October 24, 2023
Cameron Gillie is a photographer and camera collector. He often uses modern digital cameras in his work, but he also has a large collection of working film cameras that go ...
October 9, 2023
Stan Livingston likes to stay in motion. He’s a retired physician who spent two decades running a variety of triathlons, including Madison’s annual Ironman competition. “I like getting up in ...
December 21, 2022
Milwaukee’s Islamic Da’wah Center is a place for faith and fellowship. For Brother Will Perry, it helps him stay focused on what’s important. “Here you find Muslims from all over ...
December 16, 2021
Growing up, Chaya Milchtein was never driven to learn about cars. “I did not know anything about cars. In fact, I was in foster care at around 17 years old ...
November 18, 2021
When Carlos Frick was young, one of his uncles introduced him to karate. It’s a passion he’s followed into adulthood. He regularly practices Aikido at a Kenosha dojo. Eventually his ...
November 11, 2021
Gold medal wrestler Dan Gable famously said, “Once you’ve wrestled everything in life is easy.” It’s a sport measured by passion, intensity and strength. Agie Mai Sowe has all those ...
November 11, 2021
Craig Marchbank is used to collecting victories on the track. He spent 30 years racing snowmobiles professionally. “We were very prepared when we hit a racetrack. Second wasn't an option,” ...
October 28, 2021
Wade Fernandez says his music is hard to pin down into a single genre. He says people will ask if he considers himself a rock musician, a blues player, or ...
October 21, 2021
Charles Collins has always enjoyed tinkering with electronics. He spent time three decades ago fixing instruments in a music store. “I like to know why things break or why things ...
January 14, 2020
Melissa Omernick loves winter sports. She’s an experienced dog musher, but in recent years her interests have turned toward a different sport, skijoring. It’s a combination of dog sledding and ...
January 10, 2020
It’s Tuesday night in the back room of a small salon south of downtown Milwaukee, and it’s time for chess club. Here it’s a game of strategy, intellect, rigor, and ...
January 10, 2020
A frosty February morning doesn’t faze the mailman. Every morning Tom Hathaway loves delivering the mail to his Janesville neighbors come rain, sleet or snow. “A lot of my customers ...
December 23, 2019
Bren Sibilsky isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. “I make my living playing with mud," Sibilsky says. Sibilsky is a full-time sculptor. Born in Green Bay, Sibilsky went to ...
December 12, 2019
Germantown illustrator Bryan Dyer doesn’t have a superpower, but he’s always loved stories about people who do. “Superheroes in particular were my thing growing up,” Dyer says. “For the longest ...
November 16, 2019
Colin Orth dreams of being a traveling musician. The teenager plays trumpet in the Chippewa Falls High School jazz band. “I love how it stands out. I like how you ...
November 13, 2019
Jan Killian has always loved nature. “I was the kid that somebody would find a bug in our house, ‘Oh, there's a beetle here,’ and I'd yell, ‘Don't kill it!’ ...
October 8, 2019
Ask Florian Bieschke if he reads books and he laughs, "You betcha! That's my form of entertainment. I'm not fond of screens. I just like the page, so I read." ...
October 7, 2019
Nina Ghanbarzadeh understands the power of words. "You can elevate someone with your words. You can crush someone with your words. Words have this great power. They are great tools," ...
October 7, 2019
In Lake Tomahawk, the phrase “Take me out to the ballgame” has a different meaning. Instead of peanuts, there’s popcorn. Instead of Cracker Jack, there’s homemade pie. And instead of ...
October 3, 2019
Visit a Vernon County park in the summer, and it’s likely Ben Robel’s team will be hard at work. His team? A herd of goats and sheep. “I didn't want ...
September 9, 2019
Shruti Parthasarathy is a dancer from Middleton, Wisconsin. She practices Bharatanatyam, an Indian classical dance form that originated in southern India thousands of years ago. It tells mythological tales of ...
September 5, 2019
Sawmills are loud places. Menominee Tribal Enterprises in Neopit is no exception. Talking across the mill floor is nearly impossible because of the noise. That’s why for more than a ...
