Art Rocks! The Series - 912

Season 9 Episode 12 | 27m 54sVideo has Closed Captions | CC

Krewe of Rex, Mardi Gras Day, HNOC, Desiree Kelly, cocktails, roller skating

Aired 03/18/2022

2022 marked the 150th year the Krewe of Rex has rolled down the streets of New Orleans on Mardi Gras Day. Curators from The Historic New Orleans Collection share the story behind the fatted

ox and the popular doubloons associated with this krewe. Vivid portraits by Desiree Kelly of Detroit, Michigan; artisanal cocktails in Reno, Nevada; and the retro art of roller skating in

Columbus, Ohio.

Aired 03/18/2022

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About This EpisodeTranscriptYou Might Also LikeArt Rocks! The Series - 912 Season 9 Episode 12 | 27m 54sVideo has Closed Captions | CC

2022 marked the 150th year the Krewe of Rex has rolled down the streets of New Orleans on Mardi Gras Day. Curators from The Historic New Orleans Collection share the story behind the fatted

ox and the popular doubloons associated with this krewe. Vivid portraits by Desiree Kelly of Detroit, Michigan; artisanal cocktails in Reno, Nevada; and the retro art of roller skating in

Columbus, Ohio.

Aired 03/18/2022

Problems playing video?  Report a Problem | Closed Captioning Feedback

Before you submit an error, please consult our Video Help page.

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Art Rocks! The Series - 912 S9 Ep12

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Rolling.

Up next on Rocks, one of new orleans' oldest Mardi Gras cruised marks a major milestone in portraits depicting icons of public life.

Artisanal cocktails in the making and the retro art of rollerskating.

All that.

Up next, on our rocks Art Rocks is made possible by the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana.

Public Broadcasting and by viewers like you Hello.

Thank you for tuning in for Art Rocks.

With me, James Fox Smith from Country Roads magazine.

When you think about it, it's pretty incredible.

That the city of New Orleans manages to throw what is probably the biggest party in the United States each and every year.

We're talking, of course, about Mardi Gras.

That enviable record can be mostly attributed to the efforts of the city's Mardi Gras crews, private groups of individuals who commit vast amounts of time and money to putting on Carnival

spectacular shows.

And when it comes to keeping the parties going, no groups have done more over a longer period of time than have the crews of comas and wrecks.

20, 22 marks.

150 years of Mardi Gras theatrics for the crew of Rex So let's listen.

As historic New Orleans collection curators Amy Everett and Lydia Blackmore pull back the curtain and reveal the reign of Rex Mardi Gras in New Orleans dates back almost to our founding.

It was always rather haphazard and nothing organized or official.

We've got a letter in our permanent holdings from 1841 written by a young gentleman visiting the city who was not from here, describing celebrations.

He talks about people masking, wearing costumes, dressing up like roosters and bears and being carried around, and a great iron pot.

The first carnival organization was established in 1856, with Kermit's comments adding some more organization.

But they were a night parade and seen as being a little bit more on the wild side.

In 1872, Rex was founded.

Rex was distinctive in that they were a daytime parade and they wanted to impose order on what they saw were unruly crowds and make New Orleans more hospitable for tourists.

Rex was established to create more of that industry of Mardi Gras.

They advertised across the country for people to come to New Orleans.

Rex and other Mardi Gras crews are intricately tied to the economy of Carnival in New Orleans.

This watercolor behind me is by Boyd Kruse, who was a local artist here in the French Quarter.

Estelle in 1949.

But it shows a historical Rex parade and specifically it shows the Rex above Gras which is the fatted ox of carnival that goes back to ancient ancient carnival traditions where you eat all

you can before Lent starts.

So Rex, when they started parading, actually paraded with a real live ox from the stockyards of New Orleans today it is a carnival float with a papier maché ox.

There's a king and a queen every year.

The king of Rex is publicly named, which is, I think, part of why Rex has been so enduring.

Their membership rules are not secret.

Comas is super secretive.

There's a special relationship between Rex and Gomes that has existed for many years.

Their ball every year.

Rex and Combs will meet one of the annual traditions of Rex the toast at the Boston Club So they have these ties with organizations like Comets and the Boston Club.

That they have had for many, many years.

And they continue to have.

Rex, the king of Carnival, leads the parade on Mardi Gras day.

Is usually selected from the membership of Rex as a business leader in New Orleans, a social leader of their crew.

And that person is known So they announce who Rex says that's unlike other Carnival Cruise where the king and the membership is secret.

Rex, his roles are open, and then they select the queen of Carnival.

The queen of the Rex crew is a young woman, usually from the family of a Rex member.

The doubloon was first thrown by Rex in 1960.

They are the first crew to introduce the doubloons to Mardi Gras parades and then doubloons became the go to throw for almost any parading organization or any organization in the city.

And we have the original designs for that 1960 doubloon and the original copper moldings to create them.

Rex has quite a lot of fancy jewelry.

We have crowns and scepter worn by previous wrecks and queens of carnival.

These crowns are made with rhinestones, not fine jewels.

These crowns and supporters, sometimes they pass down through the family and sometimes they come to us through the School of Design, which is the operating name of the Rex organization.

There's some little jewelry that's colloquially called Ducal Decorations.

They are the pins given to high ranking members of the crew, all of the costumes and jewelry are owned by the crews, not by the wares, as sometimes they are gifts from the crew to the

wearer, but it is paid for by the crew.

Parade bulletins were printed by the Times-Picayune and by other newspapers.

They are intricate, detailed illustrations of the parade floats.

So these weren't just given out ahead of the parade.

These were given out as souvenirs or purchased as souvenirs of the parade so that people could take the images of the floats home and continue to look at them and study them and see their

beauty and learn the stories or the mythology that was presented in the parade.

Each year, Rex sends out invitations to its membership, the families of their members and other people in the high society.

And the invitations are just extremely intricate and decorative and play into the annual theme of the parade Our lives are greatly enriched by considering the creative endeavors of others.

So here are some of our picks for notable exhibits taking place at museums and galleries in our part of the world.

For more about these and loads more events in the creative space, visit LTV dot org slash art rocks.

There you'll find links to each episode of the program.

So to see or share any segment again, visit L.P.. Morgan runs We are off to the Midwest now, headed to Detroit, Michigan, which is where you'll find Desiree Kelly capturing Vivid portraits

of public and often historically significant icons frequently.

Kelly incorporates textual elements into her works all the better to illustrate her subject's lives and to share their extraordinary stories Try to go beyond the boundaries.

I just want to speak really through my art.

I find it really powerful to be able to tell a story visually without any words.

My paintings are all about the subjects, and it's all about telling their story, and I want to tell it in a very vibrant, energetic way.

That people want to know about these people.

So I've studied art and I want to make it more interesting.

I came to the point where I was in college and I wanted to decorate my first apartment, and I don't want to hang a flower on my wall.

That's not the type of person I am, and I wanted to make something that was just something you would never find it.

So I had to create it myself.

So the subjects that I picked are people that I'm interested in.

And music is just always kept with me.

So you find a lot of musicians that I paint the glue Armstrong.

Jimi Hendrix.

And I just want to tell their personality what I feel about them because it is their portrait, and I want to make it more interesting and sort of tell their story.

And that's someone that, you know, it's ten years old, can look at a piece that I create and learn a little bit of something by looking at the piece The foundation is oil paint, spray paint

and collage.

I have evolved to use other mediums like markers, acrylic paint.

It really depends on the subject and what I want to convey how to do it.

There's some things that you can't paint like you have to use physical items that you find, and it really creates another depth for my for my art.

It gives it texture.

If the person is a little bit more edgy, or a contemporary, a reserved, it's really what I want to convey from their personality.

So, for example, I have a Danny Brown piece and he's really like Wild and Detroit and edgy.

And so I used a lot of collage and spray paint to build up the background of that piece.

But the foundation is oil paint for the actual figure Abe Lincoln is one of my most iconic pieces that I've done.

I thought he was just a really interesting guy because he was a boxer and you know, it's all these crazy things that no one would ever know about him.

So what I did my research about him, all you could find are black and white photos.

And I wanted to bring that to modern day.

So you have to add color, put them out of context, sort of like in modern day.

And what I did for my first rendition of him was put it like in front of a graffiti wall.

It's at four score.

And he's like taken a picture of himself with like a 35 millimeter camera and he is like a tuxedo on.

