After a wonderful weekend up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin with my friend
Amy Higgason, it was bittersweet to pack it up and head home. The Fall colors were
incredible. The art tour was a lot of fun. Playing with Amy was great. And I hope
that I helped make her weekend a bit more fun, enjoyable & successful!!!

After four days of the beautiful Northwoods…
it was fitting that the drive home would be equally as beautiful.

Just some more pretty pictures.
The Fall colors were so incredible while I was up in the Northwoods…
I took HUNDREDS of photos!!! Everywhere you looked, it was gorgeous…
and I had to take more & more photos at every turn. Here’s just a few more!

Amy and I continued our tour Monday afternoon. After our morning hiking
The Raven Trail, we stopped off at a small art gallery in Three Rivers, then met up
with one of Amy’s local artist friends at her home & studio “encampment.” She’s
one of the “Art Gypsies” – a small group of artists that Amy “plays with”
and does art shows around the area. Like a traveling band of gypsies – setting up
and selling art anywhere they can!

Debra Ketchum Jircik is a papercraft & ceramic artist. She’s an artist
through & through and you can sense it in her right away! Her home & studio
are located on an old camp area with several cabins on the lakefront. Each cabin
has been “converted” into their home, studio, workshop, guest cabins and more.
With incredible gardens and sculptural installations, I  loved our visit to her studio.
Check her out at “Circle Of Life Studio.”

Debbie not only makes great art, and lives a very “green” existence… she also loves RUST!!!
Which you know is one of my favorites too. So you know I loved it when I saw that she has
rust “installations” everywhere! Part of the fences, used as trellises, collections on walls
and everywhere else!!! As she put it… “rust never sleeps.” She’s built her own “rust chakra”…
and an incredible river rock labyrinth to walk through to meditate & contemplate.

We also met up with Wendy Powalisz who is a wonderful watercolor artist. Her colors,
techniques & style are not your typical watercolor paintings. Very striking. Very energetic.
In fact… this is the one that come home with me…

Another cool part of Wendy’s life is her “little cabin in the woods.” Literally.
She and her husband built their very own cabin on their 200-acre parcel of land.
They felled their own trees, made their own rock foundation, pump water every day,
use solar power for very basic electricity, wood fire for cooking & heat, no TV,
no computer… off the grid!

Another one of Amy’s friends, although she’s not an “official Gypsy” yet…
is Kathy Furda and her studio called Northern Light Glass. She does incredible
stained glass pieces that incorporate many different pieces, items and glass styles.
She also does glass bead jewelry with her own handmade glass beads & baubles.

Also, as previously mentioned, Katlyn Koester was Amy’s guest artist during the Art Tour.
Amy has been her “mentor” over the past few years – as she has now graduated from college
with her BFA in Ceramics. So Katlyn was “lucky” to have Amy and I “working with her”
all weekend to help inspire her, prod her, and motivate her to push herself as a ceramic artist.
Katlyn does not have a website… but hopefully she will soon!

At the end of the day, we met up with my student Pam and husband Pat for lunch.
Which of course for me had to start with a Wisconsin specialty… deep fried cheese curds!
Pay no attention to the dripping, greasy residue in the bottom of the basket!!!

After the Northwoods Art Tour had come to an end, May and I had Monday
to hang out and play. We started the morning again with an early morning hike
along The Raven Trail. It’s a beautiful trail, quite different from the McNaughton
Trail – a little curvier, a little hillier – and some art installations to boot!

Apparently, a couple years ago, there was an art installation project in the woods.
Many of them have been removed – but there were a couple still there to enjoy!
Most notable, an incredible “basket” built around a tree which was my favorite!!!

Further down the trail, there was an incredible, moss-covered bog…
and I do love me some moss!!! The color, the texture, the everything! Love it.

Not to be outdone by the frosty-frozen boardwalk area… just like a Christmas card!
Straight out of a Currier & Ives catalog… an early Fall morning with a frosty finish.

Further down the path, Amy and came upon another beautiful lake that still had some
morning mist floating above the water. In beautiful contrast to the colorful leaves!

Towards the end of the hike, we ran across these incredible white fungi growing off
and decomposing log. Almost flower-like, these mushrooms were beautiful & intriguing.

And

So while all the photos make it look like all I did was play in the woods…
keep in mind that Amy’s pottery sale was three days – Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Friday was good… Saturday was spectacular… and Sunday was slower.
So we like to focus on Saturday!!!

It was Amy’s biggest one day sale EVER!!! She did incredible. So much fun!!!
Lots of great people stopping by to admire her work, start their “Amy Collection”
and hang out around the campfire getting to know everyone. Saturday was a lot of fun
for everyone. We were all exhausted by the end of the day… but oddly exhilarated
that her inventory was so depleted!!!

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more beautiful…

As Sunday was the slowest day of the Northwoods Art Tour…
and the weather was SPECTACULAR – I had a chance to take my bike out
for a ride in the afternoon. So I pedaled around some of the roads that Amy had
showed me earlier. Plus, I had a mission… as a “cordial gesture,” it was my “job”
to take over two freshly-made s’mores to the local potters just a couple miles
from Amy’s place. So I pedaled over, gave them their still-warm s’mores –
and got to see some of their pottery at the same time! And I loved his motto…

After my “special delivery,” I head out to enjoy the rolling hills, the beautiful
Fall colors and just the crisp, clean air. It was wonderful to be outside playing!

Whoo Hoo… what a ride!!!