The Krampus of Yonder arrived at Green Bay’s Christkindlmarkt on December 1st at 5:30 p.m. for the delight of the festive gazers who all wanted their photo with him.

I was asked by Downtown Green Bay to design a project for their first annual Art Fest, a festival centered around art and culture to enliven the downtown. They knew they wanted it to be collaborative with our community and it was suggested to have it be clay. Yonder has designed several paint by number murals, but nothing with clay, so this would be a good opportunity to expand into other mediums for collaborative projects.

After some thinking of a subject, the Fox River, the main river dividing Green Bay into two halves and from which the city depends so much upon, would be a good starting point. The location chosen for the final installation was 238 E Walnut on a retaining wall by a parking garage, which was wide providing an ideal way to present the river horizontally. I sketch in some flora and fauna as something that provided our area’s initial resources for development, before and after European colonization.

The team, including Jenny VandenLangenberg, Jen Metcalf, Laura Schley, Keith Carter, Carrie Dorski among others met to discuss the design and the process to bring it together. Keith Carter brought the clay expertise and we discussed how the collaborative piece on the two days of the event would work on for two days, July 29th and 30st. Participant artists would scribe imagery into the clay tablets or add low relief clay onto the tablet to make additive texture on the first day. On the second day they would color with glaze.

After many months drying in Keith’s studio, he and his wife Sarah Carter worked to create the panels and get them ready to install on the wall. It was installed November 11th and dedicated November 21st.

The dedication was attended by the aforementioned team as well as representatives of one donor Capital Credit Union, including Kendra Leppard, Anders Goderstad and Steve Zich; and Wisconsin Arts Board Chair, Brian Kelsey.

I talked at the dedication and gave the designer’s point-of-view. I only came up with the initial sketch to help get a vision and the project started, but so many people helped to get this underway and finished. The community submitted title ideas and “Spirit of the Fox” was chosen and that made me happy. It came full circle of my impetus for the project where the community would add their own mark on our own version of genus loci in celebration of art and our powerful river.

We look forward to many more collaborative projects with the Green Bay community.

Whim Parlour has an eclectic style for her in-home salon. She asked us to paint something on her garage door where her customers would appreciate her brand. This large image can be seen behind the Rahr-West Museum, adding to the many murals around Manitowoc.

Peter Rathanman, CEO of Allis Tool, was gearing up for his company’s 70th Anniversary, which included a re-branding of his company to Allis Manufacturing. Peter bought the business several years ago, and has been driving excellence every since; and to be a part of that package, he wanted a mural on the side of his building celebrating the rich manufacturing tradition West Allis has.

This was in 2020, before the pandemic. When things were uncertain during the first stages of the spreading coronavirus we decided to put this project on hold. In 2022 started again. We met with Peter to discuss a design and he knew some key images he wanted. Allis Chalmers, the powerhouse of manufacturing in the early part of last century, needed to be included Peter had vast knowledge of the history of manufacturing in West Allis. “West Allis was the machine shop for the world,” he told us. Peter wrote a nice article about the rest of the images here https://www.allismfg.com/news_and_events/mural-project-west-allis/

Peter has named this mural “Timeless Manufacturing”, an appropriate title, considering the pride Peter, this community, and all of Wisconsin has for their history and contributions. We were happy to be part of this tradition.

 

Jan and Chad, owners of The Epicenter in Sturgeon Bay, approached us to paint the large wall of their 4th Avenue building. We collaborated and designed in the dead of winter and came up with a concept that was seen in the final wall image. On June 23rd, the lower portion of the mural was painted with the help of the community. All ages and abilities joined to paint their little piece of the wall that beautifies their neighborhood.

Door County Daily News has an interview with Erin here.

We were invited to be part of the 3rd Annual Mural and Busker’s Fest by Downtown Green Bay’s Broadway district. The past 3 years have created 30 murals and this past year there were over one hundred applicants. We worked with Stage 1, the venue where the mural can be viewed, and the Broadway committee, who owns the wall of the future Public Market, to come up with a concept, which the finished version can be seen below. 

It was a great Father’s Day weekend, with live music on the stage along side us.

A group of students from The Algoma Venture Academy, a public charter school, approached Yonder to have us teach a mural class, with the final project being to paint a wall in our city. Throughout the winter, we prepared; mostly with the 8 students collaborating together to create a design. We started painting the wall in the alley just behind Yonder’s studio. Later that month, we invited the community to come paint the rest of the mural with a paint by number. 150 of our neighbors came out to help and join in the fun and kick off the summer.

Yonder put on “Shadow Play – A Night of 4 Puppet Shorts by 4 Puppeteers” on March 31, 2023. It was the culmination of the hard work during a workshop given by Don Krumpos throughout the previous 2 weeks. Puppeteers Cecily Schleicher and Jill Iverson attended the workshop and produced their paper cuts to stories of their own design. That night, Don Krumpos performed “Bone Memory”; Cecily Schleicher, “Anansi and the Box of Stories”; Jill Iverson, “Love Can Make a Man Do Great Things”; and Erin La Bonte, “Flutter”.

Students, ages 8 to 18, spent the day in our printmaking studio.  They were introduced to monotype printmaking and got the opportunity to create original, one of a kind prints by exploring different surfaces, painting and inking techniques.  These works of art were hand-rubbed or were be run through our etching press. 

Yonder printmaker Don Krumpos led this class and inspired students by sharing his work as well as techniques and the importance of process in printmaking.  

$35 per student includes all necessary materials

Due to space concerns this class is open to no more than 10 students.

ArtBeet Kewaunee is proud to present its 2nd Annual Youth Art Month (YAM) celebration throughout March 2023. Yonder hosted an exhibit as part of ArtBeet’s city-wide exhibit at many of the art galleries across Algoma.

New Printmakers spent a night “out” in our studio.  They created original, one of a kind monotype prints by exploring different surfaces, painting and inking techniques.  These works of art were hand rubbed or can be run through our etching press. They brought inspiration and left with beautiful art prints. 

$45/per participant 

We will provide beverages, water, glasses, corkscrews, bottle openers, snacks, and supplies!

Due to space concerns this class is open to no more than 10 students.

Ages 21+

Artist Workshop

Schedule: 2 classes 

Ages 12 and up

Saturday, March 18  9 am-2 pm

and

Saturday, March 25 10 am-4pm  

 

Sign up at https://shadowpuppets.bpt.me/

 

Public shadow puppet performance beginning at 5 pm March 25.

Workshop Price:  All supplies will be provided.  Yonder will order pizza on Saturday March 25th for all participants.  Please bring your own snacks, lunch and beverages.

Adults: $200

Artists under 18: $100

Class Limit: 10

Workshop Description

Puppeteer, Don Krumpos, will share shadow puppet history, storyboarding and process as well as technical craft. Students will create their own shadow puppet short animation (about 5 minutes).   Creative work is encouraged outside of class time to refine their performance.  Students will work collaboratively and perform their puppet show on March 25th at 5 pm in a public performance hosted by Yonder.  All artists, students and professional artists, ages 12 and up are welcome!

 

Due to space limitations this class is open to no more than 10 students.

 

Since this course has a lot of material put into a small amount of time, we have prepared some material for you to look at ahead of time.

Once you’ve signed up for the course, you’ll be sent additional course materials to start early, and between course dates so that we can make the most of our time together.

 

 

 

SeaGrant is 50 years old in 2022. To mark this occasion, they decided to have a mural painted by Wisconsin Artists. Sturgeon Bay was selected as the location for the mural. We worked with Jody Henseler, as a member of our team to provide scientific perspective about Lake Michigan and help infuse her passion for the water into our work.

A video by SeaGrant’s Bonnie Willison can be seen here.

 

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood as Manitowoc Sputnik Fest attendees came by to help paint the mural on First Presbyterian Church. Pastor Matt Sauer wanted a Mister Rogers-themed mural on his wall, since Mister Rogers was a Presbyterian minister and the “closest thing we have to a saint” he said. Pastor Matt has a giving and inclusive organization, so the mural was to display this idea to the traffic as they are heading down the hill into downtown Manitowoc.

The Sturgeon Bay Historical Society with their hard work in preserving the Teweles and Brandeis Grain Elevator, wanted a mural paying homage to the Sturgeon Bay’s agricultural roots. Bayside Bargains , which is across the street from the grain elevator, allowed us to paint on their wall. The historical society knew they wanted to represent the agriculture heritage of the water to the land so we went about designing a concept that included their famous steel bridge, a wooden clipper ship, that would haul the seeds to the granaries, and in the center, the seed itself as a center point, and then a transition around the wall to a pastoral land with rolling hills which Door County scenery did then, and still does abound in. This was also  a paint-by-number mural in which the community turned up to finish painting the lower half.

Here is an interview by Door County Daily News about the process.

We were invited by On Broadway to participate in their Second Annual Mural and Busker’s Festival. They wanted a food-themed mural and with knowing about their renowned farmers market, we wanted to include foods and flowers that would be found during harvest season in Northeastern Wisconsin. We included some butterflies to indicate the importance of these pollinators in the food growing process.

We invited David Carpenter a usual partner, and Gabby Krumpos, an emerging artist and designer to help us complete this large artwork in the required 4 days. David’s impeccable skill would help render the vegetables to realistic perfection, and Gabby is an up-and-coming mural artist, and they will help with two other murals later this year.

Erin and Don came out a couple nights early to project the outlines, and we met some of the local business owners already on this hot July night. The next day, we painted in some of the higher background areas, to get them out of the way. It was Wednesday, so we got to visit the farmers market for a little while.

Thursday was the official start and our team was assembled. Every day in the morning and before we left, we would drive or walk to see other nine artists working on their mural. Saturday and Sunday, were the days that the Festival occurred so the buskers and musicians were out in full force and we got to meet some wonderful people. Old friends stopped by to see the spectacle; and it was a reunion of sorts.

We completed the painting just on time, on Sunday about 4 p.m. This event will end up being one of our best memories of mural painting because of the energy and camaraderie surrounding us.

We were contacted by the City of Fond du Lac Downtown Committee.

Saturday March 26th 9-4 pm 
Students ages 10 and up spent a day in our printmaking studio learning the art of creating a linocut relief print. Participants began by learning what makes an ideal image for printing. Students then used gouges to form their linocut, roll on ink and pull their original work of art using hand-rubbing techniques and our etching press.

Yonder printmaker Don Krumpos led this class and inspire students by sharing his work as well as techniques and the importance of process in printmaking.

$50 per student includes lunch and all necessary materials

Due to space concerns this class was open to no more than 9 students.

This class was offered in collaboration with Art Beet’s Youth Art Month’s Initiative.

Register at https://printmaking.bpt.me

We couldn’t say it better than our friend and attendee Alex Galt over at his blog.

I saw a beautiful thing a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to tell you about it because, by its very nature, I can’t share it with you. And maybe that was the point. These days the accepted thing is to seek virality, maybe to put your spin on a meme and to send it out into the world hoping for a million views. Because attention is currency and it’s come to be how we place value on things. What I’m about to describe is on the opposite end of the continuum from whatever Kim Kardashian West is doing. Imagine working hard to create a layered and beautiful artistic performance that will be seen and enjoyed by no more than 60 people. I mean, what would be the point? Right? I’m talking an original story with elaborate props, costumes, shadow puppets, simulated stained glass windows, stage sets, food, and giant papier-mâché hands. True, the audience to effort ratio for the performing arts is much lower than for other media, due to their ephemerality. For example, I have a college friend who is a relatively successful playwright in New York and it’s been almost impossible for me to follow his career from my home in Wisconsin. But what I’m about to describe feels like it was specifically designed to be immune to digital virality and, in retrospect, I think that’s part of why I found it so thrilling.

Yonder and the Krampus

On a Saturday evening in early December, Don Krumpos* and his team presented “Krampus Claws Is Coming to Town” at Yonder, Krumpos’ art gallery and studio in Algoma, Wisconsin. Using a blend of storytelling, shadow play, illustrations made from simulated stained glass, and immersive theater, Krumpos and his troupe told an original story using elements of the German and Icelandic Christmas folk traditions. First, there was Krampus, St. Nick’s horned and bearded co-worker, who has been punishing the wicked children of Germany for centuries. This Christmas, Krampus discovered that morality is not as simple as black and white, that ‘bad’ kids are sometimes good kids in bad circumstances. Initially he’s perplexed by this moral ambiguity, but by the end of the show he’s taken it to heart and found a new role to play during Christmas. Then there was Gryla, a giantess who traditionally punishes the misbehaving children of Iceland with the help of the “Yule Lads” and her terrifying Yule Cat. (Apparently Iceland has a more interesting Christmas season than we do). In Yonder’s retelling, Gryla and her minions have been locked beneath the earth for a thousand years, bound by magical spells cast with air, water, and fire. And these bonds are weakening…

