(relaxed music) - [Matt] Cartoonist Alex Portal brings the story of Henry Knox's Noble Train of Artillery to life.

Chat with Albany Center Gallery's Tony Iadicicco and catch a performance from Cosby Gibson and Tom Staudle.

It's all ahead on this episode of "AHA!"

♪ Good things are just here to be had ♪ - [Announcer] Funding for "AHA!"

has been provided by your contribution and by contributions to the WMHT Venture Fund.

Contributors include the Leo Cox Beach Philanthropic Foundation, Chet and Karen Opalka, Robert and Doris Fischer Malesardi and the Robison Family Foundation.

(upbeat music) (soft vocalizing) - Hi, I'm Matt Rogowicz and this is "AHA!

A House for Arts," a place for all things creative.

Alex Portal is a cartoonist who recently released a comic book called "Stories from the American Revolution: Henry Knox's Noble Train."

I had the pleasure of visiting Alex to learn more about this project that combines his love of drawing and history.

- My name is Alex Portal.

I am a reporter at a local newspaper in Glens Falls called The Post-Star.

I also do illustrations, comic books, editorial cartoons and children's books.

So I've always drawn, I've always loved to illustrate.

I've always loved to accompany whatever it is I write with an illustration.

In the town I grew up in, there was a local cartoonist who did freelance work and he went around to the schools and did afterschool cartooning programs and he taught what he called the foundation drawing technique, which is where you break a character down into basic shapes and you plot out those shapes and you draw really lightly and then you just sort of build the character on top of that and I think that's the most important thing.

Once you get that, you can just build on your skill.

My wife and I moved to South Dakota for awhile.

She's a museum person.

So we went to South Dakota for her career and at that point, I was just working odd jobs, whatever I could.

I think I was scrubbing toilets at the hospital in Deadwood, South Dakota and I saw there was the newspaper, the Black Hills Pioneer was on the desk.

So I picked it up and I was thumbing through the wanted ads 'cause I didn't like scrubbing toilets at a hospital in Deadwood and I saw that there was an ad in the Black Hills Pioneer for a journalist position.

I'm not a journalist, I'm a cartoonist.

So just on a whim, I send an email in saying, "Hey, I'm a cartoonist.

I would love to do things in the newspaper.

I've always wanted to have a comic strip or something.

If you're interested, here I am."

Six months later, the editor of the newspaper emailed me back and he said, "So we were interviewing this woman who's turning 104 years old and she told us this really funny story about when she was newly wed to her husband and they would drive out on their property and they had a raccoon problem.

So they would have a flashlight and a shotgun and they would take care of the raccoons and then they would also have dinner for the week."

So he said, "While we were talking about this and interviewing this woman," he'd had this vision of a cartoon in his head of what that would be like.

So he said, "Do you think you could maybe sketch something out about that, a joke about that?"

And I said, "Absolutely."

And I did and I sketched it and sent it to him and I think it was a couple of hours and he got back and said, "This is absolutely perfect.

This is fantastic, this is what we're looking for."

That was the first sort of editorial cartoon that I did for that and after that, the publisher and the editor of the newspaper called me in and said, "We'd like to do a feature where we have a local cartoonist doing editorial cartoons for us instead of just all the national stuff that's going on.

More state and regional."

So I jumped on that and it was fantastic.

As part of that, I would go to the newsroom meetings every week and just kind of get a feel for what the news was, what they were covering, what I could make fun of and those kinds of things and that's where I really fell in love with a newsroom.

I just vibed with those guys and just the idea of being in a newsroom and the editorial process and news gathering.

So they gave me a desk and they kind of taught me how to be a journalist and I've been doing that for the better part of a decade now.

I love journalism.

I love the fact that I was able to find this day job that I really, really like and feel fulfilled in.

But the passion has still always been cartoons and comics and all of that.

(dramatic music) The comic book, "Stories from the American Revolution," it actually started up in Fort Ticonderoga.

It was one of the first historic sites that my wife and I went and visited when we moved here was Fort Ticonderoga and since I am obviously a comic book guy, whenever I learn something or discover a new piece of history that I didn't know before, my mind automatically thinks, "Oh, that'd be a great comic book or a great story to tell."

In researching whether or not there might even be a reason to do this comic book, I actually discovered that there were so many other stories, really interesting stories and really cool history here in Upstate New York.

