Latest / Pop of Culture / S03 E18 - We Insult the French

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S03 E18 - We Insult the French · Pop of Culture

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This week, on Pop of Culture.
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Scott Simon has a new book about the role pets play in our lives.
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It's both funny and unexpectedly moving.
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We'll also hear from the artistic director
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and principal conductor of Orchestra Indiana.
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He has an original work in their next concert.
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And will celebrate Mother's Day, coming up
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Support for Pop of Culture comes from Stallings
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Your support pays for the programs you rely on,
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especially local programs like this one.
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Pop of Culture exists for you and because of you.
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Give today at Indiana Public Radio Dot Org
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From Indiana Public Radio,
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this is Pop of Culture. I'm Jen Blackmer.
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And I'm Kara DuQuette.
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Later this hour, we celebrate Mother's Day in the U.S.
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by going inside of bones.
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But before that,
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you know, our first guest, because he's Scott Simon, the voice of Weekend Edition
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Saturday has a new book out called Ulysses S. Cats and Other Animals I Have Known.
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And he joins us now.
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Welcome to Pop of Culture, Scott.
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Very good to be with you.
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Thanks so much, Jen.
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Thanks so much, Jen.
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Well, throughout your book, you refer to our animal friends
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as running mates, which is a term which has a lot of connotations, as you know.
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Where does that term come from?
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You know, I'm glad you mentioned that because I I initially I I wrote
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most of the book under the assumption that would be the title.
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And, and then my fine publisher said “Nah, people will think it's political.
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We can't do that.”
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Running mates, Steve!
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They take us through life.
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They're alongside, they're under our arms.
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They are often on our pillows,
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alongside of us at all stages of our life.
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They they share so much with us, and, and we with them,
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they're they’re running mates.
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We take each other through life.
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Yeah, they really do.
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And we learn so much about the running mates in your life.
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And in fact, there is a full on society,
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not just a running mates, but a full on society of beings that resides
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on your porch community that your older daughter refers to as “The Slimons.”
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So who exactly are The Slimons?
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The Slimons, and and I defer to my older daughter's creativity in that one,
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are is the, is the worm the community of worms that we keep on our balcony.
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It's a worm bin. It was my wife's idea.
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And, each and every worm,
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I don't mind telling you is named after a local public radio station.
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Yes, I got that.
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And including IPR.
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So, you know, I, I lift the bin with my wife
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every now and then, and I say, “Hello, KQED.
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Hello, WBUR. Hello, WBEZ. Hello, IPR.
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Hello, WHYY.”
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And they, you know, they wiggle back.
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And, I must say, I was not I was not keen on this idea,
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but I've become very fond of the worms.
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It's hard
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It's hard not to develop some feelings of attachment for them,
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and, you know, and I, I mean, we feed them leftovers,
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and the worms sometimes taunt me by saying, oh, yes,
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we might be slimy, but really, Scott, what are you doing for the environment?
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Because worms do a lot for our environment, of course.
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Absolutely.
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And the conversations that you have with your worms and
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with your your animal friends,
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you really do a lovely job in this piece of talking about that relationship
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and this, this tension, I guess, that we feel to either and anthropomorphize
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the animals and maybe speak, think for them.
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But you describe this communication form as almost a literary process, right?
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Can you expand on that a bit?
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Yeah, because
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I think it is a literary process in the sense that we,
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we empathize, we impute, we infer,
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and and we create dialog in a language we can understand just as,
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you know, we have to communicate with them in a language they can understand.
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I think, Jen, you might be referring to the fact that that,
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what can I tell you?
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It's a special responsibility I have in life.
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I am our animals interpreter.
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Yes, exactly.
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So for example, when we are walking, my wife and I are walking her
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French poodle, Daisy, along the river in the morning,
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Daisy just goes wild about human attention, human companionship,
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and she just begins to jump, and people begin to pet her,
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and and I will I will speak for Daisy in having her say, “I'm cute.
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I know I am cute. You think I am cute?
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You will pet me.
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Oh, does that feel good?
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Does that...” I, you know, my wife, who is French,
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finds my
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representation of Daisy's French accent to be inauthentic, right?
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You know, she's entitled to her opinion.
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Our family was out in California a couple of years ago and at a barn,
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because our oldest daughter is very much,
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works in barns.
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They they met a pet psychic,
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and who work with horses, or horse
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psychic, I guess we should say.
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And so her daughters thrust Daisy into her arms.
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It must be said, according to them, Daisy was immediately
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relaxed entities in their arms and, they they said to the pet psychic,
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“Ask Daisy what she thinks about the voice that our father does for her.”
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And the pet psychic, like, leaned against Daisy's forehead
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and leaned back and said, “Well, Daisy says it obviously doesn't
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sound like her, but your father enjoys it, so she doesn't mind.”
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That is such a brilliant answer, and I think it might
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it might also be true.
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It's very true.
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And I mean, for for our listeners, Daisy is a French poodle.
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Yes?
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Yes.
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So, of course
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that's that's why she would have the accent just as as, our
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we had a cat previously named Leona who had,
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been with, been in the household of three interns at the British embassy
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and then when they left
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went through, a bathroom window was discovered in the alley.
