(upbeat music) - [Mark] In this edition of "Artistic Horizons", the art of abandoned buildings.

- Part of our mission is to help save things that we find and document in these buildings before they get demolished and thrown away forever.

- [Mark] Inside a weaver's studio.

- You learn so much every time you make something, you see something that maybe you didn't think about before.

And it's a very satisfying journey.

- [Mark] An artist's creative path.

- [John] I've evolved into my own kind of little alley where I am.

And my work has become a conglomeration of everything that I've experienced before.

- It's all ahead on this edition of "Artistic Horizons."

(upbeat music) The Abandoned Atlas Foundation has a mission to ensure that abandoned buildings are not forgotten, but remembered.

Recognizing the beauty and history housed within these structures, the organization photographs, researches, and works to preserve these remarkable remnants of the past.

We head to Oklahoma to find out more.

(gentle music) - [Emily] When you look at historic buildings, it is the backbone of our country, and unfortunately, we are losing it at a rapid pace.

It's important for these buildings to be saved because it shows us who was here before us.

- [Michael] It almost feels like buildings are people in a way because they have their own stories, they have their own presence, they have their own personality.

- [Emily] And once it's gone, it's gone forever.

That's not something that you can get back.

(gentle music) - [Micheal] Just because a building is abandoned, doesn't mean it's the end of the story.

(gentle music continues) I'm Michael Schwarz.

- I'm Emily Cowan.

- And I'm the president of Abandoned Atlas Foundation.

- I'm the president of the Abandoned Atlas Foundation.

Oh, wow.

(upbeat music) Pristine condition.

- All right.

My goal as a co-president with Emily is to help find ways to get people interested in wanting to see these places restored, show them how it can be done, why it should be done, and to help give a voice to buildings that oftentimes get overlooked.

- [Mark] What started as a simple website over 15 years ago has grown into a full-fledged nonprofit covering 25 different states.

- We photograph the properties inside and out as thoroughly as possible, as if we were to lose the building tomorrow.

We then take those photos and publish them online for free, along with a full historic writeup.

I believe that that research should be free and history should be free.

- Every time that I walk through a new abandoned building, I just, you know, it just, it speaks to me.

(upbeat music continues) I enjoy talking to people and finding the firsthand stories and doing the firsthand, like digging through libraries, digging through documents found inside the buildings.

That's what excites me.

It's like, you know, something's been hidden under a shelf for 60 years and it's a piece of the puzzle of what happened there.

- Oklahoma Coaches Association regional Coach of the Year.

I am more of the behind the scenes.

I am the one that does all the research on the background.

Newspapers.com is vital.

We use Google Books a lot, but if you go on Google Books and you put in, you know, a search term, it will show you every book that has that search term.

At any given time, I'm working on over 60 articles across 25 different states.

- All right, so down here is the science lab.

I've now kind of become in charge of the YouTube channel or like more of the documentary work to really advocate for these places.

Like that's the beauty of YouTube.

Like if you can create something that captures somebody's interest that may not have known about that thing before, I mean, that's so much power.

(upbeat music) - [Emily] Oh look, here's a bunch of film.

- My interest in abandoned buildings actually started when I was in high school.

- Back in 2019, I was freshly out of high school.

- I've always wanted to be a filmmaker.

- I had no idea what I wanted to do in life.

- My friends and I were shooting like bang bang shoot 'em up movies with fake guns.

- [Director] Action.

- And then I had started exploring abandoned buildings.

(camera clicking) - [Mark] Michael and his friends used abandoned locations as backdrops for their action packed short films.

- So we went there to go film and then I found myself just taking pictures 'cause I thought it was so cool and I was like, I wonder if there's any more of these.

I went home and I googled it.

I found a very, very early version of the website.

Bannon, Oklahoma was started by Justin Tyler Moore and Cody Cooper in 2008, 2009 era.

I contacted the owner just being a fanboy and to my surprise, the owner was like, yeah, come on in.

You know, join what we're doing.

