announcer: artworks is made possible in part by the mpt new initiatives fund founded by irene and edward h. kaplan. host: hello, i'm rhea feikin and this is artworks . our new weekly series introducing you to exciting artists from across the country and across the spectrum of creative expression. this is a new venture for a special pbs arts consortium, and we're excited that mpt plays a part. i'm kwame kwei-armah your co-host. today, we'll meet japanese-born illustrator and author allen say. he's written and illustrated dozens of children's books and he's won some of the highest honors in the field, including the caldecott medal. his stories are deep and personal. allen say: that is the time when i feel most vulnerable. i have no control over it. i have no idea how the viewer, the editor or the world in general, the publisher, is going to react to it. narrator: the twenty-third book allen say has both written and illustrated will soon be winging its way to scholastic books. he's putting a few final touches on the book, but he still has to write it. allen: i really couldn't write the text until i have all the art ready. narrator: he walks us through some of his ideas. allen: "my father lives with a 20-pound cat named tofu. he calls me his favorite daughter. i'm an only child. she comes home. she's glum she's devastated. everybody laughed at her. who's ever heard of a japanese doll with blond hair? the new art teacher can't pronounce my name, daddy. she keeps calling me eureka." narrator: the upcoming book tells the story of his daughter, yuriko, and her occasional sense while growing up a feeling outside mainstream culture. allen: "i want an american name. what kind of a name? michelle." this is where they're discussing. narrator: that theme of the "outsider" crops up in many of say's books. another hallmark of an allen say book is the way it taps into his personal story. autobiographical details and family history are classic ingredients. born in yokohama in 1937 say's childhood was far from easy. it would be touched by war dislocation, and family turmoil. allen's saving grace was cartooning -- a passion not shared by his father. alle it was disgraceful to want to be a cartoonist in those days. for a middle class household to have the first son want to be an artist was a disaster. especially to my father, who was a very successful businessman, and never got over it. narrator: when the war came, allen's mother - attempting to protect her children - fled with them to a farming community not far from hiroshima. alle we were very near when the bomb dropped. there was this tremendous jolt. and we ran out of the house, it was a very mountainous area of course we couldn't see anything. but we were close enough that one of my cousins used to commute to go to work and she came back that afternoon one of the victims. she survived but it was an awful thing. narror: his parents divorced not long after the war. allen was sent to live with his grandmother in tokyo so that he could attend a good school. but his grandmother also disapproved of his cartooning. their relationship strained, she made a surprising arrangement... she let allen, a mere boy, have his own place. allen: i started living alone when i was 12-years-old in this one-room apartment. i wanted to be a grown-up, an adult. so, in order to be an adult,first you buy a newspaper. narrator: and that was how allen say learned thathe renowned cartoonist noro shinpei took on apprentices. allen: he was one of the most famous cartoonists in my day certainly my favorite. his cartoons were very very funny. he was outrageously funny. narrator: the next day allen sought him out. he worked with the master artist and another apprentice every day after school. noro shinpei would become allen say's great teacher or "sensei." allen: when i went looking for him, i thought i was simply following the old japanese samurai tradition. at the age of 13 or 14 coming of age, the person will go out and look for a master to serve under. and in order to learn a craft, this is what we used to do in the old days. but when i grew up a little bit, i suddenly realized that wasn't what i was doing. i was trying to effectively replace my father. and i was incredibly lucky he obviously intuited that. narrator: the apprenticeship solidified allen's love of art. it paved the way for his career as an illustrator. in 1953, say's father came back into his life and took him to the u.s. but noro shinpei's influence on allen - whom he nicknamed "kiyoi" - was lasting. allen always held out hope that he would work again with his sensei. and it seems noro shinpei felt the same, as he told his daughter. allen: just prior to his death she asked him if there was anything left that he wanted to do. that's when he said, "kiyoi, is the treasure of my life that i would like to work on a book with him. narrator: allen say's drawing from memory is the collaboration that noro shinpei wished for. say has combined his artwork personal photos, and examples of his sensei's