Aldo inspires art

Matthew Ryno

A visitor to the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center may reflect on the natural surroundings with the help of an oak leaf encapsulated in glass or a photo of grass blowing in the breeze.

The process of making that reflection possible was described this Saturday, during Art Discovery Day, as many of the artists who contributed to the headquarters talked with visitors about the inspiration they derive from nature and Aldo Leopold himself.

Buddy Huffaker, executive director of the Leopold Foundation, said a $800 Sauk County Arts, Humanities and Historic Preservation grant made a day-long event possible to show the public the connection that exists between art and nature.

"This is so people understand the feedback between cultural resources and the natural world," he said. "The real valuable part of art is as artists get inspired, and we see what they see, it inspires us to take a better look at nature."

As part of the day's events, visitors and artists walked together to the now famous chicken shack Leopold converted into a house — the inspiration for many of Leopold's own reflections.

Leopold once wrote, "There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace."

Huffaker suggested art could serve as the lost link between the spiritual danger of not owning a farm and Leopold's ethic

of letting nature exist peacefully.

When visitors arrived at the shack, in the distance cranes could be heard darting through the gray sky and calling out.

Todd Persche, an artist who painted Leopold's shack after weeks of observation, called attention to the cranes, the natural surroundings of the shack and noted how Leopold created a perfect place for understanding nature.

"Some people think of nature as being away from people, but it's not that way out here," he said.

Persche presented archived pictures of the shack's development with Alan Anderson, a local wood maker. They noted how the pines surrounding the shack were planted to give the best sight lines of the environment.

Anderson said he has family members who work with wood and he was most interested in how Leopold used the shack to let his children experiment, and gain confidence in constructing their own home away from home.

"From my perspective this was about raising a family… teaching self-confidence, experimentation. They didn't have a lot of money but they made it special," he said.

About seven local artists gave presentations Saturday on how they contributed to the Legacy Center, what inspired them and how they may have been moved to adopt environmentally friendly methods of making art.

Homer Daehn, an artist who contributed a carving of Leopold to the center, said he uses every piece of wood in his designs — especially the pieces nobody else wants, like driftwood or an entire root system.

"If you can read the wood, you can make it into something special," he said. "These character pieces of wood are the most fun to work with."

Among other artists, Nolan Wallenfang, a woodworker, told visitors how he used a purer form of wood for the walls and site-harvested wood to craft counter top doors and cabinets in the building.

Saturday's event brought some visitors from as far away as Florida, plus many who were not yet regular visitors to the center.

A visitor who recently moved from the Appleton area, Kathy Skrivseth, said she is beginning to notice the strong environmental movement in Baraboo, specifically when her house was built and builders wanted to use green materials.

"There's a strong art community here, too, and not just what you'd think of being an artist. I thought our builder was an artist," she said.

Tracey Baggot lives in Baraboo, and has driven by a few times but never took the time until this Saturday to experience the center after she got a postcard about the event.

She said she's interested in the outdoors, and in the past has been inspired by places like Muir Woods in California.

Huffaker said he hoped Art Discovery day would draw more visitors like Baggot to the center.

"There are a lot of resources in our community we take for granted," Huffaker said. "Leopold's identity spreads across the country. It brings visitors to us so we can support the artists and local businesses in our community."