with blond hair? The new art teacher can't pronounce my name, Daddy. She keepscalling me Eureka." >>NARRATOR: The upcoming book tells the story of his daughter Yuriko and her occasional sense, whilegrowing up, of feeling outside mainstream culture. >>SAY: "I want an American name." "What kind of a name?" "Michelle." This is where they're discussing" >>NARRATOR: That theme of the "outsider" crops up in many of Say's books. Another hallmark of an Allen

Say book is the way it taps into his personal story. Autobiographical details and family history are classic ingredients. Born in Yokohama in 1937, Say's childhood was far from easy. It would be touched by war, dislocation and family turmoil. Allen's saving grace was cartooning - a passion not shared by his father. >>SAY: It was disgraceful to want to be a cartoonist in those days for a middle class household to have the first son want to be

an artist was a disaster. Especially to my father who was a very successful businessman never got over it. >>NARRATOR: When the war came, Allen's mother - attempting to protect her children - fled with them to a farming community not far from Hiroshima. >>SAY: We were very near when the bomb dropped. There was this tremendous jolt. And we ran out of the house It was a very mountainous area we couldn't see anything. But we were close enough that one of my cousins used to commute to go to work. And she came back that afternoon - one of the victims. She survived but it was an awful thing. >>NARRATOR: His parents divorced not long after the war. Allen was sent to live with his grandmotherin Tokyo so that he could attend a good school. But his grandmother also disapproved of his cartooning. Their relationship strained,

she made a surprising arrangement. She let Allen - a mere boy - have his own place. >>SAY: I started living alone when I was 12 years old in this one-room apartment. I wanted to be a grown-up and an adult. So in order to be an adult, first you buy a newspaper. >>NARRATOR: And that was how Allen Say learned that the renowned cartoonist Noro Shinpei, took on apprentices. >>SAY: He was one of the most famous cartoonists in my day, certainly my favorite. His cartoons werevery, very funny. He was outrageously funny. >>NARRATOR: The next day, Allen sought him out. He worked with the master artist and another apprentice every day after school. Noro Shinpei would become Allen Say's great teacher or "sensei." >>SAY: When I went looking for him, I thought I was simply following the old Japanese samurai tradition. At the age of thirteen

or fourteen, coming of age, the person will go out and look for a masterto serve under. And in order to learn a craft this is what we used to do in the old days. But whenI grew up a little bit, I suddenly realized that wasn't what I was doing. I was trying to effectively replace my father. And I was incredibly lucky. He obviously intuited that. >>NARRATOR: The apprenticeship solidified Allen's love of art. It paved the way for his career as an illustrator. In 1953, Say's father came back into his life and took him to the U.S. But Noro Shinpei's influence on Allen whom he nicknamed "Kiyoi" - was lasting. Allen always held out hope that he would work again with his sensei. And it seems Noro Shinpei felt the same, as he told

his daughter. >>SAY: Just prior to his death, she asked him if there was anything left that he wanted to do. And that's when he said, "Kiyoi, is the treasure of my life and I would like to work on a book with him." >>NARRATOR: Allen Say's Drawing from Memory is the collaboration that Noro Shinpei wished for. Say has combined his art work, personal photos and examples of his sensei's cartooning to make a poignanttribute to their deep and lasting relationship. >>SAY: And this is my way of honoring his wish. >>Narrator: NEXT TIME ON COLORES >>SANTA FE ARTIST TIMOTHY HORN PLAYS WITH SCALE AND ZOOLOGY.

>>Horn: What we do as humans, we attempt to replicate nature or improve upon nature. >>Narrator: DIANE VON FURSTENBERG TALKS FASHION AND THE FUTURE. >>Von Furstenberg: I realize that everything I do All goes to the same thing, the mission is the same. It is to empower women. >>Narrator: RL STINE DISCUSSES HIS NEW NOVEL. >>Stine: And then they'd say, please write something for us, please write something for your original audience. That's why I wrote Red Rain. >>Narrator: AND JOL DANTZIG TALKS ABOUT MAKING SIGNATURE GUITARS >>Dantzig: They have a soul they have a story. By the time you get it that instrument has witnessedall kinds of things. >>Narrator: UNTIL NEXT TIME THANK YOU FOR WATCHING. FUNDING FOR COLORES WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY