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Hello and welcome to Focus on OLLI. What is OLLI? OLLI is a program at UNLV dedicated to active retired or semi-retired individuals who understand the importance of keeping themselves engaged. OLLI is the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UNLV. Every month this program will dig into favorite classes, interesting teachers and members as well as special events offered through OLLI.
Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a Kun V studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Keith McMillen 0:16
Hello and welcome to focus on Olli. Olli is a program at UNLV, dedicated to retired or semi retired individuals who remain engaged and active in civic activities and lifelong learning. Ali is the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UNLV. Ali is made possible by support from the Bernard Osher Foundation, established by philanthropists Bernard and Barbara Osher with a mission to support lifelong learning, higher education and the arts. This series is designed to give you an in depth look at the Olli program and encourage you to join in the fun you know at Olli, Art has always been a popular topic. If a look in the current catalog for offerings this term, we see two art appreciation classes, one on great painters of art in America, and another on the 150th anniversary of impressionism. For those of you who want to be more hands on with art, under the heading of creative arts. We have over 10 different classes, including diamond painting, colored pencils, soft Patels, watercolor painting, knitting and crocheting, doodling and sketching, as well as taking pictures, photography with your smartphone. Today, I have several folks who were involved in these both as teachers and as students, and we'll start with the art program. Rita Vallejos and Terry malberg are both teaching here. In your experience, why do you think art classes are so popular?
Rita Ballejos 2:04
The art classes are popular because it gives the students a chance to have hands on, and also it kind of uses a different kind of brain media, you know, where you can just get into your own world, listen to music and for a while just relax.
Keith McMillen 2:30
Terry, want to add anything to them?
Teri Malburg 2:34
No, just one comment. Rita was one of my first instructors at Ali and she's awesome, and I agree with her, it's full of fun, socializing, making new friends and seeing the creations of the students own amazing art pieces that come out of it.
Keith McMillen 2:51
Now this is active, do it yourself. Kinds of things, what level of expect? What expectations do you have of the ability level of students that sign up for these classes.
Rita Ballejos 3:03
When the students sign up for class, I kind of evaluate the student to see where they're where they're at and the ability, because some students catch on faster than other students. So I try to have the class where the students can work at their own ability and not feel that they have to compete with the other students.
Keith McMillen 3:34
And I noticed we do have some beginning classes aimed at true beginners and more advanced classes for folks that have learned along the way, there is one thing that I have run into in the catalog that puzzles me. Until this program, I've never heard of diamond painting. I can't picture a microscope in a little piece, a little gemstone and somebody trying to paint a picture on it. So I know that's wrong. How do you paint diamonds? Well,
Rita Ballejos 4:03
diamond painting is kind of like a form of paint. By number, you have a canvas that has a picture on it with glue that's laid upon it, and on each canvas you have a legend where you use resin diamonds, and then the diamonds, the the diamonds will correspond with the legend, the numbers. It could be numbers, it could be alphabet, and you just follow the legend to correspond with the picture. And voila, it's beautiful at the at the finish,
Keith McMillen 4:43
incredible, absolutely incredible. Now, Terry, you teach a couple of other media.
Teri Malburg 4:52
Yes, I teach. Well, let's put it this way, I present the class time for a workshop for our. Highly advanced artist and new students that come in, but no matter what level each artist likes to show off their work. And I encourage the class to walk around and see what other others are working on. And I myself make the rounds to each admiring their works and making a walk of show and tell of the art pieces, whether they are work in progress or completed art pieces. But is it ever finished? But I put together an art exhibit during the last week of each semester, spring, summer and fall, the different art pieces to all of the ollie members that pass through the halls, through our large wall of glass, to our art room of our new facility we now have been in for about a year and a half,
Keith McMillen 5:56
excellent. And there are other opportunities to show off some of our artwork, and one of those is happening late this fall.
