- In this special compilation of "Arteffects," an artistic eye for watercolor.

- Watercolor lend itself to spontaneity, flow, and expression.

Capturing the spirit of a person is the main thing that I'm striving for.

- [Beth] Brightly colored portraits.

- [Traci] Since a lot of my work is so humanistic, it's important to me to try to communicate certain things through color.

- [Beth] And celebrating a groundbreaking architect through photography.

- Paul Revere Williams put his ego aside to navigate through racial barriers to give everyone of every socioeconomic class the comfort of a home.

- It's all ahead on the special compilation of Arteffects.

(light music) - [Announcer] Funding for Arteffects is made possible by Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pearce Motors.

Heidemarie Rochlin.

In memory of Sue McDowell.

The Carol Franc Buck Foundation.

And by the annual contributions of PBS Reno Members.

- Hello, I'm Beth Macmillan and welcome to this special compilation of Arteffect segments.

In this episode, we celebrate a number of talented Black artists in our community and enjoy their segments that have been previously featured on Arteffects.

First up, we explore the world of watercolors with James Gayles of Reno.

For this artist, the creation of watercolor painting comes from the heart.

It's a way for Gayles not only to express his creativity, but also to teach others about important people in history.

(light music) - Watercolor lends the itself to spontaneity, flow, and expression.

I can do my type of style for the shadowing and the highlights.

My name is James Gayles, I do watercolor portraiture.

I work here in my studio on Dickerson Road in Reno, Nevada.

My subject matter is a lot of times, it's African American, and I like to show positive images of that segment of the population, to give the people pride in themselves.

I was born on the east coast in Newark, New Jersey, which is right across the bridge from New York City.

As a teenager, I snuck a lot across the bridge out to New York, to jazz night clubs.

New York City is great, you know, 'cause everything's there, it's the center of everything, fashion, music, art.

So it was great for me, I loved it.

As far back as I could remember, I liked to paint, and draw, and do art.

My mom was one of my biggest encouragers.

I kinda always knew that I was gonna be an artist when I grew up.

I started out in oils when I was a teenager, but I discovered I was allergic to the oil, so that's when I switched to watercolor and acrylic.

I graduated in 1970 from Pratt Institute.

Basically, I'm self-taught, with every long before I went to school.

School just enhanced it more.

I start out with the eyes.

To me, the eyes are the most important thing that can convey the person's spirit.

I break up the face, into shadows and highlights, cheek bones, the nose, the lips.

Watercolor is very good for that.

I go through a lot of paint, a lot of color, because my paintings are saturated with color and paint.

So, I go through tubes very quickly.

Capturing the spirit of a person is the main thing that I'm striving for.

A lot of people find watercolor hard.

I find it easy, because, well, as you're painting, there's bound to be mistakes.

But I like to use those mistakes to work on 'em, they create a better end product once you solve those mistakes within the painting.

It's kinda hard to explain how I do it, because I kinda go by feeling.

It's kind of like a spiritual-type thing, you know?

Relate to the subject, and you kind of try and bring out their spirit, you know?

I do a lot musicians, Nina Simone, Miles Davis.

Miles Davis is another favorite, 'cause he has very intense eyes.

John Coltrane, and, you know, a lot of icons that they look up to, like Maya Angelou, Martin Luther King.

It's a good feeling, yeah, that I've accomplished something.

Reno's kinda growing on me.

It's a lot different than New York or Oakland, 'cause New York and Oakland are very diverse, you know, very multicultural, you know?

So, I kinda made it my mission to bring African American art to Reno.

My advice to young struggling artists who struggle with their work, I say don't be discouraged, if things don't work out the first time, you know, stick with it.

They must love it, because there's long hours, and a lot of work they gotta put into it in order to be successful.

So you have to love it, and you have to kinda like be a sponge, absorb it and ease all the artwork, you know, look at art whenever you can in the museums, the galleries, magazines, you know, see what the other artists are doing, and so you can kinda gauge yourself where you fit in to the whole art scene.

- To learn more, visit jamesgayles.com.

And now it's time for this week's art quiz.

What was the name of the cultural, social, and artistic renaissance in the 1920s, which centered in a New York neighborhood that celebrated Black culture and identity through various mediums?

Is the answer A, the New York Renaissance?

B, the Harlem Renaissance?

C, the Queen's Renaissance?

Or D, the Brooklyn Renaissance?

And the answer is B, the Harlem Renaissance.

Next, we meet artist Traci Turner of Reno.

A teacher once told Turner that she's allowed to use any color she wants.

She took that as a challenge.

Turner found her unique style, combining bright colors and beautiful portraits filled with culture and deep emotion.

(light music) - My artwork is humanistic, it's colorful.

I almost exclusively work in oil.

I do frequently bring in metallic elements to my work like gold leaf and origami paper to add an extra color or texture element.

I like the expressive qualities of color.

Since a lot of my work is so humanistic, it's important to me to try to communicate certain things through color.

I think it was the portraiture aspect that attracted me to it, 'cause it seemed like infinite possibilities, 'cause everyone looks different, different lineages, different colors to pull from, different expressions, that really hit home for me.