cartooning to make a poignant tribute to their deep and lasting relationship. allen: and that is my way of honoring his wish. rhea: allen say's next book, "hopper's room," details his early years in the states, while the "favorite daughter" will be released the summer of 2013. kwame: up next, minnesota-based artisan christopher poor invites us to his shop where he handcrafts medieval and renaissance replica weapons. he researches lost old world techniques to fashion authentic suits of armor, and shields and swords. it's fascinating and museums and hollywood have come knocking. christopher poor: when i was six i got a full suit of japanese armor for my birthday, which was pretty amazing actually, you know? you're 6-years-old and you open that package and there's a 17th century suit of armor that you get to run around in like a little maniac. well, a lot of kids play with cardboard shields and wooden swords, i just never stopped. i'm chris poor and i'm an armorer. arms and armor is a business i started in about 1980, and what it has become is a place where you can get the most accurate historical copy of just about any piece of arms and armor in the last thousand years. early on, we made contacts with several museums in europe. we did things with the wallace collection which is a museum in london. we actually were doing some things for royal armories. in this country, we've done everything from the title weapons for "ernest scared stupid," right on through to the latest kate blanchett "elizabeth" movie where we did all the high end rapiers. we've got stuff on display in the chicago art institute. we do work here in minneapolis with the art institute where we come in with original pieces and show replicas. the globe theater in london. so you can travel the world and you will spot our things. this is an elbow, this will go right here and when you close your arm, it -- that's about the movement you get and these fins will close the gap. when it's extended you still have protection. we try to replicate the original techniques as much as possible. a lot of the tools that existed 500 years ago today exist in miniature. the only people who use a lot of those tools anymore would be silversmiths. so, the hammers weigh four ounces or five ounces. i need the three pound version. you've seen quite a few tools, i would say 80% of those we've made. that's partially why we get such good results because we're trying to stay faithful to their techniques. now you have the whole unit, which you can move this way, can pivot that way and the whole thing will sit right there. we try to capture the essence, the spirit and the feel of the original. and partially it's made easier for us because we have a lot of originals. it's a lot easier when you've got a 16th century original to look at and as you can see there's a lot of similarities. the difference being i made this last week, and somebody made this in about 1570. wherever possible we will handle the original. for example, if we're going to put a new sword in our catalogue if possible i'll go to the museum where that sword is. what i want to be able to do is take the original and take ours and set them down side by side and not really be able to tell the difference. this is a suit of armor we're building for a private individual it's based on a german one from about 1510. if you add up every little element yeah, there's probably close to a hundred pieces of metal in an armor like this. this is definitely an artistic endeavor; it's really free-form sculpture. when you're doing a suit of armor, really what are you doing but creating a hollow, life-size sculpture in more or less the form of a human being. we start out with flat pieces of steel and we hammer it out, and shape it, and fit it and polish it, and do all of the work. what we're working on here is a custom sword hilt. we have a picture. we go from that picture to figuring out the shape. we take bars of steel like this, and with many, many hours, filing, hammering, welding we turn these into something like this. and we're matching it exactly to a historical original. and when we put a grip which is the handle you actually hang on to, you've got a finished sword. gregory bentson: it takes about as much time to think about the project as it does to actually do it. i'd say in a nutshell, yeah, that's the process. craig johnson: okay, now we're going to heat treat the head. we're going to place it on the fire, get it hot, and then use the process of quenching the steel to create a piece that is going to be hard durable, and springy. chris: by viking age, in 700, a sword is supposed to be able to bend into an arc and snap back. so by the 7th century, people have figured out how to heat treat steel effectively so that you'll get a spring instead of a paper clip. craig: looks pretty good. you can tell when your heat treat is relatively successful because you'll get this shiny gray, or kind of a flag gray, i guess, but the scale comes right off. that means it's gotten hard. chris: part of why i'm doing this is because i was well enough educated to find out what it was all about and appreciate it. we don't just to teach the history of swords and the history of armor. that's pretty limited. what we try to do is teach history using these as hooks as props and if we can bring them into a wider world through this portal, through this entry point of loving swords or armor, well, that's a great thing. rhea: to see more of christopher poor's work visit his website, armor.com his work is also featured in our area on the ship god's speed, at jamestown settlement, and at the folger's shakespeare library. next, we meet photographer scott baxter, whose found inspiration in the american frontier in arizona. for almost a decade, baxter has photographed over 100 cattle ranchers and their ancestral ranches. he's helped to document the vanishing traditions of america's legendary west. rider: yah, yah, yah . [ whistles ] [ cattle mooing ] scott baxter: some of these ranches we're photographing aren't going to be around because development is gonna find its way in and there's a lot of ranches i know that there's no one coming up behind them, so they'll most likely be sold. and i just thought what if photographically i could at least try to record some of these families that have been around here since 1912 or earlier. and that's - it kind of started that way. i didn't really plan to do anything with it i just wanted to see if i could accomplish it. we call it "100 years, 100 ranchers," and basically the criteria is the family has been ranching in arizona continuously since 1912 or earlier. henry amado: my ancestors came here from valencia, spain, in the 1840s, and they were coming to tucson by covered wagon. this is the amado family my great-grandfather. about 1852 is when they setup the ranch at alamo bonito, in what is called amado. scott: this family is a very historic family. it goes back a long way. and a beautiful ranch, too in one of my -- santa cruz county's probably one of my favorite places to be in the whole state. photographs should be really easy for you to look at. you know, it doesn't mean it has to be pollyannaish, or, you know, beautiful or anything. just has to be easy. if it's easy, it's good. if i push too hard if i really try too hard to push a photograph it just doesn't work out for me. i kind of let the photograph come to me. there's not a set process. i want to get this side, too because it's got your brand on the horse's shoulder. you know, aside from scouting a little bit the day before, and knowing i wanted to use the big sycamore tree, there's not -- i don't have a list of what i'm going to do i just kind of walk in and... it's kind of the way i've always worked i just kind of wing it. it kind of works for me. doesn't work for everybody but it does for me. perfect, guys. the last one with the camera for now at least. henry: i was standing there, last evening by the tree, between two horses with my son and grandson on each side of me... [voice cracking] very proud. scott: it just gives you an idea, it's a small shot. now, you gotta kind of look at it... you want to show that pride. i mean, they're very -- as a group, they're very proud of their heritage, and very proud of what they do. so that's where we're at. we're going to shoot a few more with this camera. with the portraits you just kind of you know, you kinda take a little more time and kinda get your frame up the way you want it and then you read your light and shoot it. 5-6, 125. henry: i think it's a wonderful thing that scott came up with this idea. scott: this is actually very nice where we're at now. it's recorded history. i don't think they're really looking for recognition but i think they like the fact there's going to be a record of this somewhere for their kids. i treated this in a lot of ways just like it could have been shot you know, 100 years ago. i bring a digital with me, but that's to shoot stuff for them. we're shooting straight black and white, no lights so it's basically camera, film, and a tripod and that forces me to really think about composition because i don't have a lot of tricks in my bag, and it kind of makes you think a bit more as a photographer. henry: i don't know of any rancher that doesn't work hard. they have to. no, i don't have to do this. i've always been a very successful cpa and with my son as my partner, the business is still going, and maybe that's why i can afford to be,here, because if he's there, i don't have to be at the office. but i enjoy being here, and at my age, i deserve to be here. i think it's love of the ranch love of the land. scott: the brandings can be kind of exciting. you got two guys roping and dragging calves, and you've got three or four cowboys throwing cows on the ground. sometimes with the action stuff, i don't really have time to do too much but just kind of hang in there. you don't want to be the cause of somebody getting hurt. you don't want to be the cause of livestock getting injured. and certainly don't