On Monday I took this first of many trips I will be taking in the next 5-6 months if you include all the art fairs. I often feel like a shut-in working from my home studio but suddenly the season changes and my world opens up. I love a road trip...especially when someone else is driving!
My first adventure was earlier this week when I took a long overdue trip up to the Sheboygan/Kohler/Manitowoc area to visit my dear friend Erica Huntzinger.
She works as a teacher at the the wonderful John Michael Kohler Art Center and has also recently become involved in their Arts Industry Program which brings artists to the Kohler Factory for residencies. I love this museum, it is just the right size and they show such an eclectic mix of artists. The wonderful surprise here is all the bathrooms, each designed by a different resident artist. The Women's Room shown above has all these exquisite corpse tiles and each sink and toilet bowl is also adorned with art.
Photo on the left Erica & Daniel choosing the spot to plant a new tree. Daniel is an arborist among his many other talents!
After our tour we lunched at the yummy Field to Fork, hiked around their home in rural Cleveland, WI.
(that used to be a cheese factory!) and had a lovely bonfire that night. The photo below is a peek at the cheese factory from over the hill:
On Tuesday morning we took an extensive 3 hour tour of the Kohler Factory. It was amazing, unfortunately cameras were not allowed so all I have is a photo from Destinationkohler.com. I encourage you to take the tour if you get the chance. Our guide, Joe, was was fantastic. He worked there his whole life, and has been a tour guide for the last 20 years in his retirement. We were able to also take a peek at what the resident artists were working on, they have the opportunity to work in the Pottery, Iron and Brass Foundries, and Enamel Shop. 
After the tour we had the most amazing brunch at Whispering Orchards....
Strawberry Ruhbarb French Toast!
Fed the goats and mules then later hiked down to Lake Michigan and collected lots of great rocks.
Then visited Daniel at the Cleveland Post Office...a really sweet small town place where the postage has also gone up only one cent. Of course they were out of one cent stamps!
Finished up with a tour of the area, saw lots of great birds, a yellow finch and this is a red winged blackbird on the sign. I had not seen one since doing my field sculpture last summmer.
It was a wonderful little get-away...now back to real life: Trying to catch up in the studio!