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The agreement we made between the British embassy is that we would
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we would take on Leona, who was ours for, I think, 14 years,
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but we would ask we had to rear her
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as a British cat.
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Of course.
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And we took this very seriously.
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We put pictures of David Beckham over her food bowl.
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You know, we tried to observe Boxing Day.
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We, we, you know, we and.
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She's a, she's a, she's a Man United fan, apparently.
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Yes. Yes.
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Man United
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matters for when we travel overseas
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and, I must say, my wife being French,
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there was a little “War of the Roses” tension at first,
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but they got over that,
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and, of course, I would help Leona communicate in the morning.
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You know, Caroline would say, “Well, Leona darling, are you hungry?
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And Leona would say, “Right. Right.
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Oh, a little scratch over here, please.”
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Leona would call her, “French Lady.”
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I should explain, too, one of the most touching,
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you know, because, as you know, this book ranges all around.
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I talked about pets during the siege of Sarajevo.
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Yes, absolutely.
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Marjan the lion In the Kabul Zoo
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during during that particular war.
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But I'm still moved when
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when I think about our late cat, Leona.
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It was when our daughters were much younger, and she would see
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each of us off into slumber every night.
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We would take our youngest daughter, Paulina, into her bedroom,
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and Leona would go in there and curl up with her until she fell asleep
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A little while later, half an hour/hour later, would take her older daughter
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Elise, and Leona would curl up with her until Elise had fallen asleep,
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and then, finally, Leona would come out and curl up with us.
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As Caroline and I read or watched something, and then we would bring her in
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in our arms to, to go off to slumber together.
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Yeah.
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The the animals are so important in all aspects of our lives
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and you mentioned the the Sarajevo and Kabul
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and you even mentioned Mississippi after Katrina
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and how do you how do these stories of these less than ideal circumstances
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inform our everyday interactions with the animals in our lives?
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Well, I think these unfortunate,
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unfortunate, these tragic circumstances of war and loss
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make us
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realize that the animals in our lives are part of our family.
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I don't mean to compare them to any other member of the family,
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but we cherish them. We don't want to say goodbye.
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And, you know, the,
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the laws were changed.
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Evacuation orders were changed following Katrina because they realized
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a lot of people in Louisiana and Mississippi
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just would not evacuate or evacuated against their better feelings
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because they didn't want to abandon their animals.
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And so now evacuation orders have been have been changed
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so that you can bring along reasonably sized animals.
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And I think that just recognizes the obvious.
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They are they are members of the family.
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They're part of our lives.
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And to keep our own humanity going,
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we keep them in our lives, often under our arms and in our laps.
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Absolutely.
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It was. it is it is such a delightful read.
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And as you say, you you move us from these moments
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of joy to moments perhaps not as much.
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I, I kind of felt, Scott, as I was reading the book,
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that I should be reading it aloud to my own pets.
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I have two huskies who watch over me in very much the same way you just described.
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That sounds like they sound like they'd be a good audience.
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I'm I know they would actually.
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And and
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they’d probably enjoy chewing on the book when the reading was over.
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I hope that'll help sales!
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I I've been told the book is very toothsome, so.
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Yeah. and it very well might and and Scott what a pleasure this conversation has been
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this afternoon. Thank you so much.
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Pleasure to talk to you, Jen. Thank you.
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Scott Simon is the host of Weekend Edition Saturday.
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He has a new book out called Ulysses S. Cats and Other Animals
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I Have Known, available now.
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Orchestra Indiana is the combined
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talents of the Muncie Symphony Orchestra and the Marion Philharmonic Orchestra.
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They merged in 2022, and last year
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Yaniv Segal became the artistic director and principal conductor.
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You can hear and see his work at a concert this weekend,
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but before he takes the conductor's
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podium, he sat down with IPR’s Casey Alexander.
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First of all, it's so nice to have you here, Mr. Segal.
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Sure.
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Tell me a little bit about your past,
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like how you got here and why you chose Orchestra Indiana over somewhere else.
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Well, that's a that's a long-winded question, perhaps, but thanks for having
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me. The path through a arts career
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is very varied and, not a straight line.
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So, I started out very young playing violin.
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My mother is a musician, retired violinist from the New York Philharmonic.
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My father is a violin maker.
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And so I didn't have much choice, I suppose, or my sister managed to escape.
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She played a little piano growing up, and now she she's an artist,
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but not a musician.
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And so always growing up, with music all around.
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I sang at the Metropolitan Opera as a kid.
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I then got really lucky to win a role on the first national
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tour of The Secret Garden,
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and toured for a year when I was 11, turned 12 on the road in Detroit.
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I was even in Indianapolis for, I think, a week sometime in 1992.
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That's a long time ago.
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I did some more theatrical stuff in New York as well,
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but I never stopped playing violin.
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It my violin was on tour with me, and my mom was teaching me, and,
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I also wrote music from a young age, so just, you know,
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lots of creative things.
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Then some time in college, my path turned more towards conducting.
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I think that for a lot of people, me included, practicing is a struggle.
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And I think I started to love the violin more
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when I didn't have to practice many, many hours a day.
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And, I loved,
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the conducting nature of music
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is communication is involving people and bringing the,
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what I think is some of the greatest works of art to life.
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And so I really found that that was the way I was gravitating.
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And so I just started conducting, still still composing.
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Eventually I went to the University of Michigan,
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where I did graduate degrees in both conducting and composition.
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And, you know, since then have had great opportunities.
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I was the assistant conductor of the Naples Philharmonic in Florida.
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I worked assistant of the Detroit Symphony.
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I've guest conducted all around the states and abroad as well.
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My both my parents are immigrants, so I've worked in Europe an amount,
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a fair amount.
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The nature of orchestras right now in this country, is pretty remarkable.
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Like there are orchestras everywhere and the level of musicians is is really high.
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And my mother came to hear one of my concerts somewhere in the States.
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I don't remember where it was.
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And maybe New York it can be a little bit insular.
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In the New York Philharmonic especially it can be insular.
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And she said to me in all seriousness, “Wow, you can make good music anywhere.”
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And I think, you know, she meant that as a compliment.
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And just to say, I she, I don't think she realized any more
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because she just, you know, played with one of the best groups in the world
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for so long with the best artists, that you can have quality experiences
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everywhere, and you want to have those experiences in local places.
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And so I, for the past couple of years have been the music director
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of an orchestra in Salina, Kansas.
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I'm on faculty at the Robert McDuffie Center
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for Strings, which is an incredible strings institute
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attached to Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.
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And as of this year, I'm now the, the music director here in Muncie.
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And, you know, the job popped up and I thought, oh, this looks creative.
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They're looking, you know, Orchestra Indiana combined two orchestras.
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They're looking to to communicate with the community in a new way.
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And I sent my application and was lucky enough to pass the,
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I'll call it an inspection, but maybe it maybe it was an audition.
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You know,
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you come in for a week, you do a concert, you meet the board, and stuff like that.
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And I
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was lucky enough to to get this job, and so here we are.
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That's awesome. That's.
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I do agree with you that you can really make good music
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anywhere, especially out here in the Midwest.
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So, for your upcoming show, In Search of Destiny,
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you open with an original composition.
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What can you tell me about your piece, “The Life That Breathes?”
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Oh, yeah. Well, thanks. Yeah, that's.
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I'm really excited about this.
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Also, it's my birthday on the ninth, so I get to open the concert
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with my own music.
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When I, when I got the job and was told to, you know,
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design a season, I said, you know, “Is it okay if I include some of my own music?
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I don't want to push that on anybody.”
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And they said, “Absolutely, you can do that.”
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And then when, we decided to collaborate with Taylor University
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on their chorale for the final concert, went up to visit the university campus.
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And one of the spaces that Reed Spencer, their choral
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director, showed me is this atrium in their science building.
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And I was like, wow, this is an amazing space.
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I can't wait to hear what like, this is going to be unusual.
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It'll be breaking that fourth wall and it's a very reverberant space.
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And I said, do you think I could do my my piece that I wrote last year
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that uses bells placed all around the audience.
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And in a space like this, you're going to have an amazing acoustic.
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And they said, “Absolutely.”
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So, this piece, got its idea in two different phases.
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The first was,
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during the pandemic when I was stuck at home,
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and thinking about ways to write music.
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We thought, okay, people have to be separated.
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Maybe the audience will be in the middle and the orchestra will be around.
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So I was already thinking of this idea of 360 space and call
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and response from different sections.
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So I have a I had a couple of ideas written down from that time period.
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And then fast forward a few years later
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and I read this book by Daniel Mason called North Woods,
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which is dynamite book.
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I mean, it is it really inspired me
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to think about space, a place through time.
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Many times in books you follow characters,
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and instead he follows the space
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the, the book talked about this, growth
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of this early growth of a plant called a cotyledon.
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Some plants have this embryonic leaf
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like, if you think of a pea shoot, for example,
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you have that those that that little shoot with a two leaves and those leaves
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nourish the seed early on and enable the plant to grow,
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but then it absorbs those leaves and that stem and, and they disappear.
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So I thought about this idea of how we absorb things into us
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and we come out different.
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You don't you might not see those things anymore,
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but they become a part of the piece.
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So the piece is all about organic growth from one idea that that transforms
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into another and transforms into another and transform and so on and so forth,
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and eventually kind of celebrates the fact that light, the energy
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that we get from the sun, that goes into the plants,
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that goes into the animal that goes into us, is what enables life to exist.
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Nice.
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So how does that original piece really set the tone for the rest of the program?
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Because I know the rest of it's pretty classical stuff, but like,
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how does that set the tone there?
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So I think bookended, since we start
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with, my piece, which is very much about,
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nature and growth and melody, not so much.
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It's much more about a sound piece.
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And then we end with Debussy's Nocturnes, which is one of the earliest examples
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of a work that is about description of place.
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And creating sound worlds that are very unique.
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I think that that is why I wanted to pair those two, on the,
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on the outside, sorry, on the bookends of the program.
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And then, the other ones explore destiny,
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fate,
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interaction with nature.
