(theme music playing) WENDEL PATRICK: "Artworks" is made possible in part by the Citizens of Baltimore County and by the Ruth R. Marder Arts Endowment Fund, the Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker Endowment for the Arts, the E.T.

and Robert B. Rocklin Fund, The Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation Arts Endowment in memory of Ruth Marder.

Hi, I'm your host, Wendel Patrick.

Welcome to this new episode of "Artworks: The Art of Painting."

Join me as we dive into the works of self-taught Afro-Cuban American painter, Harmonia Rosales, through the world lens of acclaimed producer and director Rikki Hughes.

We then check out the work and portraits of Miriam Baranov, followed by Tampa Bay artist BOJITT's vibrant paint works, enjoy.

HARMONIA ROSALES: In this world that I created, there were others who were craving this same world and who were interested.

And what was fascinating is it wasn't just black and brown skin, it was all different cultures because these gods were not mainstream, they were not well known, and there were stories that were very similar to other cultures, and there was a familiarity.

That's when I... that moment is when I decided that I was gonna dedicate my entire art career, my entire life to bringing these gods, these deities to the world and mainstream them.

Because what if we grew up with knowing about these gods that look like us?

I mean, we know the Greek mythology, I mean, and all the derivatives of that, movies, books, literature, everything.

What if, at a young age, we see us as holy, as heroic?

And what derivatives might come from that?

And how do we see ourselves, we don't see ourselves as surviving a struggle, but of coming from building kingdoms.

So that's how it all kind of started.

♪ ♪ No, not that one.

I'll work somewhere over here.

It was not just one event, um, it was numerous things.

So, when you're lost, you don't quite know you're, you're lost.

Um, because I, I was lost for years, um, when I was married and didn't paint.

And sometimes when you're content and you're comfortable and you know, even though you, you're probably not as fulfilled, you stay in it.

If I didn't have my divorce, I would still be stuck in that cycle, blinded.

So, what happens is I feel like the universe knocked me out.

Like, you gotta get back on track.

And so, this big catastrophe happened to me of like, oh my gosh, my whole world that I, what I knew destroyed.

Now I gotta build a new, and how am I gonna do that?

I go back to what I loved.

Like it was there at a young age.

I grew up in Chicago.

It was a part of Chicago, Logan Square.

We grew up in a brownstone.

Two parents that were artistic in their own way.

My mother, um, a children's book illustrator.

And then my father, at that time, was a middle school teacher.

So, but I never like to say that he, that was his job, he loved playing music and the conga, so the house was filled with art, and my mother just really showed me that I can create anything, a world.

So, we were in the city already, and she would take me to bookstores, and then she would also take me to the Chicago Art Institute.

I remember the first time I visited there, and I was five, it was the most extraordinary thing for me.

I'd never seen art like that in my life.

It was, it was so real.

It was so rich, so vibrant.

I love the medieval works, the Renaissance works.

They all, to me, look so familiar, like a children's book illustration.

And so, this was a recurring thing of going to the Art Institute.

So, we would take the train, go to the Art Institute, almost like on a weekly basis, and I would develop these stories, different stories over and over again.

If I look at Mary and Jesus, it wasn't Mary and Jesus; I didn't know those stories.

It, it was a princess, and she gave birth to a prince, and the whole kingdom was there to witness it.

That's where I kind of developed storytelling and just really fueled my imagination through just visually looking at this beautiful works of art.

And so here it was perfect environment, my identity was blossoming.

And it wasn't until my father got a better job in a smaller town outside of Chicago.

And that move, even though it was great financially for the family, it pulled me away from what I feel like my identity, my culture, my home.

So, my grandmother, that was, those were my roots.

I began to lose myself.

So, I began to try to fit into this smaller-minded community.

And as I got older, that's how I grew, I kind of lost myself and my father, who is very, he's very Cuban and he's very education.

Even though my mother was an artist, he's very like, okay, like you, you know, there's three rules that you need to do, okay, three guidelines.

Go to school, get married, and have grandkids, you know, have some kids.

And even though I was telling my mom I wanna do art, she goes, oh, you know, eh, you can do art on the side, like, you know, teach, do something like that where you can get consistent money, of course, 'cause you know, all parents want their children to be stable and be able to survive on their own.

And I understood that.