- Well here we are inside the library of Duney Academy.

You good?

- [Director] Yep.

- Joe, you got this, you got this man.

- [Mark] Michael joined the team in 2011 and contributed for many years before moving away.

During the same time, the original team moved on and the site fell dormant.

- And started going on my own road trips.

I was just tagging Abandoned Oklahoma in my stuff, knowing they weren't active.

I was like, well, maybe one day.

- So I was living out in California for a few years.

I went out there to be the next Hollywood director.

When I decided to come back to Oklahoma to try something different, first thing I thought of was, all right, going back to Oklahoma, I want Abandoned Oklahoma.

- And then I got a DM from Michael, I think it was the day before my birthday, and he had said, you know, hey, Abandoned Oklahoma's back, would you like to join?

And I remember fan girling a little bit.

I was like, oh my gosh, I've never been asked to be part of something like this.

When I started, I remember the first time that Michael and I explored together, he made me go up and knock on the next door neighbors and ask them about that building.

And I was so terrified at first.

I was not a people talker.

I did not like doing that.

But then I started listening to this person talk about their memories there.

And that was when I think the switch flipped of the passion of being able to give people these tangible memories that they can hold on forever.

Once it's on the internet, it's not going anywhere, even if the building comes down.

- Whereas like- - If you expose the original ceiling, it'll be so much more room in here.

- [Mike] With their powers combined, and with the help of photojournalist across the country, Emily and Michael expanded to the Abandoned Atlas Foundation, a nationwide nonprofit dedicating to preserving history all over the country.

- I think that is a part of our mission, is to help save things that we find and document in these buildings before they get demolished and thrown away forever.

- That is the reason why I do it, is it's not just for the buildings and giving them a voice, but it's also for the people that have memories here.

Oh, what is this?

(Michael gasping) - I found it!

Emily!

- [Emily] What?

- Seminole Chieftain Football 2005.

- [Emily] No way.

- Oh my gosh.

Seminole Chieftains 2001 football Highlight video.

Oh gosh, we found it.

We found the jackpot.

I found kind of a new passion recently, it's for VHS tapes.

Sometimes there's old VHS tapes laying around.

I'm not really interested in the mass produced ones.

I'm talking about the ones that are unique, one of a kind, that are specific to either that building or that town, that city, that has been forgotten about and there's only one copy of it.

Those moments that might be special to somebody that live on those VHS tapes will now not lose it.

Right now you can buy an abandoned home in Pine Bluff, Arkansas for as low as $400.

When it comes to YouTube, ultimately our goal is to then get people to be more actively interested in what buildings we're talking about, the history behind them, and most importantly, the advocacy.

Built by a famous architect Bruce Goff, who was renowned for his unconventional designs.

But why did he build this one?

I got to come on into him walking up that step.

This iconic church was featured in Time Magazine in 1955.

Forever.

I dive deep into the analytics, the retention rate, to figure out, all right, where am I losing people?

Where do they stop watching?

And I try to figure out why they're stopping watching and how can I create more interest?

(drone whirling) - [Mark] Abandoned Atlas now partners with preservationists, property developers, and activists to create videos for at-risk buildings.

- I'm 74 years old.

I can remember laying on pews, looking up out of them, the wind is up top.

I had a dream.

And so anyway, in that dream I was, I felt like the Lord told, said that we, he wanted this restored.

And so that's been purpose in my life for over 20 years now.

Well, you know, just gotten to know Michael and their heart seems really good because it's been one of the most encouraging things that someone is really has the same heart towards these buildings and these type of projects that we do.

(upbeat music) - This is not a field that you get many wins in.

And when we do get wins like this building here, it's something that we shot from the rooftop.

Seminole High School is going to be restored into affordable housing apartments.

And this is a huge win for the community in this neighborhood.

But we're having a huge housing crisis in America right now.

And being able to turn this building into affordable housing rather than just sitting here, being vandalized, I think is a lot more of a better purpose.