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So we're kind of,
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you know, on the edge
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of what we know and what we don't know.
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And some of the texts in some of the, poems
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that, were set to sound like the Vaughan Williams, “Toward the Unknown Region,”
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you know, Walt Whitman is somebody
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who is really known for writing about nature and place
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and the poem and is really about what is it, what is in the great beyond.
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So, I think nature is a tying theme throughout.
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And also I was also thinking just musically about things
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that would sound great in that resonant space.
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Yeah.
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Speaking of sounding great in that resonant space,
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I mean, the Brahms, I can only imagine that powerful choir part
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in, I guess, sung their parts and like, what.
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I've never
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worked with a choir before in an orchestra before, but,
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I've heard choirs in orchestras, and I think they add so much.
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How do you bring out the best in a choir?
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I had the privilege of stopping in yesterday to hear their rehearsal.
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They’re fantastic.
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And that was, you know, you kind of don't know, early on
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when you're when you get a new job, what your partnerships are going to be like
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and I was hoping for for something good
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and I was even more surprised by how they sound and in their preparation.
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So, the sound of
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singers in that space is one of the reasons I chose the space
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and and that Reed Spencer suggested it.
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And in Brahms, you know, he
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he makes the orchestra sound so rich
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and now add the human voice and, and the harmony
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and I think that we're just going to be wrapped up in gorgeous sound.
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Yeah.
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So you are working with the fantastically talented
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Loralee Songer in the Alto Rhapsody.
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Can you talk about what she adds to that piece
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and to the orchestra as a whole?
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Yeah. So we also just met,
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I mean, we've we've met on a before, but we just met yesterday
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to go over the song and I almost had nothing to say to her.
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Just, she was so delightful.
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And what.
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And she actually apologized.
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She said, “Oh, I'm sorry, I've been singing all day and my voice is shot,”
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and I couldn't believe it.
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She's got a gorgeous instrument.
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Nice.
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And then how does ending on that impressionistic note impact the narrative?
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And how do you want people to walk away from this program?
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Is it my job to decide how they walk away?
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No, but how do you walk away from this program?
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I think we're we're all privileged.
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I mean, as a musician,
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sometimes you get caught up in the technical aspects
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or the preparation or the practice or the rehearsal,
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but I think it's really important to remember,
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and you're a young performer, that you're also allowed to be inspired
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and that the act of performing and living, that experience is really important
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for shaping us as a human being and for the audience as human beings.
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I think what's amazing about live music
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is that you could be sitting next to somebody else
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and have completely different takeaways, and it depends
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on many things, you know, maybe what you had for breakfast, maybe.
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Maybe what what type of day you've had getting to the hall,
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small annoyances,
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or maybe it reminds you of something.
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There.
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There are so many ways to experience a concert.
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What I think my goal is as a performer is to create
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a space where people are allowed to disconnect
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from the rest of what is a very sometimes busy or stressful
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or seemingly, you know,
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life with with no quiet moments, with our cell phones dinging
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with the notifications, with so many things going on at all times.
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When you come to a concert, it's a it's a form of meditation.
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You know, you're you should put away the phone.
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You should put away that outside world and allow yourself to listen.
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And, if we do that,
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whatever you take away is that valid experience.
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If it if it means you need to just, you know, relax for a little bit, great.
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If if it means, wow, I love that I'm
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going to go practice my flute because I want to do that.
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You know, that's that's also that's also great.
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There's no ultimate goal like specific ultimate goal
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other than to have it to have an experience for everybody.
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Very nice.
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And when can people experience this?
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Our concert
23:52
this week is at 7:30 at Taylor University.
23:56
You can get tickets at the door or on the Orchestra
23:59
Indiana's website. I would say they’re the campus
24:03
is undergoing some construction right now, so parking is a little bit
24:06
more complicated, and you might have a little bit of a
24:08
walk to the the science atrium.
24:12
So if you're coming, go ahead and plan early
24:16
and we would love to have a full house.
24:18
The good news is that Saturday, the weather is supposed to be lovely.
24:21
Awesome.
24:21
And so, being in nature for a little bit longer can't hurt anybody.
24:24
And. Yeah, and then we'll bring the nature right into the concert hall and connect
24:28
that as well. It's a beautiful campus.
24:29
Yes. Thank you so much for joining us,
24:32
Great to be here.
24:32
Mr. Segal. We really appreciated the interview.
24:35
Yaniv Segal is director of Orchestra Indiana.
24:38
I'm Casey Alexander.
25:02
Welcome back to Pop of Culture.
25:05
I'm Jen Blackmer, and today we're happy to bring you
25:08
another installment of our series, Beautiful Things,
25:13
in conjunction with River Teeth Journal of Nonfiction Narrative.
25:17
And today, I am so happy to be speaking with author Kelly McMasters.
25:22
Hello, Kelly.
25:23
Hi, Jen, thanks so much.
25:25
Kelly is an author of two memoirs, “The Leaving Season” and “Welcome to Shirl
25:31
and today she's going to be sharing with us
25:34
her beautiful thing called “The Inside of Bones.”
25:40
Thanks, Jen.
