- In this edition of ARTEFFECTS, colorful sculptures that illuminate the streets of Reno.

- The color, the livelihood.

It's just really beautiful bringing it down to Reno.

Every time I drive by, there's already a crowd taking pictures of every single one of them.

So, it's just really cool seeing how much people are enjoying it.

- [Speaker] A beloved cultural tradition in New Mexico.

- [Speaker] There's so much more that actually unites us.

And when we come together and we interact just as human beings, we realize that again, that we're all in this together - [Beth] And a world class Chinese lantern festival.

- It's important for the arboretum to host these events because it brings people here and it brings attention to the arboretum.

- It's all ahead on this edition of ARTEFFECTS.

(upbeat 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 ARTEFFECTS.

On an exclusive and limited tour, eight 20-foot tall statues illuminated downtown Reno during Arttown's 30th anniversary.

These statues are called the Spirit Animals.

They're colorful, intricately hand-painted, and traveled all the way from Mexico City for the Reno community to enjoy.

(upbeat music) - Right now we're on the Pioneer Plaza, where we have all of our spirit animals.

They are Alebrijes made in Mexico, Oaxaca.

They were originally made with wood carvings and it's very traditional in their town to have these kind of things with the vibrant colors and the design.

- My name's Miranda Izquierdo.

This is a Emanuel Zarate.

We are part of the Patibulario Art.

I'm one of the team members and he's one of the artists.

- I think the dog personally, in my opinion, looks awesome at night just because he is more of a black and white color.

So when he has those lights, it's more purples and blues and greens, and they're on his ears and his eyes.

I also think the coyote looks amazing at night too, 'cause he's got his chest that lights up and he's got his ears and the snake on his back lights up.

One of my favorite ones is the armadillo because it has that contrast of the dark whites and grays on his tummy and his arms.

And then he is got beautiful colors on his shell and his little tongue sticking out is just adorable.

The vibrant colors are amazing, and we actually have photos of artists painting these sculptures as they were in the warehouses.

And just seeing them hand paint those with the tiny little paintbrush doing those details, it's amazing.

Just imagining them doing it with the mini ones, their original types, which are in the post office.

Those were just the inspiration to these big ones here, and they're spot on.

They really kept to that with the colors and the contrast, it's beautiful.

(upbeat music) Every time I drive by, there's already a crowd taking pictures of every single one of them.

So it's just really cool seeing how much people are enjoying it because we worked really hard to get these down here.

(upbeat music) Romain is awesome at trying to find a way to make it happen.

He also brought down artisans that will work with the workshops down at the basement.

(upbeat music) - They are all made of recycled paper-mâché.

They sit down and they have those already pre-made for everybody and they're primed in white.

And then they have all of these paint and paintbrushes at the tables, and you just go through a class, they talk you through it.

They tell you the background of Alebrijes, they tell you what the colors mean and how it makes you feel because this is your spirit, it's your spirit animal.

So you really wanna invest your colors and your livelihood into these spirit animals.

- We've gotten a lot of feedback with emotion and happiness, happy tears, just because we are showing a huge part of a cultural side Mexico that makes Mexicans really, really proud.

(upbeat music) - To learn more about the Spirit Animals, visit artown.org/spirit-animals.

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

Originating from Mexico City, Alebrijes are brightly-colored sculptures of fantastical creatures.

In the 1930s, artist Pedro Linares created these sculptures after experiencing vivid hallucinations during an illness.

The art form was later adopted by artisans from which city?

Is the answer, A: Monterrey, B: Guadalajara, C: Puebla or D: Oaxaca?

Stay tuned for the answer.

For 100 years, the burning of Zozobra has been going strong in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Serving as a reminder of all we have in common, people come together to participate in this powerful cultural event.

(animal roars) - The name Zozobra means gloom or anguish.

Zozobra is created from us.

Every time we let ourselves down and we create gloom in our lives or we create gloom in other people's lives, we put out this negative energy and that negative energy accumulates until you have this 50 foot specter.

(dramatic music) (ethereal music) Tony Hillerman, who's a very famous author, he once said that you know if Zozobra didn't burn, the aspens may not turn yellow, winter may never come.

(ethereal music) You know, for us Zozobra is Santa Fe's New Year.

People tell me that they make resolutions the day after Zozobra, right?

It's kind of crazy, but it's that importance of renewal.

(ethereal music) The tradition was started by a man named Will Schuster.

He was born in Philadelphia, got drafted into World War 1.

Went to France and was mustard gassed in the trenches of France.

Came back to Philadelphia and was told that he had about six months to live.

His lungs were so bad, and so he had a choice.

He could either stay in Philadelphia and die, or he could move out west and see if he could live.

So he moved to Santa Fe and Schuster became part of what was called Los Cinco Pintores.

And it was really the artists that really started Santa Fe down the path of becoming the art enclave that it is today.

And it's pretty funny because when they started, of course, there was not really a market for art, and so they were very poor.

And so the five painters lived together and the locals would call them five nuts in a hut.

