Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: Frederick Hammersley Fund, New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME-TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation.

.New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts.

and Viewers Like You.

RECOGNIZED WORLDWIDE IN THE LOWRIDER BICYCLE SCENE, CO-FOUNDER OF ALBUQUERQUE'S ODDFELLAS BIKE CLUB, AARON GONZALES BUILDS COMMUNITY ALONG WITH HIS CUSTOM LOW-TO- THE-GROUND BICYCLES.

LEADER OF THE BAND "THE ZYDECO KRUSH," RUSTY METOYER BRINGS THE UPBEAT SOUND OF ZYDECO MUSIC TO THE WORLD.

"PATTERNS IN NATURE," INVITES PEOPLE TO STEP OUTSIDE AND DISCOVER FRACTAL PATTERNS IN NATURE.

LOOKING CAREFULLY AT HIS HOMETOWN OF LAKELAND FLORIDA, PHOTOGRAPHER NABIL HARB DISCOVERS THE HISTORY AND MAGIC THAT OTHERS OVERLOOK.

IT'S ALL AHEAD ON COLORES RIDING LOW >>Aaron Gonzales: I think it's the shiny wheels and the candy paint and, you know, the flaked-out patterns.

And I mean, I just - I think it's beautiful.

[MUSIC] When it comes to the bikes.

I have a certain style, anybody that comes to me wanting a bike, they already know that it's going to be low to the ground.

If you want something high, then I'm probably not the person to come to.

[♪ And I can't make a move.

♪] >>Aaron Gonzales: The first low rider I ever seen was a 50's Chevy truck.

It was all black, had chrome rims on it, and then I picked up my first low rider magazine when I was younger and I saw the bikes and I saw the art and everything about it- just - I just fell in love with it.

[♪ Baby if you run away...Baby!

♪] >>Aaron Gonzales: When it comes to flow, when it comes to design, I always look at body lines on old cars, and that's where a lot of the designs come from.

[MUSIC] >>Aaron Gonzales: The fleet line is something that I designed and that's kind of where that design came from.

A 48 Fleet line.

[MUSIC] >>Aaron Gonzales: I was once told, when you're designing something, especially a bicycle, you should be able to look at the bike from the beginning and not stop all the way to the very end, and that's when you got the perfect flow.

And that's, that's something that's always stuck with me.

When I'm in the zone.

There's no distraction, there's nothing that- that can break my concentration.

If I'm having a bad day, I just build bikes.

I have no fabrication background, I have no welding background.

I didn't think I can do it, but I started doing it and I fell in love with it.

It's my art, it's my passion.

I love everything about it.

Just being able to create rideable art and create something that not only I can enjoy, but other people can enjoy.

And I think that New Mexico has a big culture when it comes to the Lowrider scene.

[♪ It's going to alright.

♪] >>Aaron Gonzales: And we're all different.

Just nobody is the same and that that's kind of how the bikes are.

Every one of these bikes are different, just like shoes or anything else, you know, it just kind of fits the individual person that's actually riding the bike.

[MUSIC] >>Aaron Gonzales: When it comes to the Odd Fellas, it's all about riding together.

[♪ It's going to be alright.

It's going to be alright.

It's going to be okay.

It's going to be alright.

I feel it in my heart.

♪] >>Aaron Gonzales: While we're all riding, people kind of gravitate towards these bikes.

[♪ It's going to.

Yeah, Yeah!

♪] >>Aaron Gonzales: They come out their house, they're all smiling, they're happy, waving.

It's just a really good feeling.

It always puts a smile on someone's face.

[MUSIC] >>Aaron Gonzales: I have this saying, it's the bikes that bring us together, but it's the people that make us stay.

It's about family.

It's about finding your gift.

It's about doing something that could take you away from the everyday distractions.

Whatever you're going through during the week.

When you're on these bikes, you don't have a choice but to just slow down and take everything in around you.

It just brings everyone together, and it just, everyone's on the same page when we're riding.

We're just in the moment.

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] BRINGING THE MUSIC [MUSIC] (music) I'm Rusty Metoyer and the Zydeco Crush.

Our first album was Take my Hand.