Teri Malburg 6:05
Oh, yes, that, Oh, that was so popular last year. That was our first time being invited to the main campus, UNLV, to join into the art walk. And what I do early in the spring semester, I have already started promoting the UNLV Art Walk, which happens in the fall season. All Las Vegas Valley communities are invited to attend. And again, that's going to be in the late October of 2025 which we will exhibit all our art, designs, our artworks, architecture, engineering, math, science, music, dance, stage productions, cooking, food, beverage, experiences, and it's a wonderful way to spend a fall evening all throughout the campus
Keith McMillen 7:01
wonderful. We'll look forward to that when you attend these classes, either as a student or a teacher, what, what do you expect to get from it, besides maybe some instruction, yeah, what would what kinds of what energy do you get out of these classes?
Rita Ballejos 7:25
Are you talking as an art student, as myself, as a teacher and a student? Well, when I go into when I take an art class, I just look at it to see what what the instructor is has available, as far as the knowledge, and from there on, I just do it myself by going on YouTube and just looking at different aspects of of the art.
Keith McMillen 8:00
Okay, okay. Beside this art, there are other arts, some of them involve writing and words. And for this, I have Stephanie Dugdale and Marjorie Bleem, who are heading up a very interesting special project for Ollie now we do have classes in literature this semester. We have a class on Sherlock Holmes. We also have one on Jewish literary heritage, but we also have classes to encourage writing different things, about technique, about organization, even about publishing. But this project is very special. So one of you, Marjorie, you want to start talking about our special writing project. This
Marjorie Bleam 8:52
project taps into creative writing, and Ollie has a number of groups and classes, not just this semester, but all the time that encourage creative writing, which is also an art form doesn't require any special skill or any special equipment. Sometimes you can just be a creative writer with a pencil in the back of an old envelope. But Creative Writing throughout the Olli community is pretty popular, and this is a project that, for the first time, reaches outside of the individual Olli classes. And started out being Ollie wide throughout the whole Olli community, and then it kind of grew and became a community writing project,
Keith McMillen 9:48
interesting. So you don't even have to be a member of Olli to participate. Not
Marjorie Bleam 9:52
not for this project, we're opening it up to the whole community.
Keith McMillen 9:56
And how does one get involved in that? Stephanie, it's. Oh,
Stephanie Dugdale 10:00
well, just write, begin by writing. And the name of our project is make good trouble. Age with glory and gumption. So the project is really about how we're aging and how we want to age. And the way that it started was I was talking with somebody, two people back east from Olli, who were starting the same kinds of programs, and I thought it would really, really be a great idea to start out here, because it's about our generation and the wisdom that our generation carries with us. A lot of times older people are set aside and dismissed because we're not recognized as having any talent or gifts that we can actually contribute or wisdom or experiences, but we do normally each person, we feel like we're voices, our voices are set aside. So I thought it'd be a really great idea if we put all of our voices together as one and wrote about our experiences, what we've gathered, what we can offer younger people, the energy And the understandings that we've gathered throughout the years, especially these experiences and like moments like, oh my god, what was I thinking when I did this? And the sharing those stories with others of our own age and of a younger generation, I think is a very powerful way to own our own voices and empower ourselves knowing that we have something to offer. So I really want to encourage all of you who have who are older and have had these amazing experiences in life, the great ones, the terrible ones, the struggles, the opportunities that we've been given, the outcomes that we didn't expect. I'd love it if you would join our project and write about those. We're going to put them together in a book, and we have somebody in Olli who owns a publication company, publishing company, and she's going to put, compile them and edit them and put them into a book. And I think that it takes a lot of courage to live as long as we've lived. And I want us to own that. I want everybody to own that, that understanding for themselves and put their voices into the mix.
Keith McMillen 12:42
That's, yeah, thank you. Thank you. That's hopefully that will inspire a few more entries. Well, what is the timetable for this book and for this project? Well,
Marjorie Bleam 12:53
as I said, we started out small, thinking it would be just a semester and it would just be, you know, the creative writing classes at Ollie and and then it grew to be all of ollie, and now it's grown to be all of the community, but we do want to try to have all of the submissions by July 31 that's our deadline, with the idea that we could have the book published in November, which is A pretty quick deadline for publishing, but that's our goal. So the deadline for submissions is July 31 and the goal for publishing then would be in November. The book will be to benefit Ollie. So this is a contribution that we're asking everyone to make, just a way to express, to contribute, to have your voice heard, and again, to just contribute to the project.
