Coming up next on Wisconsin Life :
- I could probably sit and look at this
longer than I could look at a TV.
- The sky's the limit.
You can go wherever you want.
[engine noise]
- Some people play with trains in their basements.
We play with big trains.
*
Funding for Wisconsin Life
is provided in part
by Alliant Energy,
Lowell and Mary Peterson,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
- I'm John Bambic
and here is my Wisconsin Life .
*
- Look around John Bambic's basement in Milwaukee,
and you'll find quirky characters in every corner.
- For years, John's hobby has been
carving "whirligigs."
They're whimsical wooden figures
that come to life with a little wind.
- Each one tells a story.
But to understand the stories in John's basement,
you have to head upstairs to his kitchen table,
and watch as John and his son
thumb through a lifetime of memories.
- Then, we come up to America that a way.
- John grew up in the nation of Slovenia,
then part of Yugoslavia,
in this centuries-old house.
- His life on the farm wouldn't last.
[mortar shells exploding]
In the early 1940s, war broke out in Yugoslavia,
between royalists and communist-led partisans.
At 19 years old, John was drafted.
- Forced from home, John spent four years
living in a displaced persons camp in Austria.
There, he met a young woman named Mary.
The two married, and in 1950, they moved to Milwaukee.
- In the 1960s, Slovenians living in Wisconsin
set out to build their own cultural park.
As they cleared the brush, John had an idea.
- With no formal training,
John began carving.
He made noisemakers and whirligigs...
objects he remembered from Slovenia.
There, they were used to keep birds away from crops.
*
- In the years since, John's made hundreds of whirligigs,
raffling many of them off
to benefit the Slovenian Cultural Society.
The characters come from his memory,
inspired by his childhood in Slovenia.
*
- A lot has changed since John started carving.
In 1992, he returned to Slovenia
after almost half a century.
In 2014, his wife Mary passed away.
And John has grown older.
- But for all that's changed,
there's plenty that has not...
John still has his children and grandchildren...
- He also has a lifetime of memories
and one home-grown hobby.
*
- Hi. I'm Marc Amenson.
I'm a power para-gliding photographer
and this is my Wisconsin Life .
- Ahh, perfect morning to go flying.
Had a couple of cups of coffee.
Ready to start the day.
- Marc Amenson's day starts early
when there's frost on the grass and a chill in the air.
- Here's my wind sock set up.
- Marc is a professional photographer
and is using power paragliding
to elevate his picture taking to new heights,
literally.
- Next up, we're going to warm this baby up.
[engine starts and runs]
[exhales "Whew!"]
- Just another day of adventure.
- Adventure for Marc
is strapping on a 50-pound fan and three gallons of gas.
- I'll put the GoPro on.
Right in this area I can see over to the bay,
Tower Drive Bridge,
Lambeau Field.
You can see way up north all the way along the shoreline.
[yells "Yahoo!"]
- I'm absolutely looking forward to getting up north
to remote areas above the forests,
along the rivers.
Kind of like the Wisconsin from the Air .
Alright.
Fly time.
[engine throttles]
Oh, my gosh.
It's the greatest feeling in the world.
That's why I love it.
- And sometimes, it might be one of the scariest.
- Oh, the first flight.
[Marc yells "Wahoo!"]
- Whew, surprise is an understatement.
It was the craziest feeling of all of sudden I start going up.
The tower was off to my right.
Whatever you're trying to avoid seems to draw you in.
As I avoided one obstacle, I came up to a tree line.
The main thing going through my mind was
"Let's get back on the ground safely."
But at the same time, it was,
"Is the GoPro recording? ...because this is amazing!"
*
Looking down to see the kids and the family down there waving.
It was so awesome.
I think the biggest adrenaline rush was touching down
and my heart skipped a beat.
- Whoo!
That's how we start a Tuesday.
Immediately I went from excitement to,
"I'm so into this thing."
And every time I go out flying,
I get a hug and a kiss and a "Be safe."
