2020-2021 Artists in Residence - ​Alice Hargrove, Terrill Knaack, Katherine Steichen Rosing, Rachel Davis​, and Andrew Hipps​

Alice Hargrove

​​Alice Hargrave, a photo based artist in Chicago, incorporates sound,video, and photographic imagery within layered site specific installations. Her work addresses impermanence: environmental insecurity, habitat loss, and species extinctions. Hargrave collaborated with The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, to create her project Last Calls, portraits of threatened birds using sound waves of their last calls in the wild. This project has been widely exhibited, most recently in Lianzhou, China, winning a 2020 Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship Award, and a 2019 finalist award, as well as semi-finalist awards in both the 2019 and 2020 International Awards of The Print Center, Philadelphia, PA. The bird call patterns are also translated into “Haute Couture” garments by Dovima Paris where profits directly benefit the birds.

Terrill Knaack
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Art for me is a process of organizing materials and elements to awaken the senses and emotions in a way that inspires contemplation, healing and wholeness.  Much as a poet arranges word symbols and sound to suggest a meaning, forms in space and relationships of color similarly reach beyond that of simply revealing an impression of the subject itself.
The essential inquiry that inspired my career was to try to find a way through visual art to suggest the source of an ecological conscience. It is by showing the viewer the forms, colors, and relationships in the landscape, as well as the wildlife and flora that inhabit it, that I hope to awaken and strengthen this awareness. My paintings are not meant to be just a description but rather a suggestion of reality; the spirit within nature. While the intellect is important in the creation and understanding of art, it is in what the viewer senses and feels where in the meaning of the piece is found.
My paintings are evidence of what has been significant to me.  They are bookmarks as to the places I’ve been and the feelings I had when I was there. Landscape, nature and the community of birds and animals that surround us are part of what we all are.  They are what inspire my work, and I hope to connect people to them. My hope is that the viewer may be able to engage in a wordless dialogue with them. If the viewer finds them beautiful, I hope they will inspire a sense of responsibility to the life around us to which we are intrinsically connected

Katherine Steichen Rosing
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​Katherine Steichen Rosing’s two- and three-dimensional works explore environmental themes relating to forest ecosystems and their watersheds in urban and wild areas. Her work including painting, drawing, and installation has been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States and abroad, including Germany, Japan, and China and is included in numerous private and corporate collections internationally.
 
Rosing was recently awarded a Madison Arts Commission Individual Fellowship and a Dane Arts Short Order Project Grant. Rosing taught studio art courses in colleges and universities in the Chicago area and in Madison, Wisconsin. She earned an MFA from Northern Illinois University and a BFA from the University of Colorado-Denver.
 
A lifetime spent hiking, camping, fishing, and kayaking in northern Wisconsin and Canada instilled a passion for nature that inspires her contemplative contemporary abstract landscape drawings, paintings, and installations that explore, celebrate and venerate trees and forests in urban and wild areas.
 

Rachel Davis​
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Picture
​Trout Lake Station, October 2021
Rachel Davis
 
I spent the bulk of my first visit to Trout Lake Station scouting as much of the area that I could and photographing the plants, fungi and insects. I returned to my room to distill the shapes of plants, the light reflected off the water, mosses seen through a magnifying lens, and lichens into watercolor patterns on cold press paper. I am interested in creating compositions by rearranging shapes from the landscape with colors found in nature. It is this rearrangement that engages me as an artist.
Rachel Davis received her B.A. from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh in 1992 and her M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1997.
Rachel’s paintings have been exhibited in national venues including the Holter Museum of Fine Art, Helena, Montana; Evergreen Galleries, Olympia, Washington; and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters in Madison, Wisconsin.
Rachel was an Artist-in-Residence at DuPage Children’s Museum in the spring of 2019. Currently, she divides her time between her home studio in Downers Grove, IL and Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago.
Andrew Hipp
Andrew Hipp, Ph.D., is the Senior Scientist in Plant Systematics and Herbarium Director at The Morton Arboretum and a Lecturer at University of Chicago. His research integrates the tools of genomics, phylogenetics, comparative biology, and community ecology to understand the shape and timing of the plant Tree of Life and how its species have arisen and shaped our world. He was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 2014 for his work on the evolution of oak diversity and a 2018 Distinguished Informal Science Education Award by the National Science Teachers Association. Andrew is the author of Field Guide to Wisconsin Sedges, illustrated by Rachel Davis (University of Wisconsin Press, 2008), and sixteen children’s books on a variety of natural history topics (Powerkids Press, 2002-2004), as well as more than 100 academic articles and book chapters. Andrew’s creative work appears in Arnoldia, International Oaks: The Journal of the International Oak Society, Places Journal, Scientific American, and his natural history blog,
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2019 Artist in Residence - ​Debbie Jircik, Mary Burns, Jim Arnold, and Diane Bywaters