It was just made like him as a character, but brought him to life.

And since then, like, I've done several murals of him actually with these kaleidoscope glasses that I think are just pretty cool.

It sort of just makes them like a like an icon of today instead of just being stale in history.

I use a lot of color and movement to try to capture you as long as possible and maybe put like a little bit of details that are hidden things that you may not see until you look at it for

maybe like the fifth time.

And my pieces are very diverse and they could be placed anywhere.

They could be placed in a home or in a restaurant or, you know, for any any particular venue.

So it's really interesting that you can find or learn something by looking at that piece of mind I have a Misty Copeland piece that I do like, phenomenal person.

And she's accomplished so many things and broken so many barriers.

And so throughout her piece, I incorporated a lot of magazine covers and sort of iconic pieces, like out of her timeline and I chose this pose that was really sort of beautiful Today I'm

working on a Rob Zombie portrait is actually a part of a bigger project I'm doing with a local restaurant, vegan and I'm doing a series of vegan musicians.

It's in the early phases of painting.

I do multiple layers.

Like at first tone, it with the brown, and then I'd go back and add color.

And I'm also working on NWA piece, which I I'm picking back up after after a year of sitting it down to really think about what I wanted to do for the background and how I wanted to like

capture their essence within the piece.

Like if I wanted to do a little bit more graffiti, add a little bit more of spray paint and collage to that piece in this guy Izzy, he's like writing the center, like he's sort of like in

the forefront of this and these guys are behind him.

So I want to like highlight him, but also not have like the background overpower.

It is probably why I covered up a lot of this.

It lends itself to being more of a quiet background because they're so in-your-face just with their their just look the phrases that I typically use for a portrait are song lyrics from that

musician themselves.

Maybe movies that they were in.

If it's something we're closer to home like Danny Brown, I did do a bunch of like Detroit streets in the background like a welcome Detroit City Limit sign, whatever that's pertaining to that

subject I would include and a lot of like artifacts like actual like albums and included that part of the piece.

My message is all about telling the stories of iconic figures, historical figures.

The way that I, I capture them can be place in any setting really, and spark a conversation Lots of us probably have the recipes for a few favorite cocktails committed to memory.

Well, to expand your repertoire, come with us to Reno, Nevada.

Where they're taking the craft of cocktail making to a whole new level, more than just drinks.

These tipples incorporate seasonal ingredients and specter killer garnishes, which turn them into delicious works of art.

So come get a taste Artisanal craft cocktail would be taking a classic cocktail and spinning it and putting your take on the cocktail.

Maybe doing something a little bit more creative.

And it is a complete culinary approach on all your ingredients.

Everything is going to be very important from start to finish.

The cocktail needs to look beautiful, and then the garnishes need to tie in completely as well.

So we do a lot of dehydrated garnishes for our program because of course they will always stay looking nice, dehydrated, roses might be one of them.

The garnish that we're doing for old fashioned is a dehydrated pineapple that we then die with red beets to add a little bit of flair to it.

But really gets me jazzed about cocktails in general is just the fact that there's so much on the market and there's so many opportunities to try something different.

Since we're working with six seasonal ingredients, we have to pay extra attention because every season those ingredients change.

And so we have to change the drink to keep because this thing I like to add a little bit of flair to the situation as well.

So like we might smoke's a cinnamon stick or some sarnies and like completely smoked cocktail glass and then we'll pour the cocktail on top and you have this kind of like a little bit of a

show.

And at the same time though, you're adding depth to the cocktail It's an art form.

At the end of the day, it's the same thing of watching an artist do a painting, a chef making a beautiful dish.

So now the cocktail world is completely like following those footsteps.

I even drink cocktails like I'm crossing out a meal.

You start lights.

Beer is something maybe a little bit like a martini style drink and then work your way to like a deeper, richer, maybe a sherry based cocktail or that late night kind of nightcap or no more

and more bars are opening up doing craft cocktails and, you know, wealthy cocktail lists.

And so on.

I think that it's very predominant in large cities.

And I think Reno is growing at such a fast pace and having lots of people that are well-traveled are moving here.

And so there's a hunger for it.

I think more and more people are becoming more educated in find drink and interesting spirits that they're coming to find a place to get cocktails.

They want to learn something.

