- In this edition of "Arteffects," go behind the scenes with a first time filmmaker.

- Because of the nature of my job.

I learn about things at work that I'm like, oh, that'd be a cool screenplay.

- [Beth] Aerial photography over Chesapeake Bay.

- Most of the time I probably fly, I don't get any photos worth printing, but who cares?

I'll get the next image the next day.

- [Beth] Lively jazz portraits.

- I hope that my artwork can hatch a memory.

Art is very therapeutic and I just want people to enjoy what they're looking at.

- [Beth] And the work of potter, Joe Winter.

- There's so many things to try, way more than you could ever do in a lifetime.

- It's all ahead on this edition of "Arteffects."

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Funding for "Arteffects" is made possible by Sandy Raffealli, the June S. Wisham Estate, Carol Franc Buck, Merrill and Lebo Newman, Heidemarie Rochlin, Meg and Dillard Myers, the annual contributions of PBS Reno Members, and by.

- Hello, I'm Beth MacMillan and welcome to "Arteffects."

In our featured segment, we meet first time filmmaker, Jackie Shelton, and learn how her background as a communications professional, informed her efforts as she directed her storytelling abilities into the creation of a fictional short film.

(dramatic music) - My short film is called "Lost in Memories," and it's about an older couple, who are reminiscing about their lifetime love affair.

So it's a romance for them.

But then we see through the eyes of their adult children that they've only been together a few years and they both actually have dementia.

And so the romance is kind of bittersweet.

This is the first film I've ever made.

I got interested in script writing in 2017, my daughter was going through some things and I was having a hard time understanding what she was going through.

And so I wrote a screenplay to address it and really, really enjoyed that process.

And so did nothing with that screenplay 'cause she asked me not to, but then I started writing movies and I realized that writing short movies is really fun and you can actually make short movies.

Obviously a feature length film takes a lot more money than I have.

So yeah, so I decided to make this one, I've been in professional communications for my entire career.

What I was doing before, is I was telling other people's true stories.

My background is in journalism.

And so this is the same thing, except for I get to make up the stories.

Once I started telling people that I was writing screenplays, everybody said, "You have to meet Emily Skyle."

And Emily Skyle, who's the executive director of Cordillera International Film Festival, and also movie maker took me under her wing and came in as producer and then taught me how to direct.

- So it's definitely a different world to try to break into.

Making the transition from writing into actually directing or producing a project.

When I began working with her as a writer for screenplays, it was really amazing, she's collaborative.

She takes notes and fights for what she wants to keep in the script, understands what she needs to release in the script.

And eventually we came up with "Lost in Memories" or she came up with "Lost in Memories" and I thought it had legs.

And I thought it would be the perfect time for her to step from writing up to directing and watching her words come to life and helping being part of that process.

- Yeah, that works.

(inspiring music) - Because of the nature of my job, I learn about things at work that I'm like, oh, that'd be a cool screenplay.

It's fiction, so I get to make up the stories, but we still have to be accurate.

Like in this movie it's living with Alzheimer's, not suffering from Alzheimer's.

(inspiring music) - In the movie at the beginning, the father and the mother are looking at photos and reminiscing and the mother asks the son, you know, look at this photo of you and your dad.

And you think it's the man who she's sitting next to.

And he's very indignantly lets her know that he loves his dad and that's not his dad.

And that's where you kind of realize it all is not as it seems.

- This is when Dad taught me how to fish.

- Yes he did, you two were inseparable that summer.

- These were some of my favorite memories of Dad.

- The overall message is that if somebody you love, if their reality is skewed, that you have to lean in and go along with what they think, as long as nobody's getting hurt and as long as everybody's safe, because there's no point in fighting with them.

And obviously that sounds really logical, unless you're actually in it, and you're dealing with the fact that your mother does not remember maybe who you are.

- This was such a fun show, wasn't it, love?

- The costumes were amazing.

I didn't, some of the actors looked like animals.

- What was your favorite?

- I think the giraffes - When it comes to arcs and messaging within a story, it's really important to focus on what your fundamental message is.

And for a film like dementia, which is what "Lost in Memories" covers, what are you trying to get across by the time someone is done, if someone's giving you their time, what point do you want to make?

And that's for a message-driven film.

When it comes to an arc, that's a particular journey that a character may take throughout the film.

When you look at "Lost in Memories," one of the best examples of a character arc would be when the main character, played beautifully by Aaron Foster, is when his character comes to terms with the fact that although his mother has forgotten his father existed, that his father does still exist in his heart.

