Episode 815

- On this edition of "ARTEFFECTS," sweet edible art from The Sugared Squirrel in Gardnerville.

- It's a small part of somebody's big day.

Even though it's just a cookie, they're just gonna eat it, it's really nice to know that I'm a small part of that celebration.

(bright upbeat music) - [Beth] A two-dimensional cafe.

- [Maria] When we expect people to feel when they come in here is that wow effect.

Our slogan is "Be the art" because we want our customers to become the focal point of our art on the wall.

- [Beth] And a collection of costumes from the silver screen.

- [Randall] The motion picture industry really is a great American art, and the costumes are part of that art, and the costumes are tangible.

- It's all ahead on this edition of "ARTEFFECTS," (upbeat jazz music) - [Announcer] Funding for "ARTEFFECTS" is made possible by Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pearce Motors.

(lively upbeat music) Meg and Dillard Myers.

Heidemarie Rochlin.

In memory of Sue McDowell.

And by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

- Hello, and welcome to "ARTEFFECTS."

I'm Beth McMillan.

In our featured segment, we head to Gardnerville to meet Roberta Cota-Montgomery.

This artisan takes cookie decorating to the next level, by using dozens of frosting colors, flavors, and lots of edible adornments, all pulled together with her own creative touch.

Let's explore the world of cookie creation with the founder of The Sugared Squirrel.

(light upbeat music) - As a child, I was very creative.

I loved to bake, I loved to paint, and I made my own doll furniture out of matchboxes.

I mean, you name it, I was always creating.

I grew up in Lake Tahoe, lived there for 30 years.

Being able to go out my back door and go hiking and just be in such a beautiful place, it was just really special to grow up there.

My mom is such a nurturer and my dad was an artist, and together they just gave me this environment of "Do whatever you want.

Do dance class."

They made it happen, and so I was able to try everything I wanted to, and, you know, they never said, "Oh, you can't do that."

They grew up with not a lot.

They grew up in families where they worked in the fields and picked fruit when they were little kids.

So knowing that they came from that and opened successful businesses and I watched that happen and then they helped me to do that, is just so awesome to me.

(bright upbeat music) My name is Roberta Cota-Montgomery, and I am the founder of The Sugared Squirrel.

I was making gifts just for friends and family for Christmas one year, and a couple weeks after Christmas, I had people calling and going, "Oh, my friends saw those cookies "that you gave me.

"They wanna know if you'll make some "for their child's birthday or their anniversary."

And by February, I got my cottage license and started doing this full-time because I was so busy.

The name The Sugar Squirrel came about because my friends and family are constantly telling me how I'm such a squirrel.

I just one thing to the other so.

So, it kind of fit, you know, "Sugared Squirrel" for cookies.

I'm just all over the place with making things all the time.

(laughs) I definitely feel like a squirrel most of the time.

(laughs) Usually, when I get an order, I'll ask for a theme and maybe an invitation or some of the stationary they're using, and then I go from there.

(lively upbeat music) Sometimes I'll go on Pinterest and just look up fashion or things like that.

Most of the time, I won't look at other cookies on purpose.

I wanna come up with my own designs.

When I come up with a set, I usually try to tie in maybe like a wedding dress.

Say, for a wedding or a bridal shower, I'll ask if I can see a picture of their wedding dress, and then I'll try to mimic the shape of the dress or put in the pattern somewhere on the cookies, and I'll try to do multiple designs.

It could be a ring or the flowers that they're using for their wedding, things like that.

Just knowing a little bit about them before I design their set allows me to add something of their story into that set.

They're just cookies, but they're also special for that event.

That's part of what I love about making the cookies.

I usually start by making my icing depending on how many orders I have.

(bright upbeat music) (mixer whirring) Usually, it's about five pounds of icing at a time, and then, I'll move on to my colors.

I fill all of my icing bags.

I usually don't use tips on my icing bags, but if I'm doing a floral or something like that, then I will use a special tip for that.

I always weigh my ingredients.

I don't use measuring cups because it's a little more exact that way.

(mixer whirring) Once I roll out my dough and cut out my shapes, I always freeze them for about 10 minutes before putting them into the oven, so that they don't spread as much.

I bake all of my cookies on perforated silicone mats and that helps them not spread, also.

After that, I let them cool for a few minutes and then I transfer them to parchment paper-lined sheets.

Once they're cool and ready to go, then I start decorating.

The way I give my cookies some depth is I try to add texture wherever possible.

