Honoring the ‘outsiders’
Magic forests, odd creations on state’s back roads
Instead of making art objects, some creators make art worlds. Fueled by fierce individualism, epic imagination, idealism and fervent beliefs, they create rare places of pilgrimage.
We sometimes call them “outsiders” or “visionaries,” but that language seems limited now. Many were misunderstood or dismissed as local eccentrics in their time. Many continue to be mythologized or misrepresented today.
Some of their environments and sites represent a life’s work: transformed homes, yards, fields and places situated along the in-between places of the American landscape. Wisconsin is home to more than its share of these magic forests and confounding contraptions.
One way to experience these artist-made places is through another uniquely American tradition — the road trip. Without a flow of curious pilgrims, packed with picnics, their own imaginations and a few dollars for the donation box, these places would certainly become lost to the landscape.
So, in honor of these warm, lush Wisconsin days, here is all you’ll need for an expedition of Wisconsin’s artist-made worlds. A note of
caution before you pack the cooler and gas up the car, though. The places featured here are, by definition, fragile, hard to find and often beyond reliable cell reception. Sometimes there’s no one on duty to call or ask questions of. So an actual map, a sense of adventure, a leisurely stretch of time and patience are recommended.
Apocalypse House
Norbert Kox
Gillett
Kox has created a whole museum dedicated to a spiritual vision and more than 100 of his “apocalyptic visual parables,” as he calls them. His vivid and highly detailed visionary paintings are depictions of evil, at times disturbing and meant as warnings against the wages of sin.
Getting there: 134 E. Main St., Gillett, in Oconto County. To make an appointment, email nhkox@yahoo.com or call (920) 471-9326.
Forevertron
Tom Every
Sumpter
Every spent nearly three decades wrecking and pulling things apart – factories, breweries, mills and other remnants of the industrial age. In the 1980s, he gave himself a new name, Dr. Evermor, and started putting things back together. He has described the resulting contraption, known as the “Forevertron,” as a celestial craft that will shuttle him from this world to the next someday. It is outfitted with generators, thrusters and a crowning space capsule made from a junked fast-food sign. The components Every welded together include a pair of Thomas Edison’s bipolar dynamos from the late 19th century, acquired from the Henry Ford Museum, and a decontamination chamber from an Apollo space mission.
Getting there: S7703 US Highway 12, Town of Sumpter. Take I-90 north from Madison to Highway 12 south. The site is on Highway 12, about five miles south of Baraboo. Hours vary, but it is scheduled to be open Thursdays to Mondays, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Info: (608) 219-7830 or worldofdrevermor.com.
Grandview
Nick Engelbert Hollandale
Starting in the 1930s, Engelbert embellished the area around his home and dairy farm with concrete characters. His figures, with pole-like arms and physically flat but animated faces, are from mythology, politics and history. Over
time, the population of sculpture spread into the surrounding landscape and included animal sculptures and garden beds.
Upcoming event: Family Fun Day, Aug. 12, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Meet the artistin-residence and enjoy wood-fired pizzas and ice cream sundaes. Free.
Getting there: 7351 State Road 39, Hollandale. Grandview is on the southwest side of the state in Iowa County, about 13 miles east of Mineral Point. It is about a half-mile west of the village of Hollandale, on the south side of Highway 39. Open daily by appointment, dawn to dusk. Info: www.nicks grandview.com.
Holy Ghost Park
Mathias H. Wernerus Dickeyville
Father Wernerus created a shrine to
God and country, with individual, altarlike spaces to honor the Holy Family, the saints and figures such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Christopher Columbus. In the late 1920s and early `30s, he gathered stones from quarries and bluffs along the Mississippi and hauled them by wagon and truck to the grounds of the Holy Ghost Parish. He also amassed huge amounts of colored glass, broken china, bits of tile, sea shells and other odd objects to make the various shrines. A tall mosaic-like image of the Tree of Life and gardens surrounded by sea shell fences are among the best bits. A gift shop is tucked behind the church.
Getting there: 305 W Main St., Dickeyille. In the southwestern corner of the state, head west of Madison on Highways 18/151 for about 76 miles and turn right onto Highway 61, which will take you into Dickeyville, where the park is on your left. Informal tours available daily from about 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. through August and on weekends in September. Info: (608) 568-3119 or www.dickeyvillegrotto.com.
John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Sheboygan
We know about many of the art sites on this list because of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, one of the world’s leading authorities on artist-made environments and sites. For decades the Kohler has produced scholarship related to these places along with various partners, including local communities, schools and the Kohler Foundation, which has a history of preserving artistbuilt environments. The Kohler is also known for its contemporary art exhibition program and its broad and openminded definitions of contemporary art, including the work of visionary artists. Elements of a garden fantasyland created by Carl Peterson in St. James, Minn., have been preserved and installed on the grounds as well.
Upcoming events: The “Mary Nohl and the Walrus Club” exhibit is on view through June 23, 2019.
Getting there: 608 New York Ave., Sheboygan. Hours Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 10 to 5 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday 10 to 8 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday 10 to 4 p.m. Info: (920) 458-6144 or www.jmkac.org.
Mary Nohl house
Fox Point
Known by many around the area as the “Witch’s House,” the late Mary L. Nohl’s beach house is the only spot on this list not open to the public. Indeed, you cannot even stop on the road without getting a permit from Fox Point. Nohl was fascinated by materials and would spend long periods focusing intensely on the potential of, say, driftwood. Inside the cottage, walls, doors, windows, furniture and cabinets are lushly embellished with painting, sculptures, assemblages, stained glass, mosaics and ceramics. Outside, concrete fish sit side-by-side, chatting, on a bench, and a trio of figures that look like fingers with faces seem to sway in unison. The home is being conserved by the John Michael Kohler Arts Center.
