Next on Gallery America, we go behind the scenes of one of Oklahoma's most inspiring collaborations.

Oh, hello, Oklahoma.

Welcome to Gallery America.

I'm Robert Reid.

And today we're at the Oklahoma City Convention Center.

I want to show you something.

We're here because there is a really big artwork here made by two famous artists, British artist Damien Hirst and Flaming Lips lead singer Wayne Coyne from right here in Oklahoma City.

Here it is.

It's a spin art painting the two artists made by rotating a canvas and dripping paint on it.

It has a really big name.

Beautiful, mystical, exploding sun clouds, taste, metallic gift painting.

I love you, David.

Thank you so much.

And I bring it up because it's the most famous collaboration, perhaps in Oklahoma art history, but it's not the only one.

Take this first story duets by Autism Oklahoma, which is an annual event that pairs a local artist with an artist on the spectrum with super inspiring results.

You ready to get going?

Yes.

Look, let's let's look at.

Let's stand back.

Mm hmm.

I feel like.

He's really almost done.

That carrot's been given a fits.

Yeah, I know.

All right, come on.

Get a brush!

Which one do you want?

Well, I'm Joy Lauffenburger I am a.

Individual with autism.

So I love drawing.

Painting, digital art.

And I mostly, most of my subjects focus on animals, video game characters, anime, Nature.

And it might be a little darker.

Let's go.

Even a tiny bit darker.

I am Kellie Merrick, and I am a.

Fine artist.

I mostly do commissions and I.

Love to paint anything.

And I love dogs.

We have probably been meeting for several months, and I think we started with a just.

A rough drawing that I did.

and joy had to correct.

...In the heart?

I was thinking we could probably put a little bit of like maybe like a lightish orange.

It really is Our painting not mine, not Joys.

This is Hugo.

He is my service animal.

He is also a therapy animal.

He goes to the library to read the kids.

He loves carrots.

I could spend all day talking about Hugo.

All right.

I think we're done.

Yeah.

Oh, youre the best.

Thanks!

Sometimes people think that they don't know how to do art, and you just give them some supplies, and you give them a little bit of guidance.

And then before you know it, they've done something that you just look at it and you go, Wow, that just blows my mind.

Autism.

Oklahoma is a501c3 charity, and our mission is to just bring out the best in folks on the autism spectrum and to just help them and their family have an amazing life.

So the concept of our duets program is basically that a neurodiverse artist, which is someone on the autism spectrum, does some kind of art with a neurotypical artist, and they do something together.

So they I match them up.

I spend a really lot of energy to get good matches because that's part of the magic number.

Allie and Lisa: Lisa is a currently our art teacher and teaches all of our art programs.

And they have been friends for years.

They love to do flowers and butterflies, and they're a perfect match for each other.

And Chris is really, really quiet and really shy and doesn't communicate a lot.

And I knew that Tamra would be really, really good with him because of her background in like psychology.

Oh, you already did These?

youre fast.

What we found out was what I thought was going to be a strictly mentor situation has really turned into they inspire each other.

I'm making magic for you.

no peeking, okay?

what I love to do just to draw real life people in caricature.

Yes.

Now let me go add shade for his hair real quick.

When I quit my job, I worked at Walmart because I didn't like it.

Because it's too much.

Because I guess I could do doing caricature stuff.

my purpose is always just to help the other artist have fun with it.

And that's the joy is seeing their work come to life.

So I've done a few duets so far.

It's it's been it's been a lot of fun.

All right.

Whoa!

Look at that.

wow!

well done!

Duets is extra special because it's with somebody that's on the spectrum and you learn to see the world in a new way.

Art in a new way.

Go ahead, Jonathan Koelsch fill in Those two characters the weasel and the mouse first looks great.

Yeah, I love I love the color pop.

When you talk to somebody on the spectrum, you get to see their true self.

They're not candy coating who they are.

What you see is what you get and the sincerity comes out in the work.

I. I thought about adding like Blue or something in the background, but how do you feel?

What do you feel?

