(upbeat music) >> Tess: All ages, no drinking allowed, like this is a drug free, drink free space.

You're trying to be accessible for like younger people.

>> Omar: It's true, the fans are the artists.

The artists are the fans.

>> Kenny: Whenever bands are playing, like, it's all of us.

That's what makes it so heartwarming.

>> Alex: I fell in love with art probably about 10 years ago and for the last two years I've been kind of pursuing it full time and just dedicating my life to it.

But I guess I've loved it my whole entire life.

And yeah, so it's just a journey of continuing that love.

>> Lorelai: I really like the ocean and since I was watching my dad draw comic books, I was like, what if I make a squid comic book and call it "Squid Kid"?

>> Joel: You can be yourself, you can be unique and you can do impossible things.

That's what I really want to kind of inform children that you know, they can be themselves, they can be individuals.

>> Dale: Doing as much as you can as quickly as you can is important to me.

Life is short and the earlier we get started helping our community, the better off our community will be.

>> [NorthShore Advertiser] Family, home, work, self; of all the things you take care of, make sure you're near the top of the list.

NorthShore Health Centers offers many services to keep you balanced and healthy.

So take a moment, self-assess and put yourself first from medical to dental, vision, chiropractic and mental health.

NorthShore will help get you centered.

You help keep your world running, so make sure to take care of yourself.

NorthShore Health Centers, building a healthy community, one patient at a time.

>> Narrator: "Eye on the Arts" is made possible in part by: South Shore Arts, the John W. Anderson Foundation and the Indiana Arts Commission, "Making the arts happen."

Additional support for Lakeshore Public Media and local programming is made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you!

(energetic punk music) >> PBS Rep: For a dedicated group of young musicians, fans, and organizers, Northwest Indiana may not be the biggest punk scene, but it's theirs.

We caught up with them at a show at Dave Mueller's, Paul Henry's art gallery.

(incoherent punk screaming) >> They had a gig set up in another venue and those guys got cold feet and canceled them and they came to me and said, "Hey, can you see fit to host this event?"

I knew nothing about it.

I'd heard the bad rumors and it was great.

It was great the first time and it's been great every single time since.

They all have a good time.

They're very respectful of the facility and they always have a remarkable turnout regardless of the weather or anything else.

>> He's been super supportive.

He makes us coffee, he gives us cookies and we play punk in his art space.

I think it is abided by the DIY ethic because it's always existed kind of as a counterculture to kind of reject the status quo.

This is something that like we do for fun, no one makes money off of this.

>> One of the things that I found very appealing about punk in general and with this scene especially is, you know, it's true.

The fans are the artists, you know, the artists are the fans, you know.

So many people that come out to shows are just in bands or doing something creative.

And I think that that's very appealing and the fact that, you know, there aren't really stages and they're just right here, that's amazing.

Just adds a whole different kind of energy.

It can be annoying getting shoved sometimes when you're performing, but at the same time it's a great feeling, you know, somebody cares and somebody's getting into it.

And to me that's one of the best feelings out there.

>> All my friends are so talented and so beautiful and so amazing, and I just like literally am like amazed by all the talent that is like, radiating around me.

I can't believe it Like, I'm so excited to see my friends play >> Whenever bands are playing, it's all of us, you know?

That's what makes it so heartwarming sometimes, if that makes any sense.

Most of the time you're watching all of your, like, very close friends and that's why it feels like, really important.

Seeing your friends' bands and just going off for them, being really connected with everything, it just brings us all closer, you know?

>> You know, it's not necessarily the punk movement.

It's a movement.

It's a true, passionate, heartfelt movement that they want to feel part of and participate in.

>> It's very warm and friendly, you know, like you come out to a show and you just see at least a handful of your friends and you just get to like, keep each other company and listen to good music together.

It's just like a nice evening.

All ages, no drinking allowed, like this is a drug free, drink free space, you know, it's just, you're trying to be accessible for like younger people.

>> I think punk has helped me, helped a lot with like finding myself and put me on a more positive track, you know, like more positive headspace because everybody here like really supportive.

It's kind of therapeutic, you know?

