>> Production support for "Journey Indiana" is provided by WTIU members.

Thank you!

>> PAYTON: Coming up... >> BRANDON: Discover a pioneering Hoosier writer and activist.

>> PAYTON: Meet an artist with a one-of-a-kind process.

>> BRANDON: And stroll through a Tibetan monastery.

>> PAYTON: That's all on this episode of -- >> TOGETHER: "Journey Indiana."

♪ >> BRANDON: Welcome to "Journey Indiana."

I'm Brandon Wentz.

>> PAYTON: And I'm Payton Whaley.

I usually host "Flyover Culture" for WTIU, but today I'm filling in for Ashley Chilla while she is on maternity leave.

>> BRANDON: And we would like to take an opportunity to say good luck, Ashley, and we will see you soon.

>> PAYTON: But today, we are coming to you from the Holcomb Observatory and Planetarium at Butler University in Indianapolis.

Nestle into the heart of the Butler University campus, the Holcomb Observatory and Planetarium has been helping the public, students and scientists to gaze into the heavens for more than 60 years.

It's one of the largest public observatories in the world, and the telescope housed here is among the ten largest in the eastern United States.

>> BRANDON: And we'll learn all about this stellar institution in just a bit.

>> PAYTON: But first, producer Todd Gould takes us to Northeast Indiana, to learn about the life and legacy of writer Gene Stratton-Porter.

♪ >> I write as the birds sing because I must, and usually from the same source of inspiration.

Gene Stratton-Porter.

>> What's important to me about this property is Gene's legacy.

We can see with our own eyes and with our own hands and with the stories that we tell about her time here, how important this space is.

Not only to Indiana's cultural history, but our natural history.

♪ >> To one Hoosier writer, this land in northeastern Indiana was, quote, touched by the almighty.

A place to discover the power of God's own creations.

This is Wildflower Woods, home to Hoosier novelist and naturalist, Gene Stratton-Porter.

Near the turn of the 20th century, this location in tiny Rome City, Indiana, was Stratton-Porter's 120-acre temple to nature.

>> The breeze that gently fans the cheek is laden with subtle perfume, and the crisp, fresh odor of unfolding leaves.

>> You can come here during the week, and it's just -- it's quiet.

It's nature.

You hear the birds sing.

You can hear the trees sway in the wind, and you can hear why she loved it.

♪ >> When Gene Stratton-Porter built this home just after the turn of the century, she was already an independent woman, who had amassed her own wealth through the publication of articles, magazine features, novels and published nature studies.

Works like Laddie , The Harvester , and The Girl of the Limberlost , were not only best sellers, they also reflected and magnified an unending reverence for her natural surroundings.

♪ >> This was a place she could go to kind of refresh and get away from the hustle and bustle of her life.

At the time, she had -- when she purchased the land, she had six of her novels and three of her nature studies done.

So she was very popular, and couldn't really find a quiet place to retreat and be one with nature.

♪ >> These are the people who write books, make exquisite music, carve statues, paint pictures and work for others.

>> Gene purchased the land here in October of 1912 and began construction shortly thereafter.

By February of 1914, the home was completed, and it was all Gene's vision.

She wanted a place where she could come and have what she called a summer workshop, a place where she could come and retreat into nature.

♪ >> When Stratton-Porter purchased this land on Sylvan Lake, she hired a tree surgeon and a landscaping crew to help rescue various natural plants and wild critters from the Hoosier countryside.

To this day, many of the native species of flora and fauna found around these marshlands were rescued due to Stratton-Porter's drive to save the native land that was so sacred to her.

>> And she wanted to bring them here because she was creating this oasis, this space where she could protect them.

Because she had 120 acres, she could plant until her heart's content.

♪ >> Gene also lit out into the woods with a full-sized box camera to capture rare images of native flowers, moths, birds and butterflies.

Stratton-Porters publications, both as a novelist and scientific journalist, have been published in more than 20 languages, and are still in print today.

She's the only Hoosier to have two state historic sites dedicated to her.