So they'll be either watching the bartenders technique or the bartender will be talking about the ingredients that they're putting in their citrus, infusing it Earl Gray, fresh lemon juice.

And so you dropping or giving a little bit of knowledge to the guests, which at the same time you're still also making a beautiful cocktail.

So it's just like a performance, if you will, we're always learning and always growing, and our technique is going to constantly be moving forward and upward and at the same time.

So we'll our cocktail program and I think that's the important thing, is always striving for knowledge and growth Rollerskating heyday might seem to have come and gone, but it sure looks

like a lot of fun from a distance.

That's why we're off to Columbus, Ohio, where roller skating culture is alive and kicking, or should we say rolling anyway?

Members of the community, they roll up to the rink lights up this gate and move to the music.

Let's take a look at the graceful art of roller skating I so I, i, i, i, i i we have skates on 71.

It's a Sunday night.

You know, this this right here is the epitome of Columbus skating, right I mean, if you haven't been before, this is an experience because, you know, people from all different cultures come

out and skate different skill levels of the later you get into the session, the more you see I just happen to come with a friend.

One night I was invited, so I came and I was like, wow, this is different from what I normally see.

And I was just so excited and I've been here ever since that you know, if you're not in this atmosphere, it's really kind of boring to some people because they don't understand that it's not

just a movie.

It's not just something they did in the 70.

Yes.

It's very well still alive.

You know, people still come skating, you still travel to skate, and we have fun growing up, like when I was a kid, it was it was fun and it was a way to stay out of trouble.

Well, what really drew me to it is the thing that I can just relieve so much stress, so many words that the world is gone.

Once you hit that floor, I don't take my phone off.

You don't take my wallet on me.

Nothing for three to 4 hours.

I am free with no worries of the world is just me, my ex and the wolf law I mean skating for 58 years.

I skate least twice a week, sometimes three times a week.

I skate pretty much every Sunday, every Thursday, every Tuesday.

Pretty much my life has been skating ever since I was nine years old.

I started when I was four years old.

My father was a skater.

I've been doing it ever since my first job or ever had first paycheck ever had.

I bought a pair of roller skates my dad taught me how to skate, but I come from a long line of skaters.

My grandfather and grandmother were floor guards for the smokers skating rink back in the thirties and forties.

So my dad passed on the skill of skating to me, my brother and my sister, my whole family, they all skate my aunt, my cousin.

So it's a generational thing.

It's in my blood.

I'm old school.

I like Finnish type year, so it's my first year from 1973.

I have a flight that I custom to order online.

My wheels are Venezuelan.

I have about seven sets of wheels.

Most of them are from the seventies and 80 so the weird thing about my skates is this is my first pair, this is my second here and I merged them together and basically Frankenstein these are

have on, these are spaces where foam max wheels are slippery to like Cowie.

So Kelly felt they was creating a lot of faces.

It's like you're on water like you like really like sliding across the floor the whole night when he's to the West Memphis shows just go to skating when I was probably in elementary school

but never took it as serious as I did.

Now I've got three children now so I'm a full time dad.

So I used to skate about four times a week.

Now it's about about once a month.

So you call me on my one good time for the month.

Is pretty much so.

A lot of people, they still don't they still don't know that this happened, that we do this at night.

You know, it's just a stress reliever.

You just get on the floor and your soul goes to a whole nother place.

The music you know, we all just come together and have a great time, not skate ology is is our group.

It's about ten members and we host and off article.

I see.

Hi.

I see how it is always like Super Bowl weekend skaters from all across the country.

There's like 800,000 people skating it's like one big family is love is love that's escape from in we want more skaters.

We need new skaters.

So the more skaters come out with more energy the bigger the family.

There's a lot of history here and a lot of people have been skating for years, young and old, and it is still alive.

Skating still alive.

And that is that for this edition of Art Rocks.

But you can always see or share episodes of the show at LPI v dot org slash rocks.

And if you're wondering what else you might be missing.

Country Roads magazine makes a great resource for finding out what's going on in the arts and culture out and about in the Bayou State.

So until next week, I've been James Fox Smith, and thanks for watching Art Rocks is made possible by the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and by viewers like you

Support for PBS provided by:

Art Rocks! is a local public television program presented by LPB