The focus on internet memes was kind of an accident, to be honest, I was at a point where I had been struggling with art making for a few years and I was uninspired, and I wanted to pivot my work towards doing more portraits.

I think that's more of my wheelhouse.

And I saw memes as a way to practice doing portraits and expressions without being bogged down by too much meaning.

Plus I just thought the memes were funny.

I just thought it'd be funny to do.

And then when I thought about it further, I thought it was a worthy topic, because memes have become this way of connecting people, relating to each other.

As ridiculous as they are, they have casually become this new form of communication, and that is fascinating to me, especially when we think about how many of the more popular memes feature Black faces.

It's important for us to document memes in general, and then also to look into which pictures we decide to use.

It makes a point in the conversation of how Black Americans participate in and continue to define things in our culture, and memes are a huge part of that.

I'm inspired by the human figure and the human experience.

I will try to, in words, articulate what the idea is coming from, why I want to paint something like that, or make a series.

For my personal work, I won't really paint something if I can't explain why I'm doing it to somebody that's really important to me.

I don't like the whole, "I did it 'cause I felt like it."

Well, why do you feel like it?

That's really important for me to be able to explain to somebody.

It's never just a painting of a skull or a heart.

I know my work is very straightforward, and the narrative could be a little bit more hidden, but there is always a certain reason why I'm reexamining a certain subject to the point of exhaustion.

It's just there's just something about it that's really interesting.

And normally, it boils down to connectivity or expressing a deeply personal emotion.

I really enjoy connecting with people.

I love posting things online and talking with people about my work.

It does feel awkward sometimes to share, but I do feel relief when I can finish something and put it out there and share it with people and they can take it in and speak with me about it.

It just feels really life affirming.

- See more at tracilturner.com.

Nearly 100 years ago, a groundbreaking architect named Paul Revere Williams started his professional journey in Los Angeles.

Over the course of his illustrious career, Williams designed more than 3,000 homes and other buildings.

His journey eventually brought him to Nevada where he designed many eye-catching structures that we pass by every day.

Back in 2022, the Nevada Museum of Art created an exhibit that featured beautiful contemporary photographs by Janna Ireland that celebrate the work of Paul Revere Williams.

(light music) - Paul Revere Williams design structures that everyone uses throughout their daily lives.

- He goes beyond designing wonderful structures.

He goes into designing communities.

- The thing about his body of work is this extreme attention to detail.

The quality is consistent.

- Williams was really a master, not just at giving his clients everything that they wanted, but specifically, tailoring his design so beautifully.

Whether that was a mansion in Beverly Hills or a ranch house in Nevada, - He put his ego aside to navigate through racial barriers to give everyone of every socioeconomic class the comfort of a home.

I feel that every Nevadan should realize that Paul Revere Williams was a genius that stands the test of time.

Paul Revere Williams was born in 1894 in Los Angeles, California.

In 1919, he graduated from USC with an architectural engineering degree, becoming the first African American graduate of the university.

In 1923, he joined the American Institute of Architects, becoming the first African American member of that institute.

Some of the designs that he focused on are Mediterranean, Spanish, Colonial, Neoclassical, and after World War II, he focused more on mid-century modern.

I'm Carmen Beals and I am the Curator of the exhibition "Janna Ireland on the Architectural Legacy of Paul Revere Williams in Nevada."

You will be able to understand the rich history of designs by Mr. Paul Revere Williams, and you'll be able to see it through a unique lens of contemporary art developed by artist and educator, Janna Ireland.

- A lot of my work is about people, whether that is human relationships or the built environment that people create for themselves.

- She has this beautiful, profound way of capturing a linear design, something that's varied signature of his piece, such as a curve or a window that has natural light beaming into a specific facility, followed by this gorgeous shadow that creates a rich moodiness - [Janna] For the exhibition, I came back to Las Vegas.

I also visited Reno in some small cities outside of Reno.

- Janna and I had the fabulous opportunity to visit each of these sites together.

- For me, it was this really exciting opportunity to do this new body of work, to meet these new people, to learn about, and really study another person who I wouldn't have thought to look into on my own and to learn a lot about the field of architecture.

- Paul Revere Williams began working in Nevada with his first project in 1934, which was a commission by Ms. Luella Garvey.

- Carmen and I showed up hoping to photograph the outside, and then we met someone who introduced us to someone else, and we were able to just photograph it on the spot, which was one of the wonderful surprises of working on this project.

- [Carmen] Some of the characteristics of the Garvey residence include iron work in its exterior.

It has the beautiful signature staircases that Paul Revere Williams is known for.

It has many large windows to capture the natural lighting, and it is a wonderful L-shaped property that is made in a Colonial Revival style.

- I am very drawn to shadow.

I'm drawn to the way light comes through a particular window at a particular time of day.

I'm drawn to the way that the corners of a room might come together or to things like the place between two rooms where you can see the flooring change from one kind to another.

Just the seams of it, I think are what I keep looking at.

Rancho San Rafael was the first place that I visited in Reno, so my first morning there I got into Carmen's car and we drove out there.

