Conley Publishing - Special Sections
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/121304
Congratulations on a true community jewel! From the staff, residents, volunteers and families at Cedar Community! We're proud to sponsor the Museum of Wisconsin Art's monthly Senior Coffee Talks starting Tuesday, May 14 at 10:30 a.m.! Join us at the museum to enjoy a performance, gallery discussion or program, refreshments and camaraderie! cedarcommunity.org Star Properties, Inc is grateful for the Museum of Wisconsin Art's commitment to improving the quality of life in the greater Washington County Area CONGRATULATIONS on your Grand Opening! Star Properties, Inc W227N16855 Tillie Lake Ct - Jackson 262-674-1400 www.starproperties.com 18 • Museum of Wisconsin Art • News Graphic & Daily News • March 2013 Meet MOWA exhibitor Michael Meilahn By Jill Badzinski For the Daily News Michael Meilahn used to think his careers as an artist and a farmer were independent. Now he realizes they are intrinsically intertwined. Meilahn lives in Pickett, where he grows grain on his family's farm in summer and blows glass in winter. "I farm half the year to support my art habit," he said. It can be challenging to pick up in the studio where he left off months ago, but it's also exciting, Meilhahn said. "I can't wait to get back to it," he said. "It's never boring." Meilahn began working with glass as a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls in 1965. He spent his first year at college studying agriculture before realizing that the business aspects of farming bored him. Blowing glass had an opposite effect. "Working with a hot material is extremely seductive," he said. "We can do a lot of things with glass that we can't do with other media. We can make furniture, buildings, decorative pieces — glass is everywhere." After trying a variety of areas of glass work, Meilahn has settled into conceptual work, often dealing with corn and other agricultural themes. His installation in the Museum of Wisconsin Art's "Antifragile: Contemporary Glass" exhibition will feature six pieces of glass shaped liked cobs of corn. Each measures about 4 feet in length and will have seven bronze leaves stacked on top of them. The pieces will hang from bungee cords, allowing patrons to interact with the pieces. The piece is inspired by the advent of genetically engineered seeds and a vast change in agronomy, Meilahn said. "By altering genes, we can alter how the plants look," he said. "Plants 50 years from now won't look Submitted Pictured is the work of Michael Meilahn. how they look now. "We can do just about anything down the road with genetics," he said. "I think it's very exciting. It has its downsides and can be controversial, but as a farmer I am addressing it from a positive side. We will be able to increase our output. We will be able to produce enough food to feed everybody." Meilahn said it's also exciting to use glass and art to advance discussions of agricultural issues. "Art is about starting conversations," he said. "We don't need to agree on whether we like the pieces or the themes behind them, but we can talk about them." Meilahn said he spent many years trying to separate his art from his life on the farm, but once he started making pieces based on corn and agriculture, he understood how similar they were. "With both, I plant it and I don't know what I will get out of it, what people will be willing to pay for it or if they will want it at all,"he said."There are similar risks and similar rewards. "Plus I have more to say about farming through art than anything else I've worked on," he said. ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ Meet MOWA exhibitors Douglas & Renee Sigwarth By Melanie Boyung For the Daily News Douglas and Renee Sigwarth met 20 years ago while studying art at Anoka Ramsey Community College in Cambridge, Minn. At the time Renee had already found her interest in glass, and Douglas was studying theatre to be an actor. Meeting Renee brought him to creating glass art. "It was amazing to watch her come alive with this passion for glass," Douglas said. "I would watch her work and I got interested in doing it too." After Douglas began taking art classes, the pair began working together. As two young artists involved with each other they collaborated often, but their teachers encouraged them to start designing their work individually, so that each could develop their own aesthetic. While they did work independently and did find their own artistic identities, they also remained a pair. They completed the art education together in River Falls and were married in 1996. It was while traveling in Europe for their honeymoon that the Sigwarths were recognized by name and told of the Sigwarth Glass factory in Switzerland. When they looked into the shared name and connection to glass, they discovered that Douglas was descended from the Sigwarth family who had blown glass for hundreds of years across Europe, much as they had found themselves doing in Wisconsin. Douglas Sigwarth marked the discovery as instrumental in his becoming a professional glass artist. "When Renee started blowing glass, she knew this was what her life was going to be," he said. "I had such a strong draw to her, and this new, exciting medium. I thought, 'This (discovering his family's heritage in glass) is a sign, this is what I'm meant to do.'" Over the next several years the Sigwarths built and began their studio in River Falls, Sigwarth Glass, which opened in 2001. The studio is where Renee and Douglas Sigwarth became complete partners in their artistic work, where they have created pieces as a team for 13 years. In the first stages of a piece, Douglas does the initial layering of whatever different glasses, colors, and foils are being used. In the second stage, Renee leads in blowing the glass, giving it shape to become the final piece.