(enlightening music) (gentle violin music) - [Sandy] Artists do what they do because they are in love with the world.

- I see the world in illustration in paintings.

I can't look at a scene without thinking, oh, that would make a great watercolor, a great sketch, or I want to sketch that.

I get excited about looking at things in that way.

- [Sandy] Art has the power to change a community.

- When we come together and join our efforts and be a collective, for me to see that will in the community and that determination says a lot about who we are as a community.

- [Sandy] To be a great artist, you have to open your mind to what the materials are telling you.

- I just think there's something really interesting about gears and engines and things that are spinning it.

So a lot of times you'll see machinery, gears, rusty things.

- [Sandy] In the world of art, imagination is more powerful than knowledge.

- After I finished school, I knew I was gonna be doing something with art.

I just didn't know to what capacity or what that meant or what that would look like.

Open to the possibilities.

- I'm Sandy Maxx, the arts are thriving and growing in Wisconsin.

And on this special episode of "The Arts Page," we will introduce you to some of the artists making that happen.

"The Arts Page" starts right now.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music ending) James Steeno might be the Milwaukee artist.

It seems like he is at every summer festival, and the focus of his art is Milwaukee.

He paints the shops, restaurants, places, and vistas that hold a special place for many of us.

James is now expanding his focus to not just Milwaukee, but all of Wisconsin.

Together with his wife Heidi, they travel the state showing their love for their home through art.

(gentle music) - I see the world in illustration, in paintings.

I can't look at a scene without thinking, oh, that would make a great, a great watercolor, a great sketch, or I want to sketch that.

I get excited about looking at things in that way.

It's just something I have to do.

I can't even define necessarily the reason why I want to create artwork.

It's just like this need, this like, overwhelming pull to do it.

It's a calling, 'cause if I don't do it, I don't feel right.

It's a, it's a way of life.

- These are some of James' original artwork.

This is the original Milwaukee wave, and James actually made some notes about the color blue that he used on this piece.

This is a fun piece, Elafiphobia, which is fear of the deer.

His art is what makes our household run.

I mean, it is what he loves to do and I think there's no greater joy to see your spouse doing what they were meant to do and making a living and being very successful at it.

(gentle music ending) (distant upbeat music) We have nothing but love for this city and we wanna share it with everybody.

We're ambassadors for Milwaukee, we travel the state, we have our Milwaukee artwork no matter where we go.

And it is so fulfilling to see how much joy James' artwork brings to people over and over.

And we've made a lot of good friends.

I mean like people we see every single weekend, 'cause their thing is going to like art fairs or street fairs, so they become your friends.

And they not only come to visit us at these events, but they love James' artwork so much that they wanna see what's new.

They're continually adding to their collections and we're very fortunate that James artwork continues to be in their collections.

- That is your opportunity to talk with the people who enjoy your artwork and hear what they have to say.

When I create, I think about those things.

I actually make physical lists of what people are talking about.

And like, when it's back to creative time in the cool, slow winter months, you know, I can pull up my list and then kind of use it as a springboard to what I'm gonna produce.

I think that's kind of the job of an artist or a creator to like, maybe make regular life more interesting.

(inspirational music) It's just part of an imagining of like, what would it be if Jones Island was taken over by dinosaurs?

- Someone at Pride Fest bought it and then they tagged us on Instagram and like, this was like the best artwork they had ever bought.

Like, they were so excited about it.

- That was a lot of fun.

I'd like to expand on the concept, maybe try different areas around town and Jurassic fight, I guess.

I have some Dutch heritage and I always feel a connection to Van Gogh and I like the swirly feel that in the line work that in his work.

And it's something I sometimes put into my pieces, but it kind of has the watery ripply feel and the sky is alive and the lights reflected in the water and I just kind of change it to the word Milwaukee.

Just have fun with it.

We do a show near a pickle ball court and I've listened to the paddles all day long.

It's like one of those visual puns that's just ripe.

It's just, I want to do that.

(James laughing) There are some people that buy artwork for the board, pun, the visual puns of it.

They don't even play pickle ball, but they think it's funny.

