(bright music) >> Eunice: Because sometimes you have a feeling within yourself and you don't know how to explain it, or you have a concept, and within that concept, it's like a story that you want to tell someone.

(upbeat 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"?

>> Olga: I would love to see more and more of that type of work that focuses on everything that is like connecting us, because I think it's easy to overlook those things and take them for granted or even forget about them, us, our place in this world as humans, and our seamless connection to nature.

>> Narrator: 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.

(upbeat music) >> I have a very strong connection to other students.

Everyone makes an effort to help each other.

I'll remember the feeling of being here, the feeling that I was a part of a family.

>> Narrator: Ivy Tech offers more than 70 programs with locations in Michigan City, LaPorte, and Valparaiso.

New classes start every few weeks.

Ivy Tech, higher education at the speed of life.

To get started, visit ivytech.edu.

>> Narrator: 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.

(bright music) >> Announcer: "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.

(gentle music) >> In grade school when the teachers ask you, oh, what do you wanna be and all of that, it's always been an artist.

It's never been anything else.

And so I knew that that was a gift that was given to me, and I'm a faith person, so I know that was a gift given from God because I didn't ask for it.

It just was there.

It took a little while for me to find something in the creative field, and then it was still a little harder to fully support myself.

I left it alone for a while and I went into retail management.

I knew it was temporary, but I didn't know how temporary it was gonna be, right?

So fast forward when I was almost coming towards that end, I kept feeling that it was time, but I was still scared to take that leap of faith.

I was at the kitchen table when I was kind of working with my bills and stuff and saying, "Man, how much am I gonna need to take care of these bills?"

And while I was there, I really feel in my spirit, and I say, because I am a spiritual person, I felt God just telling me if I'm writing it all down and I'm calculating it, where is the faith, and immediately when I sort of heard that, I just put the pencil down and said, "You're right," because I'm calculating this.

So how is it faith?

Faith is the unknown.

Faith is the substance of things that's hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

So that was the thing for me.

And I had to really be humbled in that moment and, and just say, "Okay, God."

(gentle music continues) The most priceless thing that I love about portraits is when I do it for someone and I hand it to them, they look at it in the reaction when you know it's right, because sometimes it brings tears and they go, oh.

And that's priceless.

When they give me that look and go, "Oh my God, that looks just like them."

And all of a sudden their eyes swell.

I'm like, I got it, I did it.

And that's been a challenge for me as an artist, how, because I've always been someone chasing realism.

Realism to me growing up was like the height, the most excellence in drawing is if you can draw it and make it look real, right?

So then I was thinking about it and I was like, you know, I think what I was really after is truth, realness and truth.

What is the truth of this?

And so I didn't really embrace abstract thought because I was always trained as a realist artist.

I can appreciate now the symbolic elements.

Art is a voice for me because sometimes you have a feeling within yourself and you don't know how to explain it or you have a concept.

And within that concept, it's like a story that you want to tell someone.

When I wanna say something, when I wanna make a statement, being able to come up with that concept, bringing all of these elements and pieces together, and to bring and to capture it in one painting.

And so I like the aspect of conversation with my work.

So I never wanted my work to just be a pretty painting on the wall.

Oh, that's nice.

It goes with those flowers.

Oh, this goes with the sofa.

I always wanted it to mean something, to start a conversation.

Like what did you mean by this?

I'm glad you asked.

And then I can express what I was thinking because I feel like artists, we do have something to say, and we don't always have the platform to get behind a podium, to get on stage.

Our platform is our campus.

And wherever it hangs, if it starts that conversation, that's what I wanted, I wanted a conversation.

I wanted to be able to tell you how I felt, whether it's to one person or whether it's to a room of people.

We're always trying to say something because we feel like, I feel like so much over the years have been suppressed.

And when I was going through those rough periods, and it's time for me to bring that out, to say what I need to say, to help somebody else get out of it.

And to let them know that, hey, you have something deep in you.

No matter what you're going through at the moment, there's something there that you have to say that's worth saying that's valuable to somebody's ears.

