Kohler Residency, Summer 2013

Shimon & Lindemann Poplar Structure with Rambler,
John Michael Kohler Arts Center Garden & Parking Lot, Sheboygan, Wisconsin (6.29.2013)
© J. Shimon & J. Lindemann

We gave a series of workshops and lectures during the year leading up to our exhibition, We Go From Where We Know, at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. The workshops were part of the Connecting Communities Program and helped us meet people from around the state. In Sheboygan, we built a structure out of poplar trees harvested on our farm and installed in the Kohler Arts Center garden to serve a a trellis for beans, squash, morning glories, corn, and sunflowers we planted with friends old and new.  We talked with people about postcard imagery of Wisconsin as we all altered "found" postcards of the state. At the Wisconsin Concrete Park in Phillips, Wisconsin we all made small figural sculptures inspired by Fred Smith's glittery creations using Sculpey clay. Visitors to the ARTery continued this work by crafting gem encrusted tear drops and concrete corn cobs that became part of our "Wisconsin Reliquary" and "Nash Corn Crib" installations.

Timber Inn Motel Room, Highway 13, Phillips, Wisconsin (7.10.2013)
© J. Shimon & J. Lindemann

Wisconsin Concrete Park, Phillips, WI

Double Wedding (Drinking a Rhinelander Shorty), Wisconsin Concrete Park, Phillips, Wisconsin (7.11.2013)
© J. Shimon & J. Lindeman

Pointing to the Horse, Wisconsin Concrete Park, Phillips, Wisconsin (7.11.2013)
© J. Shimon & J. Lindeman

Budweiser Clydesdales Team (Fred Smith's last work), Wisconsin Concrete Park, Phillips, Wisconsin (7.11.2013)
© J. Shimon & J. Lindeman

Farming with Horses, Wisconsin Concrete Park, Phillips, Wisconsin, rephotographed (7.11.2013)
© J. Shimon & J. Lindeman

Found: Fred Smith's Concrete Museum (Farming with Horses), Phillips, Wis., circa 1950s

Kerosene Wagon and Paul Bunyan, Wisconsin Concrete Park  (without portrait of Fred Smith),
Phillips, Wisconsin, rephotographed (7.11.2013)
© J. Shimon & J. Lindeman

Found: Fred Smith's Concrete Museum (with portrait of Fred Smith), Phillips, Wis., circa 1950s

Brown glass Purex bleach bottle bottoms, red DeSoto tail lights, Rhinelander shorty bottles plus an array of multi-colored glass shards applied to concrete portrait-figures half-century ago still make Fred Smith's sculptures glimmer in the setting sun. The Wisconsin elements chip away at the statues as the Wisconsin Concrete Park staff collect fallen glass fragments then label them in anticipation of future restoration efforts. When we visited WCP on July 11, 2013 to give a replicas workshop as part of our JM Kohler Arts Center residency, the grounds were dense with sculptures and trees compared with the old real photo post cards from the 1950s in our collection (see our "rephotographs" above). The ambition of Smith's project remains remarkable. Lisa Stone and Jim Zanzi's 1991 book The Art of Fred Smith describes a man driven by a vision and inspired by "his sense of local or national history." Smith's ongoing project was not ignored by travelers in his time. A Chicago Tribune Magazine article referred to Smith as a "North Woods Picasso" in 1964. According to Stone and Zanzi, Life Magazine called him the "Grandpa Moses of Cement" in 1969. To this day some of WCP's closest neighbors have never taken a stroll through Smith's wonderland. Writes Leslie Umberger in Sublime Spaces & Visionary Worlds (Princeton Architectural Press, 2007), "While some folks in the area were interested in his art project, others believed he was crazy and that his work was just clutter in the landscape. Nevertheless, Smith remained deeply committed to his art and always believed that it was important for people to see it" (178). His project retained the attention of creatives whose combined fascination and efforts have served to preserve WCP. Included on the Kohler Foundation and Kohler Arts Center's Wandering Wisconsin Road Trip Itineray, WCP and other Wisconsin art environments remain mystic places of pilgrimage.

Found: Fred Smith Concrete Museum, Phillips, WI

Found: Fred Smith's Concrete Museum, Phillips, Wis.
(portrait of Fred Smith with Kerosene Wagon and Paul Bunyan statues),
published by L. L. Cook Co., Milwaukee, WI,  circa 1950s.