We released that in 2013.

My second album was In Due Time.

I released that in 2016.

My third album is going to be entitled Unlike any Other.

I'm the bandleader.

I play the accordion.

I sing the songs.

I write the songs.

I drive the van, I do the sound, pretty much everything that comes with being a band leader; I take on all those responsibilities.

(music) Both of my grandfathers were Creole musicians, Louis Metoyer and Cornelius Pappilon; they both played.

I have various uncles and cousins that play music, whether it be bass, or drums or guitar, accordion and stuff like that.

So, every time we'd have a get together, they'd pull out the instruments, and I was kind of just right there with them, just watching them.

There's pictures of me on holidays when my cousins are outside playing and I'm sitting in there in the middle all the older people in my family just watching them play music.

I'll be the only kid in the picture just soaking it in.

As far as playing the accordion, I had one that my uncle Dempsey had sent me when I was 10, and the first day I picked that up, I kind of learned a little song on it, put it down, and never touch it again for another four years.

And after my grandfather had passed away, I picked it up to kind of just keep it in the family.

So, I started playing a little bit and started trying to just teach myself listening to old cassettes and CDs and then I started kind of making good noise on it.

It started just snowballing from there.

(music) As far as singing, I wasn't always a natural at that either.

But I do have uncles, my parrain, Gregory Papplion; he's an incredible singer.

And he just talked to me one day and explained the dynamics of singing, as far as you don't just sing from here, you know, you got to bring it from here.

And then I think that night, I was just singing in my room and it just made a big difference.

I was like, that's what he was talking about.

(singing) I don't want to sound cocky or nothing, but I think I'm just best at overall performing, just getting people involved.

I think I'm a good accordion player.

I think I'm a pretty good singer.

I think I'm a good songwriter, but I think what I do best, is relate to people that I'm playing in front of and kind of make them move, make them dance or get them involved somehow to sort of make them laugh or tap a toe or something.

You didn't just come to sit down; you came to move.

So, if I'm making you move, I'm doing my job.

I'm definitely thankful that we have been able to travel the country, travel the world many times, and I always look forward to the next trip.

Nationally, I've been East Coast to West Coast numerous times.

Since I was about 20, going all along the east coast all along the west coast.

I played in France, in 2012, playing guitar for a different band.

I played in the Netherlands in 2015 with my band, I played in France in 2016, with my band., I've done a Zydeco cruise.

I'm always looking forward to traveling.

All of my big trips; they've reached out to me.

They've heard me at some point or another whether they've traveled to Louisiana and hear me play at a local place.

Or if they talk to other people, and they say, who in Louisiana is up and coming?

How they find out about me, I don't know.

I think the people in France appreciate it a little differently because we are French culture.

I feel like they kind of look at Louisiana as like their little sibling or somethin' like they.hey, I'm proud that we're keeping the French going.

Zydeco dances isn't a concert.

For the most part, you're not just sitting down and watching the band.

You are up dancing, and if we see you dancing, I'm calling, "hey, boy I see you over there!"

You know, just talking to him and they might be with their different trial ride groups or social clubs and you call them out and if you know where they're from, like if we're playing in Houston and you know, some people from Opalousas, Louisiana and "Opalousas is in the house tonight!"

Everybody gets involved.

"Houston's in the house and we got Lake Charles in the house tonight!"

So, you make people feel like they're part of the show, just be interactive.

5 to 10 years down the road...For my music, I see us playing big arenas, big festivals.

Being in a tour bus.

And still, playing the local stuff because our local people, our culture, that's who made us.

I wouldn't want to ever get to a point where I'm just, too big to play for the people that supported us from the beginning.

After Hurricane Laura, we were displaced to Houston.

We were coming and forth to Lake Charles to kind of assess the damage and clean up.

On one of the trips, I found my first accordion that my Uncle had sent me, in the house.

It was really a lot to take in and deal with and I saw my accordion and just for me, I just wanted to play.

[singing] I do want to be apart of elevating my culture, to the next level.

Reaching people that Zydeco might not have reached.

Ten, fifteen years ago, or thirty years ago, there's endless possibilities.