Keith McMillen 13:53
Fantastic. If someone, if someone in Olli is interested, I'm sure there's information available for them in the Olli office,
Marjorie Bleam 14:01
absolutely, and in the Olli bulletin, all right, if
Keith McMillen 14:05
somebody is not part of Olli but still wants to participate, how should they get in touch with you? We have
Marjorie Bleam 14:11
a dedicated email, and we're using that email exclusively, so we're just for everybody's security, and we're going to use this, this one email, for corresponding with everyone and for submissions. Can you spell it out for us? Absolutely. It's Doug Dale Stephanie nine@gmail.com D, U, G, D, A, L, E, S, T, E, P, H, A n, i e, nine@gmail.com
Keith McMillen 14:55
and this is both for someone who wants to submit something and to actually send you a. Commission, yes, that works for both, yeah, excellent submissions and questions. Okay, have have we had much response yet? We have
Marjorie Bleam 15:09
had some response and some questions, mostly questions people are interested, but a little hesitant to submit, and so we're just encouraging people to make their voices heard.
Keith McMillen 15:23
Excellent. And this book, you say, hopefully, will be published in November. I assume it will cost something to buy a copy of it,
Marjorie Bleam 15:30
yes, but again, we're going to keep it to absolute minimum. Okay,
Keith McMillen 15:36
okay, all right, that can come later. Thank you. Now so you haven't had many submissions, you really can't say if there's a direction that they're going, or life experiences, or
Marjorie Bleam 15:49
a few of the submissions that I have been privileged to read have been very poignant. They're very moving.
Keith McMillen 15:59
Nice, very nice. All right, in general terms, art is all kinds of things, but what? What specifically do you get your most? What raises your interest the most, both in writing and in imaging, just in general terms, why is art important to you?
Stephanie Dugdale 16:30
I'm both creative. I'm a fiber artist, and I'm also a poetry writer. And I think in terms of the writing, I think what I get most out of writing is putting words down on paper that I didn't even know I had inside me, and it's an expression of who I am, especially when I write about something that's happened in my life, and I I write it down, and then I can reread it, and I think of a new way that I could have thought of that, that incident or that situation, and it's inspiring to me. And when I do fiber art, I just put my material on the together in a tapestry of color. And that is also so inspirational to me, because it's an expression of who I am. And then when I'm finished, I stand back and I look at it, I think, wow, that came from someplace inside me, and I know that all of us who have created, whether it's jewelry or whether it's fiber art or painting or ceramics, it's an expression of who we are, and in that way, we get to know ourselves better.
Keith McMillen 17:44
Is there a particular art medium that you Rita or Terry prefer?
Rita Ballejos 17:54
I I started out at Ollie doing drawing with Johnny law, which is an art teacher. And from then, I started with another student who taught jewelry, and I did a pair of earrings. And that was too easy. I had to go the hard way and make and make stronger and harder to design jewelry, and the more I designed it, the better I liked it. And then from there, I just took off whatever medium caught my eye and and fascinated me. I studied it and and I've been teaching it at Ollie so every, every few semesters, I teach a different art course.
Keith McMillen 18:49
So are there, are there anything that the students have done that you've been familiar with that has surprised you in any way? I know a chap I know for several years who has been in Olli went into a drawing class. I had no idea he was. He came back with his first drawing, which was a portrait of a cocker spaniel that blew me away.
Teri Malburg 19:15
Wow. Oh, one instance that Rita and I, we co instruct the diamond art. We have one individual student that just amazed me with what she did. This student had has Parkinson, and this diamond art would, of course, have the shakes. And my dear husband saw a little a. Uh, frustration with her trying to place the diamond so on the canvas. So he bought her a particular canvas that was partial and where you don't have from side to side diamonds going across. It was just particular spots, like in a leaf or in a petal. She accomplished it, and that just made me feel so heartwarming, and she took it to her doctor at the brain health facility in town, and the doctor was so impressed and thought that this was a perfect art form for her to practice or to do her physical therapy with her fingers in her Hands and her wrist, and that that was just amazing that got to me with our class that we present, and even the men that would come in to our class with this particular art form, we have three men now in Our class, and it's just what they do with that diamond art. It's like one of the students never been an artist, but did a three foot by three foot art, the diamond art painting of tall ship, a tall ship. Oh my. And it's just amazing. And another man student doing a diamond, and that's about three feet by three feet as well. It's just amazing. Of who can come into that class and just make fantastic art to complete.