She later moved to Hollywood, and formed one of the only female-run studios, turning her written works into films.

>> Nature can be trusted to work her own miracle in the heart of any man.

Nature always levies her tribute.

>> Gene was a woman that didn't really care what the norms were at the time.

She didn't care that women weren't supposed to be out stomping around in the swamp.

She was one who loved nature.

She was one who wanted to share it with the world, and she didn't care that it was not normal.

She didn't care that it's not what a woman should do, and to be able to tell her story and preserve her legacy of conservation and doing what you are passionate about, and not letting the world stop you, just because it's not normal.

It doesn't matter what life throws at you.

You can still do what you want to do and find the space that fits you best, and Gene did that when she found the space here in Rome City.

She was able to find the space that brought her back to home, brought her back to her center, and to surround herself with nature and to be able to continue to write and tell stories about the world around her.

♪ >> PAYTON: Want to learn more?

Head to the address on your screen.

>> BRANDON: Earlier, we spoke with Brian Murphy, the Director of the Holcomb Observatory to learn more about this out-of-this-world place.

>> The Holcomb Observatory and Planetarium is actually sort of an outreach, public outreach tool, and also an education tool for students here at Butler University.

We serve not only Butler, but about 10,000 people a year from the public come through this university.

The observatory was built in 1954, and it was a gift by James Irving Holcomb to the university.

Butler was having its 100th birthday at that time, and he donated this to the university as its gift.

What is inside the observatory here is the largest telescope in the state and a full-digital planetarium.

We can look at any astronomical event that's happened here on earth.

The telescope we have here, largest in the state, is actually a Cassegrain reflector.

What that means is the light makes three passes through it.

There's a 600-pound mirror sitting here at the back of the telescope.

At the front, there's another secondary mirror.

The light comes in from the top, hits this first primary mirror, hits the secondary, and actually passes through a hole here, where we view it through the eyepiece, the image right here.

♪ Back here, we have what is called our instrument box.

This has filters in it, all different kind that let certain wavelengths of light, special -- you know, certain elements.

And here we have a camera.

This camera is probably about $50,000 or so, just this little square right here.

And what this does, this is about 20 times more sensitive than your eye.

♪ Even though we're in the light-polluted confines of Indianapolis, we can still do research with this scope.

If we just go just beyond the red part of the spectrum, out into the near infrared, our sky becomes as dark as a mountaintop, even here in Indianapolis.

As an example, the horsehead nebula, which sits 15,000 light years from us in the constellation of Orion, in that nebula, which is a dusty star-forming region, that dust is sort of -- you can't get through it in visible light but in infrared, you can start poking into it and seeing protostars that are forming within the cloud, and that's sort of an example of how infrared can really help us out.

It allows us to see things we normally just would not see with our visible light.

One of the things that makes this observatory unique is the fact that we have this large telescope, and a digital planetarium in the same building.

You generally don't see a research-quality telescope and a -- such a fine planetarium in the same building right next to each other.

It's either a planetarium or a telescope.

So here what we try to do, we try to give information to people in the planetarium, the shows and just wow them in sort of nice graphics and up on the dome and movies and things moving, flying out of the galaxy.

But we also show them what's in the night sky, and we show them what they're likely to see when they look through the telescope.

The university loves this because, one, we are in a large city.

And it is the number one science outreach tool on this campus.

And Butler does like to reach out into the surrounding community.

We are part of a community here.

And so that's part of what we look at this as, as reaching out to the community which really goes back to what Mr. Holcomb wanted the observatory used for.

>> PAYTON: Now, we're coming to you from the tiptop of the observatory, and looming over me is this massive telescope.

This is a huge rig.

But I'm told that the telescope on top of it that they still use for spotting is from 1883.

So that's 140 years old that they still use today, because the quality -- whoever invented it, doing great for themselves.

>> BRANDON: What kind of stuff do you have in your household that you have been able to use for 140 years?

>> PAYTON: I don't have stuff that I've been able to use for four years.

>> BRANDON: Yeah.

Want to learn more?