And so that's what I did.

So, I went to school and I got an English degree and I got married, and I had children.

And then I found myself divorced, back home now with two kids and no job, and not knowing what to do.

Being back in my old room, now I'm sharing it with two children now, so it's even smaller.

And thinking about what, what's the next steps?

What, what am I gonna do?

First, lemme be happy, 'cause right now I'm not happy.

I feel like I don't know what to do.

So, I pulled out an old box of art supplies that I had, and I just painted because that was the best way I knew how to channel my emotions to heal.

Ah, just breathe.

I am gonna tell you something this one time, and I was in my room with the kids, my old room, and I was trying to find work, and I couldn't find work.

So depressed, my daughter at the time was five years old, and I was like looking at her and I was like, ah, you know what?

I'm, I wanna go back to where it all started for me, where how I, I loved art and, and share it with her because every mother wants their daughter to be just like her.

We get up to the institute, and I told her the stories.

I was like, Oh, I would dream about them coming to life... more so, I think I'm speaking to myself because it was kind of silent here, "Madison, what's wrong?"

"They just don't look like me."

Her haloed hair looking up at me, and I was like, "You're right."

This doesn't, so I was like, look, I don't ever want her to go through thinking that she's not beautiful.

My daughter was my purpose, but my son was my drive.

It's interesting when you have everything dormant, like the things that, that you take for granted growing up, you kind of take for granted.

And then it's pulled out of you, I believe, when you're mentoring or teaching someone else, I said, Hey, you know what, they are gods and goddesses and beautiful women that look just like you.

And I said, and they're like the African gods.

Gimme a hug.

I'm talking about you.

MADISON: Hm?

HARMONIA: I was talking about you.

MADISON: Oh.

HARMONIA: Mm-hmm.

Okay.

I sat in the bed one time, and I was like, I wanna paint, and if I paint, I'm gonna be true to myself, true to my identity.

And I will not stop painting what I'm painting now as long as I can take care of my family.

And I kid you not, two weeks later, just two weeks, I had finished a painting, and it was the creation of God, and it went viral like globally.

It was because of that single painting that I got a show in LA, and that just catapulted my art career.

I believe everybody has a style, and it doesn't have to be realistic; it can be more abstract.

Everybody has a way of expressing themselves.

And it's beautiful when you stay true to yourself.

If you paint to heal yourself and you, and you play it out on your canvas, somebody else is gonna see that story, and it's gonna heal them too.

And that's what art is about.

I've been painting the land of like different snippets of different scenes in like, um, in Africa before humans and where the gods walk the earth.

And I have a way of, I feel like I'm there and people from Africa are like, "Oh, have you been?

'Cause you, you're painting it, like, I feel like this is it."

And, but the thing is, I, I wanted to go and visit Yorubaland and visit all the different landmarks.

The, um, Oranmiyan's Staff, Moremi statue.

I wanna, I really wanna go to all these places, see the beautiful faces, feel the earth in my feet.

Just the smells, the, the air, just how the sun sets and, and being able to communicate just with the stories there, and one that I will go with my children.

INTERVIEWER: Like you've created this, this amazing works, but you've also created, um, this book now.

You've written a book.

HARMONIA: Creating a book, let me just say, is a totally different process than painting, than visually painting a story.

In art, it's easy too for people to interpret, interpret their own viewpoints.

Here I am guiding you, I'm fulfilling a promise to myself, to my ancestors, to my grandmother.

You know, I'm, I'm, I'm depicting these orishas with love and care and history.

And hopefully, it can heal us as it did me.

INTERVIEWER: Right now, what brings you joy?

HARMONIA: Feeling seen and not physically seen, but my work, my writing, I'm actually being heard when I felt like I was so quiet and so muted before, that's like the best feeling.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ MIRIAM BARANOV: I just love looking at people, and I love looking at portraits and just, uh, different stories and just creating something timeless that will, will be there forever, 'cause when I create a portrait, I'm always thinking of, uh, longevity and how it'll last many years.

It's just, uh, so beautiful and connecting to, to look at other people and comforting.

And as you look into their eyes, you're always wondering, like what they're thinking, what's their story.

So, I'm trying to create an illusion of painting from life; it goes back to how we visually see.

You focally look at me, the first thing that you're gonna look at is my eyes.