Zydeco is such a versatile music that anybody can relate to.

.reggae started just in Jamaica, it was just a regional music in Jamaica, but now is worldwide.

Everybody knows reggae artists.

And I think zydeco can do the same thing.

I mean, reach to a wide audience, whether it's younger, old, black or white, whoever, anybody can relate to zydeco.

My favorite part is kind of all of it together the the fact that I'm keeping something going that was instilled in me as a child from my family and representing my culture.

I'm representing my city everywhere I go.

And also, that people enjoy what I'm doing.

People enjoy my art, you know, they when they come up and ask me for, for me to play some of my originals.

And when I'm playing, they're singing my songs like that's, that's a great feeling.

[singing] FRACTAL NATURE Dublin Arts Council teamed up with a group of local artists to create a new program called Patterns in Nature Initiative.

This is a nature discovery series designed at getting people outside, connecting to nature, into their parks and exploring the natural environment for patterns.

Today will be guided by our artist who will lead us on a walk where we'll be exploring fractal patterns and fractal geometry.

And then later on, as a group, we'll be engaging in an art activity together.

I pretty much work mostly in cardboard.

It's my upcycle material of choice, because you can mold it, you can bend it, you can burn it, you can layer, you can do all kinds of fun things with it.

And, I just get really excited about teaching people about like how household materials and things you would normally throw out can be turned into these beautiful sculptural pieces.

I'm a firm believer in upcycling and I think it's a wonderful thing when you can take trash and make it into something more beautiful.

My main emphasis with nature is just how things are made.

The structural aspect of nature.

Almost like nature's architect.

So, today we're going to just be walking through the woods and we're going to try to look at fractal patterns.

Like, patterns in nature, the way things are repeated.

I'll be talking a little bit more about textures and, like I said, structure of tree limbs to broken things to meandering things, veins in leaves, all that good stuff.

Does anybody have any idea?

Why do you think nature chose these tubes for everything?

Because technically, our arms are tubes, our bones are tubes, our arteries are tubes.

So, nature has got this really super, efficient way.

That tree has to soak up that water up to the top, you know.

So, you need a way to get it from there all the way up.

Just like our bodies, right?

We're actually going to do a land art project where we'll be collecting natural materials and then as a group, creating an art piece together collaboratively.

The art pieces that are created out of those natural materials, they will last as long as nature allows them to last.

And hopefully the people who walk in this park can enjoy them for as long as they're here.

It's a way to just get hands on and get people thinking about, you know, what are the textural qualities inherent in nature, what are the shapes inherent, what are the repeating forms in nature.

Stuff like that.

And then after you start noticing these things, what kind of materials can you get out of nature to make possibly earth sculptures out of.

Whatever you want to do.

If you got materials you want to add to it, you can add to it.

I'm going to start putting it out over here and just kind of ad lib.

And uh- Or if you want to do your own.

Like we were saying earlier, try to pay attention to, you know, texture and, you know, the fractals in there.

Like how things are on the big scale down to the little scale.

Color, shapes, all that good stuff.

So, this kind of stuff, this chunky stuff, I love this.

So, for me, this is like a sculpture.

This is something I have been trying to mimic for years using cardboard and it's actually extremely hard to do.

Nature makes it look easy.

But getting all of these like different sizes and stuff would be really hard as a- as a sculpture.

I really like that we've got these cool shapes and colors and then we've got some contrasting stuff.

That's almost like a little flower, like you made up your own little flower.

That's really cool.

You did an amazing job.

I like the flow, too.

I mean, we walk by a tree every day and we kind of group them together.

Oh, there's another tree.

But in reality, all the shapes are different, all the textures are different, you know, and there are so many of these repeating patterns.

It's fun to just take a moment, relax, and then just point these things out to people and get people to take a little time to be more aware of their surroundings.

Cause let's face it, most of the times when we're in a park, we're not really in that park, we're in our heads thinking about our job or the next email or, you know, who knows what else.

It's nice to just take a pause and, you know, be able to explain things to people and hear their comments and enjoy the, the company of people who are interested in similar things.

SEEING A NEW WORLD I always like to joke that half the reason I'm a photographer is because I'm nosy, and I like to get into things, and I'm always curious, like, "What's going on in that building?

