Good Day Uncut: PMA 50th Craft Show

Philadelphia, we are uncut. What's going on everybody? It's your old pal Hank. Time for a little bit of Friday Uncut. Are you ready for it? You know I am. Strange. I am Hank Flynn, your Pennsylvania Convention Center Bureau Chief, right? I might as well be. Second day of Uncut in a row from the Pennsylvania Convention Center yesterday. The Pennsylvania Conference for Women. Extraordinary thing. 9,000. The area's Korea's most powerful women, actually they came from all over the place, but now they This is the Philadelphia Museum of Art craft show. Oh my lord, buckle up buttercups, I've got things to show you. People aren't even crafting, they're inventing new mediums. I'm about to show you art over the course of the next half hour that you've never seen before. Guaranteed. First, though, we've got to go to the boss, Nancy O'Meara, the show director. Thank you, Dr. Long. Longtime show director, though she remains 34 years old, as always, just like I do. Nancy, great to see you. Is this actually 50 years? Is it 49 or 50 this year? This is our 50th annual. 50th annual. All right, so where do we even begin with it? We're going to see plenty of crafts. Tell us about the craft show, how this all got started. Why is it here? I mean, we love it, and you all are going to be wall-to-wall with people all weekend long. Yes. So, yes, the show started in 1977 at Memorial Hall. A group of women got together and came up with the idea of contemporary craft, and this is where it started. First year, they raised $25,000. That was 1977. They had 125 artists, and from there the show moved to the 33rd Street Armory, the Civic Center, and now we're at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and that's where we are today, 12th and Arch Streets in Exhibit Hall F. I don't know, I think I have some idea, though. You all know the story, I was out for almost three months with a broken leg, started painting and all of that, but isn't that kind of the story with a lot of our crafters? It's not rare air at all. A lot of us do it. Like, Mom, Aunt Tilly likes to crochet. I mean, people do collages and stuff. Crafts are us. It's about as folk as it gets. It's kind of like folk music, but it's crafts. Well, definitely. The artists that are here, this is their livelihood. This is not a hobby. Right. This is their livelihood, and this is more of a high-end contemporary craft show. So this is... They come to look forward to all year round, and they love coming to Philadelphia because Philadelphia is a great audience, very educated, interested in learning about their work and purchasing it, and that's what we want. We want them to sell their work. So as craft shows go, this has got to occupy a pretty high space, right? Nationwide, other crafters, because you have people here from Wisconsin, certainly Philadelphia crafters, but guys, that's because Philadelphia crafters, think about, I mean, Nancy, you made a point before. All the educational places that we have and the amount of artists that we have here in the city, it would only be natural that it would be a good crafting headquarters, Philadelphia, but elaborate. Okay. Even though I probably just made your whole point. All right. So we have 30 states represented, 195 artists. We have 40 artists new to the show. And yes, as you were saying, Philadelphia has some great... We have opportunities to learn. We have Tyler, we have the Pen Studio, the Museum of Art and Wood, lots of wonderful places for artists to go and learn, take classes. And then some of the artists do go to college and they take metalsmithing or woodworking and some learn on their own. They just learn. They figure it out themselves or they take some classes along the way. So we have a mixture of that. A really good mixture. And you're about to see some of it, guys. Now, is it always the Philadelphia Museum of Art craft show? Why is it titled? Is it sponsoring? No, what it is, it's a fundraiser for the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Fair enough. So all the money we raise goes back to the museum. Oh, wow. So yes, we've raised up $15.3 million in the last 49 years, and we give it back to the museum, and they're able to use it. That's a huge amount of money. Thank you. I think so. It is. Yes, it is. Boy, I can't wait for the day when I'm like, man, $15 million. I don't know. Don't see the sun rising on that one, Nance, but good for you all. It all goes back to the museum, and it supports special exhibitions. Equipment for conservation department, publications, children's programs, art kids at the museum, which is a wonderful program. Now, do they have a horn fanfare for you every time you walk through the door over there? Fifteen million bucks. Your name ought to be up on one of those plaques. It ought to be. Thanks. Now they do. What are you most excited about? You wouldn't have done this if you didn't love it. You love this work. I do love it. And you've been at the top and the bottom. You don't have to name anybody in particular. We're going down an aisle that there's a ton of award winners on. Go on. Give me some