female announcer: On "Studio Space," Kati Texas and David Ferney sit down with three artists who work with glass and light, but in very different ways.

Willo and Ember of Soulshine Arts are a husband and wife team of glassblowers and create pieces that are alive with color and swirling energy.

William Pierson looks through his glass lens to capture light on the landscape, then abstracts that image to a spare, unsaturated style that challenges the medium of photography.

"Studio Space" explores the thriving art colony in Northern California.

♪♪♪ announcer: This activity is funded in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency, and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

David Ferney: Hi, I'm David Ferney.

Kati Texas: And I'm Kati Texas.

Today on "Studio Space," our artists capture light and turn it into art.

David: I'll be visiting with photographer Bill Pierson to share his body of work and to find out where he draws his inspiration from.

But first, Kati sits down with sculptors Ember and Willo Sernovitz of Soulshine Arts in their glassblowing studio.

Kati: We'll talk about what the practice of glassblowing means to them.

♪♪♪ Ember Sernovitz: We're always learning and always evolving.

And being able to stay fluid and allowing yourself to grow and reinvent who you wanna be and who you become is something that, I don't know, I just carry with me 'cause art is evolving.

♪♪♪ Kati: Hi, okay, so, Willo and Ember, I'm so excited to be here.

Can you tell us where we are?

Ember: Yeah, we're at Soulshine Arts.

This is our glassblowing studio.

We're here in the gallery right now, right here in Eureka.

Kati: So I'm excited to talk to you today about glassblowing, but also about the two of you.

And so you two work together, you work collaboratively, and you are also a couple.

Willo Sernovitz: Yep.

Kati: When did you meet?

Ember: Oh, probably-- Willo: We met in 1995, after Jerry died.

We both ended up coming here at different times, right around the same era there, '94, '95.

Ember: We met in southern Humboldt.

There was, like, a big pull of people that came into the area and we just met at a campground there years ago, and for some crazy reason we stayed friends all these years.

Willo: We weren't a couple then.

We just were friends.

Ember: Yeah, we were friends.

Willo: We were really good friends, and for all the way until 2006.

Ember: We both ended up getting married, having kids.

We were still friends the whole time.

One day-- Willo: We both got divorced.

Ember: We got divorced.

Willo: We were still friends.

Yeah, and then I-- You were living in Honeydew and I came down there to help with the land and help with the kids, right?

And I lived in a geodesic dome house on the land and just helped on the land.

I was, like, the guy that came to help.

And then one day I got to move in the house and the rest is history.

Ember: We would go out to different places, and you know, as single people trying to recover and finding out we just gravitated towards each other and hung out the whole time, hanging out, talking.

♪♪♪ Kati: Well, I'd love to talk a little bit about glass, I mean, the medium itself.

Willo: Well, glass is our religion.

I mean, not in a sense of, like, a Jesus kinda religion.

Glass is a religion in a spiritual sense.

It's like a--the alchemy of taking sand and trans-- 400-million-year-old sand and transforming that with tremendous heat and energy, just like what's--the Big Bang or the center of the earth, or all of this massive power of the--of all of the elements, you know?

And you put this heat energy, these thermal dynamics into this sand and you get this light-transmitting, ethereal, magical substance that changes the planet in every way.

I mean, look at all of our phones.

Sand, right?

You know, silicone microchips, and all the way to glassblown sculpture, or light bulbs, or all these kinds of ways that we use glass in our lives in everything, and it changes our entire existence.

To be able to connect with that medium and with that energy is incredibly cathartic, and healing, and magical, and transformative in yourself.

No matter what you're thinking about, how much you're angry at this thing or that thing, or oh, the world, or this problem, it doesn't matter.

The minute you grab that hot ball of goo and you're juggling this hot ball of goo that's gonna, you know--by the time you're done juggling the ball of goo, everything's cool.

You know what I mean?

Like, you're like, "What was I upset about?"

because I just spent an hour focused on the goo.

All I can think about now is, "Yay, that was so amazing.

It worked.

We got it in the box.

It was a tremendous victory."

Ember: It works really well as glass therapy.

It is very calming and soothing, and part of it's like riding a roller coaster too.

Willo: Yeah.

Kati: Yeah, is there some difficult parts to it?

Willo: It has its moments, but that's just part of, like, the journey.

It's a metaphor for life in every way.

It parallels, like, everything.

You can relate it to everything and it just-- it takes over until you think, and eat, and sleep, and dream glass.

I dream in glass.

I have ideas for conceptual pieces that just make me mad until I get it out, you know?

Like, insane mad, you know?

Like, literally keeps you up.

Keeps you up thinking about this pattern over and over again.

And I guess I would be, like, unemployable in the world if it wasn't for being a professional artist 'cause it's the one--it's just the thing that I'm, like, absolutely supposed to do on this planet, with this lifetime anyway.

Kati: All right, that sounds really solid.

It's nice to know exactly where you wanna go.

Willo: I've never had any hesitation about it.

Like, and there has been times when I've chosen to divert my path for whatever reasons in life and it's never worked out well, so it's always been like, "Oh yeah, you're supposed to that, dummy," you know?

The really nice side effect of why I do it is that we make things that people can buy, but that's not why we do what we do.

I would do the same exact thing whether it was just going in the landfill right after it left the door because it doesn't matter, 'cause it's that whole experience that just--that religion, that spiritual concept.

That's how we talk to God, you know?

And it's like having, like, a walkie talkie and be like, "Yo, God, what's up?

Here we are," right?

"I'm gonna pray to you because this is how I know how to do it and this is how it means something," and so it comes out that way.

Ember: The glass is like it's alive when you are working with it, the way that it moves when it's hot and the inertia that you can feel while you're turning the glass.

And knowing that if I keep turning this and moving it back, it's gonna be round.

And that feeling of being able to make that happen over and over again, and reshaping, and creating that round, and that feeling of the movement of the glass, it's really--I don't think there's anything else like it.

It's just this really amazing feeling that I feel like is almost a--it's almost addictive to feel that heat, and that warmth, and the movement of the glass, and becoming one with it.

Because really, it's those minute movements that create the piece that you make.

Whether you realize it or not, if you move the glass down, gravity's gonna take effect and the glass is gonna move with gravity if it's hot.

If it's hot, it'll move with gravity.

If you hold it up, it's gonna move with gravity.

And just those realizations and the feel of it is just one of those amazing things that I can't think of anything else I get that feeling from, so that is really awesome about the glass.

Willo: Yeah, I got color all over me.

We got color all over our walls.

We clearly-- you know, we're all about color.

So you put that color in your life and live inside that.

Like, just doesn't have to paint a picture and stick it on the wall.

Put red light in the room, you know, and spread color all over the room.

Like, you know what I mean?

Because we sit there all day long, you absorb all that energy, whatever you're in, that space that you're in.

That, like, helps to set the mood for how we think, and how we breathe, and how we live.

If we feel comfortable, and creative, and relaxed, or whatever, you know, then we are.

We can become that.

Kati: Tell me just a little bit about working together.

How does the collaborative process work?

Willo: There's a really cool ballet, like, kind of dance that we have evolved into.

We don't have a lot of verbal communication while we're working.

It's just total, like, intuitive stuff.

And she's gonna know when to do something and I'm gonna know when to do something else, and we're gonna just sorta do 'em at the right time.

And when we're really on it, it feels like that.

It feels like we're just, like, one brain that's just moving the four arms around.

Ember: It really, yeah-- Willo: And it's really beautiful kinda thing--way to experience glass.

Like, traditionally, furnace glassblowing has been a team-based thing, you know?

You need a big production team in the--to produce big pieces of glass and all these kinda things.

There's a gaffer.

That's the lead glassblower.

And then there's the assistant, and then there's another assistant.

There's one over there.

There's a door person.

There's this whole thing, and we don't have a team.

Ember: It's just us.

Willo: When you have a gaffer, the gaffer does everything and the assistants assist the gaffer.

We don't do that either.

So we just--we assist each other as we're going and trade back and forth.

And we don't have a point where she's gaffing and I'm--you know, it just sorta flows.

And so it doesn't make sense if you were a glassblower that comes in and watches us and maybe are used to working in a big team 'cause you'd be like, "Which one is the gaffer?

How's it work?"

