- [Announcer] Support provided by the Richard P. Garmany Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, the state of Connecticut Office of Film, Television, and Digital Media, and Connecticut Humanities.

(gentle music) (door thudding) (car starter sputtering) (upbeat music) - For all my life, I've loved art.

From my time as a musician and artist, I believe the stories of artists themselves can inform, excite, and elevate.

What does it mean to carry on this tradition that is seven generations long?

- It is my traditional art, my grand grandfather's art.

It is very important.

The history is very important for me.

- Artists can inform us of history, of a moment in time, and reflect on modern society, and I find this fascinating.

That's why I'm on the search for Connecticut's most vibrant artists and to shed light on their stories from designers and painters to muralists and poets.

Join me as I find the people that make up Connecticut's art scene on "Where Art Thou?".

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music) Welcome to "Where Art Thou?".

I'm your host Ray Hardman and today, we are in Western Connecticut.

Now, there is definitely a laid back kind of quiet vibe to this part of the state, but don't let that fool you.

There is an artistic streak that runs through this area.

Just think about some of the people who have lived here in the past.

Charles Ives, the composer, Maurice Sendak, actress Eartha Kitt, singer songwriter Laura Niro, and that's just naming a few.

I'm on my way to Redding, Connecticut and the Granite Church.

It's a church that very soon will be a state-of-the-art community space for concerts, performances, that type of thing.

I'll be meeting Lisa Scails there.

She's the executive director of the Cultural Alliance of Western Connecticut.

Let's see what she has for us today.

(upbeat music) Lisa Scails, thanks so much for meeting me here at the Granite Church.

- Thank you so much for coming.

- We're gonna talk about the church in a moment, but right now, I want to know about what's going on with the Cultural Alliance of Western Connecticut.

- The Cultural Alliance of Western Connecticut, we're a regional service arts organization, advocacy, support for artists, arts and cultural organizations, and literally, anyone that really understands the value of the arts.

- One of the things I really liked about your mission statement was that you say you want to integrate creativity into the communities.

And I think businesses are starting to realize that when you hire a creative person, you are hiring a person that is creative and thinks outside the box and can problem solve creatively and that type of thing.

Tell me about the art scene here in Western Connecticut.

It seems like there's a lot going on.

- What I'm seeing is an emergence from some new allies that are popping up on the scene.

You know, younger people who are looking to stay more connected in their towns and communities.

Either they are from here or they've been attending school in the area and they're really looking to connect.

The art scene here is gonna really vary from town to town to town, because it takes on the complexion and the culture of its own surrounding area.

But then you have a small, really quaint community like Newtown that really loves to just engage their seniors and their residents with some programming.

So, there's all kinds of things that are happening here.

- Yeah, I would imagine your office is overjoyed when something like this, the Granite Church pops up.

- I was thrilled when I found out about this little gem.

The Granite Church is probably the latest example to me of how an ally in their local community can look at a property, an historic property like this, and decide to wanna do something about it and use the arts as a lever.

- Tell me where we're going today.

- Well, you are in for an amazing experience, because you're gonna see two incredible artists, very, very different from one another.

You're gonna get a chance to visit with Matin Malikzada, Afghani refugee, who's been embraced in the New Milford area when he came over to the States, and he's a potter.

- Oh yeah, is it like traditional Afghani pottery?

- It is very much traditional Afghani pottery that has been taught in his family from generation to generation.

- Oh wow.

- So, really remarkable work.

It's gonna be a real treat to see him in his element.

- [Ray] Oh, that's awesome.

- And then you also get a chance to meet with Jim Felice.

He is multi-talented from, you know, being an accomplished musician to his artwork and his artwork has a particular signature that I love.

You know, kind of whimsical and fun and just very engaging.

- Lisa, thank you so much for the suggestions today.

We're gonna head out, we're gonna meet Matin and Jim, thank you so much.

- Well, thank you for coming.

I appreciate spending the time with you and enjoy the rest of your day.

- Thank you.