crafts, one or two, that you... Anybody blow your mind this year where you're like, my God. And I'm going to be like, name your favorite child, so I can't do that, sorry. Sure, well, all right. That's actually a good analogy. Okay, all right, I'll take that. Yes, but, you know, a great category that we do have that we started including a couple years ago is the emerging artist category. Okay. So to be an emerging artist. Why is it great? Yes, it's great because some people graduate from school or they, you know, develop something, they develop their talent. Yeah. And they realize that they don't have any money, so they can't do anything further with it. It's kind of a problem. So what we did was... They can't apply to a show because they don't have enough inventory and it's too expensive. So the emerging artists, you apply as an emerging artist. So you're not up against seasoned ceramics or woodworkers or metalsmith artists. So you get sort of bunched into all the emerging artists. Bunched, that's the word. Well, there's a lot of good artists and crafters in that category, and you needed one. Yes, and also they get a break on their booth fee and that sort of thing. And then they're also together at the space. So you see all the emerging artists in one row, which I think we're good at. We're going to go out. No question. All right, guys. Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show here at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. All weekend long. Nancy, give them some details. People can still come. It's not like you're sold out, are you? No. Today's Friday. We're open until 7 o'clock tonight. We're open tomorrow, Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $20 a person. $20 is extremely reasonable. You can buy a two-day ticket for $25. Children, 12 and under, $5. Everyone's welcome, and it's a great place to come and talk to the artist, meet the artist, and also... Develop a relationship and maybe buy something. And that's a wonderful thing. Thank you. Guys, Nancy O'Meara, show director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show here at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. People walking by. It's crowded here. Guys, I'm about to show you some stuff that's going to blow your hair back. You're going to be like the guy in the Maxwell commercial, sitting back in the chair. You know what I mean. I'll be back in two minutes with more Uncut. Stick around. Are you the artist? All right. All right. Uh, guys, uh, look, we're at the, uh, Philadelphia Museum of Art craft show, and yeah, you were looking straight down the barrel of a plexiglass, uh, rocket stuffed with greenbacks. It's called rocket fuel after all. How do we get these things up into orbit, uh, without money? Uh, Scott, we did not set this up. You good to be on TV with me? I'm Hank. I'm with Fox 29. It's a pleasure to meet you. Congratulations on these things. Take me through a little bit. You got hand grenade planters, which is nuts. Are you a veteran? No. Not that you would have to be, but the atomic bomb womb with the baby in it is, I don't even know where to begin. I'm impressed. I would have no idea. What's the title of it? It's Atom Bomb. Atom Bomb. And the Eve of Destruction, so it's in the womb. And how we divide. You're raised to be a good person, kind, loving, taking care of other people and then at one point they decide that you need to go to war and be a killer and that dividing of the self is dividing Adam's soul and that's a big thing of destruction in our society and in a person. That's why veterans come back destroyed as they are. They want to be good, they want to be protectors, but in order to do that they have to change who they are to be a killer and I think that's wrong. So that's kind of what it's representing is that feeling of that destruction and that divide. I was in the Army for two years. I relate to everything that you're saying. Where are you from? Where are you based? I live up in Malta, New York. Okay. Upstate New York. But I'm from New Mexico originally. All right. How could someone, because we've got a lot of artists to talk to, how does someone get a hold of you online if they're interested? InternalFireGlass.com. Internal fire blast. InternalFireGlass.com. His name is Scott Hronich, guys. Hronich or Hronich? Hronich. All right. Pleasure to meet you, Scott. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much and thank you for your wild Beautiful art. Very, very cool. Guys, come and see him. He's just one more here at the Old Craft Show. Good to meet you, Scott. Thank you. All right, guys, and I think this is probably Andrew Iannazzi. He is an award winner. Look at these glasses posted up all over everywhere. It's insane. So much good stuff. I'm going to take you straight over here to Robert Zumwalt, guys, As a Philadelphia artist, And he's got people in here already. Remember, guys, the show is actually open. So a lot of the artists that I'm trying to talk to are going to be having customers. And as Nancy told you, this is their livelihood. So, yeah, they're trying to move some merchandise for sure. Robert Zumwalt in here. And then Jody Graff is over here. Let me show you some stuff. And she won an award. You might be able to talk to her. Check out some of this stuff. You might have thought that this was wood, but it's not. It's leaves. Ma'am, I'm sorry. Pardon me. Jodi, hey, can you grab that microphone and just either click it on or hold it up? First of all, Jodi. We'll frame you up like this with the glorious royal purple ribbon right behind you. Look at you slam dunking. A big prize down here. You won the Louise Binswanger Award. I don't know what that is, but it's good size. What was amazing was the two sisters that helped establish the award in honor of her mother. Their mother were who gave me the award last night. Small town. It was wonderful. It was just so wonderful to be here. Jodi Graff, take us through some of your art. You work out of the Italian market. You're one of Philadelphia's favorite daughters. But look at what you're doing with some leaves here. It's really hard to kind of look at it and know what it is. You can admire it. It's beautiful, but I would not be able. I got that kind of mind. I have to kind of break it down and know what it is. I don't have to do that to enjoy it. But if I do enjoy it, I'm going to want to know, what have you done here? What are you working with? How did you do it? So I collect all the leaves myself. I have some collection partners that are more formal spaces like Stoneleigh, Garden Out of Villanova. Well, I would imagine right now, too, in the fall, you guys are probably ballistic. Very missing. Ha, ha, ha, ha. For sure. I grow some of the things myself, even though I'm in a row home, because I want to be able to control when I take them. I do collect some things from the ground, but I am very picky because it literally has to have just detached from the tree. Well, it's got to last a little bit, too. If it's brittle and falls apart, I mean, maybe once it gets under the glass, it'll be okay. Well, and I press them immediately after collecting them. Right. And I think that's part of why they preserve so well. I do not add any glycerin or any other preservatives to them. Jodi, where are you online? I don't know if you've got a place for people to come and see, but if they can't make the craft show... So how can somebody find you? You can find me on Instagram. I'm under WhyNotI with two underscores. WhyNotI. And I would love for them to come take a look. It's a pleasure to meet you. Congrats on the award and your wonderful artwork. Could I have that mic back, please? Absolutely. That way I don't have to grab her on her chest. You know what? Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Jodi, congratulations. Beautiful stuff. All right, guys, moving over here. Actually, let me take a quick break. This is one of those shows where I get a little bit carried away and got to really make sure I keep the wheels on the track. Let's take a quick two-minute break, guys. We'll be right back here at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show. So much left to see. Come on back. All about the crafts, guys, once again here at the Philadelphia Museum of Art's craft show. Nancy O'Meara, the show director, has already told us about the Emerging Artists program. She says some of those emerging artists who are really just trying to scrape it together, be the crafters they dream of being, have actually won awards in this show already. We're in the booth of Robert Zumwalt, who is one of Philadelphia's crafters. Robert, congratulations. Thanks so much for being a part of it. Are you an emerging crafter? Are you part of that program? Yeah, I'm an emerging artist here. What has it done for you at all? I didn't know about it. Nancy told me something about it. How does it help a guy? Oh, it's wonderful. They gave me a little bit of a discount so it's easier to be here for me. Okay. And thousands of people are here to see my work. You're working in porcelain, but, and guys, again, Robert's an example of the people that it starts off with what you think is a medium, but then you realize he's doing things with it that no one else is doing, and he's almost kind of inventing his own thing. I appreciate that, yeah. Yeah, for sure. You know, it helped that I didn't know the rules of porcelain, and so you just have to Then you don't have to adhere to them. And it's just porcelain. No one's going to throw you in jail for slapping clay on something and baking it, right? Yeah, yeah. So I just made up my own rules, figured out what works. You can pretty much burn anything off. Well, I mean, take a piece like this. It looks like it's made with flakes, but then this layer goes over the front. The layer's got all these different colors, but the texture of what's underneath... And I stare at it as I would a good piece of art. I'm not trying to figure out what it is, but to just try to understand its place in space. Yeah, thank you. It is all abstract, so it's whatever you can make out of it. But these are shadow lines, and porcelain's amazing that it's also translucent. So you're just looking into the clay itself, and that's