want to get hurt yourself. so you stay dialed into the frame but you certainly kind of have to have a few things going on in your head at the same time and keep yourself cognizant of what's going on around you. this one is a bit more -- this is like the old style. >> the old western? scott: yeah. i've not had a bad experience. and i've got a story for every single ranch that i've been in. that's perfect right there. hold that. you know, the photographs are kind of the icing on the cake, but the real thing is i just... thank you, sir. that's it. you know, they are a great group of people. i've just been honored to have the opportunity to meet them and spend some time with them. they're all hard working. they're just hard working people who just like -- they love what they do. and they really love the land. that's the thing that i've kind of come away with they really love this land and they really want to take care of it. rhea: baxter has released a book of his "100 years, 100 ranchers" project. for more information visit 100years100ranchers.com. kwame: now, our next artist's work couldn't be more opposite boldly challenging traditional genres of music, dance and performance. baltimore-based shodekeh is a professional beatbox artist and vocal percussionist with a dynamic, improvisational style. his performances are simply compelling. shodekeh: [beatboxing] i've always been into the qualities of sounds. i used to do a lot of sound emulations from cartoons from movies. the transition from vocal mimicry of sounds to creating music happened when i was in high school. i was already a heavy, avid listener of a lot of hip-hop and all forms of music actually. a lot of rock 'n roll, more jazz. that's when i started to tune my ear and my vocal abilities to try and create more music with it. and then in my freshman year of college i started to explore more musical options with what i had available with my voice and i joined an a cappella group. when that happened i had opportunities to compose as a vocal percussionist. so, instead of just always backing up mcs or battling djs which is a whole 'nother form of composition within itself i was given a new challenge; i had to capture something emotional this time, because we didn't just do one specific style or genre of music with the a cappella group that i was in, we did a wide variety of genres. and that was a very important moment in transitioning to my career as a musician. [beatboxing] i think i've always wanted to work within varying genres of music, and i didn't realize it until these opportunities sort of came to me. like for example i was our musical accompanist for this poetry event called "slam side," and it was my job to accompany the other musicians and the other spoken-word artists. and there was one fateful day, january 2006 vincent thomas a professor of modern dance here at towson university, was in the audience. he approached me about having me come in and play music for a dance class. i thought he meant for like a week or two, or maybe two weeks, but he meant for the entire semester actually. so when that happened, a whole new world just opened up to me. [beatboxing] i was at the point, willing and able, to take it to anywhere just to see where i stood as a musician, if i could match wits with these different forms whether it was in dance or even the visual arts, doing musical interpretations of still work, and trying to find ways to have music as a tool to bring the artwork to life those sorts of challenges. and also to, not just to challenge myself, but to challenge the people within these genres who aren't used to these sorts of experiences to kind of challenge their notions or preconceived ideas of what a beatboxer is supposed to do -- or not supposed to do -- because there are some people who didn't like that i was beatboxing for ballet. but i kinda didn't care because i was there not just to challenge myself but to challenge them, too. [beatboxing] i know i'll always want to work as an accompanist for dance. it's not even a performance, it's like praying for self-improvement not just for myself, but for the professor, the students. it's a very unique experience that kinda goes beyond any description through words. [beatboxing] i just want to keep myself inspired, keep others inspired keep myself from burning out doing a lot of work for little to nothing. fundraising is an art form i want to master. i'm working on that. [ laughs ] rhea: shodekeh's work goes beyond the dance studio and has included performances with a cappella singers, poets and symphonies across the country. his new facebook music page is at www.facebook.com/shodekeh. and now here's a look at some arts events around our town. and that wraps it up for this edition of artworks. visit mpt.org/artworks where you'll find feature videos and upcoming arts events. i'm rhea feikin. please join us next week. i'm kwame kwei-armah. announcer: artworks is made possible in part by the mpt new initiatives fund founded by irene and edward h. kaplan. er