The Lady By The Lake
Back in April 2024, I was invited to join a group of creatives and artists led by journalist, critic, and filmmaker, Mary Louise Schumacher in a gathering of like minds and an exploration of a treasured landmark in Wisconsin art history. That same week at the Milwaukee Film Festival, Mary Louise premiered her new film Out of the Picture, a documentary about art critics and their existence in the space among artists’ life works and how that affects the environments, for better or worse.
Upon my arrival, I was introduced to creative thinkers including a few of her friends and colleagues who were featured in the film. After that, we departed to our venue for the day.
On this morning of art and conversation, we headed to the local landmark known as the Nohl House, located in Fox Point, WI. The Nohl House is a lakeside home left behind by Wisconsin artist Mary Nohl. Some of the lore behind this home is tied to Mary Nohl’s mystery in seclusion and notoriety, and how outwardly expressive she was with her creativeness and quirkiness; exhibiting and displaying a myriad of concrete statues she created herself in the front yard that added their own sense of controversy for the affluent neighbors in the lakefront community.
On arrival at the notoriously known “Witch’s House”, we were greeted by our guide and Nohl House historian Alex Gartelmann. Alex, unlocking and opening the driveway gate, met us with a smile and excitement for our cohort visiting the landmark, eager to spend time with us and to share every detail that he had to offer.
Walking into the home, we were immediately met by bright colored paintings, a family portrait (that we learned has never been moved from its original place), and a collection of hand sculptures of many sizes, materials and mediums. We gathered in the kitchen, around a collection of donuts and coffee and Alex began to give us the rundown of the upbringing, history, and creative lore of the incomparable Mary Nohl.
Born in 1914 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Mary was the daughter of a prominent lawyer and a mother with a love for music. She would go on to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago after developing her own love for arts. For a brief while, she taught art in the Baltimore public school system for two years but eventually came back to Milwaukee to teach. However, once her parents permanently moved into their cottage on the shore of Lake Michigan in Fox Point (now known as the Nohl House), she joined them and dedicated the rest of her life to creating art.
Mary’s creative interests varied and were heavily inspired by her access to the lake and all of its natural materials, as well as her global travels. Refusing to be committed to one type of art form and method, she would diversify her interest and artistic executions. She operated a commercial pottery studio for a decade, she painted, sculpted, carved, printed, drew, created jewelry, and yet somehow came to only describe herself as “a woman who likes tools.” Once her parents passed, she began to make the lake house and property in her image and vision, decorating most of the estate with her large sculptural creations.
After Nohl’s passing in 2001, the Kohler Foundation took on stewardship of her life’s work. The Mary Nohl home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005, and was soon named a Milwaukee County Landmark in 2006. In 2012, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center received the property and the individual artworks from the foundation and have been caring for and curating the property since.
What was supposed to be a collection of like-minded creatives discussing their own projects and visions, became a history lesson and journey into the past to experience another creative’s life and thought process. An interesting fact about Mary Nohl was that she was meticulous at journaling. With a vast collection of journals, some still being deciphered and transcribed, Mary never missed a day of journaling for over 60 years. Documenting her thoughts and feelings of the day, the creative endeavors she was pursuing, to even the smallest, petty reactions from the neighborhood kids vandalizing the home.
In this landmark, covered in a countless collection of handcrafted art, hand-painted colors reflecting her world travels, we see pieces of Mary Nohl’s spirit and creativity in every square inch of the Nohl House. Hopefully, similarly to Nohl, we also find creativity and boundless inspiration during our own journeys!
