A few years ago, I produced a series of short films showcasing artists across South Dakota.

And it was a partnership with Art South Dakota on the South Dakota Arts Council.

This year, I want to do something a little bit different.

Instead of making films about the artists, I wanted to make a film with the artists.

And so being a filmmaker and a musician myself, I thought, well, maybe I could try to meet them where they're at and we could try to sort of collaborate and produce something together.

The purpose was not to try to blend into their process, but rather just sort of interact with it some and to try to stay out of the way of the artists, because I did not want to get in the way of of the awesome work that they were doing.

And so the journey began to try to hunt down some of these artists and try to find people across the scene, and asking other artists and asking friends and asking colleagues, is there anyone out there that you think, gosh, they do really cool work and more people should know about them?

Because that's what I was looking for.

Sometimes getting a phone call from me totally out of the blue, a stranger calling them saying, hi, my name is coffee and I'm a homemaker.

And here's what I would like to do.

Can I come out and can make a film with you?

And I was surprised at their reaction and most of them were very open to it.

There were a few that weren't.

So I'm going to be honest, there were some that said no and they weren't comfortable with that.

And I had to respect that.

But the ones that did, we have five.

We have five new artists.

The ones that did allow me into their space allowed me into their process and opened up and talked to me about their process, which is not something a lot of artists do.

So me and my fellow filmmaking friends, YouTubers packed up our gear, made a few trips across the state, taking a few roads less traveled, and picking up a few interesting photos and perspectives along the way.

As we always like to do.

We're able to come back with something fairly unique, and I think an interesting perspective that I really, really hope you all enjoy.

So let's get into it.

I feel like Morgan really set the stage for how the rest of the videos were to follow, and she articulated what it was like to work through pain with your art, something that we've all done, I think, in one form or another.

And maybe the reason that we do art in the first place, sometimes it's through pain, sometimes is through suffering.

And I believe that art's the best way to express that.

I think it's the best way to say that I have personally found to work through it.

And I want you to listen to what Morgan has to say, because you articulated so well.

I present to you, Morgan Fields.

Wire I seem to spend a lot of time in my head, really thinking about everything and someone's brain kind of is more or less a labyrinth of spaces.

And there's parts that we've all around that maybe make it to the center of, like, this great understanding.

But there's still so much stuff we have to go through to get out of it to easily.

I always think of, like, you know, the classic Greek labyrinth where the is in the center.

But in this instance, you know, that metaphor, that monster that's in the center of it, that's you.

It's like all the things that like, you're hiding from yourself, any sort of purpose you're trying to prevent from getting out or whatever you need.

It's part of you, whether you want it to be or not.

Know you have to go through all these, like, winding pathways with like, constant, you know, traps or some sort of harm or obstacles in the way to get to the center.

And so that understand everything and be able to come back out and.

As I think, you know, we would rather think someone else is the source of our problem or some other being.

It's the source of it versus, you know, being your past history, your traumas or mistakes, anything like that.

There's, there's so many instances that, you know, we all go through it ourselves for.

And if you confront those things and you're going to come out, you know, hopefully come out of it better, you've actually grown.

Don't make those mistakes or actually help out there.

The people around you that are going through something similar.

Jeffrey Paul Very close, very dear friend of mine.

And one of the best musicians that I have ever known and I ever met.

Frankly, when I was looking for artists to do this, his name kept popping up from other people.

And.

And I avoided it for a while because he was such a close friend of mine, and I didn't want it to seem like a conflict of interest.

But I realized that that was silly.

I felt like I was keeping him from people, and that didn't seem fair.

So I called up my buddy Jeff and I said, hey, you let me come out and talk to you.

Somewhere in the middle of our conversation, he started talking about this language and this improvization and and this back and forth almost conversation that you have with your fellow musician.

And I realized in that moment, this is the film and this is what people need to hear.

This is the insight from a musician that I think people need to hear.

So I present to you, my friend Jeff Paul, the language of music, I don't know if I should say this, but, Improvization is my favorite thing to do.

If I could make a living doing just that, I. I love Improvization because, because you're creating a movement, you're creating music in the moment.

And I feel that people who who can do that together are among the best musicians in the world, because they kind of understand not just the language of music very deeply, but, how to read energy between musicians or read me the world, so to speak.

It's it's really, for me, invigorating, like having a really great conversation with somebody, but you don't really know what's going to happen or what anyone's going to say, but you trust that each other, you know, is, is going to have certain capacity.

Maybe a love for language makes it even more colorful, or maybe, maybe less of a love or command for the language can also make it more comfortable, but you just don't know what's happening.

But you're sharing in that moment, and you're sharing some understanding with each other.

I don't know, I think my my brain is sort of wired to make sense out of harmonies, simple and complex.