(upbeat music continues) We have a huge success story in Topeka, Kansas of the Menninger Clock Tower that was actually slated for demolition.

So we came in and we actually, it was very nerve wracking, had to sign a contract with their attorney that if we were not successful in finding a buyer within 90 days that they would have grounds to demolish the building.

- We put together a developer search video saying like, hey, this building's about to be demolished, this is the time to buy it.

And they were willing to donate the property.

- It was within maybe a week or two of putting out a developer search video that I found a buyer out of Kansas City, Missouri.

And they are underway to restore that now.

Oh, I don't think we've been in here before.

(Michael gasping) - Okay.

Especially the... - [Emily] My mom was like, you know, you need to get a real job.

If you're ever gonna move out, you need to get a job.

And I was just like, no, I have to stick this out.

I know it's gonna pay off.

Like it just needs time.

- The way that I've changed through this is realizing that I don't need to be in Hollywood to make a difference.

I don't need to be in Hollywood to do something I'm passionate about.

(upbeat music continues) - It is just incredible and I love doing what I do every day and just being able to again, follow that passion.

(upbeat music continues) - And now for the artist quote of the week.

(upbeat instrumental music) In this segment, we take a trip to Ohio to meet textile artists, Janice Lessman Moss.

While creating, she embraces a technological and hands-on approach to weaving, combining the two to render detailed abstract work.

Here's her story.

- When I say that I'm a weaver, people generally assume that I am making garments or that I am making fabric for function.

And it takes a while for me to convince them that in fact, it is a medium, just like painting, that allows you to create abstract images for the wall, for contemplation, for, you know, visual enjoyment.

And it usually doesn't resonate so well until they see them.

And then it makes sense because they recognize that I can do all of the things that other people can do with other mediums, with color and with form and with texture, But it happens with that intersection of thread.

I work digitally.

I do all my designs digitally, and I am interested in the kind of the mathematical aspects of working with geometric forms and the count of threads in both directions.

And I like that right brain, left brain kind of intersection that weaving allows.

They allude to my interest in walking and walking is a very linear movement, and weaving is a very linear process.

Walking allows you to kind of move forward, but also to kind of linger.

It's a slow movement.

Weaving is a slow process.

I always call it a slow art.

It's a very slow art.

And when I am designing, I'm actually thinking of that same notion of movement, kind of following a path.

So I create a path on a template of circles within squares, and I create these paths and those paths end up being the kind of the contours or the outlines of shapes.

And they create, sometimes they're just lines and sometimes they establish shapes, and I put other patterns within those shapes.

So everything kind of builds in that same systematic way, in the kind of ordered way, and yet deviates from any kind of real plan.

It's just that it is ordered because of the nature of the structure.

Once I've done the design, the weaving process itself is really following through on that plan.

I feed it to the loom and then the loom reads it, and then I press a button and the threads are raised according to what I have programmed.

However, I mean, it's like an architect, you know?

You have some design you know you can visualize and you can see from your design, this is what's going to happen.

What actually happens is sometimes different.

And the whole experience of coming in contact with this material and having it grow before your very eyes is amazing.

I've been working with metal introduced into the weaving for years.

Minimally work that I did in the spring of 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, I started to put more and more metal into the weaving, which adds an element of shine.

And I felt, you know, in thinking about it, that it was this attempt to kind of create a sense of hope.

You know, just have some little bright spots in my weaving.

They appear as you move around the weaving you see the shine kind of emanating and then it'll tuck back behind.

So it's this sense of almost shadow and light.

And I like that kind of surprise, that mystery.

And I started working with those smaller kind of orbs or circles of metal and then I introduce, this one is, I went kind of crazy with the introduction of the metal because I just felt like I really wanted some light in there.

And I really love in this piece, they almost look like little trails of like slug trails.

That kind of a wet trail that is illuminated depending on what the lighting is like.

And I love that it's so imperfect that it has that sense of organic movement that is more like nature.

You learn so much every time you make something, you see something that maybe you didn't think about before.

