A nonprofit art organization promoting art, artists, and land conservation.

I was born in Tacoma, Washington and raised in central Illinois with fourteen moves throughout the US since. Before my last move, I owned a small business hosting art workshops and lessons and sat on the city arts commission for Gladstone, Missouri. I have participated in juried shows, fairs, popups and been a member of several arts groups in the various places I have lived. I am currently living in Franklin, Wisconsin and am a member of Wisconsin Visual Artists and Milwaukee Artist Resource Network (MARN).

Sarah Eichhorn is a fiber artist and sustainable living advocate based in Milwaukee, WI.  She received her BFA in Fashion Design from the International Academy of Design and Technology in Chicago in 2004, and her MFA in Costume Design from Florida State University in 2008.  She currently manages the Textiles Lab and teaches fiber-based courses at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. She regularly leads workshops on natural dye and eco-printing techniques, as well as facilitates lectures on sustainable fashion. Sarah was awarded the 2021-2022 ARTservancy artist-in-residence for the Milwaukee Beerline Trail.  Aside from her formal fashion and costume background she is also an avid urban gardener and homesteader.  She is a mother to two kids, who influence her work daily.

As an art educator, I have extensive experience designing and implementing art curriculums using a wide spectrum of art materials, along with a vast array of different experiential exercises and projects, all of which are designed to develop a sense of competency and accomplishment for students across all levels of ability and aptitude. Informed by my own practice as a visual artist, my approach to teaching art is to give mechanical instruction, to guide students to explore multiple perspectives and simultaneously learn to observe holistically. Ultimately, the goal is for them to discover their own unique authentic self-expression. Developing in this way helps art students to strengthen their self-confidence and it encourages them to carry these life skills into all academic and life endeavors. I grew up around art and creative people; hold advanced degrees in fine art and art education; and have a lifelong practice of integrating artistic expression, attention to detail, and problem-solving into all aspects of my professional and personal life.

I am a qualified and passionate artist with experience in design, illustration, and fine art. I'm currently working as a digital content coordinator for an animal shelter and have experience in many different areas of the art world. From painting murals to sketching on my iPad, I'm happiest when I'm creating something.

My work explores the bodies that society has rejected. In featuring fat and queer bodies, I strive for my art to give people a mirror in which to see themselves as beautiful. I utilize expressive strokes and a bold, engaging color palette to convey a message of self-acceptance and body positivity.

I also aim to draw a parallel between our rigid beauty standards and the way we are destroying the nature around us. In continuously trying to monetize both our bodies and the environment, our society is damaging everything it touches. For this reason I also frequently feature local nature alongside marginalized bodies. I hope to remind my viewers to appreciate people, animals, and plants in their natural states.

I am currently planning an ongoing passion project that would involve interviewing people living in a marginalized body about their experiences, painting a portrait of them, and creating a body of work that features people that don't normally have a platform in which to speak about themselves. My goal with this project would be to eventually take it national and compare individual experiences in different areas of the United States.

I grew up in central Wisconsin near a tiny town called Stratford on a large dairy farm. My first job involved lifting hay bales bigger than me (ok, so I pushed and rolled them) and scooping manure. The calves didn't seem to appreciate the latter part. 

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After a whirlwind of adventure living in places like Missoula (MT), Glendale (CA) and Waterloo (IA), and a tiny moment in Firenze (IT), I ended up back in my beloved home state of Wisconsin. Currently, I frolic in the countryside, waking up to a drunk rooster and listening to the cows come home.

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In 2006, I acquired a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Communication Design at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD). Sparked by an internship that blossomed into a chocolate company startup, I gained invaluable insight and roll-up-the-sleeves experience. Trials and tribulations, along with a weak economy, unfortunately lead to the demise of the chocolate company. Life lessons gained. Opportunity awaited. From there, I built a successful career as a Graphic Designer and Art Director within the food & beverage industry. My production skills and client-relationship-building gained traction at a small ad agency with internationally known clients, such as the JM Smucker Company and Tyson Foods. On-the-job experience gifted me with a more intuitive, strategic approach to building brand stories that resonated with targeted audiences. Side work for the Fine Chocolate Industry Association–a nonprofit chocolate organization–provided an extra fix for moments of sweetness. 

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After much hard work, in 2020, I earned my Master of Science degree in Information Design and Strategy, a visionary online program gaining traction at Northwestern University (IL). I currently freelance full-time and volunteer with the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust (OWLT).

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In 2021, I was awarded the opportunity to participate as an artist in residence for the ARTservancy program operated by Gallery 224 in Port Washington, Wisconsin. This yearlong residency focuses on the creative process and work of each artist (twelve total) assigned to a specific nature preserve. My residency focuses on the Biehl Nature Preserve at Lake Twelve and the potential preserve Cedar Gorge Clay Bluffs. Final pieces will be on display at Gallery 224 in 2023.

