1234.

Get my shoes in.

Out the door.

Five.

I'm lost.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

Feels great.

I'm gonna shine.

After I do what I'm gonna do.

I do it again.

Yeah.

Look at the sky with the beautiful color.

But never just for me.

You gotta share it with another.

I got to show, to give.

Let I want singing show.

Take a look and say a beautiful morning that turns into a beautiful evening.

And together make beautiful art.

And if you wanna see that, come along with me.

That's right.

Welcome to Experience Michiana.

We're so glad you're here.

Joining us.

It's a beautiful day today.

I hope it's a great day for you too.

We have a wonderful lineup for you this week.

We want you to check out the well crafted series, put together in partnership with the Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

That's a really great one.

You want to make sure you get all the details on that.

Next up, we head over to Judith Rock.

I love her stuff.

She's amazing.

And we have a couple of new exhibitions that are going to be displayed.

You want to get the details on how to see all of that.

But first up, we're right here at Island Park in Elkhart.

We're going to talk to you about Rhapsody Arts and Music Festival.

You don't want to miss out on that one.

It's that time of year again.

It's time for the rapture, the arts and music festival.

We're here in Elkhart.

I have my friend Liz with me.

Thank you for joining me today.

It's a beautiful day today.

It is a beautiful.

I hope it gets better for the festival too, right?

I very much hope so.

Weather was not our best friend last year.

We still was a beautiful festival and had a lot of people out.

But yeah, the rain kind of deterred a lot of people from coming.

But it does happen.

Rain or shine.

It does happen.

Right or shine, right?

Definitely bring your umbrella, poncho, all of that.

The stage is covered.

So all of our musicians are protected from that aspect.

And then we do have a couple of shelters that you're able to kind of hide into if needed.

Now, you guys have been doing this for a number of years, over four decades, right?

46 years.

Six years.

Insane.

It's the longest running festival in Elkhart.

So we get to hold that title that.

That's awesome.

So I know you guys have grown over the years, right?

And now we have this beautiful space.

I see that you guys have taken out some of the things that used to be here, right?

We did.

So for the longest time we had benches in our band shell and it just gets a little crowded.

People were wanting to get up and dance and groove and do all their things.

So we've done a little bit different layout this year.

The stage will be up on the north side, and it will give a chance for people to bring their own lawn chairs and blankets and all that.

We'll have the picnic tables available if you don't want to lug everything with you, but it's going to be a really good time.

I'm really excited to see people get more interactive with the band, and that's some of the change.

But really, let's talk about what makes this festival so wonderful and why people keep coming back every year.

It really is the conglomeration of everything.

So along with our eight bands that we'll have performing, we have over 50 artisan vendors and makers and crafters that will be out here.

And then we have our food court area with over 20 food trucks.

So you're going to eat.

You're going to be good here.

You have the barbecue.

We have breakfast swings.

We will on Saturday city pizza for breakfast, right.

You're really good.

We've got the puzzles and pizzas.

Yeah, but we are adding a new component this year over.

We're expanded so much.

We're back over on the Lundquist Bicentennial side of Island Park, where we will have our family zone.

They have their own family entertainment stage area.

Oh, really?

So what happens in the family zone?

So over there is more of our, like, interactive crafts.

So you bring the kiddos, you have the bigger family we have Elkhart Art League will be over there.

Honeypot Studios, we'll be doing a couple of craft items.

Growing kids is our main family zone sponsors, so they'll have an area where you can do a lot of things with them.

This year we added a couple of carnival rides.

I hate to call them that because they're not like the intense ones.

We have the giant slide that you get to go down, a little fun house to walk through.

Yeah, and then five five Star Life will be out here and they will have their climbing wall, it seems like.

How do you fit it all in here?

Right.

All the people who come.

How many people usually come out for this?

We usually average between 20 and 30,000, depending on a lot.

It is a lot in two days.

Not all at once.

And they are big days.

On Friday we do start at noon.

Food courts will be open, the vendors will be open and then live music starts at five.

Okay.

And then on Saturday it is a full day, 10 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

we've incorporated we do our weekly farmer's market here in Elkhart.

Yeah, normally over at Curly Park just off of NIB Co Parkway, but we're going to bring them over and let them experience Rhapsody.

So that's all of our farmers market vendors with their fresh produce and everything will be over here.

So yeah, it's going to be a really big day.

That is now for those who haven't been to this space before.

How do we get on to the island?

Because I know I was crushing the bridge and I was like, how does this work?

The only not allowed to drive on island.

Please don't.

You will get turned around, but we do have several parking spots available.

If you're coming from the north side, you can enter off of Beardsley.

There is parking at our high dive pavilion along with air.

Excel lets us use their overflow parking.

Okay, great.

We have one class, Bicentennial Park, with their parking lot, Beacon Aquatic Centers right there, so there's plenty of public parking around that area.

And then on the west side, right behind Main Street is another public parking spot.

Ada is right off of Sycamore Street on the west side, so you have some extra resources available to get people parking lot.

And then we do have our shuttles.

Once you hit any of those bridges, we will put you on a shuttle and get you where you need to be.

There you go.

So people need to bring their lawn chair or their blanket to hang out here.

But you have food here.

We have food money because you're in your money with those vendors, I'm sure.

Yes.

And like you said, there will be breakfast, they'll be lunch.

There will be dinner available.

And it's a family environment and it's free.

It is free.

Yes.

Mean.

That's amazing.

Thanks to our sponsors who are doing something like that.

So we have plenty of sponsors.

Legacy Heating and Air is one of them.

Jayco - Waste Away Group donates a lot of in-kind possibilities for us.

And then like I said, growing kids with our family zones.

That's amazing.

What a wonderful way to bring the community together.

And like you said, this is one of the biggest things that happens in Elkhart.

This is kind of or in Elkhart, Elkhart City, okay County, we do get a little competition from the county fair and things like that within the city limits.

This is our longest running.

One of our biggest people look forward to it every year.

And definitely being able to add more activities for them to do has been.

And it keeps growing, I know, right?

I love it, so sooner or later we're going to be in the water.

No, I mean you do have our electro fishing that are down there.

So they have their little boat.

So that is her public works department, okay.

And they are kind of like our fish education people.

Sure.

So they go in, they have tanks that they set up.

You can interact.

They talk about the fish, the ones that are actually living in our Elkhart River, Saint John River.

They have their boat out there that they will drive around and let people interact with them.

So yeah, it's really very now that's really cool too, I love that.

So we got education wrapped into this too.

Yeah.

You're gonna learn something when you come to in all of the vendors to how do we find out about the lineup, or do you want to talk about the lineup today of all the different musicians that we have, you said there's eight different musicians.

Kicks off on Friday at five.

We have Memphis Underground.

That takes the stage at six.

I mean, we're like central here.

Yeah.

And then followed up by King B and the Stingers, which is a blues band actually out of Bloomington.

They were at our Blues festival in September, and the crowd fell in love with them.

And I was like, you're coming, you're coming back.

And then on Saturday, right at 10 a.m., Caitlin Foust we'll be singing over at the farmers market, Levi Lambert.

Jack will then kick things off on the main stage at noon.

Okay.

And then the 2:00 will be our test of time, which is Dave Kilgore, which is one of our local favorites.

That plays a lot of our local establishments.

And then we have Bentley, formerly known as blame, not the bards or kind of Irish folk that will be coming out.

6:00 will be Darrell Buchanan, another local favorite with all of your favorite that he's sayings.

And then we're really excited because this hour, 8:00, our headliner has been coming up a lot, and it's Teague Holt and the Lonesome Pine.

So been getting a lot of recognition just locally here in the area.

He's currently down in Indy doing great things getting these are all local and regional artists that you guys are bringing in here, which is really great to showcase that it is.

And we want to boost our economy both on that side.

But also you want your favorites.

You want the people you know and see and love and be able to come support them as well.

All the more reason to get here.

Now.

When is this happening?

Oh yeah, the dates.

So next Friday, June 12th, we is our start date and then continues on to at Saturday, June 13th.

And how can people get information if they want to see like the vendors and the different times that they need to be here for the different.