Well, on Christmas Eve of 1923, Schuster sold a sculpture that he had been working on for about six months.

And so he goes to his compatriots and he says, "Hey, you know what?

I'm tired of eating rice and beans.

This new hotel, La Fonda just opened up downtown.

Let's go have tequila and have actual steak."

So they get to La Fonda and they're drinking and they're eating, and everyone's just in a really bad mood.

And Schuster's really upset with this.

And so, he grabs a sketch pad, which he always carried with him, and he takes out pieces of paper and he hands it to each of his compatriots.

And he demanded that they write down what was bothering them.

And after some convincing, they did it.

And then he gathered it up in the middle of the table.

He grabbed the candle and he lit it on fire.

And he declared that all their gloom was gone.

And so this was kind of the spark in Schuster's mind that you could physically write down what was bothering you and burn it away.

He just needed kind of a vessel in order to do this.

And so the first Zozobra takes place in Will Schuster's backyard, and it's only five feet tall.

But by 1926, now Zozobra has grown to 20 feet, and it's on the banks of the Santa Fe River with the cathedral over Zozobra's shoulder.

And so Schuster is starting to think about how do I get a deeper meaning into this?

And so that's when he invents these other characters, the gloomies and the torch bearers and the fire spirit, and it all comes together in this mythology that we have today.

(ethereal music) I think that he understood, even back in the 1950s and 1940s, that there had to be an opportunity for people to come together as a community.

- [Organizer] Okay ready?

On the count of 3.

1, 2, 3 up.

Okay, we're coming this way.

Can you guys make room please?

- But also an inflection point for just looking back and kind of thinking about what it means to be a human being.

And as we've gotten into our social media, TikTok, 40 second World, we just don't interact as humans anymore.

And so I think anything that takes us out of that and just pushes the pause button on that and puts us back with our community and gives us an opportunity for self-reflection, I think that that's really, really important.

(bright music) Traditions live and breathe by the fact that you have people who are involved.

(bright music) You know, we have like four or five young men, nine years old, eight years old, 16 years old, that are coming to help us construct.

That's going to be the future of this tradition.

And so any way that we can incorporate the community we want to, because Kiwanis is the legal title owner, but New Mexico is the equitable owner of Zozobra.

And so, they have to be involved.

They have to be able to touch and feel and do those things because without that, our tradition would die.

(crowd applauds) What was really important to Will was the fact that Zozobra was not a martyr.

He wasn't somebody that was just going to sacrifice.

We had just, as we created him, we had to do him in.

We had to show up.

We had to give that fire spirit that juice to be able to destroy him.

And if we don't, Zozobra will win.

(light music) (crowd chattering) Part of what's really important is still this idea of writing down your gloom.

It's something that's really sacred.

And people will bring us old love letters.

They'll bring us divorce papers, they'll bring us wedding albums with people cut out.

I've seen all these sorts of things.

But I will tell you that my most emotional gloom was a Zozobra day where a security guard came and got me and said that there was this woman there and she asked if she could see me.

And as I approached her, I thought she was holding this little blue blanket in her hand.

When I got there, she explained to me that she had stage four cancer and that her doctor had basically said that this is it.

She needed to make preparations for passing away and in order to emphasize the point, he pointed to her hospital gown and said, that'll be the last article of clothing that you ever wear.

And hearing that did something inside her where she decided she was going to fight back that she wasn't done living.

And so she actually went into remission and she'd been in remission for two years.

And it wasn't a blue blanket, it was her hospital gown.

And she was asking me to put it inside Zozobra.

And she said, "Is that okay?

Can I put it in?

I said, "No."

She kind of looked shocked.

And I said, "No, you need to put this into him."

And so I walked her to Zozobra and she put that hospital gown.

And I remember that year as I ignited him, I was able to see that hospital gown burn.

It was quite emotional.

So Zozobra is not the embodiment of evil.

He's in the embodiment of gloom.

And I love that word because gloom is kind of, it's in the gray scale.

It's not black.

It's not white.

Because there's lots of things that cause you gloom, right?

And so what that says to me is there's a belief that as human beings, we are good, but we do these things that cause ourselves worrying and anxieties, and we do these things that cause other people that.

And so if you're able to then take a step back every year and say, "Okay, am I going to be more like Zozobra and continue to put gloom into the world, or am I going to be more like the fire spirit and put light and hope into the world?"

(bright music) You look around our nation, you look around our world, there's all these things that divide us, but there's so much more that actually unites us.

And when we come together and we interact just as human beings, we realize that again, that we're all in this together.

We only have a little limited time on this small rock.

We all want to be loved.

We want shelter.

We want to be cared for.

And when you have a community event that does that and places people together, it reminds them of our humanity.

And I think that that's critical to everything that happens going forward.

So, I think that if Schuster were here, I think he'd be very proud of us.

(light music) - For more information about the event, visit burnzozobra.com.

And now let's review this week's art quiz.

Originating from Mexico City, Alebrijes are brightly colored sculptures of fantastical creatures.

In the 1930s, artist Pedro Linares created these sculptures after experiencing vivid hallucinations during an illness.