So.

So when I'm improvising, I'm always drawing on the entire library of sounds I've got in my brain that I've ever heard.

And a lot of times it's very intentional.

I'm very conscious, and a lot of times it's not at all just intuitive for me.

I like the goal to be kind of expand ING that library or expanding that palette as much as possible.

I like to listen to as much music as I can, study as much music as I can.

And then whatever sounds I hear, whether they be sounds in nature or musical sounds, or sounds of language, they're just in there.

They're just in your library, and they can come out sometimes when you least expect it.

When you're improvising.

I found Erin Mercer through some of her artwork that was hanging up in a coffee shop in downtown Sioux Falls, and I thought, who is this?

This is.

I have to find this person.

And I tracked her down.

I reached out to her, and I told her what we were wanting to do, and she was open to it, and it was a little bit different in my approach in that I actually scripted this out.

This was written, but it was written after I met Karen and after I saw her work, I saw her process.

And of course I saw her and got a glimpse into her personality and who she was.

And this just came out and I said, would you mind doing this?

I sent her a script and she said, yes, absolutely, let's do it.

Another component of this film, along with some of the other ones, was the music.

But the music in this had to be very, very specific.

And so I reached out to my sister in law, solicited her help to come in and help produce the soundtrack for this particular film.

I figured if I could capture even a fraction of her personality, then that would be a success.

So I present to you Erin Murtha experience written and directed by Coffey.

Hello.

My name is Erin Murtha, and I'm presenting Erin Murtha Experiences as strange, presented by Erin Murtha.

And I'm Erin Murtha.

Let's get started.

It began like any other day, making a cup of tea today.

Tomorrow.

Earl Gray yesterday is one I was going 1997 three when my machine Doris experiences made it.

We'll finish this stitch by hand.

I mentally declared here this one format.

Where is it?

I said.

I said I'm setting.

Steady.

As I began to put the needle in the fabric, I experienced a strange.

What was that?

I asked?

There it was again.

You're probably thinking what I was thinking, but let's keep watching.

Strange indeed.

My mind is racing.

What does this mean?

Is this some kind of power I have now?

What can I do with it?

Can I control it?

Can I sew myself into something?

Can I sew myself into a Jell-O mold?

I've always wanted to do that.

The world is my oyster.

I was so an oyster too.

That's my.

I'm Erin Murtha, and this has been Erin Murtha experiences as strange, presented by Erin Murtha.

I'm Erin Murtha.

Thank you and good day.

Sheldon.

Star.

Sheldon I love Sheldon.

He is one of my new favorite people.

After this process.

I had such a great time with all of the artists, but there's something about Sheldon who calmly and quietly just let me into his life without really realizing, I think, how talented he is.

And at one point, he even mentions that he's not sure that stand up comedy was an art form.

He wasn't sure.

He's like, I don't know, maybe.

Of course I believe that.

It absolutely is.

And I'm sure a number of you would agree with me, but that's just Sheldon.

Sheldon is more than just a comedian.

Sheldon is a is a is a phenomenal artist.

He's a graphic designer.

And I would highly encourage you all to go check out some of his other work.

Unfortunately, we didn't have time for it in the and the film that we made, but Sheldon is so multifaceted, wonderful artists, and a wonderful human being, and I was able to to walk away with a bit of perspective on healing and laughter.

So I present to you, Sheldon star, we're still here, You're my name is film star, and I'm a comedian.

Right.

I wouldn't call it exactly an hour form, but it is a performance.

And it is really.

Maybe I should take that.

Thank you.

Don't have an actual answer for you for that, but, if you would consider an art form.

I'm not going to disagree with him on a Firebird.

I think with the new stuff that I'm writing, it's more of like my experiences and, being a native outside of my community, personally, I just want to let people know that, like, you are still here, you know, we're still people who still live in the same world as, you know, everybody else in this country.

We have it.

We have our own struggles and stuff like that.

And seeing it not the sense of like scolding people, but as in like, hey, you know, this is like what I experienced.

You know.

You know, like the native people can can some words, you know, relate to some of the things I'm saying.

How do you kind of share, similar humor that, you know, you know, you just.

Said things when you talk to animals, you.

Yeah.

The these anxieties.

Have.

When you talk to the dog woman.

Hey, we.

We.

Hi my name is Sheldon Star and I'm a comedian Tim Rickett is an artist currently based out of Aberdeen, South Dakota, and has an interesting perspective on the Midwest and what it was like to be a child and growing up in the Midwest and traveling across these landscapes.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it out to Tim's studio.

We got bamboozled by weather a number of times and and had to cancel our trip.

But luckily for me, Tim was going to be in Sioux Falls and selling one of his art exhibits.