25:41
“The Inside of Bones.”
25:44
His small voice cuts a jagged line into the not quite morning quiet.
25:50
My body reflexively lifts out of bed,
25:53
finds its way over the piles of tiny cars and books through the stone
25:57
darkness of our new apartment, our first without his father.
26:02
I steer myself into the bedroom
26:04
he shares with his younger brother, find his bed, crawl in.
26:09
“Mama,” he repeats.
26:11
After this time, his eyes are wide and staring.
26:15
What's inside my bones?
26:18
His body is taut beneath his duvet
26:21
and the nightlight hollows his eyes gray.
26:24
He is five.
26:25
He loves ABBA,
26:27
the beauty of photosynthesis,
26:29
the number zero.
26:30
I murmur about minerals and marrow,
26:33
picturing the mealy silt sealed inside his spindle legs.
26:38
He’s small for his age; can't yet tip the old brass scale past 38 pounds
26:43
at swim lessons. He is sharp-edged,
26:46
ungraceful. Holding him feels like
26:49
putting my arms around a folding chair.
26:52
My hand rests on his sternum, thrumming with his heartbeat.
26:56
He lightly moves it away.
26:59
He weighs what I've given him fragments about blood cells and tissue.
27:04
But it's enough for now.
27:07
His body relaxes beside me
27:09
and his breathing goes hard, like his brother's across the room.
27:13
I stare at him as the light shifts through the blinds.
27:16
The translucent skin on his eyelids gives a faint ripple,
27:20
the thin purple branches of blood vessels pulsing like a secret between us.
27:25
What's inside your bones, sweet boy?
27:29
I am.
27:31
What a lovely, lovely piece, Kelly.
27:33
Thank you so much for the the piece and the then the great reading.
27:38
Thank you so much.
27:39
This is when I when I first read this
27:42
a couple of days ago, I was struck by the moments,
27:47
right?
27:47
And I have three kids and I just think back
27:51
to all of these private moments that I had with them.
27:56
Middle of the night, early morning,
27:59
sitting in a chair together or, you know, these, these things
28:04
that are kind of stamped onto my own soul that only I know
28:10
and this this your piece really
28:14
allowed me to recall some of those.
28:16
Oh thank you.
28:17
I mean, there's so many of those private moments.
28:21
And one of the heartbreaks of motherhood, I think,
28:25
is that my son would never remember that.
28:29
Right? Yes.
28:30
That's private between us
28:31
and yet it's all mine.
28:34
Yeah, yeah.
28:36
And you share it so beautifully.
28:38
I think that, well, I'll ask you the usual question, I begin.
28:42
I think it's probably a little obvious, but what inspired this piece for you?
28:46
So, this piece came,
28:51
after we had just
28:55
I just left my marriage, and I took my two kids
28:59
and moved to a completely new town where I knew nobody.
29:03
We knew nobody. I had a new job.
29:06
And we were in this beautiful
29:09
and yet decrepit old, horse stable of an apartment.
29:13
Yeah. And,
29:15
we were in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and,
29:20
everything in those first few months
29:23
felt I realized exactly like that moment.
29:26
Just sort of dark and quiet and lonely.
29:31
Yeah.
29:31
I, I felt through him in that question
29:36
a lot of the things that I was feeling in that period.
29:39
And so that was sort of what, what made me sit down
29:42
and, and catalog that moment.
29:46
Those questions in particular, that our that our kids
29:50
ask in these moments are so simple,
29:55
but they're so revealing like this this idea of what's in my bones,
30:00
right?
30:02
It's just a it's such a lovely question
30:04
and for him, I'm sure it was just a,
30:07
“Yeah, I'm thinking about my bones right now.”
30:10
Yes. Middle of the night.
30:13
Big questions for a little boy.
30:15
And, you know, I'd been looking at him
30:19
and his physicality in a particular way at that time
30:23
because, in that moment,
30:26
they both - both of my children - seemed
30:29
just so physically vulnerable more than at any other moment
30:34
and looking at him, you know, throwing his body into the water
30:38
at swim lessons at The Y every week.
30:41
And we did.
30:41
We had this giant brass scale.
30:43
It was beautiful, at The Y.
30:45
And every week he would stand on it hoping, hoping that he would
30:51
make that arrow point higher and 38 pounds,
30:56
I mean, I think my groceries that I bought yesterday were 38 pounds, right?
31:02
And I also wondered, how are we going to get through this?
31:06
You're so small. How can I protect you?
31:09
And I felt like his question, “What's in my bones?,”
31:12
the only thing I knew was that
31:15
I was there, and I was going to help us as much as possible.
31:20
Get through this next part.
31:21
Yeah.
31:22
“Holding him feels like putting my arms around a folding chair.”
31:28
That image is so wonderfully specific.
31:33
And as our kids grow, they're kind of growing
31:37
into their physical selves as well, which can be difficult for them.
31:41
And, so that that in particular was
31:45
was very revealing about what you just spoke of.
31:50
Thank you.
31:51
I think a lot of motherhood for me was spent
31:55
feeling like I was doing something wrong or feeling the wrong thing,
31:59
and not knowing how
32:03
to do something as simple as hold my child.
