For the March 2021 episode of Uncovering Oklahoma, I started off with a visit to the flower shop, The Wild Mother, in Oklahoma City’s Arts District. Jeremiah Matthew Davis welcomes people to visit Oklahoma Contemporary to see their exhibition, Ed Ruscha: OKLA. I get some tasty dumplings for the Norman-based food truck, The Dump Truck. Curators Kristin Gentry and Pablo Barrera invite guests to the Artists Under 30 exhibition, Momentum, which is on display at MAINSITE in Norman and will travel to Tulsa in April. Finally, I end the episode with a music performance from Wood Willow.
Shoutout to my superstar supporters, the Keller-Kenton Family and thank you to all of my supporters on Patreon. If you love what I’m doing, be sure to join me on Patreon for extra content.
I was commissioned again by the Norman Arts Council to create a 20-minute video to promote their new exhibitions for January 2021. This video originally premiered during the Virtual 2nd Friday Art Work and the above YouTube is a slightly shorter but timeless version. I liked how well this video turned out and I was able to keep the pace interesting by switching between the artists on different topics. For the artist answers, I pulled quotes from different questions to summarize some of the topics too as each interview was 20 minutes, so I ended up cutting everything in half.
In this video, Executive Director, Erinn Gavaghan, shares an overview of Katherine Liontas-Warren’s “Water and Land” and “Visual Poetry on the Page: With, Within, and Without the Word,” which was curated by Crag Hill. Both Katherine and Crag also share their thoughts on the exhibitions.
Water and Land is a collection of recent works by Liontas-Warren centered on the passages, time and motion, and the symbolism water and land have come to represent in those concepts.
Visual Poetry on the Page: With, Within and Without the Word explores a movement that asks viewers to read the works as visual art. Unlike concrete, written poems, a visual poem “typically includes many other elements than alphabetic text,” including any number of mediums or artist manipulation, including painting, photos, digital manipulation or any other means to “obliterate the boundary between visual arts and literature.”
These exhibitions are open to in-person viewings from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday until Saturday, February 13, 2021.
Thank you to the Norman Arts Council for commissioning this video!
I got something different to share with you today. I was commissioned by Therapy in Motion and the Norman YMCA to do a series of instructional videos to help people live healthier lives at home. The first video premiered on Saturday with the rest scheduled to be released over time.
In the introduction episode, Cindy Merrick and Justin Noel discuss how the idea for the series came about and what you can expect in future episodes. Topics include posture, healthy eating habits, stretching, core stability, strength training overview, simplifying self-care, better balance, basic yoga, and meditation.
In the first episode that premiered alongside the introduction, Cindy Merrick, Founder of Therapy in Motion, talks about the secret of a healthy body. Spoiler: It’s your posture.
Stay tuned for more episodes! Be sure to leave a comment on the Norman YMCA YouTube channel on what you think so far and what you want to see in the future. Depending on well these are received and budgets, we’ll make a second volume.
I hope you learn something helpful with this series! 😀
The Artful Inlets program started in 2019 as a cooperative effort between the city of Norman Stormwater Division, Norman Arts Council, and the Public Arts Board to bring attention to sometimes hidden stormwater infrastructure around the city. Norman’s Stormwater Program Manager, Carrie Evenson, the Norman Arts Council’s Public Art Manager, Debby Williams, provides an overview of the project in this episode. The 2020 artists, Kris Wilson, Kody Haskins, Laura Nelsen, Ken Hall, Michael Wilson, and Bonnie Amspacher, add their thoughts on the program and the message behind their works.
Visit the Artful Inlets for yourself throughout Downtown Norman.
My Artful Inlets story debuted during the Virtual 2nd Friday Norman Art Walk! You catch my story at around the 10:50 mark or watch the embedded YouTube video above in 4K HDR with closed captions. Then at the 1:09:00 mark, is the City of Norman’s version of the story, which focuses more on the environmental aspects. The video is followed up by videos from the artists talking more about their work that the artists filmed themselves.
Thank you to my supporters on Patreon for their continued support of making Uncovering Oklahoma possible! Supporters get awesome rewards, like early access to my episodes. Big thanks to my superstar supporters: Revolve Productions and the Keller-Kenton Family. Join today!
The Professor invites Sam for a walk through Sutton Wilderness in Norman to share his research on the area. Stories include the Sutton Goatman, spirits still working at the Griffin Memorial, and a disaster.
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Behind the Scenes Commentary
This episode only featured myself and Jeff talking about history and ghost stories of Griffin and Sutton area of Norman. As described in the episode, we found ourselves a nice chunk of concrete to set up. The Sam narration about getting the date wrong was prompted by an error Jeff caught when reviewing the edited episode. Jeff also suggested adding a bit about describing the park to make it spookier.
Stay tuned for next week’s episode about Fort Washita! We got some jaw-dropping stories from our interviews there.