And it's a very satisfying journey.

I mean, you're going through life and you're able to make these visual statements, pieces that you hope other people enjoy looking at and finding meaning in.

Whether they see what I see in it isn't totally relevant.

The work is directed by personal, you know, interest and inspiration.

But people may look at it, they bring other histories to the engagement with the colors and the engagement with the relationship of lines.

And they might say, oh, it looks like this, it looks like that, it reminds me of this.

And I say, okay, well good.

If you're looking at it and you're taking the time to think about it, I am happy about that.

I'm grateful for that.

(upbeat music) - Now here's a look at this month's fun fact.

For over 40 years, sculptor and printmaker, John Martini has been in Key West, Florida, a city that has and continues to serve as a source of inspiration for the artist.

Up next, we visit Martini in his studio and learn more about his singular artwork.

(instrumental music) - My name is John Martini.

I'm a sculptor and printmaker.

I've been in Key West since 1976.

I've been working in this studio since about 1983.

There's a really tight community.

People are really supportive.

When I first got here, there was two, there was two galleries and there was an influx of hippies and gay, big, big gay input at that time.

And they kind of began to rebuild Key West in a really nice way with lots of small business, locally owned businesses.

They liked to go under water, the restaurants, the bars.

When AIDS hit, we were hit really, really hard.

The arts community especially.

We lost so many, so many, so many good, good artists and have never really recovered from that.

(upbeat music) In my process is pretty industrial.

It's a lot of heavy lifting and moving.

And when I first started, I worked with scrap that I found around Key West.

And I would try to work intuitively.

So I would come in, try to come into the studio blank and look at a piece and then see what I saw or what it kind of fed to me.

I fed off of the material.

And I was very direct.

I'd do a drawing real quick, a real fast drawing, which I love to do.

And then I would just cut it out with a torch.

(upbeat music continues) Now the works are a little bit more engineered.

So I work pretty much from sketchbooks.

So I, again, I try to come into my sketchbook more or less blank.

I mean, a lot of my work, I'd been spending a lot of time in museums and doing a lot of sketches in museums and that was really my arts education.

So now I think that through those processes I've evolved into my own kind of little alley where I am.

And my work has become a conglomeration of everything that I've experienced before.

And hopefully it's changing in time.

Although, it maintains its same sort of kind of manner and form.

The work is sort of not traditionally dimensional, in terms of sculpture, but I feel like that the color and the edges create a sense of volume and also a sense of kind of timelessness.

I try to make the work look like you can't place it in time, that it's been there or it was there before, it'll be thereafter.

And also, I've gotta make prints, which I love to do.

And it's always monoprints and it's very, very immediate process and it finishes.

I was never much of a painter 'cause I was always full of regrets.

So monoprint is finished and it's a surprise.

You just, you pull the print off the press and you have what you have and you're really not sure what you're gonna get.

And it's real, real immediate and it's real fast.

As opposed to, you know, my work now is pretty much done when the sketch is decided upon.

You know, I just kinda scale it up and there's not much change in the pieces in the process.

Any changes are done in the sketches.

So the monoprints are just, are really direct, which is what I would prefer.

I mean, which I really gives me pleasure as it were, you know?

To pull something from wherever it comes from.

I don't know.

I'm not particularly ambitious or driven.

I've given up that, you know?

You realize that not, you think that things are gonna change your life.

You know, you get a show in Paris or New York or something that somehow your life is gonna be all different, but nothing ever changed.

You know, I mean, it doesn't really change.

You just continue on.

I'm very lucky I've been able to continue to work and support myself, which is an amazing, really.

Once you're actually working, then it's coming.

You know, the next thing's appearing.

(instrumental music) (upbeat music) - And now here's a look at a few notable dates in art history.

(upbeat instrumental music) And that wraps it up for this edition of "Artistic Horizons".

For more arts and culture, visit wpbstv.org.

Until next time, I'm Mark Cernero.

Thanks for watching.

(upbeat instrumental music continues)