32:07
Sometimes felt like a failure.
32:09
And I think a lot of what I explore in my book, The Leaving Season,
32:14
and this part of this section did end up going into that book.
32:19
Really talks about the loneliness of motherhood
32:24
when you do think, and I and what I understand now is it's pretty universal,
32:29
you do think you’re doing it wrong, and-
32:31
All the time! Every day, right?
32:37
But I was so
32:39
on my own in that period that I didn't have
32:42
anyone really to check that with
32:45
and, you know, soon after I did come into this beautiful community
32:49
of other mothers and and that really helped,
32:53
but at that moment, the reason I included that line is
32:57
because it really did that that image occurred to me, and it felt
33:02
almost wrong to confess that that's what holding my child felt like.
33:06
Exactly. Yeah.
33:08
Because it's not a comfortable image, right?
33:10
No, no, it's not. And it did.
33:13
It felt like a confession in this small flash piece.
33:17
Right. Right.
33:18
“He loves ABBA.
33:19
The beauty of photosynthesis, and the number zero.”
33:24
The miracle of life comes to us through these vulnerable bodies
33:28
that you talked about earlier with these very large questions like the number zero.
33:34
There have been books written about that.
33:37
Exactly, exactly.
33:38
And, and what you said earlier
33:42
about the sort of middle of the night child questions
33:47
and the way they are interpreting the world
33:51
and I think he could really have meant,
33:53
literally, what is inside my bone.
33:56
I am this is mine, and I can't see it.
33:59
Can you help me understand how I work?
34:01
Right. Yeah.
34:03
And that sort of larger in that beauty of zero,
34:05
right?
34:07
The larger questions of the universe, what's inside me?
34:10
And I realized I know so little about my world.
34:15
Right. Yes.
34:16
I often didn't know the answer
34:18
and so I would try and, you know, muddle through it.
34:21
And this was one of those examples of my muddling where
34:25
I'm trying to remember, you know, 8th grade biology.
34:28
Right?
34:30
He, you know, he bought it for a period.
34:32
I could tell it wasn't it wasn't exactly what he wanted or
34:37
it wasn't enough, but it was enough for the moment.
34:40
Exactly. Yes.
34:41
And our kids reveal to us what what we know, but also what we don't know.
34:47
And it's this, this amazing
34:50
sort of contradiction that we rest in when we're parents
34:54
in in remembering that we're not complete.
34:57
They think we are, but we're not.
34:59
And how do we negotiate that with them on a on a daily basis, I think.
35:04
Kelly McMasters is the author of two memoirs, “The Leaving Season”
35:08
and “Welcome to Shirley,” and co-editor of “Wanting: Women Writing About Desire”
35:14
and “This is the Place” Women Writing About Home.”
35:18
A former bookstore owner, she teaches at Hofstra University and lives in New York.
35:23
Thanks, Kelly.
35:24
Thanks so much.
35:26
This story comes from.
35:27
IPR’s collaboration with River Teeth's Beautiful Things,
35:31
a weekly magazine of micro essays.
35:33
More at River Teeth Journal Dot Com.
35:46
This week for What Are You Working On?,
35:49
we hear from a painter.
35:50
My name is Maya Doss, and today on WAYWO,
35:53
I have Nia Thomas, a painting major at Ball State.
35:56
Nia, how are you?
35:57
Hi. I'm good, I'm good.
35:59
So glad to have you with us today.
36:01
Nia, what are you working on?
36:03
I'm working on a 22x30.
36:07
Just sheet of paper.
36:08
And I am currently painting, like, a night scene.
36:11
I'm going in with gouache, and I kind of wanted it to be a little bit
36:14
more saturated,
36:15
so, I'm starting off with a bunch of like brighter colors and,
36:20
hoping to layer a lot of darker tones in over it.
36:24
That sounds beautiful.
36:26
So when you're working with gouache,
36:27
how would you explain that paint to our listeners?
36:29
Yeah.
36:30
So, gouache,
36:31
I would consider it to be a mix between like watercolor, like an acrylic.
36:35
It's kind of like in between type of paint.
36:38
It can be really transparent, or you can also build up a lot of layers
36:42
and have it be more pigmented or opaque, so.
36:46
That's awesome.
36:47
With your night scene, what colors are you using?
36:50
I'm just working with like oranges, reds.
36:54
I'm really just getting that underpainting for
36:57
Gotcha.
36:58
worked on. So.
37:00
That's exciting.
37:01
And then what class is this for?
37:03
It's for narrative painting.
37:05
And you said narrative painting is a more open medium class.
37:08
Have you enjoyed getting to explore
37:09
different forms of paint for different projects?
37:11
Yeah.
37:12
Yeah, it's been really fun, to have that open.
37:15
I've been working with gouache as, like an underpainting, and I think I did
37:19
my first painting in open acrylic,
37:22
which is like a slow-drying acrylic paint.
37:26
And then, I think for the most recent two I've done oil paint, so.
37:31
What would you say is your favorite?
37:32
I would say oil paint for sure.
37:35
And I remember you bringing up that you had done some wax painting.