Just head to the address on your screen.

>> PAYTON: Up next, producer Abi Yates takes us to Monroe County to discover the system behind the paintings of artist Tom Shelton.

>> My name is Tom Shelton, and I don't have a title.

And I paint pictures, make pictures.

Yeah, I'm an artist.

So there you go.

You know, I'm kind of self-conscious calling myself an artist.

I have trouble doing it now even.

Because I'm reluctant to say I'm an artist.

I just -- I make pictures.

But, yeah, I'm an artist.

That's -- I guess.

It doesn't matter what I think.

What I do is make pictures.

And I make 'em -- I make things how I want to look at.

♪ Do you have a favorite number or numbers?

Okay.

So when you walk or go -- start up steps, do you -- do you count steps?

And do you, like, always start out with one foot and want to do even numbers with the other foot or do you think about that kind of stuff?

That's sort of a system, isn't it?

Yeah, I do that too.

And I paint with two hands usually, holding the brush.

And that never used to be a problem, and so -- so I don't know, a few years ago, I started thinking, well, why not use that?

Use -- use the fact that you can't draw a straight line as your line.

Don't pretend that you can draw a straight line, because you can't.

I don't know.

I want to know what things are going to look like if you apply some sort of regular way of either doing or picturing because I don't know what it's gonna look like.

When I use subject matter like animals or birds or -- or different kinds of trees, or perennial flowers or herbs -- I've done paintings of all of those things.

A system is applied.

I don't want to make decisions based on aesthetics, like does, say -- what does a day lily look like next to a poppy?

I don't want to make it that kind of decision.

I'm not interested in that.

Okay.

I think that's what I'm gonna do.

I don't like that these trees here and -- and the distance are similar in color to these trees that are closer.

I want there to be more color difference.

So -- and I don't know what color.

One of the reasons I like painting too is that I get to sit and do nothing.

Just look at the painting.

Phew.

It takes a lot of yellow to change another color.

Because yellow is the weakest pigment.

Daggone it.

And then I always wonder, oh, is that too much?

Not always, but a lot.

I don't know if I get inspired.

Sometimes I have to work at it.

Sometimes I don't have any ideas.

I don't know what to do.

And a lot of times for me, it's just I need to do something.

Nothing is going to happen if I just sit and think.

Anyway, when I was 27, I went to art school because I thought, I still like painting, and I was doing watercolors.

I remember going to the library and getting some watercolor instruction books and bringing 'em home and trying to -- and read 'em.

And so I would go out and sit in the car and take paints and -- and, you know, a brush or two, and some watercolor paper and sit and paint neighborhoods, I mean, street scenes.

And I was teaching junior high school then, and I thought, if I like painting as much as I like it or making pictures -- making pictures, then that's what I want to do.

I don't want to spend my time doing a job that I don't like doing so that I can come home and in my spare time paint.

This place is -- it's a place where I just feel free with -- to do this.

I don't have any other responsibilities.

I'm responsible to this.

And I like that.

And part of that responsibility is -- is doing nothing.

Leave it alone.

And it's -- and sometimes I don't know.

And sometimes I haven't left things alone that I should have left alone.

Unfortunately, I don't find that out until after I didn't leave 'em alone.

So and that's -- and so that's all part of living kind of.

You know, you just find out that stuff.

I think I'm in touch enough with my humanity and my human beingness that things that interest me will also be interesting to some other people.

Not everybody, but a few other people.

♪ I don't know.

I don't know if I'm going to inspire anybody or not.

Or not me, but the work.

It's not really up to me.

I -- I think the best I can do for other people is to do the best that I can do for me.

>> BRANDON: You know, as someone who creates various kinds of art in various mediums, I can appreciate the idea of not really wanting to be perceived as an artist, but just wanting to be able to sit down and create and see what happens.

>> PAYTON: Yeah, it's the act of it, not what comes after that.

>> BRANDON: Yeah.

>> BRANDON: Up next, producer Nick Deel takes us back to Monroe County to explore the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center.