Well, you could use of like like blue for shading but try to be careful not to smudgethe backside!

No pressure.

Just go ahead.

Sign your signature here.

Huzzah!

Thank you.

Like I said, Huzzah!

I'm wondering if I can get a picture with both of you.

My son, David.

He's 33 years old and he is one of the artists that's in the duet program.

And he loves art.

In fact, his whole world now revolves around art.

So this is a piece that now is in a farmer's farmer's market.

And his painting this year is a tornado that has picked up a refrigerator.

And so inside of the tornado are all the things that have come out of their refrigerators.

I remember the very first time that a professional used the word autism with me, and it was very upsetting.

I just had a picture.

I had a mental picture that I didn't really understand.

And what I have learned through the years is that it's not what I thought it was at all.

And the very things that I was afraid were going to be David's biggest barriers have become his greatest blessings.

It's it's really easy to get stuck in a box and think that autism is this one certain thing.

But it's really a set of kind of characteristics and a kind of personality and what I believe is that folks on the spectrum are just unique, really unique people.

Oh, my goodness.

This is so exciting.

All this all work is fantastic and spectacular.

It's based on AM radio, which I kind of specialize in, or it's actually a piece of wood that we turned into, like a replica.

And everyone loves my artwork.

They think it's so beautiful.

It's called The Great Wave and it's definitely one of.

My favorite.

Artworks.

I love being a part of this.

It's my favorite thing.

It really is.

I think it's great.

I think I love it.

geeting to hang our with our new friends and also I feel incredible.

You know what im saying?

Every year there has been someone that has left with tears in their eyes.

They realize that maybe just because our folks can't always talk or can't always articulate in the same way some of the rest of us do, there is absolutely an amazing person inside of that body.

And sometimes the art becomes a window for them to see that amazing person.

You can get more information on autism, Oklahoma and the Duets program by visiting their website, Autism Oklahoma dot org.

Or Shop for Duets Art and Other Art from autism Oklahoma at their website Spectrum Market dot org.

I got one this by David Blose, an artist he just met with a great message.

There are so many reasons to be happy.

Ice cream being one of them.

Next, we're going to visit a collective in Cincinnati that's also doing inspiring work.

There's something inside all of us that wants to create the arts, helps bring us brings that out.

It overcomes the our limitations and helps us fulfill ourselves getting past the disabilities and the little boxes we put one another in the labels, we go out to one another.

Art kind of transcends all that.

Imagine.

My name is Ryan Miller.

I'm the executive producer of Organs for Performing Arts Collaborative and also chairman of the board.

Basically, we are a production company for people with disabilities in the region.

We serve challenged artists with the help of unchallenged hours.

Our idea is for total inclusion.

We hope to bring the art of challenge artists to the Cincinnati public, with both challenged and unchallenged artists alike.

Wanting to expand connections.

Expand, rejects.

The other side of the pool.

I'm a creative person.

I'm a creative soul.

I enjoy the workshop.

It's also fun and inspiring for me because I'm seeing people with various types of disabilities and to watch them the enthusiasm they were living.

And that for me was what it was all about.

Enjoy life.

What caused me to work with one Miller and others to create Walker's works is very simple a recognition that I was not being valued for the talents and skills that I have, that my friend Juan was not being valued for his talent and skills that he has, and that there are thousands and maybe even hundreds of thousands of people like us who are not being recognized, who are being overlooked for what they can bring to this world and work in sports.

It's working hard to open up those doors of opportunity.

I want you to see me.

I want you to.

Be I work with you to see exactly how I.

Was on fire.

I was kind of a a brainchild of mine.

I'm not sure exactly where I had heard first about Dancing Wheels, but I thought their mission and our mission was so right on point with one another, I had to find a way to bring them to Cincinnati.

They had been performing for 40 years in Athens, their 40th anniversary, and they are headed by Mary Fletcher.

I know her mother was a dancer and so she always wanted to be a dancer and didn't let her disability stop her.

We see ourselves as an umbrella organization and try and bring together various groups that serve disabilities together and to create cohesive performance art.

We also would like to be able to teach people the arts and drama and writing and theatrical production and those kinds of things.

When you're farther down the line is where we see ourselves going.

Eventually, not even the sky is the limit and that the possibilities for any and everybody, especially in the arts, if you can believe it, you can create it.

There's an audience out there for it.

And we would like to take your art and bring it to that audience.

Next, we're going to meet an autistic artist who grew up having difficulty communicating.

That is, until she found art.

Since then, she's become a Special Olympics athlete and a celebrated fashion designer.

Have a look at her amazing story.

Art and drawing any sewing machine is very important for me because it has a creations on it and colorful on it.

I draw with some sketch pencils and watercolor pencils on my sketchbook, and sometimes I design some dresses in graphic art on my computer.

I think she's always been a fashionable person.

I think it's right from a very young age.

She would pick really cool clothes for herself, sometimes very flashy because kids go through that stage or she would struggle with her language and she had a pretty limited vocabulary of, you know, till I would say she was even ten or 12 and we would kind of, you know, see her art as her style of communicating.

First time I saw her drawing was probably when she was about three years old.

She would just sit for hours drawing and we would get her sheaves of paper.

And then when we would pick up the drawings, we figured out that they were actually telling stories.

Those were the earliest, you know, wow moments, I would say, you know, in the sense that she did this whole series on pigs and the and there was this character called Piggy.

And Piggy would fall in love.

Piggy would face rejection.

There was absolutely no formal training in the early years.

I like to watch the fashion shows and I got inspired from that.

And I design some clothes and I saw lots of clothes.

And then when she was about 13 years old, someone saw her drawings at school and they were going to have this fashion show for fashion design students.

So they said, she's young, but, you know, her artwork is great.

And we would love to showcase Aarushis drawings as dresses in the fashion show.

She drew like four dresses and they converted it into a dress.

And I think that kind of sparked something in her when she was 13.

We actually bought Aaruchi her first sewing machine.

We didn't know the source of it.

We were not much of help.

But she would learn how to sew from watching YouTube videos, and she immediately kind of started creating amazing dresses and she would sketch her designs first and then create the dresses.

Then I think I love vintage clothes and I love the vintage things, and sometimes I love vintage and sometimes I love new fashion.

Look, Special Olympics has been a major influence in her life, the kind of opportunities she got playing sport.

It just boosted her confidence and her ability to connect with people.

Any sport that I would bring up to her if she was willing to go and try it.

She managed to go to state competitions for her stand up paddle won gold.

She won gold for cheerleading competition.

She won gold for bocce ball.

She was in our basketball team and also swimming.

There was nothing ever she would not try.

Her resilience was impeccable.

What It helps, you know, athletes like our Aarushi to become more confident and also to kind of get into a lifestyle which is more active.

So it's been a life changing experience.

Aarushi she was one of nine student athletes throughout the country that were selected for the Special Olympics USA game logo.

They all were flown in to Orlando and they were asked to make their own designs.

And I designed these ten logos and I got inspired by others and other athletes.

So what the design team did is that they got a composite of all those logos and they created a final logo, which is like everybody's voice through.

She became the spokesperson and was flown up to New York, was able to be interviewed live on Fox News, and they presented the USA 2022 logo for Special Olympics USA Games.

Even though Special Olympics seemed to be something that was doing with her fitness and her sport, it seemed to open up all of these other avenues in art which hadn't before that Ms.. Radigan was helping me to set up my seamstress alteration business.

If they needed mending needs, if they needed to have dresses, made a roof.

She had a business, right at school.

We had staff, we had students.

And I was she kept busy daily with different projects that students and I would ask her to take care of.

I think that's where the sense of I can sell my work and my services and I can make money out of it.

I sell the masks and jewelries in Etsy shops, and I started in 2019.

People liked the designs.

It's made me feel happy and confident.

I'm decided to go into a southeastern university at college for people with learning disabilities.

This has been my dream as she becomes independent and lives by herself, goes to college and it's all coming true because of her, because she aspired for it.

