Lakeland Public Television
presents Common Ground brought
to you

by the MInnesota Arts and
Cultural Heritage Fund and the

citizens of MInnesota.

♪ ♪

Welcome to Common Ground.
I'm your host Scott Knudson.

On this episode
follow Wesley May of the

Red Lake Nation as he
and his crew paint

this 50 foot mural on
Bemidji's wastewater

treatment facility.

♪ ♪

Hi, my name is
Wesley May

founder of Wes May Arts.

Ojibwe language
My name is

Golden Eagle Feather
in Ojibwe. I love

painting and what we are going
to do here over the next few
weeks.

We are going to paint
this 26 by 56 foot wall.

With a image that strikes
and brings voice to the water.

The way we treat the water
and the way we come together to

protect it and honor it.

Here we are today, we're looking
at the processes we're going to
be going through

on doing this
26 X 56 foot mural

on the waste water treatment
facility ppin downtown Bemidji.

When I do my art
I love doing

let's call it relationships.
The purpose of this mural

is to display the relationships
that the waste water

treatment facility has with
the community. But what we do

is the piece will be called
Protect, Respect, Honor and
Give Thanks.

Well the first thing it starts
with is that relationship

of the water. The first thing
you think about is water is
good.

Water loves us.
It nourishes us

It does so many good things for
us that we want a loving
relationship

We want to protect it. We want
to respect it and we want to
honor it.

This is a relationship that
we have with Mother Earth,

nature or however people
want to perceive it.

But when we think about water
we automatically think about

the goodness that it brings.

We want to protect it. We want
to respect it. We want to honor
it.

Giving thanks for all the
blessings that it gives to us.
And that is what we're here

to do today. I've
been a visual artist

for over 20 years. And now
it's just to transfer it

from being outwardly with
everything with sharing

I'm going through inside.
And that's what I love doing.

♪ ♪

The task ahead of Wes

and his crew requires many
stops.

Wes is joined by

Joe LaBlanc.

For the first stop, Wes has
placed an order for paint at the
Bemidji's

Old Schoolhouse.

Let's do it.

♪ ♪

Well good afternoon people, we
are here at The Old Schoolhouse
where you pick up

some paint and supplies for
the wastewater treatment
facility.

project. Care to join me?
Here we are.

♪ ♪

Good morning sunshine.

♪ ♪

Where is all the
smiles at today?

So I hear we got a bunch

of paint here.
Yeah.

How big was that
truck that came in?

Huge.
laughter

Shall we go check it out?
Yeah Down by the

front door.

♪ ♪

Oh it's right here.

Here we go
We got

gallons and gallons

the medium, the varnish.

It's all there.

That's a lot of varnish.

That's going to be a lot

I don't know. Maybe you
ought to back it up.

I thought about that
and it doesn't

look like very much but
once this gets on any boxes

and it's laying on the side
of the building it's going to
be like man.

Pow explosions for the eyes.

♪ ♪

Back the truck up and put

♪ ♪

Exciting!

It's what it's all about!

♪ ♪

Doesn't look much sittin there

until we start pulling them
out.

♪ ♪

Here we go right here.
Thank you

Lois Dale. The Old Schoolhouse
has been such a help.

and inspiration to everything
I've been doing my whole life.

Thank You. And I thank you for
what you do in the community.

(indistinct) got to be there.

(indistinct talking)

And here we go off
to have some fun.

We are going to start
out with a liquid

jessle. It's a thick medium.
It's going to bond to the
concrete.

And when we go over that it
will be white so it will
brighten

it up. So it's not
a grey undertone.

Then we will start with
the acrylic. 100% acrylic.

paint. So that it's

very flexible and it drys fast
but it's very easy

to work with once
you start mixing it.

Then we'll go through with a

liquid text brand clear coat
over the top so that

it will last for a long time.

Maria, do you see
the eagle up here.

The blessing the new beginning.

Wes and Joe are off to
Acme Tools of Bemidji

to buy and rent the
equipment necessary to paint

the tall wall.
Do we need earplugs?

