LaBrosse, who has worked in several areas of art over the past 20 years, became interested in her current focus, recycled art, after seeing the work of another Wisconsin artist, Michael DeMeng. She now sells some of her work (such as “Happy,” a sculpture of a dog that has a head made from that of an old baby doll and its body from a pumpkin stem) at the Flying Pig Gallery and Greenspace in Algoma.

Although LaBrosse’s assemblages may seem merely eccentric, she constructs many of them with a specific message in mind. One of her pieces features a Barbie doll attached to a scale, addressing body image issues rife in American society. More than that, her creative process itself holds meaning.

Roy Staab

Gracing a beach in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Roy Staab's "Aftertide Meridian" consists of stones found near the site.

“I get to ride my bike, make art, and clean up the city, one piece of junk at a time!” LaBrosse said in a post on her MySpace page where she showcases her work. “What could be better?”

Likewise, Emily Kircher, an artist in Madison who uses recycled materials, keeps conscious of people’s effect on the environment. After studying biology as an undergraduate at Marquette University and environmental toxicology as a graduate student at UW-Madison, she opened her craft business. Using old fabric, clothes, linens, cups, plates and bottle caps, she keeps environmental concerns at the forefront of her business mission.

“I’ve always been interested in the environment and understanding ... how to be green [and] eco-friendly,” said Kircher, who sells her art at craft shows around the Midwest, including the Dane County Farmer’s Market in Madison. “I try to educate people that these things I’m using were castoffs, so think twice about things you don’t want anymore. They’re not necessarily garbage just because you don’t want [them].”

Even Staab, who tries using “only the main elements of nature” in his artwork, altered his style to highlight the recycling concept in his piece “Historic Rhythms” in Milwaukee’s Third Ward. Using long strands of plastic previously used to bind boxes in the area, he crafted a canopy-like installation in Catalano Square. The stiff movements of the plastic set against the easy swaying of the tree branches serve as a reminder of the disparity between the fragility of nature and human’s forceful impact – a theme Staab tries to convey in much of his work.

“Art is a contrast; man is a contrast,” he said. “Mans invades nature.”

Experiencing the meaning
For his piece “Bluebird,” Staab used willow already near a site in a shallow riverway on the Wisconsin River in 1999. Skimming the surface of the water, the willow strands formed a symmetrical, gracefully curved structure resembling the wings of a bird.

Staab’s formations directly respond to the specific environment around him. He has completed works in the air, on land and over bodies of water in Wisconsin, across the U.S. and around the world. He creates his simple yet large installations with his own hands and immerses himself in the nature around him. Whether that means hanging spiraling branches from a trellis at the Overture Center for the Arts in Madison or wading in cold, knee-high water on the Mississippi River, the experience of being close to nature inspires his work and his message.

“Nature takes [my art] and moves it and adjusts it and that’s OK,” Staab said. “When it does fall apart, it doesn’t leave anything. You think about time, but when you work with nature, you have no control.”

Taylor shares the sentiment that creating art in or with nature provides a wholesome and basic connection to the earth—something missing when creating and displaying art indoors.

“When you work with natural materials—and it may be cliché to say—but you just come close to the very basic ideas of the use of materials that are around you,” Taylor said. “It’s feeling like you are the first man on the earth ... You just feel very close to nature.”

This interplay between art and nature, between indigenous objects and created objects, equally captivates those viewing or using the art as the artists crafting it. Rather than seeing art resting in a gallery, art in the natural world becomes an interactive experience.