And it's good to be able to share these certain feelings and stuff with other people instead of just keeping it to yourself.

I think it's important to put yourself out there, let people know how you're feeling because people might be, might not know exactly what you're going through.

For some situations it might be important to shed some light on that because other people might be going through that too.

It kind of spoke to me in a certain way because I don't feel comfortable in normal situations.

Like I don't feel like a normal person.

>> Don't be afraid to do what you want to do.

Don't listen to others when it comes to telling you not to do things that are creative, as long as you're not hurting anybody or you know, doing any hateful stuff, then go out there and be yourself.

You have it in you.

You can go out there and do something and change somebody's life, so do it.

(energetic punk music) The first time that I came out to a show with this scene, I was like 18 or 19, people seemed to care about, you know, more than themselves or just partying.

People were actually doing things and trying to grow in some way or another.

People were running record labels and printing their own shirts and just like, "Hey, you know, let's start a band."

And you know, like two months later, you know, they're playing shows.

I thought that was awesome.

>> There's like a lot of spaces that for me, like a developing little baby of a 14-year-old is like playing bass in a band that I can have accessible, consistent shows to the point where like, I'm in a lot of bands now.

I've been in a lot of bands.

I have all this experience because I got to have that experience.

We are just the kids that were way too weird for everybody else and nobody understood us and we were frustrated and confused.

Nobody wanted to be around us and then we found each other and that's why we're here and we care so much and we put so much care into what we do.

It's because that we know that we were in that point of our lives.

We grew up that way, that we didn't fit in, we didn't feel comfortable with the people around us in the norm.

And it's really nice to have that bond where a lot of people don't have.

And so when you're so young and vulnerable and to that point where you feel there's nobody there for you or anything, it's really important to have younger people get into the scene and know that they can have a really healthy relationship.

You know, we don't have bad influences, you know what I mean?

Like, this is all positive.

And so, like I said, I was 13 when I first started going into shows and I think that changed me for the better.

Like I don't think I'm an awful person, I think that I've learned a lot of really good lessons from just being into the punk community and to learning this way and growing up this way.

(energetic punk music) >> I fell in love with art probably about 10 years ago and for the last two years I've been kind of pursuing it full time and just dedicating my life to it.

But I guess I've loved it my whole entire life.

And yeah, so it's just a journey of continuing that love.

I just got into spray paint last summer.

I primarily use oil paints for my portraits, but now that I'm diving into murals, I'm falling in love with the vibrant colors that you can get from a can.

All the different tips you can use, all the, you know, different styles kind of seems endless.

One thing I want to always keep in the back of my mind is to never be held down to one style.

And I always want to like try to strive for something different and new.

I have a feeling that these gradients that I'm using will just kind of evolve as I get older.

So my process is kind of, I'm learning as I go and I'm learning that for me it's easier to draw with a pencil, make my lines first.

I kind of plan it out with the shapes in my mock-up.

I find shapes and then I break it down into the lines that I'm using and then kind of just take it piece by piece.

Right now I'm using a lot of tape on my murals and I'm hoping to, with enough practice, be able to put the tape down.

But I do love a good crisp line.

I always make sure I'm able to prime the wall first.

Especially working with brick, it saves a lot of spray paint.

So once the brick is primed white, I then go on top of it with pencil and then I kind of add my lines and continue.

Yeah, so we're on Franklin Street in Michigan City.

This is the Uptown Arts District.

The title of this piece is: "The Gradient at the End of the Tunnel."

And I'm just going with the phrase, "the light at the end of the tunnel."

And so this is a three piece mural, and as you're looking up, my gradients slowly start to kind of fade into the background and get smaller.

So it's kind of like an illusion when you're stepping back.

I found out about this mural through Facebook this past winter.

My friends are super awesome and they always share really cool opportunities like this one.

And so I applied, I went through the process and then got the best email ever when it came through.

So that was awesome.

It is kind of like the unknown that keeps me going, the beautiful unknown because I don't really know exactly what the end result will be.

I have this idea, and to me that's just like pure excitement and it's like that curiosity that I feel like will never end, you know, for the rest of my life.