That's kind of what I'm trying to create, like a conversation, my painting where I'm looking into your eyes, and eyes are to me like the most, you know, the most telling of the person.

And that's just visually how our eyes work, and so literally I'm painting what I see.

I always myself think of how do I best describe what I do?

Figurative realism.

Uh, when I think about it, um, to me it's a classical approach to rendering the human figure.

I'm also a math major, so I, you know, graduated Ohio State as an actuary.

But really, how math factors into, um, for me, like classical realism is that there's a true craftsmanship approach and stages.

So, like the way I paint, that's very engineered and thoughtful just in a way that you would approach like, uh, math, per se.

I have been working with models for many years now.

There's, uh, two avenues, one is I have a client coming in for a commission.

I try and get them to sit for me first so I can learn more about them.

So, they're inexperienced about posing.

I love to have like the Rembrandt lighting where there's a nice balance of shadows and light on the face, 'cause it gives you that beautiful, uh, 3D feel in the painting.

And then, uh, they'll sit on a chair for me and maybe we'll talk about life or how their day is or whatnot for a little bit as we're talking, I'm, really tracking their poses and just, uh, you know, seeing which, uh, which angle will tell the best story for that specific commission, 'cause I have commissions that are like a governor position, you want like a power pose, or maybe a child, and you just want something cute and innocent and precious.

And that's, that's the one, you know.

And the second one is a model comes in, so you guys met either today, but that's the model that I'm working with for the long pose right now.

So, once she comes in, first I need to decide, um, how long is the pose gonna be?

And if it's a long pose of 50 hours, then it needs to be something that they can hold for those 50 hours.

It goes back to what the model can hold.

When you're looking at a painting in the museum, there's something so very different than looking at a painting that was done from a photo.

And essentially that is because back in the day, they would sit with a model for 20 hours, 50 hours, and you know, just have these conversations and, and paint them as they go.

And the model would come in one day, maybe happy or sad.

And you can always see these feelings.

You know, a person never looks the same, the next second, and you can kind of like choose which element you want to put in the painting that represents them best and which one you wanna leave out.

So, working with a life model takes out the element of you being in front of a person, uh, having a camera on top of them, because as soon as there's a camera that comes out, you know, people are not them in the beginning.

They, they play as if they wanna be someone, especially now with all the hype social media.

And it just makes it very difficult, um, to capture someone with a very, like, a true essence of who they are if you're not working with 'em from life.

I actually just started teaching for the past two years.

Passing down this methodology is truly my dream.

I think, uh, as I've moved here, uh, what goes the best is paint and sip.

I do have, uh, quite a few, uh, private students that I teach.

So, I do one-on-ones, and that's great.

And I just now like got my studio.

And so, I've been able to teach a few workshops.

But my future goal is to just like, uh, continue with the tradition and sharing it in Columbus, Ohio.

When I was, uh, maybe like a teenager or in high school, I always had the love for art, but I didn't have that guidance.

And, uh, when I, uh, completed my, uh, education in high school, I still had the dream of becoming an artist.

But I went to all these art schools, and I saw their methodology, but I couldn't specifically find a program where they teach you methodology on how to paint, like, uh, classical portraits, is just not very common.

And so Atelier program, which is part of what I was, is actually like a new wave coming back.

And I just would love to give back to, you know, people who I know really, really want to, um, paint classical portraits.

Honestly, a lot of times there is not passion on a day-to-day basis.

There is just very hard work with a big goal in mind at the end of the day.

And a lot of time when I'm working on my pieces, I hate them or I don't want anyone to see them, or I think to myself, why am I doing this?

But you know, you lock yourself in the studio from morning to night, you're by yourself there, and it's just kind of like your head goes into many spaces.

But, uh, once you're completed the piece and hopefully you decide to put it out there, and other people resonate with your piece and they say, yeah, you know, I totally feel your story.

I totally feel the energy, the vibes, the mood of it, you know, it reminds me of someone special.

So, I think these little elements are inspirational and beautiful to me.

What I'm trying to show with my work and encourage is, you know, capture those beautiful timeless moments that, you know, nothing is ever forever.

And this moment that I'm sharing with you guys like that, I'm sharing right now, it's uh, it's just this instance, and we'll never be back here again.