I think it was 2020 when all of the- - [Heidi] This was like a pandemic piece.

- [James] The waves out in the front, kind of the lake level was high and the waves are causing troubles on the breakwater and right where the Mount Fuji usually is, the art museum is actually the opposite shape of that going the other way.

So I just, I think it kind of fits with the weather sometimes.

The whole concept of bowls and putting badgers in them just made a lot of sense, to me anyways.

I love the humor, but it- - [Heidi] It's not your typical badger artwork.

- That's a good way of putting it.

(James and Heidi laughing) (fun music ending) I could probably spend the rest of my life finding views and vistas around town.

I mean, it's a good thing that the skyline's constantly evolving, so I'm like, it seems like every year I have to create new work to reflect what's going on.

- [Heidi] Not only Milwaukee, like, you've been adding Door County artwork, Madison artwork, people see what he does for Milwaukee and they want that for the city they live in.

- You know, you can't, one thing people ask us, we can't measure like, how much, how well known I am, or how well known my work or not.

It's a tough thing to measure, but it's always fun to see people enjoying the artwork and it definitely informs what I do, but it also gives me the energy and the inspiration to keep on going.

Like, I think a lot of times I feel like I owe it to people to keep on going as long as I can producing this artwork so that it's, that there's something there for them to enjoy for years to come.

(exciting music) - Next, we meet community artist and muralist Tia Richardson.

And for Tia, her art is about healing.

She wants her work to help people through the difficult moments in life and give them a voice they didn't know they had.

She seeks to spark people's creativity and help them envision a brighter future, a future where we work together to overcome our challenges and grow stronger and better because of it.

(relaxing music) - What I love about murals is they can show a story across the scene that a lot of people can relate to and they show a lot of perspectives at once.

So, when people can look at those and interpret them for themselves and make their own meaning from it, to me that empowers a person.

(relaxing music continues) People surprise me with what they see and it gives it so much more richer meaning and I actually learn things.

So, this is rebirthing of the Earth mother.

A lot of people don't see themselves as powerful, and I wanna show people that they are powerful.

(relaxing music continues) I want people to know that their voices matter.

It shows a transition of challenges along the bottom to choices of how things can get better and everybody working together to create a brighter future.

So I decided this was gonna be the future.

The choices would be on either side and the challenges would be along the bottom.

So I showed the community that as a template, without anything in it and I said, this is how your ideas are going to fit together in the mural.

So there's a spot for everybody.

This ended up being the final.

Something as small as freely sharing our feelings in a community mural project can help us see that we're not alone and we're all on this journey together.

(enlightening music) The one thing that I hear people say when they look at my art is they talk about how much they love the colors.

When people look at those colors and the art that's on the wall, what I've seen is it helps 'em get past their limits of what they think is possible.

I think that's because the way that I work with colors when I'm painting is I think of them like people.

Every color has its own unique expression.

And so when I'm painting, I'm thinking about how to help them get along.

The way I do that is by creating transitional spaces.

So in the blending, in the ways that the colors are interacting together, I want to get all those perspectives to relate in a way where there's harmony.

The Sherman Park Rising, that project was the foundational piece of what my work is about.

What happened there, for me kind of speaks to the discovery process of it for myself and how impactful that was for me, but then also the community.

And like ultimately, that's the best measure of what I feel I can offer or what I want to offer, what I'm aspiring to do in terms of like healing.

It was the first time I'd worked with a community that had experienced a traumatic event.

On top of that, I knew that people would be feeling a range of emotions and I was afraid that people would just wanna come and throw paint at the wall or not even participate.

And I was afraid I couldn't do it, but I saw potential in the situation and I felt that I had to try something.

I realized I had underestimated the community's willingness to acknowledge painful issues in a constructive way.

That was a huge revelation for me and it stuck with me and it's something that I've carried with me ever since.

(enlightening music) And when we come together and join our efforts and be a collective, it's incredibly motivating and inspiring and moves me and motivates me to do what I do and for me to see that will in the community and that determination says a lot about who we are as a community.

(enlightening music continues) (enlightening music continues) Right now the mural looks really good compared to what it did a couple summers ago.

I'm hoping it looks as good as I want it to in a couple weeks.

(enlightening music continues) (enlightening music continues) (enlightening music continues) (enlightening music ending) - What does the future look like to you?

For multidisciplinary artist Brandon Minga, it looks like a mix between old and new.

Using found objects and repurposed materials, he creates art that looks like it's from the distant future.

He's not just an artist, but also a leader.

He founded the House of RAD in Milwaukee's River West Neighborhood.

RAD stands for Resident Artist Doers, and it's a space where artists from all backgrounds can work and learn together.

(soft music) (tools clanging) (metal parts clanging) - My interests are vast and I like to figure out how things work.

(grinder buzzing) (grinder buzzing continues) I like meeting different people and solving their problems with creativity and art, and I like to be doing something different every day.

I do design murals, sculptures.

I think it's still underpinned by the same concept, the idea that things aren't ever enough or that we're constantly pushing for something more or seeking more.

(saw buzzing) There is something I say often and it does ring true.

Nothing interesting happens when you say no.

(soft music continues) I just think there's something really interesting about gears and engines and things that are spinning and it really kind of talks about our evolution and our thinking, and the way that we've come from rolling a stone to making a machine that can lift millions of pounds, you know?

(drill buzzing) So, it's interesting to see the history behind that and then also put it in work and sort of highlight that in a way where it brings attention to it that you wouldn't normally necessarily pay attention to.

(gentle music) I sort of ran with this thing called the Vintage Future for a while, and I really kinda liked how that explained a lot of things and not saying steam punk.

So a lot of times you'll see machinery, gears, rusty things.

Like this, these are all out of Milwaukee angle grinders and drills and things like that, but they make great space junk, you know?

(Brandon laughing) I'm using reclaimed and found objects, but I'm also making them brand new and making 'em look like they could function or that they're sort of other worldly.

It's really about having those first few initial concepts and then sort of turning it on its head and being like, well, what if we add lights?

What if it's solar powered?

What if?

What if there's a water feature?

What if you know, like, what if the budget would allow this to be twice the size, or things like that.

Or we take risks that sometimes we don't know how to do something and we propose it and we're like, this could be cool.

(Brandon laughing) (soft music) (relaxing music) The House of Rad was built on this idea of for artists, by artists.

We've got 60 plus artists right now.

I believe the exact number is 63.

We have a range in diversity and age, which is great.

So we have emerging artists, we have students all the way up to veterans in their field.

(drill buzzing) Tony Macias is one of our newer artists that have joined us and is gonna head up our mud club, so it's our ceramics department.

- I just fired these.

The thing that I love about the House of Rad is that Brandon's vision about how he wants to structure this is not like anything else that's out there.

We've got a community, I'll give you an example.

Right now I'm out building, working on this container for firing and I don't know how to weld.

So, guess what I get to learn in these next couple of days?

How to weld, from Brandon.

It's like, oh dude, I'll teach you.

You'll get it in no time.

I wouldn't have that anywhere else.

- It's kind of one of those things where like, you start talking about a problem you have or a thing you're missing in this environment.

It's very natural for someone to supply whatever you need.

I think there's too many times where an organization comes together and develops a board and gets funding and things like that happen, and then they forget who they're serving.

With all of this being driven by artists and artists alone, you know, there's a lot more community that happens.

There's a lot more trust.

(relaxing music continues) - Steven's point artist, Kiba Freeman paints landscapes, but not ordinary landscapes.

Kiba combines nature, space, fantasy and science fiction to create truly one of a kind landscapes.

He mainly uses spray paints to accomplish this, and in his tiny garage studio, he makes his cosmic fantasies come to life.

His big imagination and masterful use of spray paints really sets him apart and allows him to transport the viewer into his world.

(birds chirping) (spray can rattling) (ladder clacking) (paint spraying) - Art is everything.

(spray can rattling) (spray paint swishing) In my personal opinion, everything that exists is art in some capacity.

This conversation is art.

I do visual art, dancing, cooking, writing, it's all art.

It's probably easier to try to figure out what's not art as opposed to what is art.

I like to tell people that I make portals, and that's kind of how I'm going to making a lot of my artwork.

I transport wherever I'm at in my mind space and try to put it into a canvas piece so that you the viewer can also experience and enjoy that scene and step into the portal almost.

(upbeat music) Once I started doing larger work, it just became bigger portals, and so a lot of them would be landscapes at the beach, in the woods, walking through some mystical forest or some fantasy type scene that may or may not actually exist, but kind of want it to, and you can lose yourself in that if you stare at it long enough.

(spray can rattling) I went to school for art, went to UW Stevens Point, I got a bachelor's of Fine Arts.

I really call it a degree in problem solving, because it applies to a lot of different areas.

I just happened to make things look pretty.

(hands swishing on wash tub) So I got contacted to do a painting on a unique item that I hadn't painted before.

It's a wash tub, and the clients make wash tub bass' as in the instrument.

And so I came up with this design.

So this is the general idea that I'm gonna be working off of.

Right now, today I'm gonna be working on the background of this scene.

(paint spraying) So I didn't know a ton about what or where I wanted to do in art world.

I didn't have like a niche.

I loved art, I loved making things, and so it was just a lot of trial and error.

(paint spraying) When I was in college, I actually didn't like painting.

I wasn't a painter, I didn't like landscapes.

That's not what I did at all.

(spray can rattling) It wasn't until I studied abroad in Italy as an undergrad and I saw artists using spray paint to create these pop art kind of designs on like canvas and poster board, and I became fascinated with the process.

I wanted to know how, why, where, what?

(paint spraying) So between my little bit of Italian and there a little bit of English, we kind of communicated to figure out.

And whenever I wasn't doing artwork, I was at the square, on the plaza looking for other artists.

What are you doing?

How are you doing it?

From there, I just kept dabbling in it, trying different things, trying different surfaces.

What can I paint?

What can't I paint?

Can I paint this garbage can?

Can I paint this helmet?

Can I paint this skateboard?

Can I, you know?

And just kept dabbling in different things and just getting larger and larger until eventually I started doing murals.

Black Cat Alley is awesome.

They had a call out.

I applied, I had an idea in mind, I had a design.

It's of my daughter, she's reading a book.

It's a silhouette of a girl with a big ponytail.

My first thing I always tell people is I'm a stay home dad.

That is my first job and foremost thing that I do most of the day, and I'm a professional artist during nap time or when my wife's home.

My little tagline.

(Kiba laughing) At the time, that was my largest mural and that's one I was like super proud of when I first was working on it, because one my daughter's in it as a silhouette and I try to put my daughter in as many of my murals as I can.

I want her to see herself in a large scale and many different places that she can, as many of the places she can.

I want her to feel at home wherever we are, and so whenever I have the opportunity, I'll include her in a mural.

(inspirational music) Back to when I said my work is like a portal.

A lot of the things I do kind of are portals as well.

I watch anime, I read comic books that's transporting you from this realm to whatever that world is, through art.

(spray can rattling) I think everything benefits my artwork.

Everything informs me in some capacity, and whether I am conscious of it or not, my brain kind of takes those ideas and formulates them to something else that I might not recognize right away.

And then just random things that I wanna see together that may not exist or it may not make sense together, but in my mind I'm curious, what if I put them together?

What if I make a a forest scene, but then there's a little portal of planets coming out?

What does that look like?

What does that feel like?

General curiosity along with all those things kind of go hand in hand, that eventually comes out in some form of art.

(inspirational music ending) - As an artist, you try to point out what normally goes unnoticed.

Say what's never been said before, ask what if?

And imagine endless possibilities.

We hope you enjoyed this special presentation of "The Arts Page."

"The Arts Page" is a digital first series.

Check out Milwaukee pbs.org for more stories of art in our community.

I'm Sandy Maxx.

Thank you for watching "The Arts Page."

(exciting music) (exciting music continues) (exciting music continues) (exciting music continues) (exciting music continues) (captivating music)