What's going on in this part of town?"

I may not have an aim.

There's maybe not something I specifically want from these places other than to see what's going on, and I found that having a camera is a really great excuse.

I like living in Lakeland because I'm from here originally.

I was born and raised here, but I've always made my work here, my photographic work.

I have a lot of connections in this area that allow my work to be possible.

It's a really important part of my practices, access to places.

For instance, going to orange groves or old jails that are no longer in use, kind of like old parks and places that sort of have this historical tie to it that I'm really interested in checking out.

"Atmospheres" is a new body of work that I've created.

There's a lot of thinking of movement in history, movement, whether it's the movement of water, the movement of people in cars, like through highways, and thinking a lot about the relationship between the infrastructure and the water, because that's a big part of Florida for me, and something I've really thought about a lot is how can I let the environment of Florida into my work.

In Nabil's work, we're seeing his memories and his personal history layered on top of all these different places in Lakeland, and we're seeing local history, local culture, but he's also packing in a ton of sensory information into his images as well.

You really feel like you're in these heavy, muggy, Florida environments when you're looking at his pictures.

You're not just seeing the trees.

You're seeing all of the atmosphere.

You're seeing all of the particles and all of the bugs and all the moisture in the air, and you can feel the humidity, and all the activity and density and material that's there in that atmosphere that we're moving through day-to-day.

Whirlpool is yet another, I think, example of the personal, political, historical layers that exist just in any of my pictures, and this one in particular was an image of a tiny whirlpool that's kind of occurring right in this hotspot of the sun's reflection in the Peace River, and the Peace River is a historically relevant area and water feature in Lakeland.

It's a place that historically has been a dividing line.

When the settlers first arrived to this part of Florida, it was a place where the indigenous people were pushed up against originally, and then eventually were sort of kicked to the other side of the Peace River.

So, it's been historically used as this border.

It's also a place where a lot of racialized violence had occurred.

Picturing this little like portal opening up in this river, I just can't help but think to myself what's coming through when this river and this water knows so much or have been a site for so many things.

The awareness of all these, like, geographical features and how they touch one another, because for me, it's like the Peace River connects to Saddle Creek.

Saddle Creek is right next to Main Street.

Main Street is the street that the gay club is at, The Parrot, and so I can't help but think about all of those things interacting with one another, and all the time that's sort of flattened by my exploration of that area.

And in thinking about all of these things at once, right?

A gay club, a gay cruising ground, fossil hunting in racial violence, like, what do all those things have in common?

The Peace River for some reason.

With Lakeland, it's growing so much, especially during the pandemic, which I think everyone in Florida can sort of notice that people moved in in droves.

For me, I'm like, okay, but what's lost because of that, right?

We have so many new coffee shops and so many new bars and restaurants in Lakeland that are really cool, and, like, I like to eat there, and I like to hang out there, but it's also like, all right, but what else?

What used to be here?

Why are we not- why is no one curious about that?

And so, we're witnessing this really intense, like, turnover of culture and industry and identity in this place that I think is really sad.

I don't love it.

I think those of us who have always been here maybe aren't being as served by some of this turnover as everyone else.

You know,3 especially those of us who are from suburban, rural, less quote-unquote culturally relevant places, I think it's really important for a lot of us to think back on where we're from because an outsider coming in can make all these assumptions.

I'm like, why don't those of us who know what we're doing in these places speak on it?

I think Nabil's work shows that even if you live in a small town or in an isolated location, you might feel like there's not a lot going on, but there is a lot going on wherever you are if you look for it.

If you look at your hometown with these eyes that other people who aren't from this place don't have for this area, you can see things that other people won't, and so I would hope that maybe a larger theme of this work is for people to think about where they're from and think about the history and the magic of that.

The award-winning arts and culture series ¡COLORES!

is now available on the PBS App, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and at NMPBS.org.

From classic episodes to brand new shows, ¡COLORES!

is everywhere!

Watch now on your favorite NMPBS platforms.

Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: Frederick Hammersley Fund, New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME-TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation.

.New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts.

and Viewers Like You.