Arts in Focus on PBS Fort Wayne is funded in part by the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne.

Coming up, we'll talk with naturalist, writer and artist Rachel Osborne and puppet artist Smith Handerson.

It's all next on Arts in Focus.

Welcome to Arts in Focus.

I'm Emilie Henry.

Rachel Osborne is a naturalist, writer and artist who has spent many years exploring nature and studying organisms through field research.

She believes that science and art are not mutually exclusive and enjoys bringing scientific stories to life through writing and illustration.

Rachel takes her experiences in the wild and transforms them into artful letters that relate our everyday lives to the natural world.

She illustrates using paint ink or colored pencils, and the letters are printed on high quality recycled paper with the envelopes illustrated and addressed by hand.

We recently met up with Rachel out at Lindenwood Nature Preserve here in Fort Wayne to learn all about her nature inspired writing and artwork Rachel Thank you so much for inviting me here today.

We are out in the Lindenwood nature Preserve.

I am embarrassed to say I've never been back here and it's so beautiful.

It is.

The fact that this is what you do as an artist.

Being in spaces like this is fascinating.

I want to know how it came to be, which came first the the artist side of you or the scientist side of you, or were they never separate?

Oh, well, that's a really good question.

And thank you so much for having me.

Yeah.

I was probably an artist first because I spent my whole childhood drawing and studying art in high school.

But when I graduated from high school and I was deciding what I wanted to do with my life, I decided that I would be a biologist.

So I went to school for biology.

And though I had an early career in wildlife biology and then I still kept art as one of the things I did and they've kind of went along together for all of my life.

And this is kind of the first time where science and art have really collided for me.

Yeah, so that's been really fun.

I love on your website you have a Da Vinci quote that in part says, study the science of art, study the art of science.

Right.

And I thought, man, how have I never thought of it that way, especially at this time of year, I'll drive down the street and I'm saying to my kids, look at how beautiful it is, but we never get granular.

So what is it about the the granular study of the art of science and the science of art that is really exciting to you?

Oh, well, you know, when you take the time to stop and look at something and and you slow yourself down, it's it really brings out a sense of appreciation of the world.

And I think you know, you go out to nature and look at things carefully and and paint them and write about them.

You can start to see ideas form in your mind about, well, how does this relate to my life?

And, and and how does the work that scientists do, you know, what does that mean to us?

And a lot of the work that I do is through nature journaling.

So I come out in nature and then I am right in the middle of things and sometimes, you know, I have a long project that I'm working on.

You know, I was a butterfly monitor and I've done frog watching as a citizen science project.

And so sometimes those things take months and months for me to be a part of and really experience in order to write and decide how I want to paint this or communicate this.

It's a process and I want what I do to feel authentic.

I want to show that I'm really connected with what I'm writing about and what I'm painting.

You also sort of leveraged what you do to connect people, which is incredible.

So tell me about field notes.

I create field notes so that when you go out in nature, you yourself can show off your own curiosity.

And so while I create art and I want to share my art with other people, what I really would like to see is people develop their own curiosity, and I want to help teach them that they can do this.

And you don't have to be an artist.

You don't have to be a professional writer.

If you know how to diagram, you know how to go out and sketch and you can.

You're an artist, too.

You know, I don't think there are any limitations.

I'm a self-taught artist myself, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

I read that during the pandemic, you started sending letters to friends and family that incorporated your your art.

How did that begin?

And what was sort of the impetus?

And do you still do it?

Yeah, I definitely still do it.

You know, I've always been a letter writer.

My grandfather taught me always to send a thank you note.

And so I've always been the type of person to write a letter.

And so when we were in the pandemic, I got postcards and things for my kids so they could connect with their friends.

And I kind of started doing it along with them.

And pretty soon, you know, because I you know, love art, I started lettering things and started, you know, adding doodles.

And then pretty soon it became this full blown illustrated letter where I illustrate the envelopes and the letter inside, and I create little field notes and maps and things.

And it was just a great way to connect with with family in a different kind of way.

You know, you can send a letter and just say, Hi, how you doing?

And and all that.

But I started thinking, what else could I write about?

Yeah.

And early letter writing actually was a way, you know, to be expressive.

And I didn't know that when I, you know, looked into the history of letter writing that especially women use letter writing to sort of express their intelligence and their creativity, which I thought was a really cool thing.

That was one of the really fun part.