I don't know if I can
listen to you holler

when you are hanging on
to that basket up there.

But that is what we got here.

This is my spiderman gear.

We got this here.

They're not going to let me do
that. So what we are going to do

is go with some harnesses and
we're going to pin ourselves to
the basket

so were not just sliding up
there getting ready to fall.

We get to hold on for
just a little while.

We need these so we're visible.
So everybody sees us.

Wondering what we're doing?

You know we are going to be
smiling. Like Wesmayart.com
every little

while. This is a

safety harness.

Do we want to go
with the lowest bidder

Yep we are going way
up 50 feet up in the air

all on the lowest price
stuff you can get.

Can't wait.

Let's do it now. Get a
piece of rope and tie us

up to the top.
They said it was legal.

It was illegal to cross the
(indistinct)

So we got our vests.

We got them ordering. Now the
next thing is going to

get the boom lift.
So we can go way up.

Jumping off the top and
painting. That's always going to
be the challenge.

It's going to be a lot of fun.
That's the main thing is

we all got to keep
smiling during this.

Come on Fred Let's go to work.

Gonna have a lot of
fun doing this. Basically

the main challenge in
this piece is the height.

We got our bowling bags
ready to go. Safety gear

It's on.

Yeah Acme Rentals
was very helpful

in the process here.
We'll be backing

up over here.
We're getting a big 60 foot
lift.

A hydraulic lift is necessary
to reach the heights

presented by this project.

Wes and Joe are
briefed by Clarence

Statley a native american
employee at Acme

50 feet, 50 feet tall.
Bigger than this

has to be on something level
huh before it will even work.

I'll give you a quick run down
on how this works.

So what you do is make
sure this is turned

out. Now what that does
is you hold that in

This will level it out for you
it will actually raise it up a
little bit

So you can basically control
everything from down here if you
want.

This extends your arm.

It goes out.
Tilt your basket.

All the controls are

if you hold it that way

and you use the joystick.
You see that has

black and white arrows.
So in order to engage to go

up and down you are going
to have to hold this to the
left.

Click it right here.
Yep.

You hold that in and of
course the black arrow.

go forward. There is a black
arrow right here as well.

Same as the model. Push that
forward your basket will

start to lift up.
White arrow go down.

And if you want to go up. Tilt
that forward.

Okay. And you'll
start going up.

It's all fairly simple.
How will this be

on a hill?

As long as it's not too
steep of a hill the arms

will level it out for you.
It automatically does that

it will let you know.

If you want to engage your
handbrake whenever you're using
it during operations

just to be on the safe side.
That's the handbrake

down it's not going anywhere.

Up the wheels can move.
Keep that in mind too

when you're pulling.
Laughter

We have some people take off
with it with the handbrake on.

Oh okay. And this
is the manual.

All the stuff you need
to know to be safe.

My main

challenges in this and what
I've noticed about everything

that I do. And I know a lot
of people relate with this.

The main challenge is myself.

♪ ♪

Motivating myself.

Getting up in the morning doing
what I have to do to make sure

that this gets done. Following
through on everything that I
plan.

That's the main
challenges that I have.

♪ ♪

Here we go.
WesMayart.com Visit it up.

Living the dream!

♪ ♪

Wes and Joe are

joined by Charlie May.

And their friends

soaring high above.

Wes's crew practices

with the equipment
preparing to paint.

That's the brake.

The brake has to be on.

You say you brought the
pressure washer too?

We'll see where we
can hook up for that

It doesn't look like
there's much up on top.

But it's around the
lights that are on

got's the spider's and stuff.

There was one like that big
that was sitting right in here.

There we go.

Ask them to move while
we paint their apartment

and then they
can come back.

♪ ♪

Wes, Joe and Charlie
are off to the

Indigenous Environmental
Network to visit the

community mural produced
with the help of Simone
Senegeles.

Alright let's go. We got to dig
it out though Scott

So I don't know if you want to..
It might take a minute.

before you have to be
carrying camera like that.

♪ ♪

Alright so yeah it is kind
of behind a lot of stuff.