And maybe the best thing to do is just acquiesce and let her have her current joy and not fight against it.

And when Aaron makes that decision, it's a really powerful 15 to 30 second moment.

And that's where you get to see the power of an actor and you just watch that amazing transformation take place.

And then he walks over and sits down.

So his journey is that realization and it's a picture perfect textbook example of an arc.

(dramatic music) - Talkin' bout Nashville?

- Yep, did I ever tell you about the time I almost had to sing Folsom Prison Blues?

- Yeah, yeah, Dad, you did.

- I think one of the things that was really motivating to get involved with the project "Lost In Memories," outside of just getting to work with Jackie, was the powerful message behind the film.

And I am super excited to see the impact that it has, and the ability it will have to shine a light on a topic that might be difficult to start a conversation about, but might motivate a lot of conversations and thought.

- I am in my 50s, and decided to try a completely new thing, which has been incredibly empowering.

And it's really kind of awesome finding out all the things you don't know how to do, and realizing how many things there are in the world to learn how to do.

(inspiring music) - To learn more about Jackie and her film, visit sheltonhallproductions.com.

Gordon Campbell is an aerial photographer who has covered much of the Eastern coastline of the United States, with an emphasis on the Eastern shore of Virginia, nearby Barrier Island system, and Chesapeake Bay.

Let's go fly with him and see how he captures his images.

(adventurous music) - I love a soft light.

I love when there's a little texture in the sky.

(adventurous music) I fly typically at about 40 miles per hour when I'm out photographing.

very low noise profile, so when I'm flying down low along the marsh grasses and things like that, you're really not bothering anything.

Even birds just sit there and look at me.

Most of the time I probably fly, I don't get any photos worth printing, but who cares?

I'll get the next image the next day, every day I get to fly is a great day.

(upbeat music) So I started in high school, became fascinated by developing the negatives, printing in a dark room, things like that.

But to do that, you had to take photos.

So I did a bit of both and I took photographs all throughout high school and then college as well.

And then after college, it just snowballed into one thing after the next, but I did not start flying until after college.

And when I was working just outside of Manhattan in New York City area, flying was a weekend escape for me, it allowed me to jump in a plane after a week of working, and go fly places.

(upbeat music) I try to find those areas that are unknown to other people.

And I sort of liked the uniqueness of the Eastern Shore.

We're surrounded by water, it's rural, and there was this airfield for sale, used to be called Kellam Field Airport, just a fantastic place, 150 acres total property size.

Late 2002 I came down here, I looked at the property.

I had an offer in on it the next day.

(upbeat music) Fast forward a couple of years in 2005, we decided to just make the transition and move on down here.

(upbeat music) (airplane engine whirring) There's just something to fall in love with for everybody on the Eastern Shore.

I became fascinated with these Barrier Islands that line the Virginia coastline, they are all preserved and none of them have been built on and they're just left to nature.

And I started photographing them back in 2006.

I thought it was just amazing.

And I just wanted to document every square inch of these islands.

I can fly over any island and tell you exactly which island that is just by its shape, its form or how it looks.

And so they all have a unique nature to them.

Sure enough, I saw these photographs.

I said, "Wow, these are beautiful."

And as I kept doing it, I had a great retail space down in Cape Charles that I was renovating.

I said, this would really make a great gallery.

And I said, I think my aerial photography might be good enough, but I'll make a beautiful gallery.

And if people wanna come in and look at my aerial photographs, then so be it.

If they wanna buy something, then that's even better.

A year prior to that, I bought the aircraft that I'm still flying, which is called a Dragonfly.

It's designed as the perfect aerial photography platform, very maneuverable, very efficient aircraft.

And that's when everything came together, the building, the gallery, the aircraft, the camera equipment, and I was able to present something to the customer right out of the gallery that's ready to put right up on your wall.

I literally just took a gamble.

- When we went down to the gallery, and saw his incredible photographs, we knew that his images would be such an enhancement to the Barrier Island history, and the stories that we try to tell here.

- [Gordon] The Barrier Island Center Museum is a fantastic supporter of mine.

And they were the first outfit that did a big installation of my imagery to show people this is what the Barrier Islands look like right now.

- [Sally] We use Gordon's imagery to educate and inspire.

(upbeat music) - I've covered from New England down to Georgia in this small plane here.

Barrier Islands that are built up just don't have the same charm, and they're just not photogenic the way these Barrier Islands are.