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My love and respect for nature has blossomed in the past couple of years. This has culimnated in a desire to record and document everything I observe. For the duration of 2022, I am volunteering and monitoring a trail camera for Snapshot Wisconsin, a citizen science program in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. 

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As the creative mind ever churns, I am always enthusiastic for more opportunities to learn from my peers and incite a little hope in everyone I meet. Education and accessibility for everyone is truly the key to a more promising future for us all.

I want to spend time in a landscape and I want to build a relationship with its plant and animal inhabitants over time through observation, research, and art. This is a process that I have been implementing in my work by heading to the woods, observing and connecting with the environment, and researching the stories of the living creatures I encounter. I would love the opportunity to spend a year with a Land Trust Preserve and get to know its unique habitat. I love and care for Wisconsin’s landscape and feel that it is part of me, a part of my landscape. My work centers the relationship between human and environment through the invention of autobiographical fantasies that highlight the magic of the natural world.

I am an oil painter and art teacher. I trace my love of art to the time when I painted with my grandfather who lived on the Milwaukee River. My grandfather painted landscapes, and when I was in grade school, we painted together. He was my first art teacher and my inspiration.

I grew up in Glendale, went to Dominican High School in Whitefish Bay, and then attended Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD), graduating with a degree in fine arts. For six years I worked as a medical illustrator and photographer at Children’s Hospital. Then I decided to pursue a career in art therapy. I graduated from Mt. Mary with a masters degree in art therapy. After working in the field briefly, I went back to school again at Carroll University to gain the courses needed to be an art teacher.

I taught briefly at my alma mater, Dominican High School before settling in at Cedarburg High School, which is where I have been for the last twenty-three years. I love teaching, and every day is different. Teaching art also makes me a better artist. I see how my students problem-solve on their projects and it has an impact on my own paintings.

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Most of my paintings stay in Cedarburg on exhibit at the Pink Llama Gallery, go to a gallery in northern Wisconsin called Moondeer & Friends in Boulder Junction, or to Fine Line Gallery & Sculpture Garden in Ephraim, Door County.

Julia Scheckel is a printmaker and illustrator based in Milwaukee, WI. She obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Studio Art with a concentration in Print and Narrative Forms from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2020. 

Her work can be found in the UWM Union Archives, UWM Special Collections, MATC Downtown Campus, and various issues of the Hand Magazine. 

Most recently, Scheckel participated in a two-person show, Dis/Connection, at Milwaukee’s Grove Gallery. Other recent exhibitions include a group show, AP3 at MARN: Materiality and Transformation, at Milwaukee Artist Resource Network’s Arts and Culture Hub, and the 2021 MAPC Members’ Juried Exhibition in Iowa City.

I live and work in the Bay View neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I have been sculpting since 1985. My work, carved and finished by hand from cast blocks of cementitious materials, features clearly defined, abstract forms with highly refined, marble-like surfaces.

I have shown and sold my work in many venues including the highly competitive Lakefront Festival of Arts, the Cudahy Gallery of Art at the Milwaukee Art Museum, The Underwood Gallery, Gallery H2O, Gallery 218, Carroll University, UW Waukesha, Boerner Botanical Gardens, and numerous juried art fairs and group exhibitions. My sculpture is in the collections of Johnson Controls, Sax Arts and Crafts, Stark Investments, Carroll University and over 100 private individuals around the country.                                                                                                 

At the end of 2010, after a 15-year career as Director of Exhibits, I retired from the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum in Milwaukee. Prior to that, I was the K-12 art coordinator and an art teacher for the South Milwaukee Public Schools.

Chuck Stebelton is a poet and printer, author most recently of An Apostle Island (Oxeye Press, 2021). His previous poetry collections include The Platformist (Cultural Society, 2012) and Circulation Flowers (Tougher Disguises, 2005). He served as Literary Program Director at Woodland Pattern Book Center from 2005 to 2017. As a Wisconsin Master Naturalist volunteer he has offered writing workshops and interpretive hikes for conservancy groups and non-profit organizations including Milwaukee Public Library, Woodland Pattern Book Center, Friends of Lorine Niedecker, and the Lynden Sculpture Garden. He has held residencies at Lynden Sculpture Garden in 2011, 2014, and from 2018 to 2021 ongoing.

Jeff Zimpel is an interdisciplinary mark-maker, painter, and photographer, who develops site-specific installation experiences, inviting creative participation from those who encounter the art. Jeff received his BFA in Graphic Design from Cardinal Stritch University (‘09) and his MFA in Art & Social Engagement from UW-Milwaukee (‘21). He taught art and design at the secondary and collegiate levels and is currently working with Arts@Large as an Instructional Designer. In his studio practice he is focused on curating acts of becoming, on the deep exploration of the world of mark-making, and on encouraging an ecological approach to living and making.