So for murals, if I'm presenting a mock-up for the client, I will take a picture of the potential wall and I'll throw it into Procreate and I will go on top of it with my design digitally.

And that way when I print it out, I'll have a nice reference and I'll hang that reference on the wall so I can step back and see it.

So that's a bit of my process.

Every day I get excited to start something new.

It's literally never boring.

Every process, every step, well, there are some boring parts, but you have to go through those.

But just being able to have complete freedom as a full-time creative is just, it's my biggest dream.

For me, it's a feeling of purpose.

Every day when I wake up, I know what I want to do, and this is it, and to be able to share that with other people, it's like human connection.

And yeah, I love everything about public art.

The different people I meet with each piece, just kind of fills you up inside, you know.

(serene acoustic music) >> Lorelai: I really like the ocean and since I was watching my dad draw comic books, I was like, what if I make a squid comic book and call it "Squid Kid"?

>> With Lorelai, she was always watching and watching me draw and work on things and always asking questions.

And she came to me and was like, "Dad, I want to write a story.

I want to make a comic book."

And she came up with this idea and it was all her.

She had a story in mind and it was one of those moments where you're like, "Oh wow, she gets it."

>> So there's Squiggle, which is like the main character, and then there's her little sister named Squirt, and then there's their friend who's a whale named Walter.

And then there are the two sharks.

Squiggle's just like me, and then Squirt is my sister.

It's just like sort of about the adventures that you can go on.

>> I think one of the things with Lorelai creating something and she didn't really talk about it to her friends, she didn't talk about it, she didn't talk about the project.

I was the only one who knew.

And her mom and her sister knew, she was like, tinkering away in the lab.

And you came out and we had a book and then people were actually able to see it.

>> It's amazing how people react.

Like when my second grade teacher saw that I was making comic books, she was like, "Oh my gosh, you're making a comic book?"

and she told everyone the next day and so everyone just started crowding me with questions.

>> If Lorelai wants to make comic books until she is 60, great.

If she wants to quit tomorrow, great, but she did it and she followed through with something she started and that makes me more proud than you can imagine, because I mean, a lot of kids give up, things get hard, things get difficult, and she fought through those little hardships of learning how to tell a story and learning how to write character and even just come up with character designs.

Sometimes that's the hardest part.

You've done two of the Northwest Indiana Comic Cons now, and she's tabled herself, so Lorelai's there and has her books and has her own little graphic and is handling all the sales and just selling her book for what it is.

It's a kid's book for kids and it's got a very unique perspective.

And we've received a few messages, even at the show, people coming back and saying to us that she has inspired them to pick up a pencil.

And not just kids her age, I'm talking people who are in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, they're like, "A nine, 10-year-old can make a comic book, I can make a comic book."

She gets just like from being around other creative people and being exposed to that at a young age and then traveling around and going to different comic book conventions and seeing these people make stuff and dress up and just be creative was one of those things where I think she just started gravitating towards it herself.

And yeah, you know, now she's making her own stuff and making me proud and I'm still blown away what she's able to accomplish.

(upbeat music) >> I would classify myself more as like a children's artist, illustrator, getting more into like the fine art kind of feel.

But my background is definitely like illustration, cartoons.

I would hope it to be somewhere on the spectrum from Dr. Seuss.

It's like a Picasso, you know, have the fine art elements, the painting, and you know, the canvas, but also like the whimsical child influence of Dr. Seuss.

I like to add a little bit of like a darkness to my work as well.

Tim Burton was probably one of my earliest influences.

Watching a lot of his films and some of my favorite movies like "The Wizard of Oz," "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," all of those are kind of things that I reference when I'm creating something.

That balance between like joy and happiness and like brightness, but also there's that kind of edge to it, that darkness and it gives it that nice contrast.

Sometimes I'll have like an idea and the toucan is a really great one because that's my most recent, but for that one, while I was doodling it, there were some really cool kind of shapes and things that I just needed to have more of it.

I needed to like see it larger and I needed to add color to it.

So I'm like, okay, this needs to be a painting.

