Wisconsin Life

garage door opening

saw whirring

This whole project started because I wanted a piece of art in my own home that I couldn't afford to buy.

gentle acoustic music

saw whirring

It kinda happened accidentally. I saw a piece of artwork. It was a barn wood flag behind JJ Watt's Defensive Player of the Year trophy. I wanted it really bad, and I couldn't afford it.

saw whirring

I knocked on farmers' doors until I had the gray and the red and the white. I made it for myself one night, and like anybody does, they post it on social media. By morning, I had orders for 12 flags. It took off almost, actually, literally overnight. I started with zero tools. I had to buy a couple tools to start, and I had to borrow a few tools to start. I made that flag with zero training.

guitar music

I reclaim barns. I try to use every bit of that in artwork. It takes 250 hours to take a barn down piece-by-piece. I start from the top, and I take the shingles off, and I recycle them. And then, I go to the roofing boards. And then, the siding boards. The brown is the roofing, and the red is the siding, and all the gray is the beams. I love seeing the grain of the wood.

saw whining

I can smell the dairy barn where I cut the wood from a parlor, and I can smell the tobacco when I cut that wood from a tobacco barn. I feel like almost every piece is my favorite piece for a week or two until I make my next favorite piece.

upbeat acoustic music

True Coffee in Monona has maps. It was-- That architect came to me, and they wanted to tell the story of where the coffee beans came from, from around the world. The original design of Madison's city flag, and that was important to me. This is iconic. I thought, I'll see if I can't make an old-fashioned out of wood. People love this one. This is who we are. I've always been big into history. I've always been big into the bigger story.

acoustic guitar music

I try to keep that story alive by putting all that information on the back with pictures of the barn.

waves lapping

I try to find the oldest person attached to that property. These guys have fantastic stories.

chuckles

Ron

Made a form on the floor. It was a mess.

chuckles

Jeremiah

Honest, sharp character, and I call them up.

Ron

And he asked a bunch of questions. So who did the building? My Uncle Pete, and my father, and myself. I was a junior in high school. We didn't know nothing but work when we were young. A guy bought it to develop. They'd just bulldoze her down. Jeremiah saved it.

chuckles

Jeremiah

It turned out that I used almost Ron's entire barn to build this tasting room. The rafters made all of the tables and the benches, and the beams made the bar. The roofing boards are all the walls. Gosh, I basically tore it apart and put it back together in a different order. Got to celebrate 87th birthday at the bar that he chopped down the trees in 1946. To see his eyes was a pretty great thing. They invited the whole family down there. It was very nice. We got a little replica of the barn that Jeremiah made. We're a unique group of people, and... and we love Wisconsin. These barns were hand-built by someone in the '20s or the '30s, or the 1890s, and that story is important to a lot of people.

tapping wood

tracing

exhales audibly

acoustic guitar music

Jeremiah

I get to give that wood new life.

miter saw whirring

Jeremiah

I never expected this to be a business. I've tried to start businesses, a lot of businesses, and failed every time.

bandsaw whirring quietly

Jeremiah

And this one was a complete accident. I saw a piece of artwork, and I just, I really had to have it. It's super cliche to say, "Make your passion your job and never work again a day in your life." Gosh, I love the fact that I can come to work and do something like that.