Exploring your website in general was so fun, but the fact that you incorporate history and and different quotes and sort of tie all of these methods of expression together was was really neat.

And it was done in a way that I had never seen or really even considered before.

So how do you describe yourself as an artist?

We we talked before we started shooting that you you consider yourself a naturalist, an artist, a writer.

Is is one more prominent than the next?

Or do they all have to be married to to create what you create?

Yeah, I think.

I think they're married.

I think I have to have all three.

I've always been the kind of person who can't just do one thing I have to do two and three things and I have to synthesize them.

And it's sort of my own way of exploring ideas.

I have to see all these different perspectives.

So I love to look at stories from history and and combine it with, you know, something scientific that I'm looking at.

And primarily I create what's called epistolary art.

And epistolary comes from the word epistle and epistle means letter.

And letter now we call them snail mail.

Yeah.

And that's what, you know, affectionately, we call them, because they take a lot longer than an email or text.

Yeah.

And so I love to write these letters and illustrate them and and write them.

And and I always take that from science and nature, from travels through just different inspirations that I have.

I love traditional botanical art and science and nature plates that are vintage.

I love old typewriters and cameras and and stories of scientists who explore.

And and so, you know, that's primarily what I like to create.

And, and also I love stamps.

You know, they're that's amazing, you know, hobby people philatelist, they love to collect stamps.

And there are so many beautiful stamps both that you can get from the post office or vintage stamps.

And it makes your letter almost feel like it came out of history and and sent to you like a little gift, a little artful gift.

Yeah.

And that's what I do most of the time.

I mean, I like people to get curious themselves and learn to write their own things.

But I also can write the letter for you.

And, you know, it goes complete in a little package.

And I have an insert inside that says this is from, you know, me to you.

I really thought you would like this kind of thing.

So, yeah, you know, I can write things for you to send to someone else.

Yeah.

As we stand out in this beautiful setting, I'm thinking, man, where do you even begin?

How do you how do you decide what you are going to study and or sketch and or write about?

There's so much.

Oh, yeah.

Well, first of all, I think about that quote from John Muir, who is sort of the father of our national parks, and he was a naturalist and he said, and I'm paraphrasing, I don't like to hike and I don't like the word hike.

I like to saunter and saunter means to move slowly.

And I think when you go out in nature, you should move slowly and look at things and let your eyes rest on different things.

And and you'll see something interesting and and it will just naturally unfold.

What becomes interesting to you and and there's so much to see when you go out and and you'll be really surprised.

What do you think is the greatest lesson you have learned from the synthesis of art and science?

I guess that you can experience the world in any way you want.

You know, all the things that you love.

You can find connections between them and and find your own creative spirit.

And also just from that and looking at the smaller things to just sort of develop a sense of gratitude about life.

And, you know, when you take time to appreciate the small things, you just develop a sense of gratitude when life is so hurried it helps, you know.

Yeah.

I am so inspired by you and this conversation.

The world is upside down.

Kind of no matter which way you look at it.

But if you if you take the time to to see what's beautiful and then maybe even try to articulate it, man, it sort of right sizes everything.

I can't wait to bring my kids back here, do a scavenger hunt, and then ask you to create something beautiful to send to loved ones.

Because what you do is so special, so unique.

And I really appreciate you taking the time to chat with me today.

Well, thank you so much.

It was so good to be with you.

For more information visit Field Station Notes dot com I'm joined now by puppet artist Smith Handerson.

Smith, thank you for being here.

Thank you for bringing all of your friends.

I cannot wait to figure out the origin of your puppet making.

When did all this begin?

I would say a lot of it sort of begins when youre little.

Yeah.

Just sort of curious about how all these things work.

when I like originally in kindergarten, they ask you like what you want to be when you grow up.

I just wanted to be an artist.

So I was into like animation and stuff, and Jim Henson was like the biggest inspiration, definitely.

Yeah.

So at what point did you think, okay, I think these things are really cool and I want to be an artist.

And then those two worlds came together and you started actually creating them.

I would say, well, that's always kind of the thing I wanted.

Would like to create things and like make a living at it somehow.

As far as figuring out how to do that, didn't really come till later.

I'd say I would've been like 21 or 22 or something when I started, like actually selling stuff that I could be like, you know, that was actually that actually was like, looked good enough for people to purchase.

So, yeah, that's what I wanted to get into next was sort of the, the logistics of how these puppets come to be.

I'm looking at them and I feel like each one would require so many different skills.

Are you the one who sews them?