- The first time they ever watched Daddy fly,
Marc landed right over there.
The kids ran up to him and I was still shaking.
- Marc's wife Shayna
is learning to roll with Marc's new hobby.
- Shayna is terrified of me flying
and she was right from the get-go.
- Marc and Shayna home-school their children.
And Marc's adventures and passion for photography
become life lessons.
[children chatter happily]
- And after morning recess, it's back home
where Maverick and Amelia get a lesson in editing.
- They get to learn.
And it's bonding time for them and I together
on something that I love to do.
Let's see what we got. Look at those guys right there.
Hi!
So that's the park we were just at.
You guys were playing right there, right?
- Whoa! [giggle]
See that,
when video is just a whole bunch of pictures put together.
[child chatters enthusiastically]
- Wedding movies and photography
are a big part of Marc and Shayna's business
and that's where Amelia comes into the picture.
- I'll be editing photos and selecting
and Amelia will come down and look at the dresses.
And it's just the cutest thing in the world.
[laughing]
Look at that one!
- Into the night, the teaching continues.
As a photography instructor
at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College.
*
- On this night, Marc shares with his students
a lighting lesson in time-lapse photography.
- Wicks ready.
Cameras ready.
Ready, set, go!
Get them in here and running, spinning, running, spinning,
running, spinning, running, spinning!
Oh, look at this picture right here, I love it!
Start raining down fire on her.
[students laughing]
There it was!
Look at that one!
Just keep going like this until your sparklers out.
I got 'W.'
- And after a day of high adventure...
- Big letters, big letters.
- Marc saved the best for last.
- Oh, my gosh.
It looks amazing!
- W-P-T for Wisconsin Public Television.
And a picture perfect day in the life of Marc Amenson.
- Man, this has been an exciting day.
It just seems like every day
is a little bit better than the last.
And I've been blessed with an amazing life.
*
- Still to come on Wisconsin Life ,
author Catherine Jagoe brings us on a journey
to one of her favorite places in the state.
- You cross the bridge at Sturgeon Bay
and then something happens.
The sky gets suddenly bigger.
The light changes.
- Buckle up for a special road trip
later on Wisconsin Life .
*
- Hi, I'm Terry Yust,
the director and treasurer
of the Chippewa Valley Motor Car Association.
And this is my Wisconsin Life .
- Alllll Aboard!
*
[train horn, rumble of train]
- It's a hobby
for those of us who operate it.
Some people play with trains in their basements.
We play with big trains.
Actually, this is full scale.
A full gauge track, I should say.
*
The association itself is called
the Chippewa Valley Motor Car Association.
This is one of our regularly scheduled runs
down into Tiffany Bottoms Wildlife Management Area.
We do these runs
just in May and September,
because June, July, and August there's so many mosquitos
and everything else down in there that, it's a swamp.
It's a railroad built through a swamp.
*
And we've been giving rides down through here
to environmental and birding groups.
- Meadowlarks, Bob-o-links, [bugs buzzing]
and deer and turkeys love it.
- I've learned a lot about birds that I never knew before.
[laughs]
*
- What is a motor car?
If you were a railroad employee and you worked on the railroad
all your life, you might spend your entire 30, 35, 40 years
working on the same seven miles of rail.
And each section gang had some of these motor cars,
to replace ties, to replace rail joints, bolts, to replace rail.
It's how they kept the tracks going.
Most all of the cars that we have here were surplus,
powered by Ford Pinto engines.
- And some of this rail
was actually rolled in the 1890s.
It is that old.
[rumble of train]
- Traffic originally was the shipment of lumber out of here.
White Pine and Oak in the forests of northern Wisconsin
were brought down this line.
When Chicago burned, most of that town was rebuilt
from Wisconsin hardwood and softwood forest.
A lot of this rail is old, old rail.
*
It's a labor of love.
There's no doubt about that, because when it's--
When maintenance is required, it's heavy work, is what it is.