It's just wonderful that they're protected.

They're always evolving, always migrating.

And then there's always some erosion as well.

And so photographing them is a new experience every year.

(upbeat music) Not everybody's in love with their job, but fortunately, I found something that I'm in love with doing and people have embraced it, and people enjoy coming into my gallery.

It's purely 100% passion.

And I think, you know, in most careers you have to have some passion in what you're doing, or you're not gonna be successful.

(upbeat music) - To learn more visit ataltitudegallery.com Now let's take a look at this week's art quiz.

What tech founder and CEO co-founded Pixar with "Star Wars" creator George Lucas?

Is the answer, A, Steven Spielberg, B, Bill Gates, C, Steve Jobs, or D, Tim Cook?

And the answer is C, Steve Jobs.

Up next we hear from artist, Lisa Martin Smallwood, AKA Liasi based in Tampa Bay, Florida, Smallwood paints iconic jazz singers and musicians in an impressionistic style.

Take a look.

(upbeat music) - My name is Lisa Martin Smallwood, A.K.A Liasi.

I'm originally from Philadelphia.

Currently, I'm living out here in Tampa Bay and I'm a visual artist.

I work with different mediums, such as ink, pastel, and acrylic.

This style is more like impressionistic.

It's like, I'm making a suggestion, okay?

And I'm gonna give a little bit of detail, but I'm not gonna go into it completely.

I'm gonna create an illusion to the brain of like, "Okay, wow."

You know, oh, he's really blowing that sax or that trumpet or playing that piano.

Like my Nina Simone, I love Nina.

The shades that I use suggests that is abstract, but at the same time, it has a surreal feel to it.

(upbeat music) I can paint a painting and make it look like a photograph, but I like to experiment and to project the feeling that it gives me.

(upbeat music) - I think what really separates Lisa from other artists is that she really adds depth and passion into her artwork.

And I think also the use of colors to capture the ambience and give the viewer that in-depth expression so that they feel like that they're actually a part of that piece.

- [Lisa] Is Jason here?

- [Jason] Hey, I'm in here in the studio.

- [Lisa] Okay, hey, Jerri.

- [Jerri] Hey, how are you, Lisa?

- I'm good, I got my Aretha Franklin piece.

Jason, how's it going?

- Excellent, how are you?

- I'm good.

- Oh, this looks magnificent.

- Thank you.

My favorite art piece is one of my favorite places.

I love that piece.

- You and me both.

(Lisa laughing) - [Jason] I wish she was singing to us right now.

- Well, you knew I would sing, but I don't do that.

(Lisa laughing) They have welcomed me into this establishment.

I mean, to see the whole production is like to me, a class trip.

And they work on my art, they treat it great.

They do my reproductions.

Now, why are you rotating it?

- Basically so the highlights from the shiny metallic inks.

- Right.

- I first met Lisa while she was doing a live painting exercise in our gallery in St. Petersburg.

We had a musician playing there and she was painting him live as he played.

And I was just blown away by what she did.

So we talked her into coming here.

- She showed me some of her artwork, which I fell in love with immediately.

And we just kept talking about artwork.

We hit it off right away.

She ran into a situation where she needed a framer to have a piece fixed up.

And she came out to visit us and met the team and saw our operation and was very impressed.

- [Lisa] Oh, that looks good.

- Yeah, we should save this and then we'll get a shot.

- So once we get the artwork captured and the color correct, then we can spread it out onto a myriad of things, depending on the venue of where the artwork is gonna be sold at or displayed.

♪ R-E-S-P-E-C-T - [Jason] I knew we'd get her singing.

(Lisa laughing) - The music, actually, I don't know.

It's just like in me, you know, every guitar note you pluck or whatever, it's like every stroke for me, you know, and that's how the two come together.

- Lisa's From Philadelphia, and Philadelphia has a music scene unlike any others.

And her father was in the music world.

And you can just tell that it's in her blood.

So when she paints musicians and performances and that type of stuff, it just, the paintings sing.

You can see the music, you can feel the energy, you can feel the emotion that comes out.

And I think that that's one of the things that makes her such a successful artist and makes that her paintings of musicians so popular.

- So my father, Dowel Smallwood Jr.

He was a drummer of a native from Philadelphia, and he played with Johnny Styles in The Manhattans, which was a jazz group back in the 1950s into the '60s.

(calm jazz music) My father was a great guy and he has really inspired me.

