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- Welcome to Dakota Life.

Detours art is sometimes hot, dirty, complex, and requires brawn.

These South Dakota artists have found their artistic voice by using techniques and methods discovered and taught.

On this detour, we meet a painter, a smithy, a sculptor, and a bronze molder.

First we sit down with sculptor Porter Williams.

He's had a long journey to become a sculptor.

Porter found relief in oils, but he found his true purpose in the three three-dimensional process of sculpting.

- I was always trying to make things with my hands.

I went from, you know, I used to draw a lot.

I, I used to think I could draw and, and it got to a point where it didn't seem like I was getting any better.

And so then I quit drawing.

And one day I, I went out to Augustana College because I wanted to learn how to carve stone and talked to the professor out there and he taught me into taking a crash course in sculpting and a two week crash course every night.

And ever since that first day, I knew that was it.

I'm a self-taught sculptor, really.

I have my own style, my own way of sculpting things and doing things.

I worked with a lot of 'em, different mediums.

I played around with a lot of different things.

You know, landscaping.

I always do a, something a little different.

I always like to play with that stone, that quar site.

You take sixth Street Hill, I removed all the cobblestone and put 'em all back.

There's a, I'm, you know, not only a sculptor, but I am a historian.

It's just like the museum here.

I'm the founder of this museum.

You start off by building an armature and, and then you start putting the clay on, and then you actually put it on, work it in and do the whole sculpture in the round.

You know, it's not like drawing, you know, your draw.

You can only do a flat, one dimensional image.

But then, you know, once I sculpt the piece and have it ready for work, then the mold has to be made.

Then after the mold is made, you know, the piece will disappear in the mold, and then they do a, a wax, and then they pull that out, finish, finish off the wax, and then it's cast and bronze.

I try to picture what it was like, and it's, and it's hard.

Then you come across somebody, like the sculpture I'm working on right now, a Chet Jones becoming the first black legislator, the real me inside can come out through sculpture instead of the old me of, of the ICALs and the whole thing that I had to go through.

A lot of people remember me as a, as a bad actor, you know, life was tough for me, but it was easy, you know, because I had the, the stick to it.

And just to be able to, to go for it, it's been a, it's been a journey.

You know, I now, here I am in my, I'm going on my 80th year to look back and, and, and to look at things.

I just look at things a little different.

I'm proud of my history, of my culture, my ancestry, you know, and I want black children to be proud of it instead of going through what I went through.

You know, it was, you know, a time that man, you thought that, wow, being black is really a curse, you know, and it's not.

You got just this much ability and everything to do as anybody, you know, I dropped outta school in the ninth grade and that was just one horrible mistake because I don't care if you're black or white, if you don't have an education, you're not going very far.

You know, everybody lives a whole life and they never, they never find what their, their purpose in life.

Well, I think I found my purpose as a sculptor, say 50, 60 years ago.

There was hardly any art in Sioux Falls.

The only art they had here was Statue of Davis.

The stuff they had in Augustana College.

That was about it.

Art in, in, in general, you know, it doesn't, doesn't make any difference what it is, you know, studios and different things that they have today.

You know, Sioux Falls has come a long way when it comes down to accepting artists.

And then art in general, you know, they've, they've almost caught up with the rest of the country.

There's a lot of black people that's did a lot of important things in South Dakota - With a driven interest in history and art.

Porter founded the South Dakota African American History Museum, located on the first floor of the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls.

He did this.

So others might learn more about heritage and culture through art.

It takes a lot to create a finished piece of sculpture.

It's a complex process, taking a work of art and creating another one that looks just like it.

There are several steps from concept to appreciation from clay to bronze.

That's where Rick Haugen and the artists at Bronze Age Foundry come in.

- The term foundry just refers to the process of melting metal of any kind.

In our case, were mainly casting bronze.

We, we do cast aluminum occasionally, and brass and, and iron and copper, but our primary focus is bronze for sculptures.

So we would be considered an art foundry.

Just the process of melting the metal and casting it into some kind of mold to capture whatever detail was in the original sculpture.

- So, first step is an artist will bring a sculpture into Bronze Age art casting.

Usually it's in clay, but it could be another material from there to replicate it in bronze.

We'll take it through what's called the lost wax Casting process.

But the first step is to make a rubber mold a silicone rubber mold of the sculpture.

So what we're going to do is basically divide up the sculpture in a way that's useful by creating a shim.

We're going to paint rubber on both sides of the sculpture.

We will do about three coats, a print coat and a few other coats to build up a, a layer of flexible rubber mold.

And the rubber won't be able to stick to itself because there's a shim between the two halves.

- Once the plaster's cured, we, we just call it dem molding.

We'll take the plaster mold off, peel off the rubber mold, and if it's a two part mold, like say in the case of a head or an arm or a torso, we, once we've taken it off the, the original sculpture, we put that back together and then it goes into the wax room where we'll pour wax into it.