I was a novice at this when I started.
I didn't know much about railroads or how they operated,
and so on.
Friends of mine were members of this association and they said,
"Well, you need to come down here and play with us."
[laughs]
Well, the play turned into work, but it's okay.
When you get it done, there's a satisfaction
that you've done something to improve it.
I guess I wasn't too old to learn.
[laughs]
*
[rumble of train]
*
- I'm artist Rory Erler Wakemup
and this is my Wisconsin Life .
*
- Art is a process for Rory Erler Wakemup.
- I kind of fell into it
and it has kind of been dragging me along ever since, I guess.
[wrench clicks]
- Rory admits he's a reluctant artist.
- I hate it, I hate it...
Well, love-hate.
Time for the fun part.
[claps hands]
- Ask Rory to describe his art and he'll say...
- Pretty looking garbage.
I like dumpster diving.
[welding torch hisses]
- Rory's so-called garbage art
is guided by the sounds of ancient voices.
[Rory singing along with Native American music]
*
- Rory Erler Wakemup heard a calling
to wake-up the masses
with a political art project.
- Literally, like, wake people up to,
"Natives can do real conceptual art."
*
It started with making a headdress.
*
And, you know, I was like,
"Hey, feathers! Let's make a million."
[glass cracks]
It's kind of cool
some of these will sometimes look like deer prints
and then if you just change the angle a little bit,
it almost looks more like a butterfly.
[glass snaps]
You do it a couple of hundred times,
you start seeing things.
And I just wanted to make, like, pop, kitschy art.
And put an Indian twist on it.
You know, the "Neon Chief"
like my spin-off of the nickel store wooden Indian
to attract customers,
and it does exactly that.
[Rory laughing]
- Neon attracts an audience to Rory's art work.
- And with this piece,
I just want people to see the beauty of it.
*
You know, the...
Just those infinite reflections that go off,
and I want them to see it with their own eyes.
- Rory says you may see endless teepees,
or a million light sabers.
- Watch it move when you move,
like it reacts to your movement.
Keeps my A-D-D at--
I can probably sit
and look at this longer
than I can look at a TV
without doing something else.
- This neon wall
became part of Rory's final grad school project
at the University of Wisconsin.
- I realized this is the last year of school.
Ya know, I just daydream,
"If I could do anything what would I do?"
- Rory's daydreaming
sparked this creation...
[Rory imitating Darth Vader's voice]
You don't know the power
of the dark side.
[laughs]
You like that?
That evolved into just creating my-- an alter ego.
*
To take the battle into the art world.
- His alter ego's battle would be political.
*
Taking on the controversy of Indian mascots.
- I just thought it was such a trivial issue... at first.
Why do we care about logos when, you know, there's...
we're still trying to deal with
the aftermath of boarding schools and genocide?
Like, I didn't get it.
- 125 years ago, people like Colonel Henry Pratt
aimed to assimilate Native Americans in boarding schools
by wiping out their Indian identity.
- Colonel Henry Pratt, first publicly used,
or when it was first published anyway, I think,
"Kill the Indian, Save the Man."
- Basically, kill the native culture in the Indian,
but save the man.
- I guess I'm kind of surprised how many natives in my family
hadn't heard the phrase before.
"Kill the Indian, save the Man".
*
"Kill the Idiot, Save the Fan,"
just popped into my head.
*
Most people think it's pretty clever.
They like it and then,
when I get into the Darth Chief gaudy armor
with a latex rubber cat suit,
on stage
fighting racist mascots.
It's definitely my crazy twist on it.
I've definitely got screws loose.
- His Darth Chief Star Wars -inspired regalia
is getting noticed.
In 2015, Rory won the "Chazen Prize."
- It's a bona fide accolade.
You know,it's something, you know,
one of those badges I'm gonna put on my war shirt.
- The Chazen Prize is awarded to an outstanding student
in the Master of Fine Arts program.
It couldn't have come at a better time.