Found: Fred Smith's Concrete Museum, Phillips, Wis. (farming with horses statues),
published by L. L. Cook Co., Milwaukee, WI,  circa 1950s.

Curator Lisa Stone and Jim Zanzi's 1991 book, The Art of Fred Smith, quotes Fred Smith (1886-1976), a self-taught artist, fiddle player, Christmas Tree/Ginseng farmer, and Rock Garden Tavern owner, as saying:"It's gotta be in ya to do it." That says it all and is something we try to convey to students when we teach. Smith worked on his Concrete Museum (see above real photo postcards) from 1948 until 1964 when a stroke hit him just after finishing his Budweiser Clydesdale tableau. Smith landed in a rest home and lived another decade. Stone and Zanzi presented Fred Smith's Wisconsin Concrete Park rationale in the below passage. The WCP remains an attraction in Phillips with active programs and efforts to preserve Smith's creation.

"An outdoor museum comprised of over 200 embellished concrete sculptures built by Fred Smith (1886-1976), a self-taught artists and retired lumberjack. Within this installation of monuments Smith created a cohesive panorama of history, legend, and his immense imagination. Conceived and created in his senior years, Smith built the Wisconsin Concrete Park as a gift "...for all the American people everywhere. They need something like this." (p. iii)

Found: Indian Burial Grounds, Phillips, WI

Found: Squaw Island - Indian Burial Grounds, Phillips, Wisconsin. Here from this roadside park in the City of
Phillips, Wisconsin, one can see Squaw Island on Lake Duroy, which is of historical interest. For many years
before Phillips was settled, and for many years after, it was an Indian burial ground
published by G. R. Brown Post Card Co., Eau Claire, circa 1960s.

Found: Indian Mounds at Rice Lake, Wisconsin. The use of mounds was a method of burial of the Indian dead dating
back to pre-Columbian days. Rice Lake at it is known now, was a site of Indian villages attracted, no doubt, by the
wild rice which grew in abundance in he area. Photo and published by G. R. Brown, Eau Claire, Wisconsin circa 1960s.

Found; Indian Graveyard on Madeline Island, La Pointe, Wisconsin.
 One of many interesting landmarks on Meadeline Island,
is the old Indian graveyard, where the burial sites are covered and protected
by roofed shelters, and surrounded by tiny, weathered picket fences.
A bronze tablet marks the site of Treaty Hall, where the
peace pact between the Ojibways and the United States was finally signed
published by Curteich Color, 3-D Natural Color circa 1950s.

Found: Fred Smiths Concrete Museum, Phillips, WI

Found: Fred Smiths Concrete Museum, Phillips, Wis. by L.L. Cook Co., Milwaukee circa 1950s

Found: Business Districts, Downtowns, Main Streets, WI

Found: Bruce, Wisconsin, Main Street by Don Bingham Post Cards, circa 1970

Found: Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, Main Street by Cliff Montgomery, circa 1960

Found: Frederic, Wisconsin by G.R. Brown Co., circa 1968

Found: Green Bay, Wisconsin, Main Street looking copyright L.L. Cook Company, 1951

Found: Ladysmith, Wisconsin, County Seat of Rusk County by G R. Brown Co., cira 1975

Found: Marshfield, Wisconsin by G. R. Brown Co., circa 1970

Found: Menasha, Wisconsin by G. R. Brown Co., circa 1980

Found: Montello, Wisconsin by G. R. Brown Co., cira 1980

Found: Phillips, Wisconsin by G. R. Brown Co., circa 1975

Found: Platteville, Wisconsin by G.R. Brown Co., circa 1968

Found: Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin by G. R. Brown Co., circa 1970

Found: Rice Lake, Wisconsin by G. R. Brown Co., circa 1972

Found: Ripon, Wisconsin photo by Guy A. Wyman, Wyman Post Card Co., circa 1973

Found: Sauk City, Wisconsin by G. R. Brown Co., circa 1968

Found: Spooner, Wisconsin by G. R. Brown Co., circa 1970

Found: Tomah, Wisconsin by G. R. Brown Co., circa 1975

These downtown views don't attempt to make the scenes more dynamic with special optics or camera angles. The photographer stands on the center line of the main street and shoots. They just are.