Yeah.

So our Facebook page, which is at Elkhart Parks, both Facebook and Instagram will be running everything you need to know now and then about our musicians, our artists, and also what to bring, not to bring.

Sure.

And then always our website, which is City of Elkhart in backslash parks and we'll give you all that information.

Perfect.

All right.

Well thank you so much, Liz.

I hope you guys have an amazing turnout.

And it's going to be perfect weather, right?

I'm so excited.

It is.

And if it's not, you guys are still coming out.

Bring your panchos.

We will be out here, rain or shine.

Believe me, I love it.

Thanks.

I am here at the Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Bureau, and I'm here with Terry.

Terry this time of the year.

The sun is shining.

Lots of people in town.

How busy is Elkhart County for outside tourists?

Because is it just people traveling through, or is it actually a destination for a lot of people?

Yeah, it's a lot of people coming in, whether they're coming here for the quilt gardens or to experience Amish country, or to just really experience all the many faceted, multifaceted things we have here.

So it's June's a great month to explore and see public art.

Yeah, because often, you know, when you live somewhere you don't really you know, you don't see it through the eyes of a tourist.

But, you know, there's so many things and so many reasons for people to want to come here.

So what are some of the things that are going on throughout the month?

So, I mean, I think one of the big highlights for a lot of people is the Elkhart Jazz Festival that's happening later this month, but there's also Goshen First Fridays and the cruise ins at the essence House and Elkhart Artwalk.

There's just many, many things to do just while you're also seeing things like the quilt gardens and public art.

Yeah.

And so you talk about the quilt gardens.

What's the season for that to for people to be able to see them.

So the cool Gardens will run until September 15th.

And really by about the end of June, we'll probably start hitting the peak.

The flowers will have filled in a little bit, and you'll really start to see the patterns.

And many of them have have patterns that are either historical in nature, or they are specifically honoring America's 250, as with some star spangled type themes.

Nice, I like that.

And so our quilt gardens, you know, what's the history behind them here?

Why is it so popular here?

And like, does this happen in every community or is it is it pretty prevalent here?

Compare.

The cold are one of a kind.

It started here because of our quilting heritage, like many of our Amish, but also rest of our community are really were devoted to that craft of quilting.

And then we combine that with flowers and that made for a perfect summertime attraction.

Yeah.

And so is that one of the biggest reasons why people do come in from outside to to see these?

What is it?

It is it brings people in.

But then as you're visiting each garden, you then discover that there are some cool things to do, whether you're you're in Elkhart or Goshen or Middlebury, that there are parks or restaurants they can go check out as well.

And I know that, like the trails here lately have been getting a lot of attention as well across the country.

So what are some of the other reasons that you see people coming into the area?

So the Pumpkin by Nature trail is wonderful.

It was recently rated Top the Reader's Choice Award by USA today readers.

And so that was pretty impressive because they beat out some well-known trails in larger areas.

And but it's a really wonderful ride.

It connects Goshen Middlebury and Chip Seana.

And then through other trails you can extend that and go into downtown Elkhart even.

Yeah.

No it's great.

And again you know one of the things when I first moved to this area people were like why would you move here?

And I'm like, there's lots of great things here.

So and I know that you're constantly trying to promote that.

And that's one of the reasons we have experienced Michiana as a show.

So what would you say to local people who haven't necessarily experienced Elkhart County?

You know, maybe they don't think of it as a destination.

I would say find your favorites.

Whatever your interest is, I'm pretty confident you'll be able to find an activity or program that matches that.

I love my wife and I love public gardens, so the Wellfield Botanic Gardens is is a must see for us in the summer with their summer concert series.

But the place to start is Elkhart County Events.

Com.

You can search by date, by community or by type of activity.

It could be arts, could be theater or music.

Yeah, and I know that we have a well crafted series that we're highlighting here and experience in Michiana.

So tell me a little bit about this episode that we're about to watch.

What's Sunday?

So Sunday came here to study at Goshen College and really kind of fell in love with this area.

He developed some relationships and got interested in metal sculpting, and he's stayed in this area and his artwork is just just wonderful striking.