- I was ready to quit after last year.
I was ready to quit, I was done, burnt out.
- But Rory ultimately stayed in...
and winning the Chazen Prize guaranteed a showing
at one of Wisconsin's most prominent art museums.
[camera clicking]
By opening night, Rory was a celebrity.
- This piece is intended to be,
like, the disco room
for his coming out party,
for the "Kill the Idiot, Save the Fan" campaign.
Yeah, this is my Madison piece for sure.
It was born and raised here.
A lot of my work is art therapy
when you boil it down or whatever that chaos is
of where my brain is or isn't in spirit world, or whatever.
It's just, you know... it's all just--
[Pfft]
Bottom line: it's art therapy.
Soothes my soul, I guess.
I guess It's been dragging me along for so long,
I guess I'll just let it drag me to wherever it ends up.
[Rory laughs]
*
- My name is Catherine
and this is my Wisconsin Life .
- It's become a ritual.
The weekend that you carved out
from your work and your family's packed schedule.
The weekend marked "DC" on your calendar arrives.
After the harried last-minute packing
comes the odd relief
of turning your back on your own house and driving away.
Madison city traffic gradually thinning out.
And finally, open road,
heading northeast through empty fields.
*
You pass through places with French and Indian names.
There's an iron sky over Oshkosh and a smell of rain.
A cloudburst over Menasha.
Four Harleys pass you.
The driver's gray hair whipping.
Just when you're starting to feel stupefied by driving,
you see the "Cherryland" sign
that means you're getting close.
You miss the turn for Sturgeon Bay
and get lost in Green Bay every time.
It's part of the ritual, too.
You cross the bridge at Sturgeon Bay.
And then, something happens.
The sky gets suddenly bigger.
The light changes.
The air becomes more luminous,
full of invisible water molecules.
There's a radiance and openness.
You feel as if you are up high.
Tired as you are,
you start to expand,
to breathe more deeply.
You are driving through tall stands of white birch,
mostly denuded up to the very top.
Wind is a punishing presence here.
The air, constantly moving,
lets you know you are near a Great Lake.
Here it is untrammeled,
coming across miles of open water.
No hindrance.
You start to see Swedish flags
and "Ye Olde Norwegian" signs.
A bar that sells char-broiled Angus steaks and pizza
with a blue and white Pabst sign.
Mansions and little A-frames,
all empty, shuttered, silent,
with ferns growing in the yards.
And at last, the end of your journey.
Whitefish Bay and Lake Michigan.
A stunning aquamarine, with light turquoise shallows,
and deep turquoise, almost green,
in the depths.
A fierce wind whips up the pale sand,
needling bare feet.
[crickets chirping]
There are crickets singing in the dune grass.
The sand makes a squealing sound
as you walk.
Grains of quartz scoured out of the Canadian bedrock by glaciers
and ground up by eons of wind and waves.
*
The next day, you wake up to silence.
Brightness.
The neighbor's flag rippling beyond the pine tree.
And beyond that,
sun-dazzle on stippled water.
The lake is gilded with splintered light.
There is blown sand over the boardwalk.
[seagulls caw] A great emptiness.
Deer tracks on the beach.
Walking,
you see a bald eagle overhead.
This is what you've come to the ends of the earth for.
The chance to reflect
and stand by a great body of water,
to sink into silence.
To pass through the Door .
*
- Go to WisconsinLife.org
to learn more about
John Bambic,
Marc Amenson,
Terry Yust,
Rory Erler Wakemup,
and Catherine Jagoe.
We want to know, "What's Your Wisconsin Life ?"
[engine running]
This week, Marc Amenson,
the power para-glider from Suamico
shared with us some scenes from the sky.
Go to WisconsinLife.org
to find out how you can have a chance
to see your Wisconsin Life moments
featured in an upcoming program.
*
Funding for Wisconsin Life
is provided in part
by Alliant Energy,
Lowell and Mary Peterson,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.