Yeah.

Okay.

So when did you learn to sew or did you learn to sew so that you could make the puppets?

My grandma, like, taught me to sew.

And then eventually I got a sewing machine years later, and she's she's like, showing me how to do that.

Yeah.

And then.

Yeah, it's just sort of took off from there.

I'd sort of pick up little things here and there.

I wasn't like, I wouldn't say formally trained in any of this.

It's just sort of like pick up things.

It's like, Oh, I can use this and, and this like two techniques.

And because there's a lot that goes into like, there's just, you know, there's just hand stitching, there's machine sewing, there's a, you know, finding the right scissors to do this stuff with a lot of it is just sort of picked up here and there.

Okay.

Tell me about each individual puppet.

How does it come to be?

Are you designing it first on paper or are you dreaming up a character or are you thinking specifically about how it's going to look?

Or does it just sort of happen?

Most often it just kind of happens.

A lot of my stuff sort of comes by getting a lot of materials together.

Like I just look at like, I have this like a bunch at home.

I'll just look, okay, this, this fur I want to use or something and I'll start like making something out of it.

I'll like, take patterns to it and stuff.

Do you make a pattern for each puppet or do you have like, is this a certain style that has a certain pattern that then you can repeat?

Well, a lot of these, like all these are like basically hand puppet patterns, sort of like a sort of like a sock puppet in a way.

And then I do make a lot of these glove puppets which are like little kind of like, I guess like Mister Rogers or something.

Yeah.

So you can move their hand.

Yeah, with your fingers.

I'm going to have you demonstrate shortly, but I have so many more questions before we get here.

Okay, so when you are choosing materials, you're putting them together when it comes to the accessories, like the hats and that type of thing.

Do you make those as well or is this like a doll hat Sometimes I do.

A lot of them are like, well, it's like around Halloween when Spirit Halloweens pop up Im always like, looking through everything there.

Yeah.

So it's always for me at least, it's always just like keeping your eyes open to like, odd things.

Like who would get a hat that size like it and just like, why?

Like, I just see that in a store is like, I think this one was on, like a Christmas candle or something.

It was very I was like, Oh, I got to have that.

Okay.

When you are sourcing the fabric, are you literally just walking through the fabric store sometimes thinking what, what speaks to me?

Or are you looking for specific things?

Sometimes that's what speaks to me.

Other times it's well, especially if someone like contacts me to make something.

If it's a commission or because I do that sometimes a lot of times I just make stuff and I that I want to make and put it out there.

And if someone, you know wants it, then they'll, you know, get it.

Yeah.

Okay.

So you have a puppet down here.

I would love for you to bring him out.

Yeah, this is Leroy.

I love Leroy.

Hello.

Leroy, where did your sweater come from?

Because it's very stylish.

Oh.

Oh, I'm glad.

I'm really glad you asked that.

This came from my Uncle Emery clavicle.

Okay, I love it.

Okay, wait.

Now I know that's a hand-me-down, but it's kind of.

Oh, now I have to ask Smith.

Okay.

Legit.

Where do I mean, is that you did not create that yourself, did you?

No.

Okay, good.

It's.

I altered it a lot, so it fits this little body.

That is wild even that skill, again, when I look at how intricate these are, I'm thinking, Man, that is so many different skills that you have to combine.

Start to finish.

How long did it take to create Leroy?

this guy?

I think I want to say about a week or so just because I was like taking my time with it.

I knew it was going to be I knew it was going to be for me, but I didn't really know what he would end up being.

In terms of sourcing like the I don't know what they're called the sticks that move his arms.

Oh, those are just a coat hanger wires.

Oh, my gosh.

Okay.

So I was going to say, is that something like you get it on Amazon?

Yeah.

I didn't I didn't know that.

And then in terms of their eyes, I mean, what are what are their eyes?

The eyes.

Those are all these eyes like these.

And those are like little foam practice golf balls or little or the tinier ones like this.

They come from like, what are those weird, like, popper toys?

They look like big bazookas or little animals that you squeeze their body and it shoots out little balls like this.

So is your whole life, everywhere you go, you're just your eyes are peeled, no pun intended.

Your eyes are peeled for different materials that that then you just collect.

Yeah.

Yeah, definitely.

Yeah.

And then do you know when you collect it, what it's going to be or?

Not always.

Sometimes, you know, sometimes you know right away what it's going to be because it's because it's like, Oh, I've been looking for something for this purpose.

