Wisconsin Life

- The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.

– Angela: Coming up on Wisconsin Life: Meet a fighter pilot flying at super speed, a painter capturing light with his brush, a farmer growing perfect peonies, and an artist making his mark in... unconventional places.

It's all ahead on Wisconsin Life!

[upbeat 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.

- Ground control to Wisconsin Life!

I'm your host, Angela Fitzgerald.

We're at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, Wisconsin's most famous aviation event.

The Experimental Aircraft Association calls Oshkosh home and hosts AirVenture every summer, welcoming aviation enthusiasts by the hundreds of thousands.

It's an event so big, the air traffic control tower at Wittman Regional Airport becomes the busiest tower in the world.

There are air shows every day with a chance to see high-flying stunts, [plane whirring] war birds in flight [airplane engine rumbles] and spectacular aerobatics.

Visitors can also check out vendors, get an up-close look at privately-owned planes and tour massive aircrafts.

A variety of activities and workshops run during the event, including GirlVenture Camp, a four-day camp dedicated to empowering and educating young women about opportunities in aviation.

We'll check out the camp and other activities here later but first, let's meet a Wisconsinite taking it to the air.

We land in Madison, where a fighter pilot is living their dream, flying at super speed.

[upbeat music] - I am a 'Sconnie girl that's happy to be back home.

– Angela: Growing up in Wisconsin, Zoe Davies has always been on a mission.

– Zoe Davies: I spent 15 years away from Wisconsin after I graduated from high school.

I went to the Air Force Academy.

– Airman: Badger and Bucky, welcome.

It's a beautiful day out there.

– Angela: Today, she has landed on home turf.

– Airman: Here's your brief.

- Major Zoe Davies is a US Air Force fighter pilot stationed at Truax Field in Madison.

– Zoe Davies: It was an opportunity to be able to come back here that's pretty rare to be active duty and serving with your Guard counterpart.

I really feel like I'm back in my hometown.

– Angela: This military assignment is in partnership with the Wisconsin Air National Guard.

– Airman: Manage airspace, Bravo, 12-45 to 15-15.

– Pilot: Sweet.

– Airman: Enjoy, have fun.

[upbeat music] - Angela: On this day, her primary office will be the cockpit of an F-16 fighter jet.

- It just looks mean.

It's slick; it's fast.

It's a supersonic aircraft.

It is extremely tactical and it's a 9G aircraft.

I have an absolute blast flying it.

[engine roaring] - Angela: Zoe flies training missions several times a month in the skies over Wisconsin.

- It's a kick in the pants and you never forget it because when you pull onto the runway and you get ready for takeoff and you select "max afterburner," you still get pushed to the back of the seat.

But that's the point where you realize, like, man, I'm really doing this.

[jet roaring] I have a jet engine, more so a rocket, attached to my back, and I get to go do something awesome today.

[jet roaring] And if you're not having a good day at that point, I don't know what's gonna cheer you up.

– Angela: These training exercises are preparing Zoe for a new military mission.

– Airman: This is Badger 3, then you have Bucky over here.

That guy just appeared outta nowhere.

– Zoe Davies: You know, when you're at 500 knots, you have to react very quickly to what's happening in your cockpit.

[plane roaring] [energetic music] - Angela: Flying in that air space over Wisconsin brings a sense of pride and accomplishment.

- And I can't tell you how much I have felt that, specifically flying over my home state and getting to recognize the geographic features of Wisconsin.

Getting to fly over my hometown, getting to fly over my mom's house.

It's the most patriotic thing that you can feel to know that you're out there protecting your country.

– Angela: As a career fighter pilot, Zoe has taken the high road, earning the respect of her peers.

- There is no difference between a female pilot and a male pilot.

We're just pilots.

– Angela: That's something Zoe learned at an early age, and it would change the trajectory of her life.

- And so, it was actually at EAA, at Oshkosh, one of the air shows when I was seven or eight and the pilot pulled off their helmet and long blonde hair fell out and it was a female pilot!

And that was when I realized that that was actually something that I could, could make happen.