And just like cherish life, life is so precious, and it goes by so fast.

And if there's anything that you can take away is, um, I know we all have our commitments in life and, you know, hardships that we face, but you better live each, each day, you know, being thankful for what you have.

And if you're not, like figure out a way, uh, to enjoy life.

Like for me, I, um, always wanted to be an artist, and I couldn't afford or be able to do that, um, from the get-go, but I had the goal to achieve it.

And for now, like, you know, here I am doing it and loving every second of it.

And that's just kind of what I encourage everyone else is to like, uh, pursue their creativity with, you know, the opportunities that they have.

♪ ♪ BOJITT: Inspiration lives in us.

That's, that's what I, I, I don't even need to say I believe in it, I know that inspiration lives in us.

I believe that I learned to just let it be and be my, it's like I'm taking a ride.

Somebody else is driving, I mean, of course, but it's like detaching myself from the, just following the emotion.

But I'm here as a tool and I'm, you know, creating, but the emotion is going by its own.

I never stop it.

I never question it.

It takes time to, to arrive to that stage.

And I think as we are getting more experienced, I'm not saying like as we are getting older, because all creatives are always young, like, you can't grow up.

You can't, there is a little child and it, and we need to nourish that child in us.

So that child is just taking a ride with experienced me, pretty much.

I actually painted my whole life.

I studied fashion design and, and uh, textile design, and I pursued fashion design career back home in Serbia.

But even when I was creating clothing, my final touch was painting on them.

And it's not that paint is my only medium, but that's the medium that really makes me most alive.

I just got burned out there because I was really going like full speed for seven years.

And it's not that it was too much, but when you hear people getting burned out, they are not burned out because they work a lot.

They are burned out because that what they're doing is really not something that their soul is, you know, feeding from.

So, it wasn't exactly the, the medium, it wasn't the exactly the, that creative outlet that I needed.

And I found out when, when I just came here.

So, I had a plan and, and my, my plan was, okay, I'm gonna become full-time artist.

One day, I'm just gonna say no to everything else that is coming my way.

So, TV shows, movies, um, styling that... mm-mm, I learned to say no so I can actually fully be in my studio and create.

It doesn't really only take like, okay, you go to your studio and you just create no, and especially in today's world, you need to be business savvy and you need to know how to actually place yourself where you wanna be and how to, if you can't just poof, inject yourself where you wanna be.

You need to make a plan.

Just, you know, whatever you have a passion for and whatever you have a drive for, if you really pursue it full time, it's gotta work.

I am a big promoter of spreading more love.

And I think our job as creatives, as artists, is to use our voice.

Whatever you're standing for like, you have to communicate it.

And even though that we use the voice in, in, in words to communicate, our art communicates much further.

So, our job as artists is to bring that out, to bring the emotion out, to bring something positive, to spread love.

It's simple like that.

Like you just spread love and figure out how.

I don't see world without art.

Art is in any form; is more about how do we actually carry our culture?

How do we carry what we do?

How do we cope?

Because every artist, no matter what we are saying that we are doing and what our work is, we are actually capturing the moment of time.

And if there is no art, there is no history.

That's how important art is.

And I think that if they take it outta schools, actually, it's gonna bring art into the completely next amazing level.

So yes, we are scared of taking art outta schools, but you can't stop artists from being an artist.

You can't.

That's you... no, you can't, there is nothing to do about this.

You can't stop somebody.

You can, you can make them miserable by putting them to do something else, but that's fascism.

(laughing).

So, you cannot, like you have a creative kid, you, you can't stop them.

If you leave them alone, the next thing you know, they're drawing on the wall.

If you didn't tell them not to, now you tell them not to, they're gonna go outside and draw on the wall.

So, stopping art in schools is just gonna create more rebels, and I see it as a positive rebel, so we are gonna have more art outside.

That's how I see it.

So, yeah.

INTERVIEWER: Perfect.

BOJITT: Yeah.

INTERVIEWER: Thank you.

BOJITT: Alright.

(theme music playing).

WENDEL PATRICK: "Artworks" is made possible in part by the Citizens of Baltimore County and by the Ruth R. Marder Arts Endowment Fund, the Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker Endowment for the Arts, the E.T.

and Robert B. Rocklin Fund, The Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation Arts Endowment in memory of Ruth Marder.