(upbeat music) (items thudding) (clay thudding) Matin, thank you for inviting us down here to your studio.

And I see all this beautiful pottery here.

And I definitely wanna talk about your pottery, but I think we can't talk about your pottery without talking about where you're from in Afghanistan.

Tell me about your hometown and what it was like growing up in that town.

- You are very welcome.

I am from Afghanistan originally, from Kabul Province and District of Istalif.

- Seventh generation, so that means your father, your grandfather, and so on.

- Yes.

- Do you remember the first time you ever threw something that you ever made a piece of pottery, a piece of ceramics?

- Yes, I remember I was seven years old.

I worked with my father at the workshop and all the time I broken the pieces.

- Your father passed away recently.

What did he teach you?

- He teach me bowls, pot, teapot, flower pots, anythings, anything.

- How different was your pottery to your father's?

- It is not too different, because it is all this similar traditional technique and just, I learned from my father, but some new things.

- [Ray] While Matin learned much of his craft from his father in Afghanistan, he also studied at Turquoise Mountain Institute in Kabul where he mastered the combination of his family style and the formal arts education.

- Turquoise Mountain Institute, it was in Kabul.

I was the first three years I was a student there.

After I graduate, I start formally my job.

I was a teacher at the Ceramic Department also I was head of Ceramic Department at the Turquoise Mountain, and I worked for more than 13 years out there I teach ceramic.

- Oh, you must have learned so much.

- Yes.

- [Ray] That is a huge chunk of clay.

Are you making something big?

- Yes, I can make just this 25 pounds.

- 25 pounds?

- Yes.

(gentle music) (wheel whirring) - [Ray] Do you know what you're going to make before you start?

- [Matin] Yes, before I make it, not only I get automatically plan from my mind.

- What are you making right now?

- I will make a bowl.

- [Ray] A big bowl.

- Big bowl, yeah.

(gentle music continues) (wheel whirring) - [Ray] What are you doing there?

- Just this is a Kemper tools.

Just make it smooth, we make shape.

Pressing in the bottom, smooth, and make shape.

- [Ray] Do you make mistakes?

- Sometimes, but not.

If I make like 100 pieces, 200 pieces, I'm not mistake.

- You don't make mistakes?

- No.

All the time I don't need to measure.

I don't need centimeter, I don't need the scale.

Everything is my mind.

Yes.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - We've talked a little bit about the adjustment coming here and using materials here.

Can you talk a little bit about what it was like to work with the clay?

- The first time I was at the Village Center the Art, and I saw the clay over there, two, three different clay body.

And I start to work over there.

The first time it was very hard for me to work the kick wheel, because I don't have experience.

I went to there the studio, the Village Center the Art.

I was like a kid, just I started a while just for a couple of days.

I learn very fast, quickly by electric wheel and I try it the different clay and just, I got the result two kind of clay now I used.

One is a five ten we call, the second one is number 80.

And just, I work about that.

It has a lot of clay, but it's need to get experience, experiment to result.

But I hope in future I will start the test and more.

- This looks great.

And this is all thrown from an electric wheel?

- Yes.

- Yeah, I think you're on the right track.

- Thank you.

- This is amazing.

Matin, have you seen some beautiful pottery in the United States?

- Yes, I saw Guy Wolff.

- Guy Wolff, certainly.

- He is very nice man and he has a beautiful pottery.

The first time when I came to U.S., I was at his studio and he helped me about 1,000 pound clay.

And he helped me about the firing, because that time I don't have a kiln, and everything was very hard for me.

And he helped me about the firing.

Also, I was at the Ann Mallory, the other potter, and I was at Alison Palmer.

I was at the studio, Jen Herald.

Jen Herald, yes, they are, it's beautiful pottery.

- For a bowl this size, how many hours do you have to work on it.

- For this size bowl, around 15 inch.

About two, three minutes.

- Mm.

- Yeah.

- But the two, three minute, the throw, but the complete pieces take a time for drying, for trimming, for glazing, firing.

Yeah, that's take long time.

