Enjoy a view of Villa Terrace at your home! This watercolor is by Julia Taylor and features the Mercury courtyard, where you entered the Villa this evening.

"I learned to draw early in life and earned spending money in high school sketching portraits at county fairs and illustrations in weekly papers.

In college, my small stained glass business, The Vitreous Works, paid the rent every month. Graduating from Ball State University with an art minor, I've worked with many mediums over the years from soldering stained glass, welding, pastels and always pencil sketching. An afternoon watercolor class with a friend while on vacation created an affinity for the flow, the color and the glorious transparency of watercolor.

You may find her work locally, in the David Barnett Gallery, as well as in exhibits in Milwaukee and Southeast Wisconsin.

Framed, the art is 10.5' x 14' in size

This lovely abstract photo, entitled "White Columns / Blue Sky" by Dick Blau is a reflection of the Gimbels columns in the Milwaukee River.

Dick Blau has a BA in English from Harvard and a PhD in American Studies from Yale. He is self-taught as a photographer, with a lot of thanks to Milton Rogovin who let him hang out in his darkroom when Blau worked at SUNY Buffalo in the late sixties, where he had gone to help start the Program in American Studies. In the course of his time in Buffalo, Blau worked with founder Roberto Muffoletto to start Buffalo's well-known Center for the Exploratory Art,CEPA, which continues to this day. Blau moved to Milwaukee in the mid 70's, where he then co-founded the experimental UWM Department of Film and chaired it for twenty years.

In the course of his work with the UWM Film Department, Blau also began to make movies, learning from his colleagues through his collaborations with them. In addition to his own films, the latest of which is Milwaukee Night and Day (2020) he has worked with Robert Nelson, performing in Hamlet Act (1982) and Cecelia Condit, where he co-wrote and co-directed Oh Rapunzel with her in 1996.

In his photographic work, Blau follows two parallel lines of inquiry. On the one hand, he is a student of popular culture, with a particular interest in music and performance. Collaborating with anthropologists Charles and Angeliki Keil and Steven Feld, he has authored three photo-ethnographies -Polka Happiness (1992), Bright Balkan Morning (2002), and Skyros Carnival (2011).More recently, he has produced two other photographic books, Polka Heartland (text by Richard March) and Elephant House (with text by Nigel Rothfels.)

Blau also photographs closer to home, in the heart of the heart of the family. Photographs from his long term personal study of the domestic scene - now mocked-up in book form as Thicker Than Water: My Family in Photographs (1968-2018) - have been published widely. In an 80's art tabloid like Theory/Flesh; in a 2009 Intervalles issue on Interdisciplinary Transcriptions; in Family Frames: Photography, Narrative, and Post Memory (1997), in the The M Word: Real Mothers in Contemporary Art (2011); and principally in a collaboration with writer Jane Gallop in her memoir/theory of domestic photography, Living With His Camera (2003).

Dick Blau's work may be found in the following collections:

American Geographical Society Library
Art Institute of Chicago
Brooklyn Museum
Houston Museum of Fine Arts
Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art
Milwaukee Art Museum
Museum of Contemporary Photography
Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Wisconsin Art
Thessaloniki Museum of Photography

Thomas Haneman
Untitled (integumentum), 2020
Acrylic on canvas
30 x 30 inches

(unframed)

One might be surprised to learn that artist Thomas Haneman listens to Death Metal when he paints his imaginary floral compositions. These lyrical paintings feel symphonic - full of trills and flute solos rather than weighty guitar distortion. And yet there is triumphal power, a kind of breaking through, a fierce determined beauty in these vines and flowers that often turn away from the viewer toward some unseen source of light and strength.

There is indeed a miraculous component to this work: Haneman started making these paintings in 2016, after finally receiving effective treatment for debilitating, chronic depression. Completely unlike the paintings he was making in art school at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee, these compositions seemed to follow the rebirth of his neural synapses. He speaks of the work as if it is a direct outcome or visualization of his mental healing.

