Up north, in Canada, I own a house on a lake. I have lived in it for 8 years, spending summers, falls, winters (always long) and springs looking out over Eagle Lake. It is a stunning view of the boreal forest, rising up from the Canadian Shield. Spindly jack pines mingle with towering red and white pines and glacial formed rocks punctuate the shoreline. It is a stunning yet harsh and isolating landscape and it is my home.
The Tory Folliard Gallery, located in the Third Ward (233 N Milwaukee St) offers “artwork of museum quality by regional and national artists.” (www.toryfolliard.com) On Saturday they hosted Boreal Conversations, an artist reception and talk for and by Tom Uttech.
Uttech is a landscape painter who resides in Wisconsin. His paintings depict the boreal forests of Northern Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Canada. He captures the vistas of trees, rocks and lakes. For me, looking at his paintings is like looking out my living room window. Adding to the magnitude and scope of this northern landscape, Uttech’s paintings range in size from the huge to the tiny and are named using wonderful Ojibwe (the native peoples of this area) words like Enassamishhinjijweian truly evoking my memories of summers spent swimming, fishing and camping in these woods.
The wildlife depicted in these scenes are often described as ‘magical’; a lone wolf looking out at the full moon, a family of bears frolicking in a bog. However, it is this ‘magical’ quality that, for me, detracts from these paintings. In my opinion, it takes the paintings of this harsh, beautiful land and makes them ‘cute’. They become greeting card worthy rather than wall worthy. This strange softening creates a storybook quality to Uttech’s work.
Another wonderful Saturday in Milwaukee: a glass of wine, some cheese and crackers and an opportunity to think about and talk about art. Life doesn’t get much better than that!
