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- Coming up next on Wisconsin Life...
- It's a totally different feel
painting on a human than it is on canvas.
- When it came to like developing ideas. We--
- Great minds think alike. [laughing]
- It gave me an opportunity to see how far I've come.
You are full of love and honesty.
- After I caught my first one,
it was 17 years before I caught my second one.
§ §

- Funding for Wisconsin Life is provided in part
by Alliant Energy,

Lowell and Mary Peterson,

and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.

- We are the future engineers of UW-Barron County
and this is  our Wisconsin Life.

- The first step in this story takes place in Rice Lake,
on the campus of UW-Barron County,
a small two-year school, where four engineering students
set out to build
a Rube Goldberg machine.
- A Rube Goldberg Machine
emulates the cartoonist Rube Goldberg,
who was famous for
making these complicated, crazy cartoons for a simple task.
- He never actually made a physical machine, ever.
- He was smart enough not to try to build it.
[laughing] - For sure!

- This is Dru Galetka.
Dru won a Rube Goldberg National Championship
in high school.
- Yeah, I went to New Auburn High School
and they're pretty big on Rube Goldberg Machines.
I think they've won like four or five national titles.
- Dru and three friends decided to enter
the Annual College Championship in Columbus, Ohio.
A task that would consume almost all of their free time.
- Probably six days a week.

And I'd say an average of four--
maybe five hours a day,
for seven months.

- So it was a long time.

Thousands and thousands of hours.
- The assignment: Create a complex machine
to open an umbrella.
- I just let them do
their thing because that's how they're going to learn.
- When it came to, like, developing ideas, we--
- Great minds think alike. [laughing]
- They built a 45-step machine
that paid tribute to inventor Nikola Tesla.
- We just wanted functionality
and the aesthetic appeal of the whole machine.
We didn't want just this cluster
of things that you really couldn't follow very well.

- The machine was ready for the national competition.
They just needed a way to get it there.

They had a very Wisconsin idea.

- We're kind of a low budget operation
so we used our family Explorer and my husband's ice shack.
- And drove all the way down to Columbus, Ohio.

- That's how everyone knew we were from Wisconsin.
- Yep. [laughing]
No one else pulled up in an ice shack.
- It quickly became apparent
they were in the big leagues now.
- Personally, I didn't think we were going to win.
- It was cool we did this,
but there's no chance in heck we're gonna--
we're gonna to be able to pull this off.
- We were up against the big dogs in the engineering world.
There were two teams from Penn State.
There were three teams from Purdue.
University of Texas,
University of Tennessee, Arizona State University.
- All these other big engineering schools that have
put thousands and thousands of dollars into their machines.
- I think we had, what? A tool case full of hand tools.
- And a theater shop.
- Yeah, a theater shop with a chop saw.
That's about all we had. And a table saw.
That's all the tools we had.
- It was David versus Goliath.

And David was armed with marbles,
books and a machine made out of wood.
Their hand-crafted creation was put to the test.
- However one of my life-long idols is Nikola Tesla.
Nikola was an inventor, mechanical engineer,
electrical engineer, and designed
one of the very first AC electrical supply systems.
- We have to give a short presentation about it.
Explaining what it is and then we run it.
- And then there's an 8-minute set up
and then they run the machine again.
[click]
- Seven months of work came down to two 45-second runs.
No pressure.
- There's certain steps where we just hold our breath
during that part because there's always
a certain percentage of time it works.
- I took another deep breath and then waited for the next part
or another critical point.
Once all the critical points were done,
I know the rest of the machine will work.
So then-- deep breath.
- Here's the truth about how Dru felt.
- Dru our team leader, he was basically green
while that machine was going through.
[rumble]
- Their nerves wavered. The machine didn't.
- We had a flawless run So that was really exciting.
Then they did their little Tesla thing and reset it.
We waited for the judges.
And then they ran it again and had another flawless run.
- All of a sudden there was color in his face again.
And we were like, "Oh! Wow! You were nervous."

[swoosh, clunk]
- Two perfect runs.
The underdogs from Barron County had surprised even themselves.
Now they waited for the judges to announce the winner.
- They did second place and we didn't get second place.
Purdue got second place.
And then we were just sweating, nervous.
- And she said, "It's my pleasure
"that this team won this award because
"I know the captain of the team.
He's already won the high school award."
- She's talking about Dru. It's Dru.
And it didn't click, and then it clicked,
and then we're all like, "Oh my God!"
- We just went crazy. We were so excited.
- I was shocked.
Zach was jumping around.
So everybody was having a good time.
- Tiny UW-Barron County had bested
the best engineering schools in the country.
They were national champions.
- It was a pretty good feeling.
I mean, personally, I love being the underdog
because nobody takes you seriously
until you do something big.
So it was a great feeling.

