Studio One features miniature flower patch and a blues musician
Some consider one insurance office as a “whimsical fairy land.” Insurance broker and gardener Debra Hopkins brings her personal touch to the workplace. “Everything was cold and professional. I gradually brought in personal things to make it feel like my sacred place,” Hopkins said. She has used her love of gardening to brighten her workday. “I can’t walk in [my office] without smiling; my heart just sings,” she said. Hopkins combines artwork and nature to create miniature gardens. “I make it spring in here all winter long. It’s a nice thing to come in from the outside.” Hopkins will demonstrate how she creates petite flower patches.
Blues music generally tells the story of heartbreak and sorrow but for one man, playing the blues has a happy ending. “If you get ready to start your car in the morning and it won’t start and you have to be to work on time, then you really got the blues. Everybody gets the blues sometimes,” said Sammie Moore, a blues musician. Singing about hard times has taken Moore many places and in front of countless audiences. However, this genre is seeing less stage time. “Every 10 to 20 years, music changes. The whole style changes… some [blues] musicians have to stop making a living that way,” he said. Many melancholy artists are now looking for a way to make ends meet. The Music Maker Relief Foundation has made an impact on struggling performers by helping them with recording contracts, bookings and living expenses. Tune in to Studio One this week to learn about how dark tunes can have a bright future.
Studio One is an award-winning news and information program produced at the Television Center. The program airs live on UND Channel 3 on Thursdays at 5 p.m. Re-broadcasts can be seen at 7 a.m., noon, 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. daily and on Saturdays at 10 a.m. Prairie Public Television airs Studio One on Saturday at 6 a.m. The program can also be seen by viewers in Bismarck-Mandan, Dickinson, Fargo, Jamestown, Minot and Ray, N.D.; Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minn.; Denver and Colorado Springs, Colo.; Winnipeg and Brandon, Manitoba; and online at www.studio1.und.edu.
— Suzanne Irwin, Maddy Magner, Ashley Trdan, Studio One, 777-3818, studio1@email.und.edu.