(lively upbeat music) I also sometimes will use airbrushing or using a paintbrush with edible color.

Decorating is definitely my favorite part.

(chuckles) It does become a family thing sometimes.

Everyone just comes together.

My dad, my mom, my kids, everybody's helping me packaging.

They are the best cheerleaders.

I am Mexican American, and our culture, I feel like everything revolves around food a lot.

(laughs) As a family, everything was always cooking and baking and eating and celebrations, and just a lot of people together all the time.

I think that all translates into a lot of my work as well, and I love being able to represent my culture in that way.

I definitely think of my cookies as edible art.

I do have a rule though.

I always tell people, "If you're gonna buy the cookies "you have to eat them!"

(laughs) 'Cause a lot of people don't wanna eat them.

But that's what they're there for, so you have to eat them.

(chuckles) Part of the fun of it is getting to destroy the work of art.

Seeing it so pretty and then taking a bite out of it.

(laughs) - To learn more about Roberta Cota-Montgomery, visit TheSugaredSquirrel.com.

Or check out her Instagram page, @TheSugaredSquirrel.

Now it's time for this week's art quiz.

When Nabisco debuted "Barnum's Animals" in 1902, what was the cost of a stringed, individual-sized box of crackers shaped like animals including alligators, gorillas, and giraffes?

Is the answer, A, three cents?

B, five cents?

C, seven cents?

Or D, 10 cents?

(light upbeat music) And the answer is B, five cents.

If you're planning to visit St. Petersburg, Florida, you may find yourself inside the 2D Cafe.

When you walk inside, it's as if you've stepped into a black-and-white comic book.

Painted and designed by artist Chad Mize, the immersive space allows you to have a memorable experience, as you become part of the artwork.

(bright mid-tempo music) - When we expect people to feel when they come in here is that wow effect.

Our slogan is "Be the art" because we want our customers to become the focal point of our art on that wall.

So when you take a picture, it is you inside this comic book that we created.

- So when I first walked into 2D Cafe, I stopped at the door, I'm looking, I said, "Oh, my God."

It was amazing.

I felt like I was inside of a cartoon.

Yeah, it was really awesome.

My job duties here consist of being a barista.

I make all of our drinks here, and we have lattes, teas, matcha.

I've had matcha all over the city.

We have the best matcha.

(bright upbeat music) - We saw this concept first a couple years ago in a Forbes magazine article.

The first 2D cafe originated in Tokyo, Japan, and it blew our minds.

We started thinking that how cool would it be to bring that amazing concept and experience to us here locally.

(light upbeat music) Chad Mize is a very well-known artist here in the community in St. Petersburg, Florida.

And we wanted to commission someone that was gonna make it very unique in his own art, and also make it very St. Pete, and he did an amazing job with that.

- I've been a self-employed artist for 20 years now.

Recently, probably in the last eight years, I've been doing mural work.

So I do large-scale murals for corporate and interior clients.

And so that has really opened up a world for me, where it's more about people's general seeing my art, you know?

They don't have to go into a gallery to see my art.

They can be in a restaurant or walking down the street and seeing a mural on the side of the street, which is really powerful.

So for so long in my career, I toyed with other styles of work and kind of put this in a little bit of a backseat, like the free-flow doodle style.

And probably, in the last five years, I've realized that it was my strength.

It was something that was natural to me.

And I feel like when I put that out there that's when my career really elevated because I was doing what was most natural to me.

And, like, you could kind of see that.

You know you can see, like, "That's what he should be doing."

And so I worked with Disney this past year, did a piece with them, which was awesome.

And then Coach, they all hired me for this type of style that I'm doing, and I call it my free flow style.

(upbeat pop music) - When we started collaborating together with Chad, we wanna give him free range and for him to go with his own unique, amazing style that he has.

However, we wanted our cafe to be a European bistro, therefore we wanted to incorporate European elements in the design.

- When you add these personal touches to it, you can do little Easter eggs and hide things.

And I did add my dog, Cookie, in here, she's in the piece.

Then also the owners, the Marias, gave me a couple things to add that are personal to their life.

And that was kind of cool too.

- We wanted to make it unique and also bring some of our own cultures and families and the things that are important to us, personally, to the design and the art.

My wife is from Greece.

Her name is Maria.

So we're both Marias.

- I love humor, as well.

So there's a lot of humor and, like, tongue-in-cheek in a lot of my work.

- [Maria] It's playful where you can almost get the sense of you don't know what's real or not.

(bright upbeat music) - Typically, when I do, like, a restaurant, I'll have, like, just one wall.