- And for four college students,
an ice shack trip they'll never forget.
- I'm so proud of them because
it takes a lot of effort and energy and creativity.
- To be honest, we probably can't
thank her enough for what she did
and how she handled this because it's definitely probably
given us all a sense of great pride that we...
we did this.
- They're going to be great engineers.

§ §

- Hi, my name is Dawn Marie Svanoe.
I'm a face and body artist
and this is  my Wisconsin Life.

- Breathe out through your nose.
- Dawn Marie Svanoe is an artist.

- I'm usually stuck in the corner doing
the black light make-ups.
- She's not your typical artist.
- We do haunt makeup for a haunt out in Stoughton
called Screamin' Acres.
- As part of Team Scream,
Dawn Marie transforms faces into freaks.
- It's crazy busy.
- Along with ghoulish zombie
and creepy clowns.
- It wasn't a big jump for me.
After having done kids' face painting
for a while, it seemed like a natural progression.
- A progression that sent her brushes
down past the neckline.
If faces were fun, imagine if you went even farther.
- I was wanting a bigger canvas.
- Bigger is better when your art is only skin deep.
- A lot of times I will draw 'em out.

This is going to be a lot of swirls and curls and whatnots.
I'm winging it.
It's a totally different feel
painting on a human
than it is on canvas.

- Dawn Marie's human masterpieces
can be mind-bending.
The only limitations
are her imagination.
- The blue and white China patterns that you see.
I also was inspired by a little bit of the Norwegian rosemaling.
I kind of tried to combine those two inspirations into one today.
Eh, stuck my finger in it.

Originally, I grew up in a little town
called Loganville, Wisconsin.
When I say little, I mean little.

- Dawn Marie took art classes in school,
but when it comes to her body of work,
she forged her own path.
- I'm completely self-taught.
The first ones I did
were just the backs of two of my nieces.
Edward Monks' "The Scream" on one
and then I did "Starry Night" by Van Gogh on another one.
Not every response, but the majority of the responses
I got about body art was,
"You touch their private--?"
No, my paint brushes paint that stuff.
I don't touch that. [laughs]
Don't think of it as this taboo thing that you are seeing.
Keep an open mind.
And look at the body as the beautiful canvas that it is.
Everybody's got everything that you're seeing in body painting,
just in different proportions.
But as far as myself feeling awkward about it, no.
Not anymore.
I want people to realize that body painting is an art.
It's not just a passing fad.
It's been around for thousands of years,
in different cultures around the world.

- It's an ancient art form Dawn Marie highlighted
in an exhibition called "Extinction."

- I wanted to mimic the tribal style
of the Xingu Indians from the Amazon.

And the idea behind that series was,
"We're all one tribe,
"and if we don't start treating each other as one,
we're heading towards extinction."
We used all body types, all ages, all sizes.
We had a woman who was amputee from just below the knee down.
And they're beautiful pieces.

That series had so much meaning
that that's probably one of my proudest sets.
- Proud is one thing,
but the process can be grueling
for both artist and model.
- I've done body paints that have taken up to nine hours.
[whistling]
That's the thing with me.
I'll just keep painting and painting and painting.

They get tired. They move.
[laughs]
That's probably the biggest challenge, is knowing that
you have to remember that this is a living canvas.
You need to stretch for a second?
- Yeah.

- Seeing it in person is always so much
better because you see the fluid movement of the body.
You see it morph with every move the model makes.

So every angle is a different picture.

- Dawn Marie would appear
on the reality competition show "Skin Wars."

- With my piece, I've made a surreal chess board
that goes 360 around the body.
It started out with 12 of us.
And then,
the very first episode someone gets eliminated.
- Her brush with stardom could be worth $100,000.
- I've got this. This my challenge...
Stressful. [laughs] Very stressful.
It was a lot of fun.
I made it through the 1st episode, the 2nd episode,
with a few scares, the 3rd episode,
the 4th episode,
the 5th episode.
- The contestant known as the "Glitter Queen"
survived until episode 6.
- It was an amazing experience.
- And a transforming experience for Dawn Marie.
- I look back and go, "Wow,
everything I did in my life has lead me to this point."

Never thought this would be an occupation.
I didn't even know the occupation existed to be honest.
I found the beauty in it and I just absolutely love it.

§ §

- I'm Jim Olson
and this is  my Wisconsin Life.

- Okay, well, we'll see what I can do here.

This is really my favorite way of fishing.

[line casts out "whir"]
- Catching a muskie is
a very random thing.
- For Jim Olson, there's nothing more peaceful
than rowing around Crab Lake in his 14-foot boat.
He just hopes it doesn't stay that way.
- You hope it doesn't stay quiet all the time.
You hope there gets to be a commotion.
- Jim is a muskie fisherman.
- This is one of the oldest lures that they ever made.
- And that requires a lot of patience.
- You gotta be stubborn
and bullheaded.
Yeah, it doesn't really make any sense to fish for muskies.
Somehow, you can't get it out of your blood.

- Jim can pinpoint the exact moment it happened.
- I was ten years old,
back in 1949, with my first muskie.
33 inches.
And that one caused me to become a muskie fisherman
for life.
- Jim's father, Paul, introduced him to muskie fishing.
- He kept telling me, "The only fish to fish for."
- Jim has a different interpretation.
- I keep saying,
"It's child abuse to
teach a kid how to fish for muskies
and then have some success."
- Despite catching his first muskie at age ten,
Jim was not a natural.
- After I caught my first one,
it was 17 years before I caught my second one.
So I am persistent.

- Jim and his wife Judy raised a family in Madison,
but muskies were always on his mind.
- When we bought this-- wanted to buy a place up north.
I wanted it to be on a muskie lake.

- They eventually landed on Crab Lake.
A quiet lake in Vilas County,
filled with back bays and islands.
Jim was still casting for muskies then.
And caught maybe one a year.
Then, a friend convinced him to try rowing.
- So I thought, you know,
I wasn't having much luck casting for 'em,
maybe I'd try this.
- He built this boat himself in 1997
and took it out for the first time
on Fourth of July weekend.
- I caught two muskies that night.
I don't think I'd caught two in a year.
And I caught two right out here in the bay.
One was 42 inches.
- The fish haven't stopped hitting since then.
- Fish on!
Got it right going over the weed bed.
[water splashing, fishing reel whirs with tension]
Oh, I lost it!
- This one got away,
but it still provided some action on a peaceful day.
- It seemed to me like, from the way it played,
it was a good--
It was probably a 40-inch fish.
- And a story that will live on inside the cabin.
- I think that was probably 45. Or 40 to 45.
I said 40 last night. It's grown a few inches.
They're entitled to do that when you lose them.

- The fish on the walls inside the cabin
provide a hundred more stories.
- I've caught a lot of muskies.
I have a lot of stories.
Most of them true.
- Jim himself has taken credit for 75 muskies,
but dozens more have been caught with him at the oars,
and someone else reeling in the fish.
- If it's a grandkid out, they always get the fish.
- All of his grandkids have reeled one in.
- Well, they want to be on the--
They want their picture on the board.
- Right in the middle of the board
is a photo that shows off Paul Olson's first muskie.
- That was in 1942.
Caught that up in the Chippewa Flowage, and that, of course,
made him a muskie fisherman for life.

- Jim can't help but think of his dad every day.
He even named the boat after him.
- The reason I call it "The Hopper"
is because that's what our oldest daughter called my dad.

It was "Papa," but she had trouble with her 'h's
so she kept calling him "Hoppa."
So I call it "The Hopper."
He passed away before I got into this.

I think he would have enjoyed this success.
- Jim says it's easier to row than it is to cast,
so he sees no end to his lifelong pursuit of muskie.
- I can row for quite a while.
Even at 77, I think I can go for a while longer.
§ §

§ §

- My name is Melvin Ridgenal, Jr.
and this is my  Wisconsin Life.

[machine gun firing]
[military drum corps music]

[somber horn music]

- He that shall live this day,
- And see old age,
- While yearly, on the vigil
- Feast his neighbors,
- And say
- "To-morrow is Saint Crispian."
- Then he will strip his sleeve
- Show his scars
- And say "These wounds I've had on Crispin's Day."
[faint gunfire]

- Go to.  - Go to.
- You are not Cassius.  - You are not Cassius.
- I am.  - I am.
- I say you are not.  - I say you are not.
- Urge me no more.  - Urge me no more.
- Shakespeare tells the best stories.
He tells them in the most beautiful, poetic language.
And that really offers a place to put
big anger, big grief,
big joy, big anything that you've got.
and gives it a place to go.
My name is Nancy Smith-Watson.
I am the project director of Feast of Crispian
Shakespeare with Veterans.
Feast of Crispian is,
in short version, an intervention program
for veterans struggling with re-integration issues,
PTSD, substance abuse.

- My name is Melvin Ridgenal, Jr.
and I am an Air Force veteran.
I went into the Air Force in 1961.
[propeller and engine noise]

I was not aware
of the racial tension.
I mean,
I was not used to being called
the "n*****."
I mean just to say it just like that.
I wasn't used to that.
I wasn't used to somebody getting in my face,
talking about me and my mother.
I mean, come on!

- My name is Omar Kabir.

And I was in the United States Army.
I honestly joined the Army to serve.
I thought
being an Arab, speaking Arabic,
having an understanding of the culture, knowing the religion,
what was going on.
And at the same time, it was a wonderful opportunity
to support my family.

- The military trains you to kill.
[gunfire]

- Nobody's Rambo.
Nobody's Chuck Norris in those movies.
- We were not created to just go out there and kill people.
- Had this gunshot wound.
I ended up having some hernias that went through my stomach
and metal rods put in my back.
I had fusions.
- And get back here and then have to find a job.
How are you able to work
when all you've done is be in war?

- You do a lot more damage when you're back here
than you can over there. Yeah.
- I was first introduced into alcohol.
And then marijuana.
- I'm an opiate addict.
And, unfortunately,
part of it is learning how to lie real well.
- The cocaine use, the drug use, the chasing of the women.
The misuse of women.
That wasn't me.
The PTSD-- It is a real, real disease.

- Veterans kill themselves at a much higher rate
than the general population.
22 veterans kill themselves every day.
We would really like to bring that number down.
And programs like this are really important to that.
And giving them a place to feel
like they can be connected to their communities again.
- When Caesar lived;
- How are you going to kill him?
- There are three of us
that are the founders of Feast of Crispian.
All of us are professional actors.
The main part of our program
is that we put them through
Shakespeare scenes.
And we have special techniques.
One of us stands at their shoulder
and reads half a line or a full line to them.
And then they can repeat it back in any way they want.
- I shall be glad to learn of noble men.
- I shall be glad to learn of noble men.
- It's almost like a guide;
You know what I mean? A 'Jiminy Cricket' in your ear.
- But I do love thee.  ¶¶¶¶¶¶- But I do love thee.
- We're thinking about it in terms of giving them
some kind of emotional... pop!
- Must I endure all this!
- All this.  ¶¶¶¶¶¶- All this. - Aye, more.
- She knows how to connect
with the part of your brain,
the part of your mind,
that you've stashed all this stuff in.
- There's a lot that they don't feel
they can necessarily express about their own stories.
And what we do is give them this mask of character
and somebody else's words.
And they can put their own experience on it.
- Honest, my lord?
- Honest.   ¶¶¶¶¶¶- HONEST!
- Aye, honest.   ¶¶¶¶¶¶- AYE, HONEST!
- You feed off of each other, too.
You let go a little bit.
The next man gets a little bit more courage and lets go.
It's almost contagious.
- I would rather be a dog;
- And bay the moon.  ¶¶¶¶¶¶- And bay the moon!
- It came up out of me so fast that it was
just almost an overwhelming sensation of relief.
- Oh, these men, these men.
- They can tell us something about the experience
of their own personal stories
without it being their personal story.
And, therefore, a lot of things get expressed
that they haven't gotten to express before.
- It gave me an opportunity to see how far I've come
in terms of my emotions.
- You are full of love and honesty.
- We're pretty devoted to this work.
- And weigh thy words;
- Because of the high of watching some of the--

Oh, Wow...
Watching some of the transition that happens.
Some of the transformation that happens in some of these people.
And in ourselves by getting to be a piece of that.

- Having this here,
it's just wonderful, man.
It is.
She's guiding me how to be a better man.
She's actually guiding me into my manhood.
What manhood really should be.
- And I'm just so glad about the fact that
now I can sit here and say
that I love my life.
I love Period.
I'm loving everything about life and about the journey
[solemn horn music]
that God has given me an opportunity to go through,
and to be in.
And that's pretty much where I'm at.
[solemn horn music]
- We few.
- We happy few.
- We band of brothers;
- For he to-day
- That sheds his blood with me
- Shall be my brother;
- Be he ne'er so vile,
- This day shall gentle his condition;
- And gentlemen in England now a-bed
- Shall think themselves accurs'd
- They were not here,
- And hold their manhoods cheap
- While any speaks
- That fought with us
- Upon Saint Crispin's day.
[faint gunfire]

- Curious to know more about
the UW-Barron County engineering students,
Dawn Marie Svanoe, Jim Olson
and the group running the Feast of Crispian project?
You can go to WisconsinLife.org
to learn more about the people featured in this week's stories.
And remember, we want to know:
What's your Wisconsin Life?
So, send your ideas to us at
WisconsinLife@wpt.org.

Finally, we leave you this week in Taylor County
for a trip  to the old fishing hole.
A part of our Wisconsin Life.

§ §

- Funding for Wisconsin Life is provided in part
by Alliant Energy,

Lowell and Mary Peterson,

and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.