But just for the throw and making it is just two, three minutes.

- Well, I saw you crank out those- I mean, yeah.

- Yeah.

(machine whirring) Now, I want to trimming.

I want to make a feet for the bowl, 'cause now looks, it's very different.

But now after trimming, I want to make a feet and then I will make my signature stamp and then I will keep it for dry.

- Oh wonderful, wonderful.

This is an important step in the process.

- Yeah, it is important, yeah, because now it's like a bowl is like 70%.

- Okay.

- Like that.

This is a simple knife.

(wheel whirring) This is different tools.

From here, the bottom is a little bit thicker.

- [Ray] So, the clay is still fresh?

- Yeah, the clay it is not soft, not too hard.

It is the middle like 50%.

- 50%.

- Yes.

And after that the I'll recycle, I will mix with the clay.

I put it in the shelf here and after a couple of days it will be dry and then I use again.

(gentle music) - Talk about your journey from Afghanistan to the United States.

This was right after, right in 2021, is that right?

- Yes.

- When the Taliban had reoccupied Afghanistan?

- Yes, it was 2021.

But just that times it was very hard for me to continue my life to the Afghanistan, because the situation was very bad.

And just, I left my country.

I came with my family two years ago and I live in Connecticut.

First, I want to find the center of the bowl.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Matin's detailed process includes a traditional hand-drawn etching technique, which requires the utmost precision.

And he says the ever so slight different distances between the lines are what showcase the human element in his artwork.

Let's go back to your style and what does it mean for you to carry on this tradition that is seven generations long?

What is it like for you?

- The first, it is very important for me, because it is my traditional art.

It is my grand-grandfather's art.

It is very important.

The history is very important for me.

Yeah, the important thing's also the glaze, the turquoise color.

It is very traditional in Afghanistan.

(gentle music) (water splashing) - This turquoise glaze, that's the Ishkar glaze?

- Yeah, the turquoise glazes we made from Ishkar plant.

That is very interesting.

The plants only we found from north of Afghanistan, and the season is only July.

We take the plant from over there and just be burn.

And we made a nice turquoise glaze.

- This turquoise glaze is so special, because it had been lost to time after decades of not being used, but because of Matin and his family, it is lost no more.

And since being in the United States, he has been able to recreate the glaze with materials he can access here.

(Matin speaking in Dari) (Matin speaking in Dari) - Well, Matin Malikzada, your pottery is beautiful.

Thank you for spending time with us today.

- You are very welcome.

Thank you for coming.

(upbeat music) - Right now we're gonna take a little side trip to Danbury, Connecticut and Still River Editions.

It's a printing lab for artists run by artists.

Now, for years Still Rivers had a famous client, the legendary photojournalist Bill Eppridge.

We're gonna meet up with Eppridge's widow, Adrienne Aurichio there.

And she's been busy for the last several years, cataloging the work of her late husband.

(upbeat music continues) Adrienne, so great to meet you and thank you for taking the time today.

- Well, thank you for coming and interviewing me and letting me talk about Bill and all his great work.

- Yeah, yeah.

Bill passed away in 2013.

- Yes.

- Tell me a little bit about him.

- Well, Bill was a, he was a lifelong photojournalist.

He dreamed of what he ended up doing when he was a little boy.

And he was one of the lucky ones who was able to follow through and become what he'd envisioned.

- He was making pictures at an early age.

- Yes.

Yeah, and when he went to high school, he volunteered to be the school photographer, 'cause they didn't have one.

And he had to go home and ask his older sister how to use the camera.

So, but from there he was off and running.

- Over the course of Bill's incredible photography career, he was able to bear witness to events that would shape the course of history, from Beatlemania to the tragic assassination of Robert Kennedy.

Bill's photographs help tell stories and give perspective to so many impactful moments.

When you see a photograph of Bill's, when you touch a photograph of Bill's, do you get a sense of being near him?

- If it's the older prints, the vintage prints.

Yeah, because then I know those are from the time he shot them and there's a whole story behind each picture and his part in it.