So the title is called "A Toucan Can Can Can Can, and So Can You."

The idea for that one, I was like, getting ready for a speech class and I just needed to kind of chill out.

So I was doodling and came up with a little bit of the concept and then of course I'm like, okay, I'm going to make this into a painting.

But the idea behind it was kind of music and poetry, how they have those lyrical kind of qualities that flow.

So I wanted to kind of take that and make it into a piece.

I think the fine art aspect was, I was thinking kind of like how Picasso did the cubist look.

So kind of like breaking perspectives and showing one image from different angles and kind of just breaking up a piece and then reassembling it as if Dr. Seuss would've.

So very whimsical, very free flowy type.

It just implies that you can be yourself, you can be unique and you can do impossible things.

And that's what I really want to kind of inform children, that, you know, they can be themselves, they can be individuals, and art doesn't have to be, you know, like landscapes and it doesn't have to be portraits, it doesn't have to be realistic.

It could be anything you want it to be.

You can just have fun with it.

And that's the whole, the piece.

It's not about making a product and it's not even about an outcome, it's more of the feeling that you get while you're creating it.

And it goes back to when I was a child, the reasons why I even enjoyed doing it when I was a kid.

And you know, it helped me escape, but it also helped me to cultivate my own identity and increase my self-esteem and it was just this great place that you can go to and feel safe.

The arts can do so much.

And like I said, we benefit from the arts all of the time.

Every single moment of our day has some kind of link to art.

And you know, art is great for like the adult coloring books, helping someone relax, deal with anxiety, but also just, you know, problem-solving, things that translate well to other areas of our life.

You know, people look at the arts and they kind of turn up their nose like, "Oh, you know, there's no money to be made in this.

Like, what is the benefit?"

But to me, being able to create art is what it means to be human.

This is what separates us from other species because you know, we have our imaginations and we can translate that into any kind of medium.

It's how I honor my own childhood because when I'm creating, it brings me right back to my childhood and just makes me feel good.

And I know that I've always wanted to inspire other people and I wanted to help other people too.

And I think because I love art so much that this is kind of the gift that I want to share with other people.

Plus I have a lot of fun ideas and I want to see those come out too.

(upbeat electronic music) >> Dale: Doing as much as you can as quickly as you can is important to me.

Life is short and the earlier we get started helping our community, the better off our community will be.

>> [NorthShore Advertiser] Family, home, work, self; of all the things you take care of, make sure you're near the top of the list.

NorthShore Health Centers offers many services to keep you balanced and healthy.

So take a moment, self-assess and put yourself first from medical to dental, vision, chiropractic and mental health.

NorthShore will help get you centered.

You help keep your world running, so make sure to take care of yourself.

NorthShore Health Centers, building a healthy community, one patient at a time.

>> Narrator: "Eye on the Arts" is made possible in part by: South Shore Arts, the John W. Anderson Foundation and the Indiana Arts Commission, "Making the arts happen."

Additional support for Lakeshore Public Media and local programming is made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you!

>> You really have to think about, how do you support a child through all the developmental aspects of life.

>> When we have those positive relational experiences and we learn that we're worthy and it's a safe place to be and that there's hope in the world, well we take that with us, >> It is really a learning process between two people and that's what building a relationship is all about.

That's such a satisfying and bonding thing for you and your child.

You feel it and your child feels it too.

And if a child receives comfort, support, nurturance, and protection, then they learn safety, security, trust, and hope.

And think about what a world we would live in.

>> Narrator: A $100,000 matching grant generously provided by the Legacy Foundation will double your contribution today.

Building Blocks, "A community investment with everlasting returns."

>> [Radio Advertiser] Across Northwest Indiana, stories are told, shared, and sought after.

Tune into Lakeshore Public Media 89.1 FM to hear these stories about Northwest Indiana and your community.

Streaming online at lakeshorepublicmedia.org.

>> PBS Rep: Did you know that you can find all your favorite Lakeshore PBS shows online?

By visiting video.LakeshorePBS.org, you can stream a large selection of shows, including "Eye on the Arts."

>> To me, it's always about the music.

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(serene atmospheric music)