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Jim Arnold

One focus of my photography is to show that above and below the surface of the lakes we love there is more than just water, weeds and a few fish.  There is a complex world of beauty, things we don’t take time to notice.  I hope to explore, with passion and inquisitiveness, and write and photograph these amazing moments of light, shadow and form.  As a resident of Arbor Vitae, it will be easier for me to observe staff and scientists at Trout Lake station throughout the year, photographing what they see and do, to show the beauty and art of things we take for granted.

Diane Bywaters
My career has been devoted to capturing the landscape, experiencing the land through the visual, and being on location to paint.  I know from past experience the additional information from scientists brings a richer understanding to my work as a painter and also to viewers.  I also know that past career highlights have been through collaboration, especially when collaborating with a scientist/environmental educator. I look forward to bringing my visual art experience, and collaborating with scientists for a powerful visual that may effect others, and support efforts of conservation and responsibility for our precious resources in Wisconsin.
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Debbie Jircik

My work and process as a hand papermaker and a natural dyer connects me with the natural world.  I have found that experimentation and research are an important part of what I do, in similar ways to scientists, and though I come to science through the lens of art, learning the science helps me to understand the process and helps me become more skilled as an artist.   I hope to collaborate with fellow artist, Mary Burns, and that working with water and in the ecosystem of Trout Lake that we will be able to share discoveries we might make with artists and scientists.  ​

2018-2019 Artist in Residence - Mary Burns
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Mary Burns

Mary Burns expresses her love of northern woodlands and waters in her weavings and writings. An award-winning weaver, her work resides in private homes across the United States.  Mary creates tapestries and felted work that reflect the hues and patterns of the natural world. Mary gathers inspiration from many places and cultures, including the natural world, ancient rock art, the designs of Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Arts & Crafts Movement. She teaches tapestry and other forms of weaving as well as felting. Her Ancestral Women Exhibit is currently on tour around the United States. Her work has been displayed in numerous exhibits and shows, including several art and science collaborations, and has received many awards including the Best of Show in Wausau’s Festival of Arts in 2012 and in 2008. Mary is also a writer. Her first novel Heartwood (2003) is a fantasy/natural history novel for young adults. She is a contributor to A Place to Which We Belong: Wisconsin Writers on Wisconsin Landscapes (1998). Mary and her family have lived in her grandparents’ home in northern Wisconsin since 1984. Mary’s love of weaving started in high school art class and has only continued to grow over time. ​
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​2017 Artists in Residence - Rebecca Jabs and Eddee Daniel
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Rebecca Jabs

Rebecca Jabs is a freelance science illustrator from Manitowoc, WI. Jabs worked as an art teacher in the Wisconsin Public School system for eight years before she earned her graduate certificate in science illustration from California State University at Monetary in 2016, Jabs remains an educator in her rich, narrative artwork, which she hopes inspires her audiences to examine the natural world and practice environmental stewardship. Zooplankton of the Great Lakes, one of the deices Jabs completed during her residency, was selected by the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators in 2018 for their 50th anniversary exhibition in Washington, D.C.  Crystal Bog, another piece from Jabs's residency, will be featured in her upcoming solo exhibit in September and October at the Steinhauer Trust Gallery at the UW Arboretum Visitor Center in Madison.