Painted Forest
Ernest Hupeden
Valton
Hupeden left Germany in the 1870s after being falsely accused of embezzlement. He walked to Wisconsin from New York and spent the rest of his life here as an itinerant painter, creating murals for drinking money in small, often dry (alcohol-free) towns. His Painted Forest covers every inch of wall space, as well as the ceiling, in what was the meeting hall of the Modern Woodmen of America in the small town of Valton. His forest is filled with secret symbols of the society. A man, his hair on end, riding a bucking goat, refers to one of the initiation rituals, for instance.
Upcoming events: Public events held on second Sundays of the month in summer. Ho-Chunk Heritage Day, Aug. 12, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Music by Marc LaMere and Felix Sainz, and a sampling of traditional Ho-Chunk food. Free.
Getting there: Painted Forest Drive and South 4th Street, Valton. From Madison, take I-90/94 north to Highway 33 west, to County Highway G take County Road EE south to the site. Hours: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends with tours at noon, 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. through Oct. 14. Info: finearts.edgewood.edu/ painted-forest.
Paul and Matilda Wegner Grotto
Sparta
The Wegners emigrated from Germany in the 1880s. After a trip to the grotto in Dickeyville, the couple embarked on their own retirement project, creating sculptures around their summer home. The first sculpture was a 12-foot copy of an ocean liner. Later, they constructed an American flag, a reproduction of their 50th anniversary cake, a glassencrusted birdhouse, a prayer garden and a peace monument.
Upcoming event: Art Outdoors, Aug. 25, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Come for demonstrations and learn outdoor painting, clay sculpting and mosaic making. Free.
Getting there: 7788 Daylight Road, Sparta. The grotto is northwest of Madison in Monroe County. Take I-90 to Sparta. Take Highways 71-27 north, go 9 miles, where Highway 71 turns west toward Melrose; the grotto is 0.2 miles from there. Hours: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday. Info: (608) 269-8680 or www.monroecountyhistory.org/ wegnergrotto.php.
Philip Wagner’s Grotto
Rudolph
Father Wagner created a grotto and “wonder cave” with a maze of walkways, and dedicated them to the Virgin Mary, who he believed had healed him of debilitating exhaustion. Initial construction was completed in the late 1920s. Biblical stories and proverbs were illustrated on tin sheets that had pinpricksized holes backlit by colored lights. It is on the grounds of St. Philip the Apostle Church.
Getting there: 6975 Grotto Ave., Rudolph. Almost due west from Stevens Point, take Highway 10 north to County Road C and make a right onto Grotto Ave. just before Highway 34. Open during daylight through Oct. 30. Info: (715) 435-3247 or (715) 459-5547 or www.rudolphgrotto.org.
Prairie Moon Sculpture Garden & Museum
Herman Rusch
Cochrane
Rusch bought a dance pavilion to “kill old-age boredom” in 1952 and packed it with curios, unusual machines, phenomena from nature and personal mementos. Later, he started adding his own curious sculptures, which were placed around the grounds and embellished with sea shells, bits of glass and mirrors. They included a “rocket to the stars,” a Hindu temple, dinosaurs and a mini mountain.
Getting there: 52727 Prairie Moon Road, Cochrane. On the western edge of the state in Buffalo County, the site is reached by taking Highway 35 northwest from Fountain City, about 6 miles. Turn left onto Prairie Moon Road, just beyond the Cochrane-Fountain City School. The site is a half mile on the left. Open during daylight hours. Info: (608) 687-8250 or (608) 248-2987.
Wisconsin Concrete Park
Fred Smith
Phillips
After his retirement as a lumberjack in 1949, Smith managed a tavern that he helped to build. The first sculpture was a leaping deer, inspired by a design on a boy’s sweater. He started creating a band of beer-drinking, life-size cowboys, miners and soldiers that seemed to mill around the tavern. His figures were blocky with square shoulders. The animals seem as planted in the ground as the surrounding trees. Be sure to look for Ben-Hur, the team of oxen and a never-ending wedding party. Decorated with beer-bottle glass, the concrete sculptures shimmer in the sun.
Getting there: N8236 State Highway 13, Phillips. Northwest of Wausau in Price County, this park is nearly a fivehour drive from Milwaukee. Take Highway 13 north from Prentice, pass County Road D and take a right onto Depot Road (which turns into Big Elk Road), go a half mile and turn left onto Beach Road. Best seen during daylight. Info: (800) 2694505 or www.friendsoffredsmith.org.
Woodland Sculpture Garden
James Tellen
Wilson
Historic, mythic and religious figures, as well as regular folk, are suspended in everyday moments in Tellen’s spongy-looking concrete sculptures. In the early 1940s, he began populating the woods around his family’s summer cottage with miniature and full-size figures, like an Abraham Lincoln whose face is even longer and thinner than the original. Tellen, who worked in a furniture factory, was inspired by cast concrete statues displayed in a churchyard.
Getting there: 5634 Evergreen Drive, Town of Wilson. In the Black River area near Sheboygan, take I-43 north, exit at County V, proceed east and turn left (north) onto County KK, which turns into S. 12th St. Turn right (east) on Indian Mound Road, then left (south) on Evergreen Drive and go about a half block to the site. For info or to arrange a tour, call the Kohler Arts Center at (920) 4586144.
Mary Louise Schumacher is the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s art and architecture critic. Connect with her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter or email her at mschumacher@journal sentinel.com.