Maybe get these out
of the way and

then I'll move these
lights out of the way.

♪ ♪

Yeah didn't it. We
had some really

good workers on it. And then
maybe we'll put it in this big
room.

♪ ♪

Thanks guys.

Yeah and a little close so it
doesn't put too much pressure on
the feet.

That's good.
I think that's about

perfect.

Where's your rocks at?

oh yeah there they go.

Alright I got it.

I got it. Well good
morning or good

afternoon. How are you doing
today? I'm Wesley May

this is Simone Senegles with
the Indigenous Environmental
Network.

What we are doing here we've
been working on for a couple
years

now is this intergenerational
mural.

What we are doing with it is. Is
it was done by the community not
by just me.

or just by Simone,
or the network.

It was done by the whole
community. What we are doing is
raising

the voices of those rarely heard
the ones that ain't out there
speaking

politically. So we gave them
the opportunity to come in

and just show that they care
about the environment.

Simone if you would like to
enlighten a little bit about
IEN's role in bringing this

project together. I think like
Wes said it brings people
together

who aren't normally together
or who aren't normally being

heard. It allows them to
express their voice in a very

powerful way. Art is such a
powerful medium of expression.

That is one of the things that
I love about Wes's art so much

he is so rooted in community.
You you walk down the street

and there's Wes smiling
at you. And he's

very very rooted in our
community and in our culture.

And yet like all good art it's
got a universal appeal.

It's beautiful and it speaks to
all of us no matter where were
from.

So to have him lead this
project was really great

because he kind of laid the
foundation. And then he

created space for people to
come in and put their own voice

onto this mural.
It turned out beautifully.

It's really a lovely thing.
Yeah I think when you're

talking about community art.

Definitely rooted in community.
That is beautiful.

What Simone said.
What she said.

Yeah so I mean we actually

who worked on the mural.
Charlie. I kinda wanted to see
what he thought

about what his experience
was working on this mural.

Working with the mural you
know like Wes said before

was just how you go at life.

I was sitting there and I was
just mixing colors and what I

could do to it, to make it look
good. And how it's not just

up and mix colors and put

paint brush to the board.
And I was like ah look it

there is no rocks here yet
so I started going along

this sides and putting rocks.
I was just

doing my best and eventually
I just thought

adding to them and trying
to put more color to them.

It was pretty fun

and I can't wait to put it up.

You can't see them but I put
rocks on that thing you know.

Those rocks have a lot of
thought to them. Everybody had
there part in it.

Their voice no one was turned
away. Now when they look at

it now when they walk
away from it. They walked

away with knowing that art
is a the same way as life.

They got to do is fix
whatever they feel is a mistake

because the only mistakes on
here are what we think are
there.

And when they are not
really there we realize

just fix it keep on moving and
that as we work on the mistake

the more beautiful
people we become.

And the crew is off.

Wes continues his
work on the mural.

Good afternoon
we're going up.

Next stop way up there,
that's like 35 feet.

40 feet up.

Watch me go backwards
and go down first.

You got to see this.

♪ ♪

I've laid this coat down first
so that paintPPis going to stick
to it. ThenppI paint it.

Then I seal coat it. And when
they seen the whole process done
we did it

on the side. And they are like
you can go up and scratch

this.. it ain't going to
scratch. It's not going to peel.

Nope.

♪ ♪

Ojibwe language

Heard there was somebody
doing graffiti out here.

I know they had it all over.

Should we just get started then.
Yeah.

Ojibwe language

♪ ♪

Thanks for watching. Join us
again next week on Common
Ground.

If you have an idea
for a Common Ground

piece that pertains to
north central Minnesota

email us at legacy
at lptv.org

or call us at
218-333-3014.

To view any episodes

of Common Ground
on line visit us

at lptv.org.

♪ ♪

To order episodes or segments
of Common Ground

call 218-333-3020.

Common Ground is
brought to you

by the Minnesota Arts
and Cultural Heritage Fund

with money from the vote
of the people November 4, 2008.