And I finally found it.

That's that's one of the things that's really exciting about it.

When you finally find the thing that is going to work for something.

He is so fun.

Okay, You knew that Leroy was going to be for you?

Yeah.

What is the process of getting a commission if somebody reaches out to you and says, okay, this is what I have in mind, Are they going so far as to tell you what colors, what or do you?

Sometimes it's sometimes it's difficult to get people to tell you what they want because they don't know always.

Yes, I was going to say, but yeah, maybe they know what they don't want.

Yeah, that helps too.

How often are you making puppets?

Is this something you do every day?

Every week?

Almost every day.

I'm always, you know, doing some part of.

It's like a bunch of little steps.

I'm usually doing something each day.

Yeah.

And there's breaks in there sometimes because sometimes, like, like every July I go to this ventriloquist convention, so I'll make so before then I have to make a bunch of puppets, too, for that, because a lot of ventriloquists like what I do.

It's in the Cincinnati, Kentucky area, the Van Haven Museum.

It's a museum full of like ventriloquist dummies, it's dedicated to ventriloquism.

Wow.

And I just sort of went through on a fluke because I was kind of interested in and this kind of, like, puppetry and stuff.

They told me, oh, you should come to this convention.

It's later this year.

And I was like, okay, I'll see what that's about.

And when I went there and meet all these amazing people I'm still friends with and, and, you know, people from all over the world.

So it's great.

It's a great place to go.

And you can get your artwork seen by all these people from overseas and from everywhere.

Yeah.

And I imagine you learn so much by looking at Oh, definitely.

And how do you think you have grown as an artist from 2016, for example, when you really started?

Um, I would say a lot of is little things like I've just gotten better at sewing.

Sewing seems that you can't see very well.

Because that's a big thing in Puppet you don't want to see like this guy.

You can see a seam right in his nose, but that's, that's probably from like 2015 or something.

Yeah.

What is the best part of creating these fun, functional pieces of art.

I think a lot of it is just like, just like getting them on and talking to people.

Yeah, because I don't really perform like, professionally or anything, but sometimes I just have them out they're like, you know, looking around and people are like, Oh, he's just, he's just he's just staring at me.

But he's like, so alive.

Yeah.

How long have you had Leroy?

I'd say I made him in like 2019.

I want to say.

I'd say by like 2020.

I had a lot more time to figure them out.

Yeah.

Didn't we all?

Yeah.

And is he someone that you are interacting with every day, or does he only come out sometimes?

I guess I should ask him, Leroy, to come out every day?

I mean, I'm out.

I don't like.

I mean, we have a weird relation.

I'm not around him a lot.

You don't chat very often?

Oh, no, no, That's why would I go put myself through that?

More of an introvert.

I understand.

No, he's the introvert.

I'm the extrovert.

I just like to.

So tell me about yourself.

Well, the whole point of this show is that I don't have to talk about myself.

Okay?

I get to learn all about you, and I get to learn all about you.

And I am so privileged to talk to amazing artists all the time.

You are among them.

Thank you for taking the time today.

Oh, absolutely.

Thanks for having me here.

For more information, find Handerson Hand Puppets on Instagram.

Our thanks to Rachel Osborne and Smith Handerson.

Be sure to join us next week for Arts in Focus.

You can catch this and other episodes at PBS Fort Wayne dot org or through our app and be sure to check out our YouTube channel.

Thank you for watching.

And in the meantime, enjoy something beautiful.

I'm joined now by Leroy.

Leroy, I didn't catch your last name.

Do you have a last name?

Well, I don't really talk about well, Leroy is a nickname.

It's short for Leland Roy Leland Roy?

Yeah.

Leroy, what do you do for a living, or do you have a job?

I mean, I'm a I call myself a solicitor.

Oh, okay.

I mean, I'm doing my job right now.

Technically, I'm just kind of around.

I see.

So tell me a little bit more about yourself.

How old are you?

Next.

Do you have a college degree?

No, I wouldn't say that.

I mean, I am the leading person in my profession.

I see.

I want to ask you questions.

Oh do you?

Okay.

Yeah, well, go for it.

I'm an open book.

How do you get out of this place?

I want to have lunch.

It is a big studio.

I want to have lunch, too.

You want to head out with me?

Oh, sure.

Yeah.

Im not doing anything later.

Thanks Leroy.

Oh, thanks.

Arts in Focus on PBS Fort Wayne is funded in part by the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne.