2WLI0902HDEM_Flowering_Palette_Transcript

- The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.

- Angela Fitzgerald: Coming up on Wisconsin Life: a family of lavender farmers, a photographer using a Game Boy as a camera, a muralist creating larger than life art, and a builder constructing a castle by hand. It's all ahead on Wisconsin Life!
[uplifting music]

- Funding for Wisconsin Life is provided by Lowell and Mary Peterson, Alliant Energy, A.C.V. and Mary Elston family, Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

- Hi, I'm Angela Fitzgerald and welcome to Wisconsin Life. 

It's a pollinator's paradise as we stroll through Blooms and Butterflies at Schuster's Farm. The farm sits in Deerfield with acres of colorful flowers and fun adventures for the whole family. For select weekends in the summer, visitors can walk through picturesque fields of zinnias and 15 different varieties of sunflowers. There's also hands-on activities, like feeding goats, zip line rides, or climbing through obstacles. 

Schuster's Farm is run by a fifth-generation farmer and his family, who all pitch in to help with food, operations, and making this beautiful space grow. It's a labor of love just to prepare the zinnia fields, as it takes 500 hours of weeding by hand. Visitors come to pick their own bouquets, frolic through tall sunflowers, or mosey around the farm. It's one way to celebrate the season of beautiful blooms in Wisconsin. 

Before we venture too deep into the fields, let's see what else is flourishing in our state as we meet another family of flower growers in Baraboo, who team up to welcome guests to their flourishing lavender farm.
[gentle guitar music]

This might look like the French countryside. And yet, this lush field of purple blooms grows in Sauk county.

- Aron McReynolds: You may know lavender is native to the Mediterranean. Wisconsin is not in the Mediterranean.
[laughter]

- For Laura and Aron McReynolds, these rolling hills covered in lavender mark a new beginning.

- Laura: We had just sold our business and our house and moved up here. We really didn't have an idea of what we were going to do. We were going through a really difficult time in our family, and our marriage sort of fell apart.

- Angela: In that dark hour, Laura found hope for better things to come.
[inspirational guitar]

- Laura: I remember seeing a picture of a lavender field, probably in Provence, France, and through that chaos in our lives, I really felt that sense of peace.

- Angela: So, on a whim and a prayer, the McReynolds charted a new course.

- Laura: When you have that inspiration, you kind of know in your gut that it's a big leap of faith and you trust that it'll work out.

- Laura: I knew nothing about growing lavender.

- Aron: And then, we took a hair-brained idea and started to do enough research. And we're like, "Hey, this could actually work." And then, we went for it.

- Laura: What drew us to this area was the beautiful scenery, the beautiful nature. So, we found that nature, for us, was very healing in our family.

- Angela: In that move to Wisconsin, Laura and Aron knew their young family had to come first. They created a new life and drew inspiration from an abandoned family farm.

- Aron: Well, it was something we really wanted to do as a family.

- Lavender might not be their favorite thing. They can still do things that they love and that they're good at.

- Angela: Each of their three children pursued a passion.

- Gracia, she is 12. She is my "people person."

- Gracia: Now I'm gonna tell you some jokes. Why does Batman stop taking Robin fishing? Because he eats all the worms.
[laughter]

- Aron: She's always thinking about other people and just a joy to be around.

- Have a nice day!

- Angela: Next in line is Micah.
[sheep bleats]

- Aron: Micah has a gift with animals. He loves animals and they love him.

- Micah: I wasn't really crazy excited about the Lavender farm, but, I mean, I figured if we could have animals, then that'd be pretty fun.

- Angela: Gabriel is the oldest.

- Gabriel: So, this is one of our hives on the property.

- Laura: Gabriel wanted to be a beekeeper. He was always definitely afraid of bees when he was a little kid and he wanted to conquer that fear.

- Gabriel: Bees are really fascinating creatures for a variety reasons, I think.

- Laura: He was kind of a walking encyclopedia of beekeeping for a while.

- Aron: Really hear the bees humming when you're out here. It's pretty awesome to be able to work with your kids all day long and see them shining.

- Angela: With the help of their kids, the 40-acre farm has grown, too, into row after row of lavender and is open for tours.
[truck engine]

- Aron: We have 25 different varieties of lavender on the farm. This is some of our French lavender. And with your other hand, gently rub those leaves and smell.

- Angela: It's said that lavender's sweet, floral scent has healing properties. And this farm has done just that for the McReynolds.