So, from that point on, it was my goal.

Really, when it comes down to it, it just takes hard work, motivation, and perseverance.

– Angela: Along with a fierce determination to take what might have been a little girl's pie-in-the-sky idea and turn it into reality.

[upbeat music] [plane whirring] - When you have just that flash of a second to think, "I can't believe I'm doing this," those are the times that I feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.

It is every bit exciting.

It is every bit rewarding and it is every bit difficult as I anticipated it to be.

I think it's pretty awesome!

[upbeat music] - Angela: Now we meet an artist in Rock Springs, painting landscapes and teaching others to do the same.

[piano music] [Onewheel motor spinning] - I'm Kyle Martin.

I'm from Rock Springs, Wisconsin and I am a plein air landscape painter.

Plein air being French for 'in the open air,' meaning that I paint landscapes on location.

[upbeat music continues] We're here in The Chicken Coop Studio, which is a converted chicken coop that has become my studio and my gallery to showcase my artwork.

[cow mooing] When I was young, I knew it as a place where we kept calves and sometimes heifers.

I can remember one year it was Christmas day, and I was 10 years old and I was here shoveling manure into the manure spreader, right out the window.

And so, there's some varied memories between the farming days and now the painting days.

I've been enjoying art and all things art-related ever since I can remember.

Hi, Mom!

My father was a hardworking farmer and my mother worked two full-time jobs.

When I came home and said that I wanted to go to college for art, they could have said, "Yeah, try something else."

But they're actually extremely supportive.

So, I went to school for graphic design and illustration in Madison and we also had a painting class and that was my first introduction to painting en plein air.

And after that day, that was it.

I was just hooked.

My work is dedicated to the memory of my father.

Unfortunately, he passed away on a farming accident in 2008.

He was very proud.

And just knowing that he got to enjoy my work in that way was a very special thing.

Just to know, just to know that.

Welcome back to the channel.

[upbeat music] Skateboarding and painting are two big things in my life, and they're completely opposite, but they're intertwined, as well.

Skateboarding is just motion and freedom and a lot of times, you almost get to turn your brain off.

And painting is the flip side of the coin because it's so intellectual and you're kind of static.

Let's hold our value isolator up.

Who can name that color?

When I'm teaching painting classes and when I'm, I'm making my YouTube videos, I'm kind of showing off the different tools that I use.

My Door County workshops will be coming up at the Peninsula School of Art.

I am gonna take the students out into the forest and I'm gonna give 'em the red glasses and we're gonna talk about the contrast of the light and the way that the light is affecting the foliage.

I have a 20% value at this point.

I came up with this very easy-to-use value palette that helps my students mix your colors to a specific value.

Do y'all see where the long grass is?

- As an artist, he sees that and most of us don't even realize we're seeing that, but he makes it happen and the painting is beautiful.

- I think my mission as a painter is really to capture the barns and the farms around the area.

I love the little piece of red barn paint that hung on.

Probably my favorite thing to paint would be a barn that is kind of coming down.

You know it used to be something, and now it's in this state of transition.

When you're chasing the golden hour light, you're just kind of acting as something that's in between the landscape and the finished painting.

And to me, the reason to paint is to show that energy of that time of day.

It's just-- nothing is better.

But part of it, too, is that when you're in the country, you just will not be bothered for a couple hours, and you can just stand there and do your thing.

[drill whirring] The Fall Art Tour was an event that happens the third weekend in every October.

People drive around and check out the workspaces of various artists who are in the area.

- I keep coming back to that one.

– Kyle: It's the longest-running studio tour in the Midwest, and that's probably my favorite way to show paintings.

When you come down the driveway to the farm, and then you step into The Chicken Coop.

Hi.

– Woman: Hi, there.

- How are you?

It's a different environment from where the people came from and it's just great to be able to share the sort of life.

A lot of times, it'll take people a few minutes, just being around my work, to really start to see it or understand it.

Watching them kind of go through that transition is really an exciting thing.

Thank you for coming.

I'll see you again sometime.