So to actually give free range of a whole space and cover every surface, that was a big undertaking, but it was exciting at the same time.

To date, this has been the largest interior piece that I've worked on.

- [Maria] We had to come up with ideas to really bring the 2D effect to life.

So we actually created these columns and arches and the keystones that make the 2D effect even more complete.

- It totally transformed the space, adding those arches.

And then, you know, because it's so tall, you wouldn't typically have like a clock go all the way to the ceiling based on the size of these ceilings.

So we kind of did the patterns and stuff to fill in the top portions, which kind of gave that another element of the type of work that I do, which is pattern-based work.

(lively upbeat music) - When we develop our menu, we wanted to incorporate both of my wife and I's culture in it.

So we have a few dishes that represent her culture.

And I was born in Uruguay in South America, so we have in our menu, for example, 60 different kinds of empanadas, which is something that I bring from my culture.

And our 2D mocha is very popular.

It's actually white and dark chocolate with a coffee, so goes with the theme.

- It's very welcome and cozy inside the 2D Cafe.

You just walk in, and you just see all the sights at once, and you kind of wanna explore and see all the bits of inspiration of where this cafe might be.

I just think that it's a really fun addition to downtown St. Pete, and it's a fun place where people can come and hang out.

- Well, if you go down Central now and you see all the development, and it's just so filled in, this is definitely part of the mix.

It definitely stands out on its own, but it also is part of the whole creative culture that is in St. Pete.

You know, we're inundated with color so much.

So to come into a space and it be very stark and black and white, but also very busy.

You know, there's a lot to look at in here, and I would hope that someone that came in here would leave with an inspiration of their own.

- Working with Chad Mize, it was great.

It was a breeze.

He did an incredible job of making a 2D cafe so unique, so St. Pete, and so ours at the same time.

- It's just really cool to, like, leave your mark and help a business with its artistic vision.

And it's been awesome for me to be part of that.

- To learn more, visit 2DCafe.com.

In our final segment, we head to the Decorative Art Center of Ohio to visit the exhibition "Distinctly Paramount: "Fashion & Costume from the Paramount Pictures Archive."

The exhibit features a wide assortment of Hollywood garments from both film and television for the public to appreciate up close.

(rousing upbeat music) - This collection is something I've never put together before.

There's 75 costumes in this piece, and it is basically a showcase for costumes that were purchased and used on camera and costumes that were created in a workroom.

And a lot of times, museums, they don't exhibit costumes that are purchased, but I think they're just as important as to the designer's sense of style and what they wanted to choose to represent the actor or represent the character in the film or television show.

Because we do have television pieces here.

This gallery has all of our black motifs.

So, when you first step in here we have Joan Collins, from "Dynasty."

This was one of the festival costumes that she wore as Queen Elizabeth.

It is a bit taller than Joan Collins, but you still get the drama.

What I love about this is all of these pearls are hand sewn on.

This is not fabric that was already made, all hand sewn.

Costumes are the closest thing the movie-going public is going to come to their favorite star, for one thing.

It's also Americana.

It's femora.

I mean, the motion picture industry really is a great American art, and the costumes are part of that art, and the costumes are tangible.

Standing next to them, the public really just has this great connection.

Costumes draw people in.

I can't explain it 100%.

But that's why the Paramount collection, we're very proud of keeping everything very pristine in the archive, and we have a very good reputation with museums all over the world.

This gallery is where we have our solids.

This dress was designed by Naeem Khan and was worn by Beyonce in the film "Dreamgirls."

The costume designer for "Dreamgirls" was Sharen Davis, and Sharen did a remarkable job on the costumes.

But this dress was worn in the very final scenes of the film.

(upbeat jazz music) This exhibit took me approximately a year and a half to really assemble because I added, I subtracted, I added again, I subtracted more.

And I was heavily influenced by the Bill Cunningham coffee table book which documents from the 1960s through the 2000s.

And Bill Cunningham, if you're not familiar with him, rode his bicycle around either New York or Paris taking candid photographs.

And in doing so, of people just in their wardrobe.

I mean, I looked through going page by page, going, "Wow.

There's an exhibit here."

And I think given all of the items that I have in the collection, and what's available with feature production from our open stock, it's like, "I think I can put something together "that would make sense."

This coat is one of my favorite pieces in the collection.

This was designed by Edith Head for Joanne Woodward in the film, "A New Kind of Love."

This is a fox fur trim and a boucle wool.