- Laura: I think healing, being able to transition from something in this spot that was difficult and being able to do something for our family that required a lot of courage, a lot of change, it actually was something that drew us back together.

- Angela: Rooted in family, together they found comfort in this blanket of lavender.

- Laura: Knowing that we built this with our hands and we put in all the sweat and love and tears.

- I see a lot of hard work.
[laughs]

I see a lot of memories. I see times that the kids loved it and times when they didn't. Sometimes, I see the weeds.
[laughs]

- Angela: Bringing this abandoned farm back to life brought new life back to their family. For Aron and Laura, this journal entry sums up their pilgrimage to find peace.

- I had felt something I hadn't in a while: joy in the middle of pain. We knew in that moment that God had met us here in the deep utter places of darkness, pain, and brokenness. We knew if God could do that for us, he could do that for anyone.

- So, we set on a journey to create a place where people can come, breathe in the sweet aroma of lavender, and reconnect with each other despite all of life's distractions.

- We head off now to Milwaukee, where a photographer is snapping pictures, using an unusual camera.
[funky music]

For photographer Josh Arter, art can seem two-dimensional.

- Josh Arter: When I go out to take photos, it's over my lunch break at work. So, I have, like, you know, 45 minutes to an hour to walk as far as I can in the radius of where I'm at.

- Angela: But that doesn't bother Josh. In fact, that's kind of what he's going for.

- I put forth an extra effort, no matter where I am to always constantly be looking and seeing, you know, is there something that looks interesting? Is there something composition-wise that could be really striking?

- Angela: So striking that he's taking his photography game to the next level.

- I used to wear headphones and, like, listen to music or podcasts or something. But now I don't because, you know, nine times outta ten, somebody's gonna be like, you know, "Hey, excuse me, what is that?"
[laughs]

[8-bit gaming music]

- Angela: Picture this: a handheld gaming console with its very own digital camera. Today, it might not sound that cool. But in the 90s, the idea was pretty radical.

- Josh: Nintendo knew what they were doing because the bulb, the housing for the lens, can actually spin 180 degrees. So, you could take selfies, so... They were way ahead of their time.
[chuckles]

- Angela: The image quality, not so much.

- I've had a couple people who have described the quality of the image as digital dirt, which I thought was pretty cool. It's essentially four colors. It's white, light gray, dark gray, and black. And that's it. 

Sometimes it's like, you know, I take a picture. I'm like, "Oh, that's gonna look great." And then, when I get home and finally dump it off my Game Boy, it's like, "I don't even know what I'm looking at."
[laughs]

- Angela: But that doesn't mean it's 'game over.' Sometimes, you just need to find the right combo.

- Josh: Due to the limitations, there are certain times where it's like, you know, this photo would look really great, but I have to come back to shoot it because the sun's at the wrong angle and all of that. It's definitely a camera that isn't so easy just to rip off a bunch of shots and be done.
[8-bit gaming music]

- Angela: He bought the camera with one goal in mind; To capture and showcase the city of Milwaukee bit by bit.

- Josh: There's a lot to experience in the city. And then, in turn, you know, with my camera, there's a lot to capture.

- Angela: So much so that he created an Instagram account to share his work.

- You know, when I first started doing it, people didn't really get it. They were like, you know, "A. I didn't even realize that Nintendo made a camera. B. Like, okay? kind of a really niche audience for that." 

People have really started to come around. It's kind of the nostalgic feelings that surround Game Boys and video games.

- Angela: Uploading hundreds of pictures, displaying some of his favorite landmarks in Milwaukee.

- Josh: The art museum is really great. The Hoan Bridge is really great to shoot because it's such stark lines and you can get really good contrast. And too, it might sound crazy, but even along the Hoan Bridge with the riverfront, there are these rails. And so, when the sun pours through them, it casts really strong shadows, and you can get some really, really cool photos of that, as well.

- Angela: For Josh, his art not only takes you for a spin around Milwaukee, it also allows him to take a moment and pause and think back to a different time...

- Josh: They're like, "Oh, my God, is that a video game? "Oh, my God, I had one of those. It's so cool."

- Angela: ...where everything felt pixel perfect.