Stephanie Dugdale 22:07
Art is healing. Art is a healing, healing, healing piece of work. And whether you're maybe we're older and we're suffering through problems. Maybe we're going through grief. We're struggling with something to be able to get that out of ourselves and put it into a form, some form of art heals us. I agree
Marjorie Bleam 22:35
with that. That's how I use the creative writing. I write for the fun of it, but sometimes it's my way of expressing my emotions, and I just, I just write it out. I don't have to share it, but it's just my way of expressing my emotions. And
Stephanie Dugdale 22:56
both Margie and I have from our writing group have been so encouraged by being in there that we have both ended up publishing our own books, which is, I feel like, okay, at 80, I can do this. I can publish something. And Margie, in her 70s, has published something. So it's so exciting. It grows. It grows. Yeah, yes, yeah.
Teri Malburg 23:21
And also, in my soft pastel class that I present the classroom time for, we have some caregivers in there, and they are able to take the time away from their loved ones that they're caring for, and they come in and they just amaze, just so amazed of just that breathing type, that they can create something with the soft pastel chalk. It's, it's, it is a hit. It is healing art.
Keith McMillen 24:02
Yes, fantastic. Now, are any of these? Are these programs all in person? Or do they have any of them online?
Marjorie Bleam 24:10
Oh, no, it's all pretty Yeah, art,
Teri Malburg 24:14
art is in person, but I am thinking of working with Beth at Olli administration, of getting an online zoom class for our shut ins, for where they can't come to ollie, but I can have some type of color pencil class or soft pastel class, where, ahead of time, they will get to know what they need, and I will help them through it. I will get them to where they can do their. Artwork with color pencil or soft pastel.
Keith McMillen 25:04
Wonderful, wonderful. Does anybody need to add anything else to this? We encourage people to get on our website. We I have a note here. Hang on. Oh yes, there is a new catalog that will be coming out shortly. I don't know what art classes are going to be taught this summer, but there's a couple. Do you know what they are? Terry,
Teri Malburg 25:34
yes, I have one that I'm doing every summer. It's an art workshop that is called, bring everything to the table except the kitchen sink, and everybody can bring their own art project, work on that and one day during the semester, I will show a movie about an artist or documentary or something that has something to do with art. And then the second thing that I do, I supply all the material for a art project that again, I supply all the materials that are needed. And this summer, it's going to be a branch drain catcher with all the ribbons and the beads. So they're going to create that. But that is one of the classes that I'm doing. And I know my fellow instructor here, Rita, she's doing a class
Rita Ballejos 26:37
I am going to be doing bracelets and necklaces with using elastic thread and a soft, soft flex metal, and they kind of enjoy a change of pace. So I tried to change off different art projects in the summertime.
Keith McMillen 27:02
Interesting, and I know that Marjorie and Stephanie are going to be looking to read a lot of submissions. We are hoping for our special writing project for
Marjorie Bleam 27:12
everyone to step up and make their voices heard and make some good trouble. Staff. Doesn't
Stephanie Dugdale 27:21
matter whether you've written before, it's just right, excellent. Send
Keith McMillen 27:25
it in. Thank you. Thank you all for participating. Let's hope some folks out there think that this is a good thing to dig into, and the information to contact Ali is coming right up. So thank you all very much and have a pleasant day. Thank you. Thanks for listening to focus on Olli. There are several ways to get more information. Our web address is Ollie O L, L, i.unlv.edu You may also email us at Olli, at UNLV. That's Ali, O, L, L, I, A, T, U, n, l, V, at sign unlv.edu, you can also just give us a call at 702-895-3394, Monday through Friday, between the hours of eight and five. Except, of course, on university holidays, you.