And with a very, very limited amount of time, we were able to pull together, I think, a fun little film.

Tim was very, very gracious and allowing me to do these crazy things.

I'm like, hey, I want to do the turnaround of the camera.

I don't you to totally your mustache and all this stuff.

And he was and he didn't question any of it.

Maybe he should have.

But I'm really, really glad that he didn't because I think we put together a really fun film.

And when I first saw his work, I immediately thought of Sergio Leone and the old Westerns like Once Upon a Time in the West saw A Fistful of Dollars.

And so I thought, I want to take Sergio Leone, he's Roy Rogers.

So I went into the recording studio and I recorded a rendition of Happy Trails just for Tim.

I hope you enjoy Tim Ryan elsewhere.

Here in the mysterious Elsewhere, comes from a Frank Lloyd Wright quote when he was visiting the Badlands.

Maybe describing it to people.

And it was the sense of the mysterious elsewhere is a quote that fits me in my collaboration.

My wife and I have kind of fell in love with and how it perfectly describes this region.

Because this is largely regarded to as a flyover country passing through country or, you know, the in-between, the destination.

You know, I think billboards and stuff are pretty unique to America, like they exist everywhere.

But, these ones are kind of, throwback to that Western style.

There's like a timelessness to them, but they're they're acting as these eye catching things for that drive for a moment, for that passing through.

And so you can see them coming from miles and miles away.

I started when I was like a kid.

I've never been able to sleep in a car.

Right.

You can.

And so when we were traveling from one place to the other, I'd always be my dad and I awake and everybody else in the car.

And the signs were like one of the first things I really started paying attention to, you know, there's just all these influences that I think collectively, just regional, where I grew up, these things that have always existed.

But I think I'm reflecting on that a little bit more now, and remembering it quite a bit more and embracing the place and, you know, really thinking about where I want to be in my life and where I want to end up in my life.

And I think the Midwest is part of that.

I think if you are just passing through, like you can capture it in a specific moment.

So I think that memories, things like that's how you associate that sign, that object.

Right.

So you may have seen it when it was brand new 20 years later.

Okay.

It's kind of falling apart.

It's still here 50 years after that.

It's crumbled, you know.

And so maybe you only see it that one time.

Or maybe you get to see the progression of the decay.

I think there's something kind of poetic about that.

Boy, I would like to thank the artists, first and foremost, for allowing me into your lives.

For trusting me, for trusting me with the process, for trusting me to tell your story and handle it with the care and respect that you deserve.

I hope you all justice.

I'd like to leave with a few specific things that I learned from each artist.

Morganfield taught me that it's okay.

It's okay to chase the monster, and when you catch it, if you catch it, you have to let it go because it's a part of you.

Default taught me to listen, not to listen, to respond, but to listen and then respond.

Because language is beautiful, just like music.

They say laughter is the best medicine.

And children are definitely taught me that healing sometimes is funny, and more often than not, maybe it should be here in verse.

It taught me to notice and appreciate textiles and to embrace a little bit of whimsy, maybe a lot of whimsy, and that sometimes mistakes are the best opportunities.

And last but certainly not least, is Tim Rickett.

Tim taught me to remember the world as it once was when I was a kid, and so to feel once again that feeling of knowing that you're almost home because there's the old Texaco sign.

I think art is reflective of our world.

I mean, I think it is a direct reflection of our experience here.

One of the things we talked about in our South Dakota is that is truly how our communities celebrate and how we mourn.

It's who we are, you know?

So it's hard to imagine art without those life experiences, both good and bad, you know, is it truly is the muse, I think, of great art.

We're not here to critique or, like I said, define what art is.

We're here to celebrate it and uplifted and make sure people understand that without art, we would not recognize our communities.

We wouldn't recognize, you know, our neighborhoods, really, anything that's familiar and makes us comfortable makes us feel like we are part of something.

I think that really comes back to art and creativity.

I think in South Dakota, we just have this breadth of relationships that can help us in our work.

But it's a challenge because we're so far apart and there's all the people doing this work and are really the only ones doing the work they do within maybe 100 miles of someone else doing that work.

So there is isolation.

And that's another thing that our South Dakota works really hard, providing is a sense of community, a shared voice, a place.

So you feel like even if you are in remote place in South Dakota, you feel like you have your people and you're part of a community.

I think that's a challenge.

And I think living in this, the state where we all know each other, two degrees of separation, is also enhances what we do as artists.

Art defines us, and I think it is what makes us human in so many ways.

You know, I think that it would be hard to find any other living being that expresses their feelings, their celebrations, their, their, their community in such a creative way.

You know, using art to truly be who we are.

Thank you all for watching and thank you for your continued support of the arts.

I'm Dalton Coffee.