Because we really are jumping back and forth through the entire piece, doing the different parts that we're kind of planned out in our head that we're gonna do, or maybe just do because we just always know that that's when you do that, you know?

And so we just do it and that's the best.

Ember: Yeah, after years of working together and making glass together, we know what's happening next.

It's easy to just continue the whole little dance and keep the movement going.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Ember: You know that time in your life where you're really feeling like your soul just wants to shine out, you're happy, you feel good about life, and your soul shines?

And together, our souls are just shining really bright.

♪♪♪ William Pierson: It's really what comes from within you, you know?

And then, you know, there's classically, you know, Edward Weston, and he wrote one time, he said, "If you're sick and you're home in bed, you ought to be able to take a great photograph of your big toe."

And I thought, "You know, I think that's probably true," you know?

♪♪♪ David: Today, we're with William Pierson, a fine art photographer.

He has been creating photos for over 40 years and has had numerous one-man shows over those years.

Thank you so much for joining us.

William: Thank you for having me.

David: Yeah, I'm curious where you get your inspiration for your photos.

Do you make a plan to go out and look for something or are you more open to, you know, being in the moment and finding and discovering what's there?

Can you take us through your shooting process?

William: Early on, I learned that the photograph that's in your mind isn't even remotely as good than the photograph that might be presented to you on a particular day if you're in the moment and you're being aware.

And the other thing that happens or can happen that keeps you out of the moment is, as you're driving to wherever you're interested in potentially making a photography, let's say your car isn't running real well, or you had a disagreement with your partner that morning, or you remembered that you have an appointment in the afternoon, or you have some bills to pay, or whatever that takes you away, let alone a pre-plan of what the photograph's gonna look like that's in your head.

I always like being on the edge of the Pacific and I've always been a person that thrives being near water.

And when I was thinking about where to bring you guys today, this was a pretty spectacular setting and I just thought there would be a lot of visual interest over and above watching a photographer endeavoring to take a photograph.

The thing that's important when you go out to make art anywhere is you don't allow what was in your mind that might be the thing that you're interested in or looking for to get in the way of what you find when you actually arrive.

And I might have had in my mind that--of some picture out on the end there, but as soon as I got here, I saw something that was really attractive and I had this goal of making these longer time exposures.

And there's just enough wave action that it will create this kind of ephemeral environment.

So it's probably too long for this exercise, but these are 30-second exposures that I'm taking so that with--I have a filter on there that blocks the light so I can actually take a long exposure in the daytime.

And then although the surf is pretty small at the moment, it'll capture all of the movement in 30 seconds, and that ends up creating varying--depending on the light, almost an ethereal kind of--sometimes it looks like fog.

Sometimes it just has this wonderful lyrical light quality.

But very different than a very quick exposure where you catch a wave at the peak of its movement.

So when you come out to a location like this, say for instance, there is so much eye candy, would be one way of thinking about it, that it can be overwhelming.

And it's difficult for a lot of people to take this huge palette of the natural world around us and take it down to what the camera sees, you know?

Something in that area.

Whatever your art form, but since we're talking about photography today, is that when you go out to a place, and admittedly this is a spectacular one, the most important thing is that you enjoy yourself, that you're there not only in the moment, but you appreciate every aspect of the time that you have here.

And the best photographs will come out of the photographer that is feeling that joy in the moment.

David: We get so many images and photos, just an onslaught in our daily lives now with computers and phones, and they just whiz by.

And you see 'em once and maybe they look great, but then you never see them again.

Is there something to be said for experiencing a photo in person with a print, with a frame, in a setting, a gallery setting, a context or a home, that rises that experience more than just seeing so many images?

William: Well, I think that's true of anything in life.

There's such a barrage of visual imagery because people are holding phones in their hands.

When they watch TV, all the editing is very quick and very rapid.

All the advertisements are done that way.

They're designed for a very short attention span.

And one of the exercises that we had in early photographic practice was the instructor would take a piece of mat board and they would cut an opening whatever size that the camera that the student was using.

So if it was 2-1/4" square, it would be a square.

If it was 4"x5", or 5"x7", or whatever.

And then you would take this mat board and you'd go around and you'd put it like this.