Now, it also has an attached hood which is very large, and That was because it had to accommodate Joanne Woodward's tall bouffant hairdo in the film.

Which, actually, she's in disguise.

I have 18 Edith Head-related pieces in this particular exhibition.

The woman who had the longest career of any woman in Hollywood.

Nominated 35 times for the Oscar, and she won eight of those.

The reason they're here is to sort of bridge the gap from the past to the present.

And you can see the influence in some of Edith's pieces with some of these newer designs.

So here we are in the black and white room.

And, of course, the centerpiece of this gallery is the Alexander McQueen piece that was worn by Kristen Wiig in the film, "Zoolander 2."

It's so bold and so memorable, and so many different patterns all put together.

There is actually wire in all of these, so you could tweak them and adjust them to whatever shape you wanted them to be.

This gallery features a lot of whites and slightly off-white pieces.

The centerpiece (gasps) is one of my favorite costumes.

It was designed by Jeffrey Kurland for the film, "Mission Impossible: Fallout."

And it was worn by Vanessa Kirby who plays the White Widow.

This is so evocative and so reminiscent of the 1930s, even though the film is a contemporary film.

But you look at the bodice-cut gown, and then the pearl-encrusted robe, which, you know, looking at it from behind, it just sparkles.

It's terrific.

And that is very reminiscent of designs that were done in the 1920s.

(rousing upbeat music) During the studio system, which old Hollywood was all part of the studio system, every studio had a costume wardrobe department with a team of tailors, drapers, seamstresses, beaders, shoemakers, in some cases, like Paramount, there was a jeweler on staff.

So the workrooms were always contained within the studio on the lot.

After 1967 to 1970, that started to disintegrate.

(funky upbeat music) What changed was the way films were being directed, produced, reality started to set in.

We really didn't need costume designers.

You needed a men's costumer and a women's costumer, and maybe, yeah, in some cases, a costume designer was brought on to oversee that or come up with the overall look.

And also, you have the emergence of designer names.

So, starting in the '70s, you have the emergence of Ralph Lauren.

Then, in the '80s, you have Giorgio Armani, Norma Kamali.

You start having names that are recognizable names.

And it's so sad in a way because some of the costume designers were diminished because it became more about the fashion designer's name than the costume designer.

But that has changed now.

I think that has really changed.

There's some very recognizable names now, as costume designers, such as Ruth Carter and Colleen Atwood, Michael Kaplan.

These are big names, so, you know, you get excited about the costume designer, more so than the fashion designer.

It's kind of gone back.

But, yeah, those are Louis Vuitton, and then that's Gucci.

- [Colleague] I can see the red.

But you really- - Yeah, but see, it's always to see that the curved heel on that, which is really unique.

(both chattering) It's the first time I've ever mounted anything like this.

My previous exhibits, which have been here at the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio, have centered around either Edith Head or concepts.

This is a lot of unique pieces.

Do you wanna make sure this is straight?

If you look over here, to get this smooth.

Does that look good?

- Yeah.

That's flat.

- All right.

Good.

I love working here.

It's a very contained gallery.

It's not enormous.

You have to be creative, is how you place things and show them off.

Welcome to the lower level of the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio.

And down here, we have a very small, but important exhibit of elements of the film, "Rocketman."

Now, "Rocketman," the costume designer was Julian Day.

And, of course, if you don't know, it's about Elton John.

So, we'll start with this pair of ankle boots.

And these were worn by Taron, who played Elton John.

Now, there is a whole story and a whole thought process behind these boots.

He wore these boots during the number "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," which, of course, is about "The Wizard of Oz."

so his blue suit represented Dorothy.

His silver shirt represented the Tin Man.

He was wearing a faux fur coat which represented the Lion.

And, he was wearing a straw fedora, which represented the Scare Crow.

These shoes are Swarovski crystals, all of them.

And these are beautiful.

Of course, they represent the ruby red slippers.

(majestic orchestral music) I want people to take away from this an appreciation for the work and thought that goes into a costuming a film.

Not just the work from the workroom, but even on the pieces that are purchased, the thought that goes into purchasing that piece, and how that expresses the character and defines the character that they are being worn by.

Whether it's a big party scene, and it's a party dress, or whether it's a blouse.

And I think people will get that going through here and seeing the wide variety of pieces we have in the exhibit.

- To learn more, visit DecArtsOhio.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.

(lively upbeat music) Meg and Dillard Myers.

Heidemarie Rochlin.

In memory of Sue McDowell.

And by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

(light upbeat jazz music)