giving it a lot of texture, a lot of shadow lines. You enjoy working with it. Oh, it's amazing. It's amazing material. People think it's fussy. It just has its own rules. Sure, and guys, I swear, I'm not just planting the flag on Philadelphia artists here. Robert, where can folks find you online? Maybe there's an Instagram or something for folks who can't make a craft show. Yeah, robert.zumwalt on Instagram is where you can find me. And I have a website, robertzumwalt.com. Beautiful. Pleasure to meet you guys. And thanks so much for the good stuff. Come on out to the show, though, and meet him in person. You can talk his ear off, and he'll listen to you. I'll tell you another person that'll talk to you, too, is Nancy Nagel from Nangelini. I guess that's how you pronounce it. And if you look at Nancy Nagel, she's not... Look at her stuff, and then look at these two women, and try to decide which one of them is Nancy Nagel. Look at the scarf. I asked her if the woman had a loom. She said she has several looms. And I suppose you would need them to put something together as intricate as all of that. And Nancy's in the process of selling a scarf, I think, right now, guys. This is why I kind of got to be careful. I'm not the one to bust up somebody's sale by trying to talk to them. Hey, Nance. You got a second? I know you're in the middle of something. Here, just put that on. Don't go away from her. Ma'am, I'm Hank. I'm with Fox 29, and Nancy's a superstar. Can I steal 30 seconds from her? I don't want to pull her away. I'm just going to take this piece on the rack over here. Yes, you do. Go ahead. She said yes, you do. She knows me better than I do. This one's painted warp, and this one's also painted warp. Look at these hats. Thank you. Nancy, if I had a hat like that, I'd never take it off. Look at that. Your colors, your palette is what gets me. I don't know where you're finding your thread or your yarn or whatever it is you're working with. God forbid how you put it together to get intimate, intricate patterns like these. The way your color flows, forget about it. I'm not, why would you tell me anyway? But you're clearly, have you been using looms and knitting for a long time? You're clearly a master. Thank you. I started out crocheting freeform in like the late 90s on Yahoo groups with my friends. And then slowly evolved into a freeform weaver. And then I evolved from that into a complex weaver working with parallel threaded painted warps. I just don't know how you get it to change so gradually coming down like that. All I can do is marvel at it and you shouldn't tell anybody, you know. Thank you. It's fabulous. Ma'am, what do you think? How are you? It's beautiful. I love it. I do, too. Nancy, a lot of people are going to be here all weekend long. You're not going to have a single thread on the shelves by the time they all leave because they're going to buy you dry. Thank you. But for folks who are interested, go ahead and put it out real quick. Nancy Nagel of the great city of Philadelphia. Have you got social media or are you... Pardon me, ma'am. I'm sorry. Any way for folks to get a hold of you if they can't make it out? I'm on Instagram as Nangelini underscore... Nangelini. That's it, guys. N-A-N-G-E-L-L-I-N-I underscore... For underscore real. It's Nangelini for real. Nangelini for real with the underscores. All right. Well, look, congratulations on it. Hey, guys, come on out to the craft show. Anyway, let me have that microphone back. Nancy, thank you so much. Thanks for coming by. Honestly. I think I just, I don't know if you heard me, if I had one of those hats back there, I'd never take it off. Did you ever see the episode of The Simpsons where Marge got a Chanel dress and she liked it so much she never took it off? I love that. And wore it for several days? That's great. For several weeks? Anyway, Nancy, thank you so much. So much to see, guys. It would be my dream to do a four-hour uncut and talk to every crafter in here. But when we do get back, we're going to be talking to this smiling, handsome gentleman here, Leo Reinhardt, who has everybody standing around his booth. And he's got young people mystified. There are marbles falling over. There's clinking and jamming. There's confusion. What's going to happen next? You'll have to stick around for more Uncut when we get back. All right, everybody, back to the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. And we've dropped into the booth of Leo Reinhart, who is here with his dad, Wolf, who is over there. Wolf is guarding the place just in case anyone wants to grab a $12,000 copper sculpture with a bicycle chain on it and go running out the door. Good luck to you. Leo, what have you done here? This is both. Like, my favorite artists are the ones where I really question if they're really 100% here with us or not. You're way... Out there, dude. This is nuts, and it's so cool and so beautiful. I guess the question would be, how do you even start doing something like this? And what's it like when you're halfway through? Where do you get the patience to create something like this? Well, it takes