Eddee Daniel

Eddee Daniel is a Milwaukee-based photographer and writer specializing in urban ecologies and cultural landscapes. His practice examines how we perceive and construct understandings of nature in the contexts of culture and the built environment. Eddee's first book, Urban Wilderness: Exploring a Metropolitan Watershed, was published by the Center for American Places at Columbia College Chicago and received the Conservation Fund’s Kodak American Greenways Award. He writes a column, also called Urban Wilderness, for Milwaukee Magazine. Eddee has also had work published in Family: a Celebration of Humanity, Popular Photography, The Photo Review, Phototechniques, Art in Wisconsin, Yes, Magazine, Orion Magazine, and the Center for Humans & Nature, among others. With degrees from University of Wisconsin—Madison and University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, Eddee brings to his current full time practice over 30 years of experience as an environmental advocate as well as teaching art, photography and architecture.

2016 Artists in Residence - Amy Arnatson, Kim Gordon, and Ted Rulseh

Amy Arntson

Amy Arntson is an emeritus Professor of Art from the University of Wisconsin system where she taught for over 20 years. She has a BFA from Michigan State University in painting and an MFA in design from UW-Milwaukee. She grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan and has focused on paintings of water since 2000. She participated in "Paradise Lost" and it's touring exhibition. With her paintings, she hopes to connect with the audience and remind individuals of how significant the environment is to all of us, not only physically, but emotionally as well.

Ted Rulseh

Ted Rulseh writes about lakes in ways both creative and scientific. His aim is to help people better understand and appreciate the lakes they live near or otherwise enjoy. He does this through short essays with careful observations that appeal to the senses, and through items that convey the wonder of lake life in ways that are easily understood, regardless whether readers have a scientific background. He has written a book called, On the Pond: Lake Michigan Reflections (published by The Guest Cottage) and writes a colum in the Lakeland Times, The Lake Where You Live. ​

Kim Gordon

Kim Gordon is a fine artist, graphic designer, illustrator and teacher.  She is particularly drawn to the bond between individuals and the landscape, and this interest in a sense of place is evident throughout her work. Kim has taught workshops in landscape painting, observational drawing for biology majors, and a wide range of children’s art classes, art classes for disabled adults and classes for specific populations. She is a member of PAN (Project Art for Nature), Outdoor Painters of Minnesota and Women’s Art Resources of Minnesota.

2015 Artists in Residence - Leslie Fedorchuk and Heather Swan

Leslie Fedorchuk

​Leslie Fedorchuk is an artist and educator who has been working in the genre of alternative processes and artists' books for the past twenty-five years. She earned a BFA from University of Michigan and an MFA at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. In addition, she completed further graduate study in theology at St. Francis Seminary.
Her written and visual work deals with issues of autobiography, memory, and place narratives. She's exhibited both nationally and internationally and has work in many private and public collections including the Milwaukee Public Library, The Tweed Museum of Art, Special Collections – UW Milwaukee, and the Museum of Modern Art.

Heather Swan

Heather Swan is a writer whose poetry has appeared in such journals as The Raleigh Review, Poet Lore, Basalt, and The Cream City Review, and whose nonfiction has appeared in Aeon, Edge Effects, ISLE, and Resilience. She currently teaches Environmental Literature and writing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She also keeps bees and loves canoeing. 

2014 Artist in Residence - Helen Klebesadel

Helen Klebesadel

Helen Klebesadel is an artist, an educator, and an activist. Born and raised in rural Wisconsin, her art has become the place where she explores how we learn our deepest values.   Best known for her environmental and women centered watercolors,  she is particularly interested in how myths and stories socialize us to have different expectations for some people than from others. She uses the creative process to re-examine and re-present narratives that resist and contest existing power structures by revealing they exist.

2013 Artist in Residence - Ann Singsaas

Ann Singsaas

Ann Singsaas received her B.A. from Concordia College with majors in Biology, Chemistry and Art. She continued on to studying painting at the University Illinois and Eastern Michigan University. With a micro-studio in Stevens Point Wisconsin, she exhibits in several states and is represented by several Wisconsin galleries. She currently teaches workshops in drawing and painting throughout the Midwest. She enjoys playing with all the elements of art. Composition, contrast, line, texture, rhythm, repetition, value, form and color contain infinite possibilities and allows her to work on several series simultaneously. Thought different in appearance, each series informs the other. Often a series will start with one of these elements.