♪ >> In 2003, the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism and boxing legend Muhammad Ali, a Muslim, met in Bloomington, Indiana, to break ground at the Tibetan Cultural Center.

It was a striking display of the cross-religious, peace and harmony.

The center was the vision of Thubten Jigme Norbu, the brother of the Dalai Lama and professor of Tibetan culture at Indiana University.

The center has since been renamed the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center, but its mission remains the same.

Advance the cause of Buddhists in exile, and promote peace and harmony between cultures and religions worldwide.

>> So our goal is, first of all, to preserve our culture and religions.

And then meanwhile, we open up this wonderful space for public.

So everyone is welcome here.

And not only that, when they come here, they can learn from us.

>> The center sits on 160 acres south of Bloomington.

Several monks work to maintain the grounds, along with the temple, shrines, library, and even a visitors center.

As they stroll the grounds, visitors are encouraged to look inward.

>> When people visit here, of course, at the very first, they can enjoy the magnificent landscaping that we have here.

So they can enjoy every seasons like winter.

Right now in autumn, very beautiful.

On the landscaping, we have beautiful monuments we call is Stupa, or Tibetan we say Chorten.

So these are the symbolized Buddha mind, and also remembering the activities of the Buddha.

And we have -- we also have a prayer wall on the ground.

So when people, when they come, they can spin the prayer wall in clockwise.

But the idea is that when they walk clockwise, they have to observe their mind and be here and now as they walk, kind of meditations.

As they spin, they can think of sentient beings, may they be free from suffering and lost in joy and so forth.

We also have a temple, and people can come in here, and they can learn and enjoy and experiencing the style of the Tibetan Mongolians' temple.

And also we have a gift shop, and where not only just people can buy, but they can also get something from the center made by Tibetan refugees and some are refugee from Nepal.

And we have a library as well, where they can go and read a book and, yeah.

We have cottages people can rent, and they can stay here, do some self-retreat and practice.

>> Visitors are also welcomed to attend events such as traditional Buddhist prayer sessions.

[ Chanting ] >> It's an interconnectedness that's easy to forget in a chaotic world.

♪ >> PAYTON: One of the things I find really cool about the Tibetan Cultural Center is how close it is to everything else in Bloomington.

Like, this is five minutes away from my very suburban apartment in Bloomington, and then you go, and it's like you are transported into another world.

It is so peaceful.

So calm.

I know so many people who go there just for the quiet of it all.

And there's really no other place like it in Bloomington to just be separate from everything else going on.

>> BRANDON: Want to learn more?

Just head to the address on your screen.

>> PAYTON: And as always, we'd like to encourage you to stay connected with us.

>> BRANDON: Just head over to JourneyIndiana.org.

There you can see full episodes, connect with us on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram and suggest stories from your neck of the woods.

>> PAYTON: We also have a map feature that allows you to see where we've been and to plan your own Indiana adventures.

>> BRANDON: Now, I know you and I are both very much into video games.

>> PAYTON: Absolutely!

>> BRANDON: And a very popular space video game just came out, but I think I've got something you are going to enjoy a little bit more.

>> PAYTON: Do tell more.

>> BRANDON: We'll see you next time on -- >> TOGETHER: "Journey Indiana"!

♪ >> PAYTON: So this reminds me of like field trips to the planetarium as a kid, where like -- not me because I was a good kid, I was a good student, but lots of other less reputable students would fall asleep use it as free naptime.

But not me.

Brandon, do you know your astrology signs?

>> BRANDON: I do.

I am a Pisces.

I am those two fish right there that are carrying a ribbon between them for some reason.

>> PAYTON: Yeah, I see it.

>> BRANDON: Do you know what yours is?

>> PAYTON: Leo.

I know nothing about it.

I think it means I'm loud.

I always thought Cancer was a crab.

Is that a lobster or is that just a cephalopod?

>> BRANDON: A crustacean.

>> PAYTON: Crustacean, that's right.

>> Production support for "Journey Indiana" is provided by WTIU members.

Thank you!