about two months to get something like this finished. At least. At least. Yeah, I kind of make a basic structure that I kind of start from the top down, and I kind of work the way... Worked my way down the piece, extending the tracks as I go. You're thinking ahead in a certain way because the ball always has to go somewhere. Gravity is never going to turn off. It's always going to pull it down. Where will it go next? Yes. But the setups that you have to do, I guess if you do it enough, you'll get to start doing those things fairly intuitively. Intuitive kind of sense for how things are going to move, how things are going to go. Thank you very much. Yeah. Does it make you happy? Because I've got no problem telling you. You're doing something here that no one else is doing, and if it's making you happy, you should really keep doing it. Make one 12 feet tall, dude. I don't know if it can sustain itself. I don't know if it'll hold itself up, you know? I would love to make public installations. I think that would be the next thing that I would love to do. Your mouth, your lips to God's ears, Leo Reinhardt, as he stands here next to the... And the style, guys. Look at the way some of, you know, you're welding? Welding and soldering for the most part. Yeah, for sure. Leo, I got to go. I could stay in here with you all day long. Leo Reinhardt, guys. You're from West Lebanon in New Hampshire. Put it out there if people can't make it. How can we find you online? Come on. Leo. leoreinhardt.com and leo.sculptures for Instagram. Ryan. All right. Well, congratulations, Leo. It's really crazy stuff. I hope you sell it all out. And you're going to have a lot of people standing in front of your booth. Just stand. Staring all weekend long. You're used to that, right? Good stuff. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Wolf, nice job. Your kid's out of his mind. It's perfect. It's beautiful. Thank you. What's the biggest one he's ever made? Have you got one in the house that just goes from the upper floor down to the lower floor? I wish. I have exactly those two floors, but not yet. God bless you. It's coming. Thank you again. We'll see you soon. Oh, my gosh. Holy moly, we're here. Melissa Wilson is here. Melissa, hang on to this microphone. All right, guys, you thought Leo was weird? Talk about inventing your own medium. He's not a painter or a sculptor or a singer. He does those things. This is the great Melissa Wilson of Michigan. We're in Michigan. Right next to Detroit, Michigan. Gotcha, right next to Detroit, and you can see it in some of those. If you've ever even imagined, but this says Pennsylvania on it, the closer you look to these guys, the more you're gonna wonder exactly what it is this is. The Plexi is a frame, Is this a piece of metal? It feels like a lithograph or even like almost like a graphic stamp or even a silkscreen, Melissa. I'm looking at it and I cannot suss it out. Yeah, it's a piece of actual copper. So this is one that's not in the frame. So it's a pretty thick piece and it usually starts with around a 22-gauge copper. How do you... I'm not trying to get you to tell me all your secrets, but this... I just, I don't understand. The copper is clearly shaped. Can I touch it? Yeah. Because there's the imprint in here. You've got the imprint of the shape in there. I feel like maybe you drew something and even made like a sand bed and poured copper. It's crazy. It's a solid piece of copper, but then I start with taking a picture, and then from that I do a drawing and transfer that onto... The copper plate, and then it sits in a saltwater bath for many hours, and that saltwater eats away at the place. The saltwater makes the corrosion happen a thousand times faster, and that's the effect that you're looking for, is that good patina and everything. How does an artist come to a place where they're doing, how did you find this? You said it took you years to develop, and you didn't know where you were going when you did, did you? I always knew I wanted to do something with salt and copper because Detroit is built on top of salt mines. And in Michigan, we have a rich history of copper mining. Well, in Detroit, you've got a rich history of... The industrial, and there's so many haunted old buildings, you're never going to get tired of things to represent. No, no, there's not. And I found that, like, coming to Philly... Same thing. Same thing, and I love it here. And so I was really excited when I got into this show to come and... I do Philly. You're radical. Melissa Wilson, guys. They are strange pieces of glorious copper-based art. Where are you online? I've got to go. The show's almost over. Where are you online? How can we find you if we're not here this weekend? I have a website. What is it? It's... Is it melissawilson.com? No, but I'm writing. It is melissawilson192 at Gmail. She's fabulous. Guys, come on out to the craft show this weekend. It's going to be packed Saturday and Sunday. They'll be open. Have a blast. Don't ever leave. Buy everything. Have a lot of fun. Meanwhile, it's noontime for a Friday noon show with Jen Fred. Stick around.