- Josh: It really does evoke those memories of childhood. Whether it's Christmas morning and you rip open a Super Nintendo or a Game Boy or something, and just thinking like, "Wow, oh my God! "Oh, I wanna get this game, or this game, or this game." For me, like I said, it is-- it's just thinking back to all my favorite games that I've played growing up. It's kind of fun to take a step back in the future and say like, "This is what it used to be."
[laughs]

[inspirational music]

- I'm at Schuster's Farm, enjoying the vibrant fields of Blooms and Butterflies, while learning about what it takes to keep things growing. Colorful fields and fun activities. Schuster's Farm is a family-run business that's been expanding for three decades. I met up with Sarah Schuster to learn about how their family farm got its start and why it continues to blossom.

- Yeah, so, Schuster's Farm is my family's business. My parents started the business about 30 years ago with selling pumpkins on the lawn, and it just kind of slowly evolved from that. Then, we added the corn maze and backyard area, added a bakery. And three years ago, we actually added our flower field.

- Angela: Very nice. And I understand the flower field has a name and, like, a whole thing surrounding it for folks to enjoy.

- Sarah Schuster: This is Blooms and Butterflies. And there goes butterflies!
[laughing]

- They're like, "Speaking of us..."

- Exactly, exactly. So, we plant a little over an acre of Zinnias and sunflowers, a couple acres of sunflowers. And Zinnias are natural butterfly habitat. And so, the butterflies just kind of come and enjoy, and it's really beautiful to get to see them in the flowers. And they actually just started coming this week.

- Do you have activities surrounding kind of the launch of Blooms and Butterflies?

- Sarah: So, we have a backyard play area with over 40 different attractions for people of all ages to get to enjoy. So that's open during Blooms and Butterflies. Then also wagon rides around the farm. So, we have a really beautiful hilly landscape of the different fields that people can take that. And we have photo ops all throughout the blooms.

- Angela: Whether visitors come for the summer sunflowers, or the fall corn maze and pumpkin picking, Sarah says it's all about bringing people out to enjoy their time at the farm.

- The amount of joy that the farm gives people. The joy of people that come out with their family and create traditions, the joy of kids just kind of getting to be outside and enjoy themselves. And now, with the flowers, they kind of bring a whole different sense of joy of the awe with them.

- Angela: It's true. Schuster's Farm is full of joy, mixed in with games, goats, and flower fields to frolic through.
[inspirational guitar]

Next up, we catch up with a muralist in Madison who uses her larger-than-life art to tell stories.

- Jenie Gao: Art to me is the means to create a record of what exists and allow it to persist in the future. And it is also a way for us to envision and create that which does not exist yet. 

My name is Jenie Gao, and I'm a full-time artist and entrepreneur based in Madison, Wisconsin. 

My earliest memory of wanting to be an artist was from when I was three years old. I remember just having a very distinct and visceral feeling that art was something I was good at and was a way that I could tell stories. I was always drawing and I was always looking to record information and also imagine things that didn't exist. 

Nobody else in my family was an artist. My parents immigrated here. My mom is Taiwanese. My dad was from China, and, you know, for them, the way that they had to make it here was by starting a business, starting a takeout restaurant in Downtown Kansas City. 

And there are many ways in which the arts were discouraged in in my immediate environment. And, in a way, it became something that very early on I felt the need to fight for, which, funnily enough, hasn't changed. It's continued to be something that I've, I felt a deep need to fight for. 

And particularly, with the arts and immigrant communities and BIPOC communities, if you cannot get recognition and respect via the skin that you're in, at the very least you can get respect for the profession that you're in. And unfortunately, that's not the way that the arts are seen in the society we currently live in. 

I work with a range of media. My foundation is in printmaking and, and in drawing. And since then, I've expanded to doing murals and public artworks and installations, and social practice pieces. But I'd say, like, as far as, like, what defines my work in terms of just mark making and aesthetic, I'd say that precision and a willingness to commit to a decision is evident in what I do.
[inquisitive music]

So, the piece that I'm working on right now is entitled "The Year of the Metal Ox." In the great race that determined the order of the animals in the original Chinese Zodiac, the rat got first place because it hitched a ride on the ox's head and jumped off at the end, at the finish line. 

Well, what if the ox was actually supposed to be first? Like, you know, she was the one leading the race, and the rat couldn't cross the river, and she offered him a ride. And what if she's actually first? And what if the steady and reliable ox, which just repeatedly shows up and does the work, is the one that's actually leading us to new beginnings? 