A series of called slushing.

We'll pour in and then out until we build up the thickness, we want.

Once that wax is cooled, we'll again, demold it, pull the wax out of the mold, and we have to have a way to feed metal into that piece.

So then we're adding a spruce system.

We'll add gates, a runner and, and a pork cup, and that that'll all feed the metal into the piece once it's invested.

So from there, it goes to their shell room.

We're investing it, we call it, 'cause we're investing that one wax.

So that original rubber and plaster mold we can reuse.

We could pull hundreds of wax patterns out of that mold.

But the investment mold that we're investing the wax into is only a one time use.

So in our case, we're doing a ceramic shell.

It's a slurry.

We'll dip it in, co coat it with the sand, and let it dry and repeat.

- When it's complete and dry, it'll get put into a kiln.

And then the kiln is utilized to melt the wax out of that system, and that wax can be reclaimed and reused.

And then what's left is a hollow wax shell.

We call this a ceramic shell or shell mold, and that's the space into which we pour the molten bronze.

- Well burn the wax out.

That firing in the kiln also vitrifies, that ceramic shell makes it a little harder for the, the pressure of the bronze hits it at that point.

It's ready for, to pour bronze into.

So we'll melt the bronze, we'll set up the shells in, in a pit of sand to support 'em.

And when the bronze is to the, usually around 2000 to 2100 degrees, depending on how thin and small they are, if bigger, thicker things will pour a little cooler.

But it will, that will simply just pour the bronze into those ceramic shells.

- When the metal is cooled, we can break off that ceramic shell.

There's really no way to get the metal out without doing that.

And then what's inside should be exactly what we started out with in wax.

- Then there's usually some finish work involved in the bronze, some grinding and welding.

Perhaps.

When we weld those together, we have to, we call it chasing, we'll put, we have to put that original texture back into the sculpture, so it looks like the original clay, and you can't tell that it was welded together.

Once that's done, we'll give it a light sandblast to get some clean metal and even, you know, so there's diff not the different textures from sanding and grinding.

And then we apply a patina, and usually we're using a liver of sulfur that will darken it, and then we can rub it back with ScotchBrite pads to highlight areas and light, get, get a little bit of the metal coming through.

And then we'll spray a ferric nitrate over that to get different kind of warm tones anywhere from amber gold all the way up to, you know, red and brown, or even very dark, you know, brownish black colors.

And then after that we'll seal up the, the bronze, help protect it.

And basically, that's it in a nutshell.

It's not easy work.

I really enjoy the whole process of casting bronze and, and help, you know, making other artists work, come, come to light, make their dreams come true.

I guess as an artist myself, you know, I, I like the whole process.

And then having other, you know, other artists working here, that they understand the process.

They have an appreciation of art and also maybe, you know, an eye to see detail.

Just trying to make it look as much like the original clay sculpture as, as we can.

And we kind of take pride in that.

- Along with replicating art and bronze, the foundry also repairs cleans and restores sculptures.

It also does welding and repair of everyday objects.

Sometimes in order to make art, you have to create tools.

Nobody knows that better than Clark Martinek, who has been creating as a blacksmithing sculpture for most of his adult life.

It takes a will, stronger than iron to bring these pieces to life, step into his studio to see how it makes it all come together.

- I'm Clark Martin.

I'm a sculptor and a blacksmith step into my studio.

I started metalworking at a very young age.

As soon as I was 18 and old enough to get into the industry, I became a welder.

I built all kinds of things, everything from railings to trailers, to buildings.

At that time, I kind of stumbled across blacksmithing, maybe a little by accident, maybe a little by fate.

And I knew at that point that this avenue that it was gonna lead me down was something that I was very interested in, and I wanted to make this my new profession.

It's the process is what I fell in love with.

When I walk into my studio first thing in the morning, I turn the lights on.

It's very quiet in here.

It's very tranquil.

It gives me a moment to make a cup of coffee and to, to light a fire and to really just kind of embrace peace, because the peace is shortlived shortly thereafter becomes the chaos.

As a blacksmith, I have to use tools that don't necessarily exist.

Every sculpture that I make is completely different, requiring different tongs, different hammers that I may not have readily available.

This gives me an opportunity to investigate how a tool works, how it's going to perform to make my job a little bit easier, and that results in different weights of hammers, different sizes of tongs, even different sizes of fires.

Ultimately, if I need to draw the line, I have to make the pencil.

This job is very physically demanding, but in the end, it creates beautiful works that stand the test of time.

It allows me to use my entire body, starting with my mind, using my body to build it and my soul to give it life and to give it feeling my artwork, my sculptures start when I walk into the studio, when I pick up a pencil and I, and I make a sketch.

That's really the foundation of the art.

The sculpture is just the product.

That's what was made.

But it's the entire process that I go through that's not necessarily seen, that I feel is the art.

It's the art of blacksmithing.