So yeah, I do.

Even though you live with them, you know them for so many years, there's always something else that they maybe didn't tell you.

- Why did you and Bill decide to move to Connecticut?

- He'd survived a pancreatic tumor, pancreatic cancer, and a year after that had to have back surgery from carrying 40 pounds of gear his whole life.

You know, those Nikons are heavy.

So, he wanted to be somewhere out in the country again and have, you know, he didn't know how long he was gonna live.

When you have an operation as serious as he did, the doctors tell you, you have a 20% chance to live five years.

So, we didn't know how long he could live.

And he said, "If I don't know how long I'm gonna live, I wanna live somewhere where it's peaceful and calm."

- So, this few hours shoot turned into six days with the Beatles?

- [Adrienne] Six days, yeah.

- What is Bill's recollection of that time?

- He thought they were really fun.

You know, they were kind of, you know, madcap, they were always playing jokes, but he was intrigued by the amount of interest by the general public, which is why he liked to show, you know, show how they were looking at the Beatles not just through his lens.

- I noticed, especially in that first tour when you'd see pictures by Bill, but pictures by other people as well.

The Beatles, everyone had a really nice camera it looked like.

And they were taking a lot of pictures.

Did they ever hit Bill up for some advice?

- Well, you mean the Beatles?

- Yeah.

- From what I've read of Paul McCartney's new book and his show, he has been quoted saying that he was a novice and so he would ask the professionals what to do, you know, and he would watch how they were taking pictures and he would copy them.

- Yeah.

- So that's how you learn.

- And Paul has a picture,- - Yeah.

- of Bill.

- Paul has a picture.

They've been using it for the publicity for his show.

And it's of Bill and another photographer named Dezo Hoffmann, who are in Central Park photographing Paul McCartney, while he's photographing them.

(gentle music) (pages shuffling) - [Ray] Did Barbara Streisand and Bill have a rapport?

- That was her doing her laundry while Bill was just, she said, "I'll just be a fly on the wall, do what you normally do."

And so, she was washing our clothes.

And that's an old-style apartment.

This is at the Chanel couture show.

There's Barbara in her leopard suit.

And these are,- - Wow, look at that.

- the wives of some well-known people.

That's a famous actress, Elsa Martinelli, and that's Marlena Dietrich.

- Oh, wow.

- And they're all in Chanel except for Barbara, which is pretty much a lot of chutzpah to not have a Chanel suit on.

- Yeah, I'd say so.

- Yeah.

But I love that picture.

- Was Bill Eppridge self-critical?

- Yes, probably more so than anyone.

Yeah, he was a very good editor of his own work.

He would go through and he learned a lot from the person at Life who was the person in charge of editing all the negatives.

- Was Bill concerned at all about his legacy?

I mean, was Bill, did he wanna make sure that people understood his work?

- Yes, yes, because he, and I may have said this before, he really understood history and his place in it.

And I mean, of all the stories he shot, there's so many that are so reminiscent of what's going on now in our world and in our country.

And he was very cognizant of that too as he was getting older and watching stuff happening and remembering what he'd seen in earlier years.

I mean, he spent time in the sixties, been a few days with the Grand Dragon of the Klu Klux Klan to photograph him for Life.

They had done a story on hate, which is so, you know, we see it now too.

There's been a resurgence of the Klan in many areas.

And just to think that, you know, he's right up close with this guy who put all his purple robes on for him, 'cause he was so proud of that.

And so Bill, he could see this, you know, seeing that in person, and then also being in the South and being in Mississippi in the sixties, he really saw how much injustice there was.

He'd also experienced it as a young boy growing up in Richmond.

And something that stuck with him his whole life was seeing a white policeman get on a bus and make an elderly Black woman move, because she was sitting in the front, and he was with his good friend.

They were maybe ten.

That you know, they were now old enough they could take the bus downtown to go see a movie.

And he said he never forgot that.

You know, just the injustice of it so.

- For you, what's Bill's legacy?