37:39
Is it called encaustics?
37:40
Yes, encaustics, yeah.
37:42
How was that?
37:43
Oh my gosh, it's such a fun experience.
37:45
It's so different as a medium.
37:48
It's like there's like such a large learning curve when working with it.
37:52
It's a new medium for me, so I'm still learning it.
37:54
But for me, I feel like it was best to work fast because it dries so quickly,
38:01
but the pigment and the color variations and
38:05
just the process of working with it is a lot of fun.
38:08
I really enjoy it.
38:10
When it came to some of the pieces you had made with the wax painting process,
38:14
one that really stood out to me was the octopus, because I had lots
38:17
of little textured marks.
38:20
How did you go about making something like that?
38:22
While I was in the encaustics class, I was also in a printmaking class, and so
38:26
I was my theme in the printmaking class
38:29
was more of marine life or like sea life.
38:32
And so I pretty much just referenced the sketch that I use for printmaking.
38:37
I think I started off with wanting to do more saturated tones.
38:41
I feel like with sea life
38:42
there's like so much opportunity to use like brighter colors.
38:45
Absolutely.
38:45
And so, yeah, I started out with
38:48
some sort of wash, like a dark green.
38:52
I did like greens, reds,
38:54
and orange is my favorite color,
38:56
so I did the octopus orange, of course.
38:58
But yeah, I laid out the background.
39:00
And then I, I started off with a sketch, but, I laid out
39:04
the background left in those spaces
39:07
for, the color of the octopus.
39:10
And-
39:12
Which is like a vibrant yellow and orange.
39:16
Yeah. Yeah, it's like it's got like a really rich, like, warm tone to it.
39:21
I use reds, oranges, yellows.
39:24
And for our listeners, you can kind of see the octopus's head and body
39:29
and then there's like
39:30
these twirling tentacles and you can see all the suction cups
39:33
and she did a really beautiful job laying details on with the wax.
39:38
Would you say that was one of the more challenging mediums that you found
39:41
rewarding, or what was your favorite kind of class that had a learning curve?
39:45
Yeah, I would definitely say encaustics for sure.
39:47
Yeah, I had never worked with like a medium like comparable to it,
39:52
especially in the process of like having to work
39:55
within a time frame of the the pigment drying,
39:58
and so, for me, it was so fun to have to work fast
40:03
and really lock in and put in my attention into what I was working on, so.
40:08
I thought that your work really shown through that medium
40:13
because your paintings are abstracted and colorful and vibrant,
40:18
and for some reason, with the wax, I felt like it just really,
40:22
embodied that vibe really well.
40:24
Yeah.
40:24
Other works of yours I really loved, which you did do an
40:27
encaustic self-portrait, but I've loved
40:29
your painting self-portraits.
40:31
Can you talk to us about what
40:32
inspires, what you paint and why you paint what you do?
40:36
I feel like in the creative world,
40:39
I'm inspired by just the mundane of everyday life.
40:43
I feel like it really just depends.
40:45
That's what I love about artistic people, though.
40:47
Yeah, so a lot of my different paintings kind of reflect like a time and place of
40:52
when I've had different experiences
40:56
or different spaces that have made me sort of like reflect.
41:03
I feel like it's very experimental.
41:05
I feel like it's really a space for me to sort of like
41:08
emotionally process like life experiences, but also just like
41:13
environmental aspects of like places that I immerse myself into.
41:18
I do a lot of paintings of my mom also because she's very close to me.
41:24
I also do a lot of things that,
41:27
are relative to like me personally in a very mundane way,
41:31
like kind of like a day-to-day, but things that cause me to reflect in in a sense.
41:36
Yeah.
41:37
Nia, what is one of your favorite pieces you've ever created?
41:42
One of my favorite pieces I've ever made is, titled “Apartment Life.
41:46
I would describe it as a sort of, like, dystopian space
41:50
that has really rich, like, red tones and yellow tones.
41:55
I painted
41:57
this sort of ominous sort of
42:00
red and orange sky with these two buildings on the left
42:06
and right side of the painting. In the center
42:08
are these really pretty flowers that sort of
42:11
they kind of like, make a path in between these buildings.
42:15
And I had a lot of fun making this painting.
42:19
I feel like I use a lot of different techniques, like impasto
42:23
and dry brushing, and
42:27
it was one of my first experiences using, acrylic.
42:31
I had been more experienced with using watercolor, but,
42:35
after taking the materials class, I felt like I was a little bit more
42:39
comfortable using it.
42:41
And so, there's just so many different pretty details that I included in this
42:45
and I feel like it's it's just really interesting.
42:48
I felt like the process of making it was a lot of fun
42:51
and, I feel like it definitely reflected
42:55
just my life at the time, just being new to even living in an apartment and,
43:00
just just everyday actions,
43:03
having that as sort of like a reflection.
43:06
I think that's beautiful, I love that piece, as well.
43:09
If our listeners wanted to see your artwork for themselves,
43:12
where could they go?
43:13
Yeah, so you could follow me on Instagram.
43:18
My tag is @goldennngloow
43:20
with three N's and two O's.
43:24
That's my main platform.