I think we live in a time when activities like skateboarding and creating artwork are very valuable things.

I just think if you're a person who ever wanted to paint or if you're a person who ever wanted to skateboard, give it a shot.

Just do it.

The first step is just doing it.

You don't have to know anything.

And if you like it, do it again tomorrow.

Whoa.

[upbeat music] - We're at EAA AirVenture, learning about this popular event and their efforts to welcome people into the world of aviation.

[upbeat music] EAA AirVenture has everything an aviation enthusiast dreams of.

Amazing air shows, tours of planes, big and small, and endless learning opportunities.

One of those opportunities is GirlVenture Camp, a multi-day camp welcoming young women into the world of aviation.

We talked with one camp organizer to discover more about this wide-ranging program.

- GirlVenture is a camp for high-school-age girls, so it's more of an empowerment camp that they can do something.

It's a support camp to where women mentors in all different areas of aviation.

We get to do some flight planning, they do some rocketry, some engineering.

So, we try to touch on a lot of different aspects.

And then, we have a bunch of educators here and they're really promoting the STEM program, you know, science, technology, engineering, and math and showing the girls what they can do with any of that if they want.

– Angela: With hands-on learning and mentorship, the program introduces campers to all aspects of aviation.

- We wanna educate to the diversity of aviation.

My favorite saying is that "It takes an army to put a person in an airplane and make it fly.

[plane whirring] - Angela: It's an opportunity only enhanced by the huge aviation event happening around them.

- What it does, as it runs along with AirVenture, is it allows us more to do and more people to talk to, more avenues to different areas.

They can see everything from RCs to little airplanes and kit airplanes and how they're built, all the way up to the air show airplanes and, of course, a lot of the airlines and the great big airplanes and military airplanes.

So, the, just the resources available here allow so much more than anywhere else.

- When it comes to aviation education, EAA AirVenture Oshkosh has it all and then some.

[plane whirling] It's great to see young women soar.

Now, let's dive into our next story, which takes us to Marion to join a farmer working the land to cultivate vibrant and rare blooms.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music] In rural Shawano County, family farms still dot the landscape.

– Lee Mielke: You always got the weeds starting off.

– Angela: But on this farmstead, a unique crop has taken root.

- You hear a lot of stories that people retiring from dairy farming, they didn't have nothing to do.

– Angela: In retirement.

Lee Mielke has plenty to do.

Working the soil at one of Wisconsin's most picturesque flower fields.

[upbeat music] - After farming, he wanted to pursue, you know, his dream of just being able to have peonies.

Lee had started planting the peonies as a hobby.

- Sue Mielke is Lee's sister and business partner.

– Sue: He had enough peonies that people would come out here just to visit.

– Lee Mielke: The first years, the local yokels, they'd come up and drive up on the yard, and they'd turn around.

– Sue Mielke: About the time he had the second or third garden, I said, "Lee, you really need to do something "about these peonies.

"We either need to start selling them as cut flowers or wholesaling them or something."

[upbeat music] - Angela: That hobby did turn into something.

- We have about 150 varieties of different peonies here, and we have about 2,000 plants.

On a scale of a grower is probably small, but we're happy with that.

You take a tour around the garden.

– Visitor: Okay, thank you.

- Thank you, thank you so much for stopping.

They all are just in awe of what they see.

So, it's a lot of fun.

– Angela: It all started with just one peony and a chance encounter.

- I was visiting my sister and she had a Red Charm peony.

They were big flowers and I said, "Oh, my peonies."

[upbeat music] - Angela: That simple phrase, "Oh, my peonies" launched a Christmas tradition.

– Sue: Every year we would ask him, "What do you want for Christmas?"

And he would tell us "A peony gift certificate."

– Lee: That was the easiest part for me.

[upbeat music] - Angela: Every year since then, Christmas arrives in June.

It shows up in full bloom with a pop of color.

[cheerful whistling music] - This is Wisconsin Cream.

It's often difficult to get.

This is Morning Lilac.

It's always been my favorite.

It's more of a purple color.

Wisconsin's a great state for growing peonies.

– Angela: Through the years, Lee learned something from dairy farming that translates to his peony patch.

– Lee: So, you find out mother nature's the boss.

She'll give you rain at the right time.

Don't worry about it.

It'll come through.

It's the gamble you gotta take.

– Angela: And it's paying off.

The price tag can be eye-popping for some of these peonies.

– Sue: This is Bartzella.

When it was first introduced into the market, I believe ran for about a thousand dollars.

– Lee: Mystic Pink, it's a beautiful peony, $350.

But there's only eight of them in the world.

I've never seen a pink color in a peony like that.

It just stands out.

I suppose it ain't any different than cows.

Some cows will give you more money.

Some peonies'll give you more.

[upbeat music] - Angela: At the end of the day, it's a sentimental journey for these siblings.

- I appreciate the beauty of this place a little bit more.

I think when you're growing up, and this was our home farm, you don't take a real strong appreciation in that.

[upbeat music] - Success is just waking up every morning.

You got the world by the tail.

You look at the peonies or find out something to do.

That's the name of the game of success.

[upbeat music] - Angela: For our final story, we connect with the Madison artist creating experimental art in unconventional places.

[plane whirling] [upbeat music] - Liubov Szwako: It's never about what it can be.

It's about what it is when it's in front of you.

[spray can hissing] [spray can rattling] What I like about art, it's that I'm allowed to be me and put me out there.

[playful music] My name is Liubov Szwako.

Originally from Mexico City, born and raised.

And I just really enjoy playing with paint.

[upbeat music] I think my work is very abstract.

I'm not a big fan of telling people what to think or what to believe or what to see in my work or what my work represents.

And it's also more freeing and it doesn't have to fit any boxes.

It doesn't have to fit any look.

It doesn't have to fit any, anything, you know?

It can just be whatever it wants to be.

[spray can rattling] Like for most people, what they relate to or what they see me at is with the mattresses.

[upbeat music] You know, since I'm an immigrant, I have to comply with certain rules, and I have to go through certain things that most people don't have to go through.

So, I couldn't get myself, I couldn't afford to get myself in trouble and do it legally, so I was like, how can I spray paint legally, without having the cops look for me or get my immigration status, you know, in trouble because I was spray painting.

So, I think the closest thing to a wall was like, "Oh, look at all these mattresses "that are just sitting on the side of the road that literally are going to the trash, to the dump."

[bold swagger-filled music] There's a bunch of things that I got to consider.

Like, 'cause believe it or not, all mattresses are very different.

Some of them, like, some of them will have blood and some of them will have, you know, like, weird stuff on it.

So, you don't want to get too close to certain mattresses.

Will it absorb the paint correctly?

Some of them drip.

Some of them you can spend a lot of paint and they just soak it up and it doesn't show, so it's like literally a waste of paint.

[upbeat music] I definitely painted over 200 pieces, between mattresses and couches, TVs, mirrors, all sorts of stuff.

So, definitely over 200 of 'em.

[brush rolling] I don't see any limitations of the things that I can do.

And I don't see any limitations of the things that, what other people can do.

If I do this line this way and if I just do a twist here and if I add this dot or this line here, what will it create?

[upbeat music continues] The one message that I encourage people to do, doesn't matter what it is.

Even if it sounds like a pipe dream, it sounds like a wildest thing.

If you really are curious about something, give it a shot.

Just give it a shot, just to experience what it's like and just focus on not if you did it right, not if you did it wrong.

Just focus on, on how it felt when you were doing it.

[upbeat music] I found that by doing what I do, I somehow bring happiness to some people.

That, to me, it's awesome.

Like, you doing what you do, it's making someone else happy.

Like it doesn't get any better than that, you know?

So, yeah.

- We've seen planes take to the skies while venturing to meet people throughout the state.

To learn more about EAA AirVenture, visit us online at WisconsinLife.org.

Reach out to us on social media or email us at [email protected].

It's time for me to take off.

I'm Angela Fitzgerald, and this is our Wisconsin Life.

Bye!

[plane whirring] - 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.