(upbeat jazz music) (upbeat jazz music continues) (upbeat jazz music continues) (upbeat jazz music continues) (upbeat jazz music continues) (upbeat jazz music continues) (upbeat jazz music continues) (upbeat jazz music continues) (upbeat jazz music continues) (upbeat jazz music continues) (upbeat jazz music continues) (upbeat jazz music continues) (upbeat jazz music continues) >> 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"?

(bright music) >> With Lorelei, it was always, 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 wanna 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 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 till she's 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 Lorelei'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.

(upbeat music) 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, now she's making her own stuff and making me proud and I'm still blown away what she's able to accomplish.

(gentle music) >> My artist statement, the first line reads, "Art is a tool for understanding life."

I also feel that art is a great connector.

It has the potential to bring people, ideas, all things together to be examined.

I would love to see more and more of that type of work that focuses on everything that is like connecting us, because I think it's easy to overlook those things and take them for granted or even forget about them.

Us, our place in this world as humans, and our seamless connection to nature.

I'm of the belief that it's within you.

So it's a recognition of something.

I also think through creating work, sometimes you're surprised at where do these inspirations come from.

I believe in this connection to the earth and being a good listener to everything that is around and, in essence, channeling what you see.

So that's where I feel like nature is a great teacher to teach us how to sort of slow down, to be in the moment, to pay attention, and to see ourselves within it.

Because ultimately I am of the belief that we are nature.

(gentle music) So this piece specifically is addressing a recurring theme within my work.

I think about the body as landscape.

So with this piece, there is what looks like a reclining female figure that's either emerging out of the ground or merging with it.

Her face is showing a cross-section of the earth using patterned river rock stones to kind of replicate what we would see underneath us.

And so I'm drawing continually within all my work, a connection between humans, the human body to nature and natural processes and systems within nature.

The process of nature, it's cyclical.

There's life, there's death.

I find beauty in all of it.

I don't feel fear towards it.

To me, nature is a beautiful lesson in balance.

To feel like unique, I feel that's great.

I feel that often by being an artist and what I do by having this unique experience that most often a female isn't making like large scale, huge pieces outdoors.

But then I also believe in the collective.

(soft music) Ona means she in Polish, I'm using the tree branches to create her windswept hair look.

She's placed in this quite beautiful tucked away area where she's on an open field overlooking a lake.

And just like a beautiful view.

You'll see that her eyes are mirrored.

And so she's reflecting back everything that is around her within herself.

I am in the process of creating five new large scale outdoor sculptures for the arboretum.

With some, I'm using natural materials from the ground.

So I'm taking apart of the arboretum and transforming it into my sculptures because the exhibition is called "Of the Earth," Ziemska means "Of the earth."

So Ziemska is the planet earth in Polish.

So my last name is of the earth.

(gentle music) I don't often get to hear messages like the one that I'm trying to say.

It's very, very simple and very, very basic, and I think universally understood.

I think this could get translated to every language, and immediately, everybody would know what I'm trying to say in like a very simple sentence.

It's at our basic core to know it.

It's just right now, we're sort of pushing it away.

And I hope that we're slowly coming back around because we need to.

(gentle music continues) Human creation, human thought, I feel like it's all just a process of nature, and we're all here to reflect ourselves back to each other.

And I'm not just saying when we, I'm including nature and every animal, rock, tree, cloud that is passing by, we're reflecting ourselves to each other and understanding hopefully ourselves better and finding our place and purpose in the world by closely paying attention to each other and listening.

>> Narrator: Doing as much 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.

>> Almost every single professor I've had, I'm on a first name basis.

By building that relationship with faculty, I was able to get involved with research.

It's one thing to read about an idea in a book versus physically doing it and seeing the results.

(upbeat music) >> Narrator: Ivy Tech offers more than 70 programs with locations in Michigan City, LaPorte, and Valparaiso.

New classes start every few weeks.

Ivy Tech, higher education at the speed of life.

To get started, visit ivytech.edu.

>> Narrator: 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.

(bright music) >> Announcer: "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.

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

Visit video.lakeshorepbs.org.

You can stream a large selection of shows, including "Eye on the Arts," "In Studio," and "Friends and Neighbors."

Missed last night's episode?

No problem.

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Search for your show and find your episode ready to watch at any time.

Visit video.lakeshore pbs.org to stream your favorite local shows.

(bright upbeat music) (gentle music)