It's the art of traditional joinery.

That to me is the real art, the sculpture.

That's just the byproduct.

That's what everybody else gets to enjoy.

I wish I could have every viewer that looks at my sculptures, come through my studio and actually see the process that I go through in order to make the sculpture that they viewed.

There's a lot more art there that's unseen.

When I look at a piece of metal, I look at the potential that that piece of metal has.

Some people would look at that piece of metal as it is what it is.

I look at that metal as what can it become?

How far can I take that piece of metal?

I like to pick metals with color.

Everything starts out as steel.

When I first initially start a sculpture, and I love to embellish it and give different highlights using bronze or copper or stainless steel.

All of these different metals offer a different color.

Every metal that I've used has a particular place in sculpture.

It's a lot like looking at a bird and then seeing a cardinal.

Your attention is directed at that cardinal because it's a vibrant red.

It just demands your attention.

I look at the base iron, the base steel that I use is kind of just the bird.

And I want to be able to add that flash of color to really intrigue people and get their attention and ask questions about how that was made.

Or why is it that color, or why does it have this texture to it?

It gives me a reason to pass on a little bit of knowledge where that question may not have been asked in any other time.

Regardless of tool limitations or physical help in the shop, I really like to carve my own path in sculpture.

- Clark said he wanted to find new and different ways to make art and do things that people said he couldn't do.

Most of his ideas transform from doodles that migrate to drawings and the drawings to real life items for the world to see.

Jennifer White or Jay White, as she's known in the art community, grew up in South Dakota.

White relies on her personal experiences to feed her creativity and help her find her identity between native and non-native communities.

- I, as an artist, I have the luxury of picking the content that I want to paint.

Like whether it be for, for profit or for pleasure.

I think it, the passion that I put on canvas, people can feel, people gravitate toward It speaks to them.

The fun part is getting color on it.

It's like looking at the clouds and finding shape.

If I weren't painting every day, I don't, I honestly don't know what I'd be doing with my life.

I mean, it found me.

And it's nice to be able to grow and have people grow with you in your, in your process.

It's a skill.

And to be able to use your brain and your heart and your hands in fluid motion, I find the color creates the subject opposed to the other way around.

I never go in with the intention of creating something or ending something.

It, it just, it happens.

I don't wanna dwell on our past as Indian people.

I think the future's way brighter and way more important.

But you have to acknowledge the work and the fortitude that our ancestors had to keep us here.

Like there's no reason for us to be here at all.

None.

I think native artists are by far the purest form of who we are.

Culturally.

What we learn and what we teach our children is the purest form of storytelling by native people and women.

Women have had their children ripped away from them.

Children, their husbands taken away, gone to prison, and women are holding it down.

And I think we have done that forever.

Forever.

But empowered native women, empowered native women artists, they're like unicorns.

You know?

I mean, when you run into something like that, you, you know, it hits you.

It's like running into a wall.

They're so forceful, they're so powerful.

And to meet someone like that, especially women, you know, they're just so powerful and you can feel like all of the energy around them is because people want them to succeed.

Women are complex creatures to begin with, but there's nothing more beautiful than an empowered native woman.

Sometimes I take it for granted how special it is to be an Indian.

There's something very healing about art.

And when people get to relate to that part of who I am as like a mom and a wife, and a woman feels good, the the work I produce is what's the, like the aftermath of that incredible moment of being covered in pain and you know, getting messy and having a good time.

And I think that the art is the process of me making it.

You get what's left over.

It means so much more when the artist has something to say, good, bad, or otherwise.

In my art, the dots represent like my children, like we're like the stars five have six, so I'll be here for a long time.

And like the stripes represent humility.

And then the star quilt, of course, is my grandmother.

She was a quilter.

The women, of course, my grandmas, aunts, mother, sisters, nieces, all of 'em.

Mm.

I don't paint men that often.

I'm a woman.

I don't need to paint men, but I do represent men in my buffalo and my horse pieces.

So they are there, but not very often.

I like seeing women looking grand, looking like royalty.

And nothing is sacred.

You can always paint over it, always.

And there are no no mistakes when you're face to face with any decision you make is right.

It's very cool.

- Jay White said, when you have the stories and perspectives of so many people, you've earned the right to speak and be heard.

You have earned the experiences you paint.

You have earned the right to be a leader in a community.

All of these wonderful things come at the price of having to be the first one to listen.

And the last one to speak to learn more about local South Dakota artists.

Check out the documentary series, cultivating Creativity, a Joint Production between SDPB and the South Dakota Art Museum.

You can find all four episodes of Cultivating Creativity and other programs about South Dakota artists on watch.sdpb.org, and click on the SDPB art stack.

As we continue our travels across South Dakota, meeting folks and telling their stories of Dakota life, we'll share more detours along the way and share those stories about our state's heritage, culture, and whale life.

For all of us at SDPV, I'm Tim Davison.

Thanks for watching.