It's a very bittersweet experience for us and I think, you know, we will definitely miss her.

She has this strong urge, you know, to be independent, you know, to have a kind of a full, enjoyable life.

And that's what the college experience is going to do for her.

I notice that she has this way of finding meaning in her own art, which kind of centers her ability to think that, you know, I am really good and therefore my life is going to be good.

Even though that anxiety is there, she's able to find that anchor again and again and again.

I'm she actually shows us the fact that despite your, you know, neurodiversity, despite of challenges, how, you know, you can be positive in how you can wake up every day being happy, you know, looking forward and loving what you are and loving what you do.

My autism, it's kind of learning disability, this kind of spectrum.

Spectrum means that it's colors on it.

It has a colors on my brain and then visually on my brain because I have my autism, it's my it has my superpower.

This show started with great art collaborations, and we're ending it that way this time in South Florida, we're going to meet two artists who paired up to create an interactive puppet show that was inspired by their grandparents.

Basically, when I saw, like, the high students, it's like, What can I do here?

Like, what if I do like a box of puppets?

It's very much like a puppeteer show.

My name is Julian Pardo.

I'm a guest curator here.

Pompano Beach Concert Center.

And I'm normally one of minorities from Miami.

Julian called me and he said, There's a space.

And, you know, I'm very open to always collaborate.

He's a dear friend of mine.

So we said, okay, let's let's tell me about the space we consider that we wanted to do an interactive installation.

My grandma was a seamstress or my craft.

All that attachment to the thread also brought in part of the, you know, the making of the work.

So I think it comes from a personal exploration to dealing with my grandparents.

I started to do of photography series, sort of like capturing their daily routine.

And then I left to Spain to do my masters and I saw I started to pay attention since I was away, and they were 1982.

And I think I was getting ready to sort of let go.

My family had been very conscious about taking care of them, so they were with us at home and, you know, very involved.

And when I left, I think I had that longings, you know, like they were left behind.

And I remember just, you know, looking around and having these moments where I was realizing how detached we were.

And then I was traveling to other places and I kept paying attention to the older.

I connect with her as well.

I live with my grandpa for like ten years in my house, so all that like connections makes everything like, okay, let's do something that we can show the people to look out for.

The elders idea was like to create this pulley system where they can move each one of the hands.

So like a group of hands.

So it's more collaborative.

It's more like connecting the family, the connecting.

They're like, they're the elders with your dad or your mom just looking at you and just playing with you in each one of them.

And also the fact that you make them come alive.

Like we have this idea.

There's two components to a puppet.

There is a puppeteer and the puppet the puppet does not come to live on this.

The puppeteer plays a role into it.

So it was part of like creating that connection.

And in general, the idea of the whole show, the whole concept wanted to create that interactive approach.

I'm bringing them to life and saying its to keep the conversation going.

Conceptually, it's like instead of looking at them, you have to look up to them because that was the purpose of making them eight feet tall.

So you literally are looking up to them.

I start to study like what kind of population is around the center most like it is Haitian people, Latin American, like how they speak like different languages.

So one of my ideas is to reach more to the communities I translated to, like Spanish and English and Creole.

So that's why we have a lot of the texts on those three languages.

But I think the text and the simplicity of the graphics and the simplicity of of the walls, like at the eye level, also makes you like a little gap and pay more attention.

I just wonder, I mean, it's it's the softness of the fabric that tenderness of something that we all have a relationship to.

We all are covered with fabric.

So that was also important.

I think a work of our need to be open ended.

Not everyone comes in knowing precisely the concept of the work and understanding.

There is a narrative behind it all.

Their down being a pretty picture.

All these ideas should spike your curiosity.

Well, that's all the time we have for Gallery America.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Don't forget Gallery America has a new podcast.

You can listen to it wherever you get podcasts or at our robust archives.

OETA dot TV Slash Gallery America.

If you learned anything today, I hope it's this.

There are so many reasons to be happy.

We'll see you next time.

Until then, stay arty Oklahoma.