Green Piece: Connection Art and the Environment
Elli Thompson

A walk along the Raven Nature Trail in Minocqua provided view after view of northwoods beauty: smooth and shiny leaves rustling softly in the breeze; the chirping of birds echoing through the trunks and branches of the forest; the combined scent of fresh earth, plants and grass.

Every twist and bend of the trail anticipated more of Wisconsin’s natural splendor. Turning one corner, however, the scene was anything but expected. Large, looming chainsaws hung suspended from tree branches. Below them, more of the machinery sat heavily on randomly placed wooden posts. A small bird perched on one of them, picking at its rough surface—perfectly embodying the contrast between human and nature, foreign and native.

But this clash between nature and industry wasn’t the result of man’s destruction—quite the contrary. The chainsaws—actually wooden casts covered with coats of suet birdseed—were artfully created, deriving their beauty and meaning alongside and with nature, as a part of the Forest Art Wisconsin project, a unique “gallery” created in summer 2007 under Ute Ritschel, a German professor-in-residence at UW-Madison.

This intertwining of art and the environment does more than just provide bewildering imagery—it offers a new way to look at and experience art in Wisconsin while raising awareness about environmental and social issues.

A dizzying array of art that closely connects to nature peppers the state: art made from natural materials; art made out of biodegradable materials; art made from recycled products or junk left on the wayside, and art made within a natural environment. But when focusing on the messages behind their vibrant, capturing—even quirky—façades, the lines between these different art forms begin to blur. With environmental and social topics spanning across fields of study and arising in everyday conversation, artists have contributed to the discussion in their own way—visually.

Roy Staab, an environment site installation artist working from West Allis, creates his art to support the protection of nature. He constructs large-scale, outdoor sculptures in an effort to not only be closer to the earth and the elements, but also to bring attention to the environment.

“There is a message without a message,” Staab said. “I believe in passive education, and I believe in working and being in harmony with nature. ... I want more people to look at and respect nature and keep it clean. How long can you look at the mess that men are making and let it be?”

Julia Taylor, a graduate student in art at UW-Madison who contributed to the Forest Art Wisconsin project, agrees that art’s quieter form of demonstration speaks volumes about a wide variety issues. Rather than talking about, writing about or marching in protest to modern and relevant concerns, artists can react creatively.

Working under the umbrella theme of “Native/Invasive,” artists involved in Forest Art Wisconsin displayed their thoughts on issues of population movements and invasion—ranging from plant invasion in Northern Wisconsin to white settlers invading American Indian territory in Wisconsin’s early history to current immigration issues in the state.

For Aristotle Georgiades and Gail Simpson, professors in the UW-Madison Art Department, making their chainsaw display on Raven Trail gave birds a chance to symbolically strike back against modern society and encouraged people to think about the destruction humans create when they intrude on the natural world.

More importantly, beyond just raising awareness, art incites change and inspires solutions, according to Nicole Gruter, a graduate student of art at UW-Madison. She believes it helps people “to realize that you can manipulate certain environments … in order to foster a positive environment and a creative environment.”

Crafting the meaning

For Green Bay artist Colleen LaBrosse, other people’s trash makes up the majority of her projects. An avid bike rider, LaBrosse finds much of her material outdoors in the form of discarded debris on the roadside. Nearly any object has the potential to be art in her eyes, no matter how obscure.

“Some people’s junk that [they] just throw out or that falls off their car I just find and think, ‘Ooh, this could be a part of a bird,’” LaBrosse said.

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.

“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 for the artists crafting it. Rather than seeing art resting in a gallery, art in the natural world becomes an interactive experience.

“What I notice about our modern society is how much time we spend inside of the building or inside of the studio,” said Taylor. She marvels at the idea of a person’s physical interaction with nature-based art—an experience where “they can come very close, they can touch, they can see the texture, they can ask questions” about a display.

Gruter knows Wisconsin residents will enjoy this type of art, but also stresses that they should. Beyond its aesthetic beauty, the whole experience is worthwhile. “There’s something so inviting and engaging about seeing art in places you don’t expect it,” she said.

Art involving nature offers a dual pleasure: Nature enhances art’s physical beauty, while the art draws people closer to nature. The unrestricted setting adds a matchless element to the interpretation.

“I think my main aim is that people learn to see differently when they go through nature, that they have a new experience,” Ritschel said. “We always have to deal with environment. It’s our main concern. All people have responsibility to deal with it. I think people of Wisconsin … should use the chance and come out and see their beautiful landscape. We want to make them go there and enjoy this by giving them a new impact in their human experience, in their emotional experience, in their everyday life.”

Finding the meaning

Environmental awareness has been on the minds of artists for many years, according to Jane Simon, curator of exhibitions at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, and it has transformed with time and carries meaning relevant to the here and now.

“I don’t think it’s obvious to people how environmental issues intersect with artistic practice,” Simon said.

But that could change as the idea of branching off from more traditional art forms catches on among Wisconsin’s artists.

“I think it’s a little cult out there,” LaBrosse said. “Maybe people got sick and tired of painting—all these rules and stuff. When I saw this assemblage stuff, I thought, ‘Oh my God, rules are just out the window, and this is for me.’”

Audiences, too, have become increasingly aware of environmental issues and evermore open to art that strays from the mainstream. This gives artists even more reason to connect their work to nature in innovative ways.

“I get a lot of people at the markets that will say things like, ‘Hey, I appreciate you doing this and recycling’ or ‘Wow, it’s really good to see someone doing something like this,’” Kircher said.

And for those wanting more, inventive art that addresses their concerns may not be so difficult to find after all.

“It’s not like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Simon said. “I think it’s everywhere.”

Just as the forest on Raven Trail in Minocqua revealed stunning art from among the foliage, so does the whole of Wisconsin elicit artistic masterpieces that reflect the state’s natural beauty, promote its protection and convey other social messages. Although closely tied to nature, such art is not intended to be camouflaged in the thick of the innumerable art forms out there. Rather, it seeks to visually leap from Wisconsin’s arts scene, shining light on relevant issues while capturing the eyes and minds of its audience.