And he always encouraged me to continue to paint.

Just the memories and the stories that he would tell me.

I tried to put myself there for that moment.

Some of the paintings that I have painted are a lot of times, are memories.

It could be his memories that he shared with me and I'm just painting it out and laying out everything in my mind, in my heart that I felt during that thought process of processing his story.

- I think Lisa's artwork really has a very poetic vibe to it.

And she's actually able to capture those poetic expressions, which creates a real synergy with her work.

You can just look at it and begin to just talk about it in a very poetic manner.

Oh my, oh, this is so beautiful!

- I hope that my artwork can hatch a memory.

Art is very therapeutic and I just want people to enjoy what they're looking at and open that box of memories.

- Discover more at liasicreations.com.

In our final segment, we go into the studio with master potter, Joe Winter.

And see how he uses a variety of techniques to craft his signature creations.

He even fires his pottery in an outdoor wood and salt-fired kiln built out of repurposed firebrick from an old saw mill.

See how he uses this ancient Asian-inspired method of wood firing to create the ash and flame effects that form unique glazes on his work.

- My name is Joe Winter and I'm a potter and I do some sculptural work, but I've been making a lot of functional work, which is like my dishes, bowls, mugs, casseroles.

Pieces that you would use on a daily basis, pitchers, vases.

But I also make quite a few pieces that might have a narrow opening on top.

And so they're more for decorative purposes than actually using, these stand alone on their own.

I started making pottery about 36 years ago when I was like 12, and all through high school, I went to this university at night when no one was around.

I was given permission to go there and I kind of taught myself how to throw at night.

And I continued with that.

And then I went to college for pottery.

Throwing pottery is just the act of throwing on a spinning wheel.

And the technology's been around for about at least 5,000 years where they take your lump of clay and put it on a spinning axis and be able to form it with that process.

When I start out a day of production or whatever, I would make a plan of what I'm gonna make for the day.

And it might be all a series of one item and I would first blend the clay.

And then I wedge the clay, and then started throwing each individual piece.

(upbeat music) (pottery machine whirring) And once they sit up for a while, I would attach handles, or do any shaping.

With bowls, they need to be trimmed later like trimming the foot ring on there.

After the piece is thrown, it dries for a few days, and then I would bisque fire it.

That's the first firing process.

And that's just in an eclectic kiln.

And once it's been through the bisque firing process, I glaze the piece and then it goes into one of the many different glaze firings.

I work with a wide variety of firing techniques.

They do gas fired stoneware, gas fired salt, wood salt, and straight wood firing in a large Anagama wood kiln.

(upbeat music) The Anagama kiln, it's a big, long, kind of a cigar-shaped tube.

It's about 4.5 feet wide and high.

And it climbs up a hill a little bit, there's an angle there.

So the main firebox is in front, and when we stoke that, that flame naturally is pulled to the back of the kiln.

I think it's about 20 feet long.

And then the salt chamber's after that.

Salt firing is distinguished by kind of an orange peel texture on bare clay, where the sodium has interacted with the clay and it forms a glaze on the surface, but you get that interesting texture from that.

We use a lot of earth tones, earth tone glaze.

Shino's for that firing and it's a very old firing process and it really shows the interaction of the fire in the work.

Throughout the firing, the flame and the ash are flying past and landing on the work and interacting with it.

And after the kiln cools, we can see the evidence of what happened during that firing.

(peaceful music) I use all these different firing processes because I don't want this to ever get mundane and simple.

There's so many different possibilities and glazes.

And I use a lot of variables in my whole process.

And so that really keeps me learning something new every day.

There are a lot of people who might consider me a master of this, but for myself, I think there are so many possibilities and things to learn in this that it's impossible to completely figure out everything.

There's so many things to try, way more than you could ever do in a lifetime.

And for myself, I hope to keep playing around and keep it fresh and keep trying new ideas of expression in this medium.

- To learn more, visit joewinterpottery.com.

And that wraps it up for this edition of "Arteffects."

For more arts and culture and to watch past episodes, visit pbsreno.org/arteffects.

Until next week, I'm Beth McMillan, thanks for watching.

- [Narrator] Funding for "Arteffects" is made possible by Sandy Raffealli, the June S. Wisham Estate, Carol Franc Buck, Merrill and Lebo Newman, Heidemarie Rochlin, Meg and Dillard Myers, the annual contributions of PBS Reno members, and by.

(upbeat music) (upbeat piano music)