- In 1936, Dr. Raphael Herman, his brother Norman Herman, and his brother's wife purchased 375 acres of land right outside of Reno.

They immediately named it Rancho San Rafael.

They were able to connect with Williams to commission him to design their property.

- The Herman House is a really good example of how Williams was very precise in his architectural drawings of delineating very specific character-defining features, and that's found in everything from the curvature on the mantle to the pediments above the doorways, and even the specific design of the iron work in the staircase.

- Photographing in black and white really allows me to focus on the architecture and kind of strip out detail that I feel is extraneous, whether that is color or texture, or furniture.

It's just one way to zero in on what I'm really looking at.

Another really neat set of properties that I photographed was the El Reno apartments.

- We're in one of the El Reno Apartments, which are actually self-contained homes, but they were treated as apartments when they were built in Reno in 1937.

One of the things that makes these homes so unique is that they look from the outside like they're made of wood when it's actually steel.

These Lea Steel Homes came out of this philosophy that good architecture should be available to everyone.

- The ones that we were able to visit are being used in really different ways which is something that was really interesting to me.

So there are some that are private homes.

There are some that are kind of abandoned.

Nothing's really being done with, maybe they need some extra care.

There is one that is sort of half museum, half office space.

Another one is a restaurant.

So it was fun to travel around the city and look at these different places.

And the way that the same architecture is just being used to do different things and seeing the same architectural details repeat in these different contexts.

- The First Church of Christ, Scientist is another Paul Revere Williams facility.

Today, it's known as the Lear Theater.

It's located downtown along the Truckee River.

It has twin balustrades that lead up to a beautiful entry portico.

And the facility is supported by four thin columns.

As you go into the facility is two stories and you can see his signature elements of bringing in natural light that bathes the walls.

Janna and I went to visit Central Nevada Circle L Ranch, the Tharpe Residence, along with the Lovelock Inn, which still stands today.

- The experience of getting into the car and seeing this brand new landscape, trying to find Dyer, Nevada, this little town that I hadn't heard of before and then having the opportunity to spend hours and hours wandering around this unfamiliar space, which is something that is exciting to me every time I get to do it.

- Las Vegas was an area in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

It was almost primitive in the beginning.

Paul R. Williams comes here and is able to take a place like that and not just construct buildings and communities to house people, but he was able to construct buildings on the Las Vegas Strip.

There are two places that Paul R. Williams designed that are just amazing.

One is the La Concha hotel lobby.

- The building is a architectural style called Googie architecture, which is this really fascinating jet aged, sleek futuristic style.

- That lobby is amazing.

It shows what Las Vegas can be.

It shows what the future is of the Las Vegas Strip.

There's also another thing that he did and this is not just because it's so elegant, but because he did it for the African American community, Berkley Square.

- Berkley Square is the first middle class suburb of Las Vegas and it's located in the historic west side which is the community that was segregated in red line where people of color to stay.

- [Claytee] The 148 houses are three bedroom, two bathroom.

- [Carmen] The homes are single-story homes and they have low-pitched roofs.

- And these were designed for middle class Black Americans who didn't really have any development in the west side community that they could really buy into.

- [Janna] I think this building that we're in right now, the Guardian Angel Cathedral, has been my favorite building to photograph in Southern Nevada.

One thing that I really love about this building is the way that the art and the architecture feel so firmly integrated.

- [Carmen] The stained-glass and mosaics were designed by the Piczek sisters, Isabel and Edith Piczek.

- My favorite window personally is the window directly behind me in the sanctuary on the south side.

It shows casinos that were the neighbors of this building when this building was built.

It's a threshold between what was, what is, and in the eyes of faith, what will be.

And I think that speaks well of how architecture serves both the function that it needs to serve to be a worthy place for people to gather, but also forms its own identity as part of what it is in a living metaphor.

- I am hoping that this exhibit is just going to blow your mind and just teach us something.

- It's only by learning more about the incredible architecture of Williams in Nevada that we can gain more appreciation for that architecture, for its beauty and for the momentous life of Paul Revere Williams and everything that he can teach us.

- If you think about it, a lot of the designs that he has, they were so superior that they are still standing today and we are still talking about them right now.

- I hope that people see this as just kind of the tip of the iceberg, that it is a little tiny introduction to this enormous body of work that Paul Williams put out in his lifetime.

I also hope that people understand it as my interpretation of the work and that they realize that if they visited these spaces, they would see completely different things and have a completely different experience of the work.

- Explore more at jannaireland.com/paul-williams.

And that wraps it up for this special compilation of Arteffects.

If you want to watch new Arteffects segments early, make sure you subscribe to the PBS Reno YouTube channel and don't forget to keep visiting PBSReno.org to watch complete episodes of Arteffects.

Until next week, I'm Beth Macmillan.

Thanks for watching.

- [Announcer] Funding for Arteffects is made possible by Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pearce Motors.

Heidemarie Rochlin.

In memory of Sue McDowell.

The Carol Franc Buck Foundation.

And by the annual contributions of PBS Reno Members.

(light music)