So that quickly turned from just doing a comic book about the history of Ticonderoga to let's do a whole series of this and that's kind of where the umbrella, "Stories from the American Revolution" came.

I wanted to turn this into a series.

So I kind of put Ticonderoga aside, put that on the back-burner and just dove right into Henry Knox.

(dramatic music) Henry Knox was a 25-year-old bookseller from Boston.

He had a particular keenness for military engineering and artillery.

As he got older, he got involved in the militias, the local groups that were sort of building up and building a resistance to the sort of growing oppression of the British Empire.

He played a role in the Battle of Bunker Hill.

His involvement in that put him on the radar for when George Washington took over and upon meeting Henry, Washington thought, "Oh, well, this is really, this guy knows what he's doing.

This kid really has a good head and his shoulders."

So they would talk about the strategies and what was going on and how do we sort of regain Boston and retake it from the British?

I haven't found anybody who can definitively say one way or the other whose idea it was to go get the cannon and artillery from Ticonderoga and bring it to Boston.

I think the general consensus is it was just known that it was there and it was known that we were gonna get it, it was just how and that's where Henry Knox really shone and that's where he really kind of jumped in and said, "Well, here's how.

We'll pull 'em on sleds, nobody will see it coming.

Nobody's doing this in the wintertime.

We'll get 'em here and we'll just take the British completely by surprise.

They'll never know that we were doing this whole thing.

Nobody's watching us now 'cause it's wintertime."

And that's what he did.

He made the plans and set up this incredible logistical achievement of hauling 60 tons of artillery 300 miles from Upstate New York to the shores of Boston.

As a result of Henry Knox, it drove the British out of Boston and gave the American Revolution its first definitive victory.

(tense music) When the cannon breaks through the ice and sinks to the bottom of the Hudson River, that's sort of the big action scene of this particular story.

So sort of plotting that out and keeping it in line with history but also taking a little bit of creative license to make it a little bit more exciting.

I drew the guy on the ice with the horse and he grabs the axe and he rushes over and chops it just in the nick of time and rushes them over.

A little bit of excitement, a little bit of harrowingness to the whole thing.

But that was a lot of fun to just sort of plot out and panel out.

The character design is my favorite part of any story.

I really like working with characters.

I really like designing characters and so this was a lot of fun because there are no pictures of any of these guys obviously, but there are a lot of portraits.

So you work from that and there's the famous painting of Henry Knox with his hand on the cannon and that's the one that everybody, you Google "Henry Knox" and that pops up.

But obviously he was much older then.

He was an old guy at that point.

So working back to when he was 25 'cause Henry Knox was 25 years old when he did this and sort of turning that into a hero figure, you know?

That's the other thing too with these is these are comic books.

I did want these to be sort of heroic.

The villains look like villains, the heroes look like heroes.

(dramatic music) In the long term, I really hope what it does is it sparks a love of learning, a desire to keep learning.

It's a very short window of time in Henry Knox's life that we cover in the book.

He went on to do other things and one of the things that I think is really interesting about history is the more you follow a figure in history, the more you get a much broader picture of who that person was.

Obviously this is Henry's moment, this is his big heroic thing.

You learn a little bit more about Henry Knox in his later life.

You'll learn a little bit more about the kind of person that he grew into and the kind of person that he was and that helps to inform people that there's much more than just the events that shape us.

There's the everyday life that shapes us.

It's everything that we do culminates into who we are and we can be the heroes at one point, we can be the supporting characters at another point, we can be the villains at other points.

I do want to do more.

I'm working on one about the Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold taking Fort Ticonderoga and then the surrender at Saratoga.

I'd love to just spend a career doing nothing but these, it was a lot of fun.

(dramatic music) - Albany Center Gallery recently celebrated its grand opening at their new Pearl Street location in Albany.

Jade sat down with ACG's Executive Director Tony Iadicicco to learn how this expanded space will better serve local artists.

- Hey Tony, welcome to "A House for Arts."

- Hey Jade, thanks for having me.

- Yeah, glad to finally get you in.

- Yeah, I'm excited.

- So to begin, ACG, Albany Center Gallery has made some big moves.

- Yeah.

- You've recently moved to the North Pearl building.

- Correct.

- And it's a huge, big expansion.

So what does this move mean for ACG and why'd you do it?

- It means more art everywhere.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - We got a larger space, more programming, more activities, more exhibit space.

We moved there, it was about a block away but we've actually been in that downtown area for about 35 years.

- And what made you, again, be like, "Hey, let's go bigger?"

Is it because of the more art everywhere mindset or was there something where you're like, "I just wanna expand our programs, opportunities?"

- All of it and the demand and the need to have more art space.

More artist opportunities, more exhibits, more programs.

So with that, we also needed a larger space.

- Yeah, it's huge.

- 'Cause we outgrew the old one probably a couple years ago.

- Yeah.

So when you say expanding like opportunities and exhibitions and like programming, like what does that look like?

Like what are you doing there?

- We have fun and we support artists in the space.

We do second Saturday youth art programs.

Some kids get to create art, they work with artist mentors for workshops.

They get free books from the red bookshelf and then the co-op hooks 'em up with food and they get to learn every month something different from another creative person.

Photography, drawing, painting, mixed media.

This month, we have collage.

So it's really all types of art forms.

- Yeah, what about your exhibitions?

Like how has this space increase and this new beautiful building, by the way, really helped strengthen your exhibitions?

- More space.

We actually can do multiple shows in the gallery, which is pretty exciting.

We're still like getting used to it.

We moved in in January and actually feeling out the space.

So we had the Members Show, which allowed for bigger work by members.

We had over 270 artists in January and then currently we have the High School Regional, which is showcasing about 110 students.

So just having more opportunities and artists to have a bigger chance to show larger pieces.

- Yeah, what have you seen like the impact of this like expansion so far, you know?

'Cause it is, you pretty much quadrupled in size, right?

- Yeah.

- You've had to have seen some impact that this had.

- Yeah, even just people walking by looking in the windows, we're actually like waving people in.

It's easier to kind of get people to walk off the street and explore what's inside.

So just having that visibility in downtown on Pearl Street is super awesome and then just the bright open space.

We've had more events that we've had, from pop-up events, programming, to surprise birthday parties.

So we've only been there for about three months and we've already done a lot of things.

- So let's talk about, I don't know, less about the space and more about Albany Center Gallery's like ethos.

Like why do you think it's so important for a space like yours to exist for the immediate community?

I mean, you serve in Albany specifically but you serve a lot of artists.

Like I'm from Troy, I go there a lot and visit your space.

Saratoga, all within the capital region.

So like why ACG and why, what's the connection?

- Yeah, I think for the gallery, we were founded in 1977, so actually April is our 49th birthday, so it's our birthday month.

But focusing on local and regional artists and going outside of the gallery walls has been a big push to like meet people where they are going into communities and then also having like a brick and mortar space where people can actually go and go to studios and go to exhibits and just different opportunities.

- Yeah.

- And I guess it's important just because we need more creative spaces.

In Albany, Schenectady, Troy, Capital Region and beyond, there just needs to be more spaces for artists and people to go experience art.

- Yeah, and you built like a lot of connections with a lot of artists like Alicia Dekal and myself, Eugene O'Neill, so many, Riiisa Boogie, you know?

So many artists from around the region and beyond.

Why is that relationship-building important to ACG?

'Cause that's something you guys are really good at.

- Yeah, I think it just seems natural.

Bring in artists, bring in people, bring in creative minds and then have them create.

So it's really just empowering and then finding also ways to support people and then with support, you get quality artists and them doing quality things.

So it kind of just all works together.

- Yeah.

- And really it's been thousands of artists that the gallery has worked with.

So trying to find opportunities for all of those artists, that's a challenge.

But it's also something that there should always be opportunities for creative people to exist and then thrive in this region.

- Yeah, and what does that support look like, you know?

- The biggest thing is putting money in pockets.

(Jade laughs) This past year, we paid out probably around $200,000 to artists.

- Wow.

- Which is exciting 'cause it is economic development but it's also just creative people making money and living off of their craft or having the opportunity to pursue that and that's kind of the driving factor of like if we can showcase an artist in an exhibit and they get paid to exhibit, which we currently do, that's not like a business model a lot of organizations do.

But if we focus on focusing on the artists, everything else will thrive.

But the artists are the only purpose.

That's the reason we're there.

- I was gonna ask, is that one of the biggest things of like making sure an artist is like paid well, is that they thrive?

But then like what other relationships are built in that like ethical payment scale that you guys do?

- Yeah, I think the payment's important.

The friendship, the bonding, the community-building and then like making more space for everybody to be together and then that helps create safe space for friends and families and others and then it just kind of has this ripple effect.

So it starts off with just like being a kind, good person and then using art and creativity as a way to connect people and then seeing how that kind of blossoms into what it is now.

- Yeah, that's amazing.

So, for the gallery, I know you guys do exhibitions, programmings, is there anything like new that you haven't tried that you guys want to experiment in?

- Yes.

- You know?

You wanna talk about it?

- Everything.

So we hosted a game night with Batgirl where she created a game called The Rizz.

It's a card game, so we hosted a game night.

She invited other local game developers to just share and interact and we had about 60 people show up.

But also from that, it's like there's opportunity now to keep building that.

So the goal is to like find ways to support artists in whatever their craft and field is and then make a space and then have people help support it and then that flourishes into its own thing.

So it's trying to do things like that.

The birthday parties or even like sleepovers at the gallery.

- What?

(laughs) - That we're thinking about.

To where it can be this like a night at the gallery where you can just have a 24 hour create-a-thon where maybe 10 artists are just painting all night and then there's a space where they can do it.

Just to have it be fun, weird and just unique and different.

It's not always about like the visual art on the wall.

It's just space where people can do things.

- Yeah, and I can definitely see with this like new building, you're able to do like the sleep, like I like that idea, like being able to have the sleep, I'm guessing for kids and adults.

- Separately, yeah.

- Adults can have like their own like cool like sleepover art night, which is like super fun.

I'm like bring back sleepovers for adults, we love 'em.

- It's like "A Night at the Museum."

- Exactly, exactly.

So I went to your opening and it was so packed that I could barely move and that already showcases visually how many people support your organization.

So with this many people engaging with you guys, I think, what did you say, there was how many people do you think on your opening night?

- Throughout the night, we probably had about 1000 people.

- Yeah, that's crazy.

- Which was pretty awesome.

- Yeah, for Downtown Albany.

- It was grand opening and our Members Show and we sold a lot of artwork.

So that's the other thing is like- - I sold a piece.

- Congrats.

(claps) - Yeah.

- Yeah, it's pretty sweet.

- So what do you think that means for like downtown Albany?

Like now we're getting a little bit more into like the economics part because you know, yes, it's like yeah, we support the artists, we love this but it's like this also has like a positive effect on the city economically too, right?

'Cause you're getting all these people in downtown.

So what are your thoughts on that?

- That night, I was getting text messages from local restaurant owners saying like, "We had so many people come to the space after the show."

So it's like the idea that people can go to the exhibit, then go out to eat, walk a block or two, have a dinner, cocktail, whatever it is, shows that there's value for that and then in turn, those organizations also want to help the arts and donate food to events.

So it's like everybody kind of works together.

So that way, like everybody rises.

- [Jade] Yeah.

- But with like after hours and music nights and things like that, I think that's also gonna be another thing that we're gonna be introducing is like an ACG after hours.

- What?

Night life.

- Yeah.

This would be I guess the intro to it.

We're really excited for downtown and just having more activities and I think with our new mayor, has been super awesome and supportive of the gallery trying to support the arts and trying to do activities.

It's just everybody's effort is working towards that goal.

- That's amazing and I like the expansion that kind of comes with it, it's like you're now able to do nightlife-based things, which really wasn't possible I feel like at the older spot, you know?

You were next to a coffee shop, you know?

(laughs) Versus like being downtown now.

- Yeah, that spot was cool but I think where we're at now, and now we have a large mural that's on the side.

It's a really cool anchor into that neighborhood but it's kind of a big intersection of people going up to City Hall or up to the Capitol.

- Yeah.

- Going to the Palace, going to Empire, going to MVP.

So there's just like a lot of activity around there and we're excited for what summer's gonna bring 'cause- - Me too.

- We even have cool ideas for pop-up art and kind of just movable murals just to activate the streets.

- Yeah, that's gonna be awesome.

So as you know, when organizations get bigger, sometimes they may lose sight of things sometimes but I know that's not what ACG is about.

So what's something that you guys refuse to lose no matter how big you get?

- The reason we're there, you know?

All of our staff are artists and creative people.

I think that helps me as being an artist.

People joke that I do like admin but to me, that's also creative planning and curation.

Like all of that is like an artistic form.

But I think keeping art and artists at the focus of everything we do, that's I think why we're here.

I'd go out of business if we could support artists all the way.

Like we need the artists and they need support and if we thrive and they don't, then that's not a good win-win-win scenario.