And it wasn't until all of this was reduced down to what was inside the rectangle did the student actually see for the first time.

Because this is overwhelming, but this, I can deal with this.

And then they would go and they'd go, "Oh my God, look at that."

Now, if you take it away, they wouldn't even have seen it, but you put it up and they go, "Oh, look at that.

Oh!"

You know?

And that was one of the best training exercises I ever saw.

So going into your larger point, any time that you isolate something-- and it doesn't have to be a photograph.

It could be a painting, could be anything, it could be your partner-- where all you look at is them or that piece, and you get rid of all the superfluous chatter, if you can quiet your mind enough, you'll actually see it for the first time.

And in seeing it for the first time, like when my son comes to a show, he'll stop and he'll look at each piece for three or four minutes.

And I'm so proud of--and I've never asked him to do that, but I'm so proud of him for doing that.

And then at the end, he'll actually have an insightful comment about something he saw or, "Gee, the juxtaposition of these two things changes the whole movement within the piece."

And I'm thinking, "That's my son," you know?

David: Yeah, and also over time, that if you, you know, if you have a photo that you like in your house, you know, and you have different moods and you're having different experiences, sometimes you have different feelings and revelations about, you know, what that photo means to you.

That's kind of, you know, my experience.

William: Well, I would always-- like, preparing for a show, I would always put them up and some were good for three or four days, some were good for a week, and some were good for a lifetime.

And you want as many lifetime ones in a show as possible.

And you're not worried about the viewer.

There's no way as an artist that you can please any or everyone that will ever come see your work, and this is true of all artists.

All artists all need--are only trying to please themselves because there's--it's your work.

No one else--we're all individuals.

We're all different and we can only be ourselves.

And if you try to do something other than what's within you, the work isn't real.

David: Can you talk to us a little bit about your print process and how it's evolved?

William: Well, I had the classical training with developing film, the dark room, and then there was so many people to look up to.

That was a time when Ansel Adams was-- you know, the calendars were first coming out and he became the first photographic artist known to the country as a whole.

I didn't emulate his work, but he was an incredible technician.

Controlling the process in those days was far more difficult.

Now it's remarkable.

Anyway, I learned a lot of lessons from him.

I really wanted to be technically proficient because I wanted my craft to be on the highest level that it could be.

And then once you get there, that goes in the background.

You don't even think about it again and then that never gets in the way then of seeing.

If you're worried about what lens, or gee, what developer am I gonna do this with, or whatever, all that does is get in the way.

So once you have the craft, the craft goes in the background and then that allows the seeing to be unimpeded.

David: There's a humorous story that you told in one of your many interviews about the first art project in kindergarten that you did.

William: Ha ha ha.

I was thinking of that this morning, as a matter of fact.

David: Can you tell us about that project?

William: Well, I think at one point someone asked me when I knew I was an artist, and I reflected back to that moment in kindergarten.

And it was one of those classic times when I think it was making a candy dish for mom possibly.

So we each sat down with a little flat, you know, rolled out piece of clay, and we were told to make essentially a candy dish for mom.

And all the kids started working with the clay and doing all their things, and I just kept looking at it.

And I got this idea, and this is at five years old, and I went over to where the toys were and there was a set of wood blocks.

And I got a little rectangular wood block about this big, and I came back, and I put it in the center of my clay, cut the edges, and then I pushed it down and I pulled it up.

And I thought, "That's it."

And so the teacher came over and she says, "Well, you can keep working."

And I said, "No, I'm done."

And she said, "Well, no, just keep working on it and put some art into it."

And I looked at her and I said, "No, I'm done."

And I remember that that was the first time that I knew I was an artist because I stood my ground on what I was going to do.

David: That's what I loved about that story.

Here's this five-year-old kid saying, "No, I'm the artist, darn it, and it's done."

William: Exactly.

David: Well, thank you so much for joining us.

This has been a real pleasure to learn about your work, and to meet you, and spend some time with you.

I really appreciate your work and it's been great to learn more about it.

♪♪♪ Kati: We hope you enjoyed today's episode.

David: To visit with more Humboldt County artists, go to studiospace.tv.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ announcer: This activity is funded in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency, and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

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