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.