- Yeah.

- I share that with staff, if it's a good win-win-win scenario, those are initiatives that we should be part of.

- Yeah, and any events that you want to plug that are coming up in the spring?

- Yes, we have spring, we have exhibits coming up for May 1st.

We're gonna be doing pop-up performances and also Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

We have an exhibit that our Curating Team is working on that'll take place in May and then in July, we're actually doing our Summer Arts Festival.

So we're bringing that back.

- Ooh.

- So that's kind of looking out a little bit and then a few other pop-up things that are gonna be taking place.

- Oh, that's gonna be awesome.

- Yeah.

- So you heard it, folks.

Stay tuned for ACG.

- Yes.

- Thank you again, Tony, for joining us today.

- I appreciate it.

- Appreciate you.

(laughs) - Please welcome Cosby Gibson and Tom Staudle.

(up tempo guitar music) ♪ Always been a dreamer ♪ ♪ Not of silver or gold ♪ ♪ I dream of the simpler things ♪ ♪ And the many wonders to behold ♪ ♪ I wonder why the bluebird and the cardinal get along ♪ ♪ They are a different color and they sing a different song ♪ ♪ I dream of children never hungry, of 'em not knowing pain ♪ ♪ A world whose land's not covered in a blood red stain ♪ ♪ I wonder why the bluebird and the cardinal get along ♪ ♪ They are a different color and they sing a different song ♪ ♪ And I wonder why so many make life on Earth so bad ♪ ♪ When all the really good things are just here to be had ♪ ♪ And I pray that someday, a new dawn will give birth ♪ ♪ And I bless this small blue planet ♪ ♪ A place that we call Earth ♪ ♪ That we call Earth ♪ ♪ I dream of children never hungry, who will not know pain ♪ ♪ A world whose land's not covered in a blood red stain ♪ ♪ Wonder why the bluebird and the cardinal get along ♪ ♪ They are a different color and they sing a different song ♪ ♪ And I wonder why so many make life on Earth so bad ♪ ♪ When all the really good things are just here to be had ♪ ♪ And I pray that someday, a new dawn will give birth ♪ ♪ And I bless this small blue planet ♪ ♪ A place that we call Earth ♪ ♪ That we call Earth ♪ ♪ And I wonder why so many make life on Earth so bad ♪ ♪ When all the really good things are just here to be had ♪ ♪ And I pray that someday, our new dawn will give birth ♪ ♪ And I bless this small blue planet ♪ ♪ A place that we call Earth ♪ ♪ That we call Earth ♪ ♪ That we call Earth ♪ (relaxed guitar music) ♪ Follow not the hollow crown ♪ ♪ Dark and secret or world-renowned ♪ ♪ A thing of Earth, of hollow worth ♪ ♪ How it tears a kingdom down ♪ ♪ Kingdom down, a kingdom down ♪ ♪ Once upon a time, kings and queens did reign ♪ ♪ Fighting for the hollow crown ♪ ♪ Would end in ruin and in shame ♪ ♪ Follow not the hollow crown ♪ ♪ Dark and secret or world-renowned ♪ ♪ A thing of Earth, of hollow worth ♪ ♪ How it tears a kingdom down ♪ ♪ Kingdom down, a kingdom down ♪ ♪ First the crown seems fair and sweet ♪ ♪ Chasing it feels so complete ♪ ♪ But the throne is made of glass ♪ ♪ It shatters in the truth at last ♪ ♪ Why would you want to rust and rage ♪ ♪ But rather seek a worthy save ♪ ♪ So cross the bridge along with me ♪ ♪ Searching for the mystery ♪ ♪ Follow not the hollow crown ♪ ♪ Dark and secret or world-renowned ♪ ♪ A thing of Earth, of hollow worth ♪ ♪ How it tears a kingdom down ♪ ♪ Kingdom down, a kingdom down ♪ (relaxed guitar music) (relaxed electronic music) - Thanks for joining us.

For more arts, visit wmht.org/aha and be sure to connect with us on social.

I'm Matt Rogowicz, thanks for watching.

(up tempo ensemble music) - [Announcer] Funding for "AHA!"

has been provided by your contribution and by contributions to the WMHT Venture Fund.

Contributors include the Leo Cox Beach Philanthropic Foundation, Chet and Karen Opalka, Robert and Doris Fischer Malesardi and the Robison Family Foundation.