The paintings, called "Floating Flowers," vary immensely in color and form, suggesting different states of growth and joy, combined with the hidden strangeness of the body's interior realms. They are like secret gardens that grow and bloom in remote places, untouched by humans. Haneman's plants appear to mutate and evolve on the canvas, sometimes emitting bubbles and froth, other times weighted by robust strands of berries.
The work harkens to 17th century Dutch still life painting, 18th century botanical illustrations, and the invented landscapes of Surrealism.

Thomas Haneman lives in Sheboygan, WiI He attended the Minneapolis College of Art and Design from 1979 to 1985. He completed his art degree at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee in 2011. His work is in the corporate collection of Acuity Insurance and in many private collections.

Bee and Wing Necklace by Artist Lucia Antonelli and donated by Lake Hill House.

The Romans called Bees the "Messengers of the Gods" and also believed that Birds foretold the coming of change. We now know how crucial both species are to the planet as pollinators and more. They continue to be revered and celebrated, protected and loved today. Artist Lucia Antonelli has incorporated a Vintage Silver Bee and Copper Bird Wing in this dramatic one of a kind and very wearable piece--her signature beading of Antique French Brass Beads with Pyrite and Sterling Silver and an Antique Silver Button Closure suspends these meaningful elements beautifully.

Fine Art Appraiser, Stacey Schmidt, will spend up to 4 hours appraising up to 3 works of art, to establish retail replacement value for insurance purposes.

Schmidt Fine Art Appraisals LLC is well versed in Post-War and Contemporary Art. Stacey Schmidt is an Associate Member of the Appraisers Association of America, the premier national association of personal property appraisers who focus on fine and decorative arts. She holds a BA in Art History from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and an MA in Art History from New York University. Stacey specializes in Post-War and Contemporary Art.

Before becoming a fine art appraiser, Stacey was a curator, having worked at The Whitney Museum of American Art in the Prints & Drawings department as well as the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where she was Associate Curator of Contemporary Art. Stacey also served as personal curator to a private collector in Boston.

Entitled "Calvin," this 11x14 archival print is from the "Cone of Shame" Series by Brooklyn-based fine art photographer Winnie Au, whose work portrays the exalted role pets play in our lives. This "Cone of Shame" series transforms the pet dog's post-surgery humiliation into something beautiful and majestic - making the collars and the dogs within them works of art. According to Au, "I portray pets in the same way that I capture humans. By elevating their portraits, I am honoring the love and devotion animals give to their human companions." For this series and for her other photography, Winnie Au has received numerous awards including American Photography, Photo Annual, and Communication Arts. Donated by Winnie Au.

This piece, entitled "Neon Hyperpop Hermes," is a digitally illustrated rendition of the Villa Terrace's neoclassical Hermes/Mercury statue. The style has elements of 1980s Miami pop art and vaporwave. Visually, it incorporates the styles of early 1980s MTV, late 1990s web design, and album cover artwork from both decades. The piece uses a bright neon color scheme and incorporates additional architectural elements of the Villa Terrace house and gardens.

Elsa Hall is a digital illustration and visual development artist based out of Sarasota, Florida. A soon-to-be BFA graduate of the Ringling College of Art and Design, she has also been classically trained in figure drawing and painting. She specializes in original character design and is working on the production of her first graphic novel.

Framed in modern Acrylic steel, numbered, 11"x17" in size

Artist Heather Eiden has captured the courtyard at Villa Terrace on one of her artistic tiles that has been framed.

Eiden was drawn to clay over 23 years ago, and as both a yoga teacher and an artist, she sees the process of working with clay as a form of meditation. The ceramic surface designs are inspired by the natural world, organic shapes, and the way living things germinate and grow.

Beautiful, intricate fabric-covered bowl, designed by Emily Robertson.

Lovely antique plate, circa 1800s. Japanese or Chinese.

Lovely antique bowl, Japanese or Chinese.