This year’s Fresh Art tour is on the horizon, taking place 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily June 6-8. The Spring Fresh Art Tour is a self-guided journey to 27 of the finest art studios and galleries in the Lake Pepin and Chippewa River Valleys.  Enjoy spring wildflowers and beautiful Lake Pepin as you travel the famous Great River Road and the backroads of western Wisconsin.  This is your opportunity to get behind the scenes, watch (and maybe try!) their processes, and purchase from an artist you’ve met.

The tour is an opportunity to meet artists and learn of their techniques and styles; but spend a little time with an artist and you learn of their journey and their inspiration.

Have you ever met a jewelry artist who used her art to get an A in astronomy class? Have you met a clay artist whose inspiration for her current work style came from a vision of a smiling pig?

“This adorable piggy was in my mind for days,” said artist Judy Anderson. “Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was that little fella. After several days, I scratched the image onto a pot that I had coated with a contrasting surface layer. BINGO! I was hooked! The vision of the Smiling Pig was gone, but he left me inspired and with a new direction for my work.”

One of life’s sweetest stories offered a clear career choice for watercolorist Barbara Bunk.

“My grandfather and his father were sheep ranchers and never had time for hobbies. When Grandpa retired, he hung around the senior citizens center in Sioux Falls, SD and started painting with oils and acrylics around the age of 70,” Bunk said.

You may learn of a “surprise intervention” when a well-meaning sister - who worked in the school office - changed a young teen’s plans for a French class to enrollment in an art class instead. Kristi Schumacher’s seventh grade art teacher became her first mentor.

It is not surprising to hear that music is a natural extension of artists’ creative lives. Meet the watercolor artist who has studied piano, organ, voice, and harp, and has been a piano teacher for nearly 55 years. Meet other visual artists who just happen to dabble in ukulele, harmonica, and guitar.

Bruce Hecksel explains, “I am a professional musician, touring and recording with my other passion, my wife. We have toured over 2 million miles, played way over 5,000 shows in almost all 50 states, Asia and Europe, recorded over 24 records, while being married for 28 years. It took the music and the art marrying to really find that on-button for the heavy production of my own art style.”

Get to know artists and you begin to understand the marriage of art and lifestyle, the intentional cultivation of sense of place.

Anderson, a ceramics artist, heartily reported, “We recently became the newest ambassadors for Bird City in our home of Alma, WI. We get to inform people about habitat preservation, about conservation initiatives and about how residents can support these actions at home. Living along one of the continent’s few main migration pathways, the Mississippi Flyway, we are so fortunate to experience the wealth of the avian world in concentrated form!”

Her ceramics include stunning representations of the birds of the Mississippi Flyway.

Schumacher never did learn French. She now works in pastel to capture her farm and garden experiences, and she cherishes one special bond. She noted that Winston Churchill once said, “There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.” Her passion for horses began when she could first walk and talk.

Cindy King, jewelry artist, also speaks of the artists’ lifestyle.

“I moved here from Iowa, where you could drop a bean on top of the soil and it would grow to the clouds. I was determined to have a ‘little English cottage garden,’” she said. “I have learned so much over the years. I learned that I live on what was once a vast sandy riverbed. I learned to appreciate and respect the space where I live. I've learned about native wildflowers, native grasses, making compost, and survival of the fittest (guess what – it ain't cottage garden roses). In my gardening and in my art, I find myself connecting deeply with my parents who came of age during the Great Depression. The challenge of ‘making do’ and repurposing was one I grew up with. It felt familiar, gratifying, and became a nod to their legacy of determination and grace.”

Tina Schowalter’s experience was similar:“About 20 years ago I created an insect collection with my boys who were six and seven at the time. We worked on the collection several years. It was wonderful seeing and learning about the diversity of species. I learned that our insects were in decline and that 60% of earth's insects were lost due to loss of habitat and pesticides, so I started a small native planting which did well in my sandy, low-nutrient soil. It will be a wonderful thing to watch as I can't miss it being right outside my studio windows.”

Schowalter’s ceramics beautifully reflect those observations.

The artists of Fresh Art Tour are eager to share their reverence and sense of place with you. Gary “Chris” Christopherson, metal sculptor, lives on an 1885 restored farm on the side of a Mississippi River bluff above Nelson. Those interested in beekeeping can take a tour of his 1885 era beehouse/apiary. The Wisconsin Historical Society indicates it is the only one in Wisconsin, and one of few in the United States.

The surrounding Thrive! Park has four trails that take hikers to the bluff tops, offering a 35-mile panorama view of the Mississippi River valley.

Bunk added, “People love to climb down the steps to see the view from our deck. The view of the Mississippi River, with Frontenac, Point-no-Point, and the actual ‘Maiden Rock’ is worth the trip over here. Customers come back many times just for the view.”

Dave and Mary Lewien, the husband-and-wife team working in leather and clay, sum up their livelihood and the spirit of Fresh Art Tour perfectly: “Our lifestyle has grown into a lifelong journey with the arts.”

We can’t wait to share the journey with you. Come celebrate Spring on the Fresh Art Tour. Meander the Great River Road and the stunningly beautiful backroads of Pepin, southern Pierce and Buffalo counties where you will visit artist studios and galleries, and perhaps learn a little about sgraffito, monarda, goat prairies and guitar strings!

Find artist information and tour map at www.freshart.org.

Submitted by Fresh Art Tour