It's very it really grabs your attention when you see it out, when you're walking about.

And then, you know, you can see Sunday at local art shows, art fairs.

He's all over the area.

I think he's been as far north as Grand Rapids for Art Prize.

So besides Sunday, there are other many wonderful public sculpture artists out there who have their works in the area.

All right.

Well, let's have a let's have a look.

Let's learn more about them.

Hi.

My name is Sandy Mahajan.

I'm originally from Nigeria.

At the time, I had always wanted to be an athlete, a basketball player.

So I moved to England and travel quite a bit and I got contacted by an agent who connected me to Go Shin College.

So I came to Goshen College as a student athlete, and since then, after I graduated, I remained in the city of coaching.

While I was in college, I picked interest in sculpture after meeting my professor at the time, John Mitchell, who is also a sculptor, and now he's my mentor.

When I took sculpture, I saw that it was coming to me more naturally, and there wasn't my kind of style very common in these areas.

I always described myself on my work as someone who breathed life into discarded material.

So I take recycled metal and I give it a new life, which is not something that is so much common in this area.

So usually my process from collecting metal to becoming a finished product would be me just sorting for different metal based on their shape or the thickness.

Unlike most artists or most sculptors, they will already have a image in their head they wanted to create or have a sketch.

I don't really sketch.

I'm not a sketch type of guy, so I collect the metal and in the process of me thinking of something to make whatever shape that I could see in the metal would determine where I'll go from it.

So if I want to make a bird, for example, I take a metal that doesn't quite look like a bird, but I put the pieces together once it starts to look like a bird.

So I use my MiG welder to put the metals together until I could get a definite shape that I want.

And then I go through the process of grinding it down to take like all the old and rust out of it, to give it the distinct look that I want it to look.

There was one series of piece that I made.

It was called A Holy Family.

So the Holy Family, which I have them in the yard.

There is a it's a mother and child, basically Mary and Joseph.

So it will be the nativity scene from the Bible.

At the time I made that immigration was a thing everyone was talking about.

And as an immigrant, I always take ideas of what is going on around me to put it into a piece that I'm creating.

So in my mind, I thought, like, the oldest immigration story that I could think of would be Mary and Joseph leaving Bethlehem and running away from the law and all that stuff.

So immigration has always been a huge part of my life, because behind every work that I put out there, there's always a story about it.

And most people like to hear the story behind each work.

And that way I get them engaged because primarily my work could be also described as me taking something or event that has happened in the past and recreating it in my own way for people to see.

And one typical example would be the Mount of Hiroshima, where the US marine are raising a flag on the mount of.

He was.

So I took that photograph and I recreated that in metal.

So there's always that entry into my work that people like to know where the story is coming from.

So the people who buy my art are very important to me.

I started off selling my art to people in the community.

They're very supportive.

They will come out to my shows, to my talk and follow me when I go to shows.

They went outside the community and they've been supportive by buying and encouraging me and pushing me to the next level.

Once again we are at the Judith Racht Gallery and Judith.

We're so thankful to see you and that you're willing to share another great exhibit with us.

Tell us about what this exhibit is.

It features a couple of different artists.

Yes.

What is it and why did you put this one together?

Well, Clifford came, and he was so persistent that I kind of looked and looked again and looked again.

And I decided that it would be a good show with Sarah.

His is brightened, colorful, and has this magic to it that, you know, you wouldn't believe.

He's almost 80 years old.

It's so full of life and energy.

And then Sarah lives on the lake and she has this peaceful calm.

And I thought the two would make a good, a good pair.

You know, you go in one room and you see all this color, and then you go in the other room and you see all this wonderful stillness, calm.

Now, today you were nice enough to bring the artists in so that we could talk to them.

And so we're going to have a chance to let each artist kind of tell their story and share with us their work.

Yes.

And you have to make sure that you get the whole story, because Clifford has a history and his wife does too, of artists.

They're both artists, and he's been an artist for a long time.

And Sarah.

Sarah is so talented.

She.

You'll have to talk to her about the the techniques she uses to make these paintings have real deaths.