43:27
That's amazing.
43:28
I really appreciate you taking time out of your busy student schedule
43:31
to go and talk with me, Nia.
43:32
Yeah. Thank you.
43:33
This has been such a great opportunity to even talk about my art. So.
43:41
The weekend after graduation is always a quiet time,
43:44
but there's still plenty to do in East Central Indiana, Kara.
43:48
Yep.
43:48
This is the Arts Calendar.
43:50
Orchestra Indiana's next concert, “In Search of Destiny,” is on Saturday,
43:55
May 9th.
43:56
It starts with an original work from artistic director Yaniv Segal,
44:00
who you heard earlier in today's show, titled, “The Light That Breathes.”
44:04
It will set the stage for a powerful exploration of purpose and transcendence.
44:09
The concert takes place at Euler Science Complex
44:12
at Taylor University, again on Saturday, May 9th.
44:15
The search begins at 7:30 p.m..
44:18
Also on Saturday, May 9th, the Delaware County Master
44:22
Gardener Association will have their annual Spring Plant Sale.
44:26
Browse through a wide selection of trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, and more.
44:32
Flowers. Flowers everywhere.
44:35
Yes.
44:35
It's the last weekend to take in Flowers Forever
44:39
at the Indiana State Museum, where flowers are everywhere.
44:43
Painted, framed in patterns,
44:45
bunched into bouquets, this exhibit of art and artifacts explores
44:50
the nuances of floral motifs in art and design across time.
44:56
Tickets can be arranged at Indiana Museum Dot Org.
45:00
And we'll have more on another floral function in just a moment.
45:05
This Wednesday,
45:06
learn about lesser known Indiana artist Constance Coleman Richardson,
45:11
the director of Ball State School of Art and Pop of Culture alum Doctor
45:15
Laura Kuykendall will lead a tea and talk at Minnetrista Museum & Gardens.
45:20
She'll talk about Richardson's place in art history
45:23
and why rediscovering overlooked artistic voices matters in present day.
45:28
This Wednesday, May 13th at 3 p.m.
45:31
Pre-registration is preferred,
45:33
more information at Minnetrista Dot Org Slash Events.
45:39
Also, don't forget that Mother's Day is Sunday.
45:43
Mom.
45:44
Mom. Looking ahead on her calendar, we have several events for next weekend,
45:48
including Art in Bloom, again more flowers
45:53
at the David Owsley Museum of Art or DOMA.
45:56
This annual celebration of innovative floral creations is open to the public.
46:00
Saturday, May 16th and Sunday, May 17th with extended museum hours.
46:06
There's also a preview party next Friday, May 15th from 5 to 7 p.m..
46:11
Get a first look at this year's arrangements, along with music,
46:14
tasty beverages, TM and hors d'Oeuvres.
46:18
Event details are at B-S-U Dot E-D-U Slash D-O-M-A.
46:24
Also next
46:25
weekend, an opportunity to do some arts and crafts.
46:28
There will be a zines workshop at the Eagles Theater in Wabash.
46:32
Zines are handmade self-published mini-magazines rooted in underground
46:37
art culture.
46:38
The content inside can be anything.
46:41
Supplies will be provided.
46:43
This workshop is Saturday, May 16th.
46:45
It's open to the public, but space is limited.
46:48
Learn more at Honeywell Arts Dot Org.
46:51
Yeah, zines takes me back.
46:52
Oh yeah.
46:53
Zines takes me back to,
46:54
I don't know when I was a teenager, rebellious teenager.
46:57
And finally, Muncie Ballet will present “Oz the Ballet.
47:02
This adventurous show is filled with dancing and a rainbow
47:06
of costumes, of course, and is intended for the full family.
47:10
The ballet commences at Cornerstone Center for the Arts on Friday, May 15th
47:14
at 7 p.m.
47:15
and Saturday, May 16th at 2 p.m.
47:18
tickets can be found at Berriwinkle Frozen
47:21
Yogurt and Rosebud Coffeehouse.
47:24
If you have something adventurous for our arts calendar,
47:27
dance your fingers along the keyboards to Indiana Public Radio
47:31
Dot Org Slash Contact, and then click Pop of Culture.
47:36
Support for Pop of Culture comes from Stallings
47:39
Wealth Management and from you.
47:42
You may have heard about large gifts to NPR.
47:45
Those donations are important, but they don't bring back the funding to IPR.
47:50
Your support pays for the programs you rely on,
47:53
especially local programs like this one
47:56
and the people, like me, who create them.
47:59
Pop of Culture exists for you and because of you.
48:03
Give today at Indiana Public Radio Dot Org.
48:07
And that's our show.
48:08
Our Interim General Manager and Executive Producer is Angie Grimes.
48:12
This week was produced by Luke Jones, who for Mother's Day this year will give
48:17
his mother the gift of leaving her alone so she can finish her book.
48:22
We had production assistance from Andrew Montavon.
48:25
Our Audio Fellow is Maya Doss, and our show was hosted by me, Jen Blackmer.
48:31
And me, Kara DuQuette.
48:33
Pop of culture is a production from IPR on the flowery
48:36
campus of Ball State University.