- I would say his legacy is just, it's the huge body of work he created and how there is so much history in there that it, he didn't want any of that to be lost, and he saved everything.

There are, you know, there's writings from people there.

Every note card, every postcard someone sent him, memos from editors all about his work.

He saved everything, 'cause he thought, this is part of my legacy is part of my archive that people will wanna look at later and understand what was going on all these years ago.

- Wonderfully composed work here.

- I just found this recently as I'm editing through works from 1964.

This is August 6th of that year.

And it was the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Convention.

And I don't know how many people photographed it.

In some of the wider shots I've seen people there, but I had a feeling this was Fannie Lou Hamer, 'cause I've seen pictures of her before.

So did some research, found her in some news photos.

She was wearing the same dress and she's at the convention and she sang.

I don't know what she sang, I was trying to find that out.

I can't find yet, haven't found it yet, but I will.

And it had to be hot as hell in there.

It was in a Masonic temple in Jackson, Mississippi, and it was only a couple of days after Bill had photographed the funeral of James Chaney, who was of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, the three civil rights workers who were murdered by the Klan.

- Yeah.

- Or so they say, in Mississippi.

- Of course, Bill is known for that photograph of a dying Robert F. Kennedy Sr., but I always wonder if Bill maybe had a moment where he thought, "I shouldn't be taking a picture I should be helping."

- Well, he spoke about that many times.

- [Ray] Yeah.

- When he first heard the guns go off, the gunshot, he knew instantly it was a gun.

He'd grown up with, you know, his cousins hunting.

He knew what guns sounded like, and he immediately pushed forward to try and see what had happened.

He didn't know that Bobby Kennedy had been shot.

But the remarkable thing about Bill is that he knew once he saw the senator lying on the floor, and it's really, you're talking about seconds here, because when you see video footage of this, the crowd closes in very quickly.

- Very quickly.

- So, it's somewhat extraordinary that he could make that picture.

So, we had to have the wherewithal in a split second to say, "Okay, I can't do much.

There are other people closing in.

What can I do as a photographer?

This is history."

And in his mind he thought it really has to be documented, because you don't want questions later as there always are with JFK.

- Thank you so much for shedding light on the amazing life of your husband, Bill Eppridge.

- Well, thank you for having me come on and talk about him.

I love to share his story with everyone.

- One of my favorite things about art is how one form can cross over so easily to another.

The artist's perspective and way of life is so similar and yet, it is also so different.

Next, we meet Jim Felice, who is an artist from Bethel, Connecticut that transforms everyday items into extraordinary pieces.

(switches clicking) (latch thudding) Jim, first, thank you for inviting us into this lovely space you have here.

- Yeah, my pleasure, my pleasure.

- Yeah, I wanna talk about this space in just a moment, but let's go back to the very beginning.

And I'm just curious, were you someone as a kid that just had a creative impulse, was art always part of you growing up?

- Not necessarily.

I mean, music was my beginnings really in the arts.

More so than visual art, that came later.

But I was really immersed in music at probably fourth grade.

In the arts, it was always the music.

- But I mean, you went from studying music and then what, a few years later you were doing this type of industrial sculpture?

- Yeah, you know, I was doing music and I was really, really interested in cars.

(pensive music) When I was growing up, my dad was a mechanic.

And my whole life was, you know, stuff with my dad and he would work in the garage under our house in the evenings on people's cars or his brother's car.

So, as a little kid, I was always around mechanical things, but I've been fascinated with industrial archeology.

You know, so the whole ruin, you know, you see these industrial buildings and machines and stuff, I find it fascinating.

(weld crackling) (suspenseful music) That moment where everything is just, you're not present.

The feeling you get from that is just, you can't replace it.

- Jim, I wanted to talk to you about the Trailer Box Project, because when we talked over the phone, I thought that was such an interesting concept.

Let's talk about the origins of the Trailer Box Project.

- So, I had my studio in Danbury and on the property we had four tractor trailer boxes and I had this big tin building.