So that's, that's the concept behind this mural. It'll be located in Milwaukee. I started my career in Wisconsin in the neighborhood that this mural is going in. I used to teach in the Milwaukee Public School District at a school, less than a 10-minute drive away from, from where this mural will be. And so, there's a sense of fulfillment that comes with being able to give this image to a place where I really created my foundation. 

I think that my tendency, just with my personality and life experiences, is just always want to get the next thing done. I am very much someone who keeps track of to-do lists and milestones, and I'm fixated on getting things done. But if I were to take a step back and, and reflect on what it is that actually gives me the meaning to motivate me to want to get things done, it is just that blindness to keep showing up and paying attention. Yeah. Out of an estimated 8.7 million animal species on the planet, we are the only ones that actively record our images and information, and not even just about ourselves, but of the world around us. And it's an inimitable form of expression for humanity, and that we've been here.

- Angela: Now, we join a builder in Tomahawk on a journey to construct a one-of-a-kind structure with a medieval twist. Secluded in the Northwoods of Oneida County…

- Pete Kelley: My family's been up here since about 1890.

- Angela: This dirt road takes you back to the Dark Ages.

- Pete: I started in '87, and I cut in the road, and cleared the land.

- Angela: And what awaits you on the other side, only one person could have imagined.
[inspirational music]

- Pete: I made drawings for 10 years.

- Angela: This do-it-yourself project is Pete Kelley's dream.

- Pete: I was inspired, I guess. I spent a long time looking at things and wondering, "How would I make that?" And I just started hacking it down until I got to something that I thought I could handle.

- Angela: The medieval building rises out of the forest floor, near Lake Killarney. It's a project Pete has been working on for more than 35 years.

- Pete: You can tell them every dimension. You can tell them every detail, everything there is about it. But when they show up, it's always the same. "Oh, my God!"
[jaunty medieval tune plays]

- Angela: In the Middle Ages or modern times, the dimensions are staggering.

- Pete: Outside dimension is 42 by 42. about 5,000 pounds of running foot on, on the outside wall. Height is 35 feet. If it wasn't for zoning, I'd have another 10 feet on that tower.

- Angela: And it's all handmade.

- Pete: I like to play with steel and make things. Just fun...

- Angela: Most of the fun has been Pete's. He's an electrician by trade with no architectural training.

- What I did have when I started was anxiety.

- Angela: Each year, little by little, brick by brick, this castle takes shape.

- Pete: I looked at the whole project and it was overwhelming. And today, I look at what I'm going to do this year, and that's, that's all I think about. And I, I forget about the rest of it. I got the fireplace. It'll be a year by itself, maybe more, but it'll be massive.

- Angela: When you reach the very top, past the great room, up three flights of stairs, you've arrived at the keep.

- Pete: In the castle world, that's like the last defense.

- Kelley Arms castle is a tribute to Pete's Irish heritage and towers over the landscape with its corners fortified by turrets.

- From the base of the flag to the bottom of the base is 19 feet. Tedious little project.

- Angela: Built from Wisconsin red granite, the bricks are reclaimed tombstone scrap. and the castle is only about 75% complete.

- Pete: There's a lot to be done. On the outside, probably 25% of the stonework.

- Angela: The only access to the castle is on foot. So, Pete hauls everything across this narrow bridge one load at a time in the summer.

- Pete: I'll make a bill of material in the fall and get those things across.

- Angela: In the winter, he can drive across the icy moat.

- Pete: People always asking when you're gonna get done. And I had said, "It's like being a farmer. It's not something that you ever finish."

- Angela: For Pete, it's all about the journey.

- Pete: Well, yeah, it doesn't end. I get tired. I would compare it to, oh, maybe a person who plays sports. And at the end of the season, they're so ready for a break. But when the next year comes around, you're ready to get at it. 

I've had several people that have talked about building a castle, and I've said, "Don't build a castle because you want one. "You better enjoy building it. That's gonna be your life." I don't have regret.

- Angela: Whether it's a breathtaking field of flowers here at Schuster's farm, or hearing from people from across Wisconsin, our state has a bouquet of beauty to share. 

To discover more, visit our online library at wisconsinlife.org and reach out to us on social media or by emailing stories@wisconsinlife.org. 

I'm Angela Fitzgerald, and this is our Wisconsin Life. Bye.
[inspirational music]

- Funding for Wisconsin Life is provided by Lowell and Mary Peterson, Alliant Energy, A.C.V. and Mary Elston family, Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.