The art form was later adopted by artisans from which city?

Is the answer, A: Monterrey; B: Guadalajara; C: Puebla; or D: Oaxaca?

And the answer is D, Oaxaca.

For our final segment, we take a trip to the Wilber D. May Arboretum and Botanical Garden to experience the Dragon Lights Reno Chinese lantern Festival.

During this immersive event, visitors come upon eye-catching light sculptures.

(bright music) - The Chinese Lantern Festival usually falls on the 15th day of the Chinese New Year, which marks the end of the Chinese New Year.

It is a time when people get together to celebrate, and the way we celebrate it is to put out these beautiful lanterns in the park, and people would get together with their families and friends and walk around the park, and that's how the Lantern Festival was started.

But now that since we're doing it in the US, we do it year round, so it will be a good time for people to just come around with friends and family.

It's an event that's not just for small kids, it's basically for people of all ages.

And it's our first time in Reno.

(bright music) We also try to do a festival in every state in every major city, so that's how we chose Reno, because Reno is a very artistic town.

And I think the Arboretum itself is the perfect place for us for this kind of show.

Because we need to have trees, have trails, and people can make a turn and see different lanterns.

So we always prefer to do it in an arboretum, a botanical garden, where they have this kind of setting.

- The Wilber D. May Arboretum and Botanical Garden is 25 acres of land, 13 of them are developed into gardens and groves.

(bright music) An arboretum is actually a collection of trees, and the botanical garden would be a collection of specialized trees, as well as woody shrubs and flowers that are almost like a living museum here in Reno.

- [Huiyuan] As far as I heard, not many people have ever been to the botanical garden, even though it's been here inside Rancho San Rafael Park, the park itself is quite popular, I think, but not many people have been to the Arboretum yet.

So we are hoping with this festival, we'll get more people to come visit, and get to know more about the Arboretum, and make it a popular venue for other events as well.

- To be able to have the Dragon Lights Festival here has really brought so many thousands of people here, that again talk about living here in Reno, Nevada, or visiting Reno, and never knowing that we were here.

And that really highlights the value of the Arboretum, the collection of trees and the plants that we have here.

Because people can come through and see the dragon lights unlit as really sculptures, art sculptures.

And at night they can come and see it lit up, and be able to see the reflection off of the trees, and really be able to experience nature in a whole different way.

- [Huiyuan] In this festival of Dragon Lights Reno, we have more than 40 larger than life lanterns here, and one of the biggest one, it's a frog that's almost two stories high.

In the whole lantern making process, the first and the most important one is the designer who come up with the concept and the design of a lantern set.

And then we have the welders to come in to weld along the lines and bring it into a 3D shape, and then we have a whole team of ladies who are specialized on gluing fabric onto the lanterns.

So they have to pick the right color as well, and they have to do it really quick, because like you can see, we have 40 sets of lanterns here, that means there are more than a thousand small components of lights.

So, they have to do that in only 4 weeks time.

So, it's really amazing what they can do and how fast they can do it.

(bright music) - [Huiyuan] We also have a dragon that's almost 200 feet long, and the head itself weighs over 600 pounds.

So that's three school buses, maybe, and it's three stories high, and it took us almost one week's time to build it from scratch.

All the pandas, or all the animals, all the eyes on them are hand painted by just one person, that's the designer.

And also, the scales on the dragon, it's also hand painted as well, it's sprayed on.

They're all made of LED lights and silk and fabric and metal.

(bright music) - [Lynn] I think the peacocks were my absolute favorite, and they were my favorite from the very, very beginning and I think that it's the colors of them that are just so vibrant, even during the day.

Many of the children enjoy the water exhibit, and the sharks and the fish that are down over past Evan's Creek Bridge.

I think that they enjoy them the most, and I've heard that quite a lot.

Also the snails that are in Dixie's Plaza Garden are also a favorite of many, many people.

It's important for the Arboretum to host these events, because it brings people here, and it brings attention to the Arboretum.

With any Arboretum, finances are important.

And to keep sustainability for this particular place is incredibly important.

So, the more people that know about it, the more messages can get out, to be bringing people here to sustain business.

But also just to stay in health.

There's more than two miles of walkway here, so for a senior, who maybe doesn't have the ability to get out in Reno or anywhere else, this is a safe place for them to be able to walk.

For young children to be able to first experience the gardens and the groves, and different flowers that maybe they don't have in their own yard.

- [Huiyuan] Part of our objective to do this show is to share Chinese culture with people from different backgrounds, and will see it as a platform for culture exchange and also an experience for people to come and learn a little bit more about Chinese culture, Asian culture.

- I think that it's really very, very important to be able to recognize where Reno has come from in regards to the Chinese culture, and really the foundation of developing Reno with the mining community and how we were first established, as well as the railroad and the importance that they had here.

So, I really think it's a wonderful opportunity to be able to blend the past and the present and really acknowledge that history that we have here in Reno.

(gentle music) - For more information, go to dragonlightsreno.org.

And that wraps it up for this edition 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.

(gentle music)