September 3, 2019
Stephanie Schultz is a fashion designer and the tenth artist-in-residence at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee. "I'm working on high fashion garments inspired by the Victorian paintings that are here ...
June 25, 2019
As a kid, Luke Traver whittled wood. Little did he know that wood carving was his future. Traver explains, in college, "I'd met a guy named Bob Siegel who was ...
December 22, 2018
Find Jessie Fritsch’s booth at a local art fair, and a crowd of curious onlookers usually isn’t far behind. Fritsch specializes in encaustic art, or paintings using melted beeswax. “It's ...
November 19, 2018
Take a late summer drive on State Road 85 in Eau Claire County and odds are one of nature’s most colorful creations will be on display. A field of yellow ...
November 14, 2018
For Talia Martens, dog sledding is a family affair. “I was born into it. My mom has been doing it for 40 years, so I’ve really been doing it all ...
November 1, 2018
“Try to be rainbows in someone’s cloud.” – Maya Angelou Milwaukee’s Katrina Lord considers herself a cheerful person. “I think my hobby alone kind of shows that,” Lord said. Her ...
October 31, 2018
Hayward artist Shannon Kocka draws inspiration from her daydreams. They take flight in the form of fantasy and science fiction. She loves to spend her free time drawing dragons and ...
October 24, 2018
Tyler Slabey joined the Marines at 18 years old. It was September 2001. “I went through boot camp, went through my tank school. I was an M1-A1 tank crewman,” Slabey ...
October 24, 2018
Cassidy Kraus and her boyfriend Brett Weyers love dogs. Together they live with a blind pit bull named Sotiras, or “Soto” for short. It’s the Greek word for “savior.” “Soto, ...
October 24, 2018
Rhinelander musician Paco Fralick knows it’s never too late to follow your dreams. “I think I'm a late comer, you know I just turned 50, to try to do something ...
August 8, 2018
Middleton’s Dan Roekle always had an interest in metal detecting as a child. The thrill of finding lost treasure appealed to him, but it wasn’t until he was an adult ...
February 28, 2018
Sandy Toney is the Vice President of Corporate Quality and Development at Masters Gallery Foods in Plymouth. She began her career with Masters in 1989. "After a while in quality, ...
February 7, 2018
The neighborhood pub is one of Wisconsin’s favorite places to get together for friends and fellowship. On Dickinson Road in De Pere, the Chicago Street Pub and Grill is a ...
January 12, 2018
Mary Backus spent more than 30 years as a choral director in Milwaukee. She’s always had a passion for music, but after three decades, Backus told her choir she was ...
January 5, 2018
Marcell Dinsmore learned at a young age that people can be too eager to judge a book by its cover. The Milwaukee high school senior was born with a birth ...
December 15, 2017
Piotrowski’s Bar is likely the most jumping spot in the town of Jump River. Some bars have a jukebox full of 45s. This one plays the greatest hits of 1945. ...
November 24, 2017
Weekends at Sunburst Ski Area in Kewaskum are the best time to witness Dan Lococo’s definition of a trust exercise. Lococo is legally blind, but that doesn’t stop him from ...
November 24, 2017
Earl Holzman’s life has always revolved around music. He met his wife DoAnn Holzman while folk dancing in the early 1980s. Together, they raised their son Ian Holzman to be ...
November 10, 2017
Karen Ann Hoffman believes it’s important for her to feel connected with her Oneida heritage. “I think it’s critical for all people to know who they are, and I think ...
November 3, 2017
Like most 16 year olds, Green Bay native Baylee Alger loves playing video games. Watching him play the fighting game Mortal Kombat in his living room, he appears to be ...
November 3, 2017
If a poet is only as good as his poems, Oscar Mireles could be considered writing royalty. Mireles was raised in Racine and attended UW-Oshkosh, where he developed a passion ...