Well, thank you so much for letting us know about this show.

And we look forward.

We're going to talk to the artist now.

And now I'm here with Clifford and Clifford.

Judith talked about that.

You've been doing art for a long time.

Kind of.

Tell us your story in an abbreviated version.

How did you get started in art and how long have you been doing it?

Well, I've been doing it since the last millennium.

I started out in the 60s, actually.

We had a neighbor and church member who was an artist, and I was very inspired by her work.

She showed me many, many works, and I took a whole bunch home one day.

And based upon looking at all these, I just started painting and drawing and haven't stopped since.

So what kind of art do you do?

And do you do a variety of mediums, or are you one kind of specific?

I in the last few years, almost everything I do is based upon drawing.

During the pandemic, I did probably well over 1000 drawings, and from some of these I arrived paintings that I either paint on canvas or on paper, or I put into a computer and do various transformations of the works.

So this exhibit tell us, does it have a name and what kind of works will we see here?

I think the overall exhibit we call is circling the square between Earth, sky and lake.

So circling implies abstraction, and the earth, sky and lake implies nature.

So I think I'm somewhere between abstraction and naturalistic painting.

And tell us about this piece that we're standing in front of.

This is a piece I did some years ago.

I wear, I work and it's somewhat open.

And so as I was painting, butterflies would actually come in and land on a color that would be the flower they were hoping to find, like here or here.

And so I called this butterfly vision.

But it's part of a series in the scale that I just really let go and use big strokes, bold strokes and old color.

And it's a lot of fun and I hope people appreciate it for that.

There's another couple of works that you wanted to share with us.

Can we walk over there and see those?

Tell us about these.

I have a whole series of paintings that I call Braintree because of the form, the drone form of a. Neck or a trunk that becomes a head or the foliage of a tree.

So I wanted to do these very simply, but have a background that would give it some variety.

So I had splurged on a set of 100 different watercolor paintings by Simile and Fence, who provided paints for most of the well-known French painters of the 19th and 20th century.

And so I just went through the whole palette of paintings, made the squares, and then every other square area of the square, I made a form that could be the tree or a human head, and put them together as a so that they could be shown either together or individually.

Okay, so Sarah, tell us your story.

How did you get started in the world of art?

Well, I was actually trained as a classicist, and I was a Latin teacher for many, many years.

And I started taking workshops, mostly in printmaking.

And I found that I became more and more obsessed with printmaking and less and less obsessed with teaching Latin, and the rest has become history.

So you have an exhibit here.

Explain.

What is this exhibit?

Does it have a theme and what kind of art?

Are we going to see here?

Well, it the theme is the lake which has been which I've lived next to or very close to for much of my life.

And, and the various moods that the lake has and evokes in me and the media are.

It's two different kind of media.

I worked in collage, which this is an example of, and then the other style in this particular show are incorporate paintings, which are pigmented wax paintings, and they sort of reflect different moods and, and very different styles of work.

Tell us about this piece.

So this is an example of one of my collages.

And I think because I started out as a printmaker, I, I was working with these beautiful Japanese papers and I realized I just couldn't stand once she'd made a print to put it behind glass.

So I was trying to figure out a way of working with these papers and not having and freeing them from the frame and the glass.

And so I started collaging with them.

And so these are layers and layers of very, very thin Japanese washi papers and, and other tissue papers and hand-painted papers.

And I layer them on and I work very fast and sort of free.

I'm only allowed.

I have a rule that I can only tear the paper, so the only straight lines or the lines that came from the like, the beautiful decal edge of one of the pages.

And I'm always sort of putting things down and then realizing I've made a mistake and tearing things back.

And, you know, that can be heartbreaking.

This painting actually probably took about two years because I had some start and it wasn't working, and I kept on working at it.

It wasn't working.

And finally I just tarred all down.

And of course, it's so exciting because it just ended up telling me what to do.

It became something very different.

And you get this kind of wonderful palimpsest effect that I couldn't have created intentionally.

So that's that's that.

It feels like summer out here.

I hope you are enjoying it and we'll look forward to seeing you next week on Experience Michiana.

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