Enter the audience

“Krampus Claws” was divided into three acts with an intermission between each act. As the audience mingled and consumed Krampus-inspired snacks, treats, and ciders (both hot and alcoholic), costumed members of the troupe pulled individuals or small groups of people to visit with the spirits of water, air, and fire. Each of these experiences, which were elaborately presented in smaller spaces, yielded a token: a rubber “fireball,” a kazoo, and a small water pistol. Participants were asked to hang on to these and to keep them hidden. In the third ‘act,’ which was primarily conveyed using shadow puppets, Gryla and her brood slipped their bonds and prepared to wreak havoc on the children of Earth. But at the last minute they were turned back by Krampus, freshly motivated by his new, more nuanced moral understanding. In fact, he has come to see that it’s now Gryla who is misbehaving and in need of punishment. Finally, Krampus and the narrator of the story rallied the audience to defeat the Icelandic folk monsters, including the Yule Cat, with their fireballs, kazoos, and water pistols. Thus, another merry Christmas was assured and the balance of the universe maintained.

Nothing I write here (not even Joshua Clark’s photos, though they tell part of the story) can convey the sense of wonder that this production produced in the audience. We collectively gasped and laughed as all of the elements of the production converged at the end. Elements that may have felt absurdist and a little off-handed at the time were revealed to be dramatically important. It all felt cathartic and almost ritualistic… but without any of the self-seriousness that things too often have this time of year. As with everything Krumpos does—working alone or with his co-conspirators—from his beautiful prints to the murals he’s been painting in communities all over Wisconsin, every aspect of the event was beautifully detailed and well considered. This year’s Krampus costume was feral, like something out of a deep, medieval Alpine forest, and in an entirely different way than the equally beautiful Krampus figure he designed for the 2019 show (which is currently on display at Yonder’s storefront at 321 Steele Street in Algoma). The shadow puppets, which Krumpos has been experimenting with since producing a workshop with Minneapolis’s Michael Sommers, co-founder of Open Eye Theater, at UWGB seven years ago, were intricately cut and full of playful effects.

This is a type of experience that feels rare to me to me these days, it reminded me of a culture of artistic production that was more familiar to me in my 20s—back in the 1990s—long before the potential for virality demolished the idea that a thing could be done just for itself and just for the people fortunate enough to be in the room. That it was so creative, so well executed, and so beautiful just made it all the more precious. Krumpos says that these Krampus pageants (for lack of a better term) will continue… you should make a point of getting on his mailing list so you don’t miss out!

* Who is Don Krumpos? He is a muralist, printmaker, and multimedia artist who has been an art professor at the University of Wisconsin—Green Bay.

This mural was commissioned by the Community Improvement of Algoma in one of their “pocket parks”.

We had the opportunity to design the poster for the 100th Anniversary of the Capitol Civic Centre in Manitowoc, Wisc.  Thanks to Lori Kirby, the marketing directory, to provide the guidance to get this done in the style that we liked, and that their board was delighted in.

This idea was conceived in the mind of City of Manitowoc Water Treatment Facility employee Scott Krause in 2015, and in 2020 this painting came to life, after the City of Manitowoc came to us to paint this image of a rainbow trout on their giant gas sphere painted to look like a giant bobber. 

Let it exist to delight visitors after they arrive from Michigan on the USS Badger ferry, and add a splash of color to an heterotopic, industrial area.

Thanks to Hallman-Lindsey for paints and Hamann Construction for the donation of the lift.

 

We enjoyed doing this mural

Bone Memory was a shadow puppet short performed at Yonder on October 4th, 2019

 

Deborah Maris Lader is a Chicago printmaker.

Nick Utrie is a Green Bay musician.

 

Woodland Dunes is a nature preserve in Two Rivers Wisconsin. They asked us to paint a mural on the old barn on the property that when visitors drove in, it would be one of the first things they would see. It included some flora and fauna on their land, such as a saw-whet owl, turtle and fox.