October 27, 2017
In the lobby of an Appleton tattoo parlor, there’s an inkling of something strange. Step inside “The Body Shop” on Wisconsin Avenue and you’ll be immersed in Scott Watzlawick’s world ...
October 27, 2017
Brad and Rhonda Louis were high school sweethearts. Their oldest son Jaxon Louis had two loves: playing baseball and watching baseball. When other kids were watching cartoons, Jaxon would watch ...
October 27, 2017
Milwaukee musician KC Williams was born and raised in the city, but his musical roots were planted in the country. As a child he’d spend summers at his uncle’s farm ...
October 13, 2017
“Being able to find yourself in someone so different than you is just a feeling that is unmatched, and I think that's what acting is about,” Payton said. Not every ...
October 13, 2017
Every family has that one person. The one most likely to end a conversation with “Watch this!” Jesse Kauffman realizes he’s the person in his family. “I guess I’m unique ...
October 13, 2017
If you choose a job you love, some people believe you’ll never work a day in your life. Ed Drexler teaches genetics at Pius XI High School in Milwaukee. More ...
October 6, 2017
A good portrait paints a picture of someone’s personality. Oshkosh artist Jon Wos thrives on capturing those details. He spends several hours a day in his studio bringing blank canvases ...
July 25, 2017
If everyone has a hidden talent, Niagara’s Roger Newhouse discovered his at 55 years old while attending a wood carving exhibition. “The first show I went,” Newhouse recalled, “I was ...
March 7, 2017
Earl Holzman’s life has always revolved around music. He met his wife DoAnn Holzman while folk dancing in the early 1980s. Together, they raised their son Ian Holzman to be ...
February 21, 2017
Mary Backus spent more than 30 years as a choral director in Milwaukee. She’s always had a passion for music, but after three decades, Backus told her choir she was ...
February 10, 2017
Milwaukee musician K.C. Williams was born and raised in the city, but his musical roots were planted in the country. As a child he’d spend summers at his uncle’s farm ...
January 20, 2017
If you choose a job you love, some people believe you’ll never work a day in your life. Ed Drexler teaches genetics at Pius XI High School in Milwaukee. More ...
January 18, 2017
Like most 16 year olds, Green Bay native Baylee Alger loves playing video games. Watching him play the fighting game Mortal Kombat in his living room, he appears to be ...
November 10, 2016
Cartoonist Rube Goldberg rose to fame in the early 1900s for drawing whimsical cartoons that featured overly complicated machines designed to do a simple task, such as make breakfast, or ...
November 10, 2016
Milwaukee actor and therapist Nancy Smith-Watson and her husband have always loved Shakespeare. “Shakespeare tells the best stories. He tells them in the most beautiful, poetic language, and that really ...
November 3, 2016
Green Lake’s Joel Schultz wanted to be a loyal grandparent. He never missed a basketball game his grandson Ben Wettstein played in. One night, before one of Wettstein’s 6th grade ...
November 3, 2016
Milwaukee is frequently referred to as America’s most segregated city. Tia Richardson knows decades of racial division have opened a lot of wounds. “Our city is literally segregated and divided, ...
October 13, 2016
Monday mornings at the Janesville Senior Center are filled with the sounds of shuffling feet. That’s due to the morning line dancing class. Around 10:30 a.m., those sounds are replaced ...
October 13, 2016
A 100 year old schoolhouse turns into one of northwest Wisconsin’s most unusual music venues on Saturday nights in rural Polk County. Over two dozen fans pack into the Pipe Dream Center to ...
October 6, 2016
If you lived through the 1980’s, you might remember the Rubik’s Cube. Each side of this puzzle contains nine squares in six different colors. The goal is to twist the ...
September 29, 2016
Growing up in Dorchester, Wisconsin, Ken Anderson remembers watching “The Andy Griffith Show” during its first season in 1960. “I was a freshman in high school. I started watching it ...
September 22, 2016
Bryan Berenson credits his career to fate. At 21 years old, he was diagnosed with arthritis. “I was a diesel mechanic,” Berenson said, “I just couldn’t do it anymore. I ...