When I was little I remember driving from Whitby to York one winter day. Just after leaving Whitby, out on the Yorkshire Moors, I looked back towards the North Sea. I caught sight of a house. It was windswept and lonely. I thought, “you would have to be an artist to live there.”
Inspired by the land and the sea, you would have to be completely fulfilled by your art to be able to live in such an isolated place. This morning, peeking through the chain linked fence that surrounds Mary Nohl’s house, I remembered that lonely house in England.
“Balzac says accomplished artists have no friends- either man or woman-so that just about proves I’m accomplished.” (Manger and Smith, p.105)
These are Mary’s own words, taken from the book, Mary Nohl Inside & Outside, Biography of the Artist. Her words, just as her little cottage on the shores of Lake Michigan spoke to me about that same isolation.
I was introduced to Mary Nohl by my friend Janine Smith. Janine, a designer, along with her friend Barbara Manger, a writer, created the book, Mary Nohl Inside & Outside Biography of the Artist. Janine gave me this book as a gift of friendship. The book is both beautiful and intriguing.
Mary Nohl lived in the exclusive Milwaukee suburb of Fox Point. Fox Point hugs the shore of Lake Michigan and is filled with grand homes. Here, image is important, perhaps almost as important as maintaining the value of the real estate.
It is in this neighborhood that Mary filled her yard with huge, whimsical, crude, magical people, animals and structures. She was a sculptor and her medium was cement and stone. These eclectic sculptures surround her home. In her little house, surrounded by her fantastical creations she became known as ‘The Witch of Fox Point.’ Never marrying and being an only child, Mary lived out her days, alone, in this little house.
The house, even without the sculptures, is an artist’s house. It is windswept and lonely but the red trimmed windows radiate creativity and the green gable ends inspire. This morning, as I looked through the fence at this magical place, I can’t help but hope that Mary Nohl was completely fulfilled by her art.