I met a graffiti artist.

He was delivering some parts to me and he saw the artwork in the shop and he was interested, you know, that I was an artist.

And I said, you know, "What do you do?"

And he said he was a graffiti artist.

And we made a nice connection.

And then I invited them to paint on the trailers that I had.

There was two that stretched out 100 feet, so they were 100 foot wall basically.

And we made one of them into a gallery.

We invited other artists in and it became a great community of people and great artists in the area and great people, and it was just wonderful.

- I love it.

And this was a chance for young artists or just up and coming artists to show their work?

- Yeah, my whole idea with it when I, you know, we did that show and then realizing, okay, let's do this gallery thing, was a response to myself and feeling what other artists may want.

(gentle upbeat music) - Jim, this is obviously a tree.

Is this a commission piece?

- Yes, it is.

- Who's it for?

- It's for Ann's Place in Danbury.

It's for their children's therapy room.

And it's a place that offers services to families who are in need due to someone who is suffering from cancer.

The intention is to them to use it as a playhouse.

There's an opening where they can climb in.

And, you know, they can go in there and rest or play.

- Tell me about working with this foam.

- Foam, spray foam's a very interesting product.

That's amazing what you can do with it.

I used it on this, because I needed a material to create this bark in a somewhat of fantasy mode.

And it definitely renders itself to that.

And it's light, I needed to be able to transport this thing and it gives a safe surface for the kids.

They're not gonna get hurt on it.

(playful music) Yeah, so I can show you they're copper leaves that I cut out of copper flashing, and one side is gonna be copper and the bottom side is gonna be spray painted green.

They'll have twigs on them and the branches are eighth-inch steel rod that get placed in the big branches and I'll have 90 plus leaves.

- Was there a particular moment when you were doing auto repair auto body that you said, "Hey, I could make art with some of this?"

- I don't know, you know?

I remember making some sculptures early on.

What the impulse, there was no specific, I don't know, it's just like all of a sudden one day I thought, I'm gonna make these little figures.

And I did, I think the first figure I made was a flat plain sheet steel little male figure carrying a briefcase for my brother-in-law.

It was, you know, just for a gift, you know, it just the impulse.

- You do have a lot of different textures, if you look at it like that- - Right.

- around here.

What's the appeal?

Yeah, well, two things.

When I make something, you know, material's really important, but for me it's like you can't necessarily use any, in my opinion, you know, I can't use just anything and make it work.

Some materials are more suitable to realize something.

And the thing about textures, it's funny you say, 'cause I'm really being, it's almost like, right, sound, you know, it's the music part.

- [Ray] Like it's a palette.

- And I'm, you know, coming from the automotive restoration thing, it's all about surface.

So, I'm really tuned into like surfaces of object.

So, I think depending on what you're trying to say, what you're trying to build, it calls for certain materials that, you know, give you that surface that, you know, the texture.

- Yeah.

- You know, it's just, yeah, I always pay attention to material.

I like working with different materials.

- Jim, thank you so much.

Thank you for inviting us into the space.

So fascinating, and your art -- fascinating as well.

Thank you so much.

- Well, thank you for having me on the program.

(bright music) - Just an amazing day here in western Connecticut.

I hope you enjoyed it.

This season on "Where Art Thou?"

expect the unexpected.

We travel the state taking you where art happens.

As artists share their stories and their artistic process.

Like Hartford painter, muralist, and graphic designer Lindaluz Carillo.

We find artists who are keeping traditions alive, like hand weaver Peggy Church.

We meet artists who have blazed their own unique trail in the art world, like visual poet Monica Ong.

We also give you exclusive access to places not usually seen by the public, like the Conservation Room at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford.

(upbeat music) All the while you'll be immersed in the amazing art being created right here in Connecticut.

Be sure to catch it all right here on season three of "Where Art Thou?".

(upbeat music continues) - [Announcer] Support provided by the Richard P. Garmany Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, the state of Connecticut Office of Film, Television, and Digital Media, and Connecticut Humanities.