Phoenix Park Balloon Tree OG
16" X 20"
Oil on Canvas
Phoenix Park Balloon Tree OG
Abstraction 5
16" X 20"
Oil on Canvas
I Heart
Eau Claire
Trees
Fall Winter
25/26
Eau Claire
Special Trees
for a
Special Place
Cottonwood Heart
Eau Claire River
16" X 20"
Photograph
Owen Park Pom Pom Tree
Abstraction 4
16" X 20"
Oil on Canvas
A new special exhibition at Galaudet Gallery in downtown Eau Claire, Wisconsin (GG) celebrates the love affair between artists and trees and specifically the trees of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. I Heart Eau Claire Trees: Special Trees for a Special Place celebrates many different and wonderful trees in and around Eau Claire as seen in realistic and abstract artworks. Galaudet Gallery (GG) will be open November 28—30, 2025, from 9am-8pm. Throughout the exhibit GG will be open. GG is also open by appointment.
The idea for I Heart Eau Claire Trees came from GG’s Curator and Artist Vicki Milewski who has a history of drawing trees she has shared experiences with. Vicki explains, “The Phoenix Park Balloon Tree is the first tree that inspired me in Eau Claire. On my way to the season opening of the downtown Eau Claire farmer’s market, I saw a newly planted tree with large, yellow balloons tied to it. As I drew closer, I saw the balloons were actually blossoms that were puffed out in the warm humid air. This began my work sitting with the tree, learning about it and drawing it. Two series have resulted since then: The Abstracted Phoenix Park Balloon Tree Series and a few years later the Windswept Phoenix Park Balloon Tree Series.”
Now Vicki has over 20 trees that are as special to her as Eau Claire is. She will sit with them, drawing and writing and also tending to their needs.
Balsam Fir
Eau Claire, Wisconsin
11" X 14"
Print on Arches paper
Carson Park Dreaming Trees
16" X 20"
Mixed Media
Phoenix Park Balloon Tree Windswept
Phoenix Park, Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Oil Painting​​
16" X 20"
“Our work with Hearts as the focus of artworks also comes into play with this exhibit.” Galaudet Gallery owner Mike Milewski says, “We love supporting contemporary art and living artists but sometimes that means non-figurative art which can be hard to understand. I like how artist Jim Dine talks about his work with hearts, ‘The figure is still the only thing I have faith in in terms of how much emotion it’s charged with and how much subject matter is there.’ The Heart as the figure for artworks has so much fun and joy that it’s been a blast working with them over the last few exhibits.”
As with other art series that have won these sibling gallerists awards, the Heart has become a standing feature for several years. “It does seem to be a favorite with our customers,” Vicki adds, “They love the idea of having a heart wall in their homes with photos of people they care about and a few actual hearts mixed in. This year we think stand-alone hearts are also a good addition to certain walls we frequently walk past—to remind us we are loved and that we love and that its such joy!”
On November 29 from 5-7pm GG welcomes singer/guitarist Jerry Teclaw with his Acoustic Eric Clapton Tribute. Favorites like “Layla” and “After Midnight” will be played alongside lesser-known gems shimmering with the guitar work and sweet vocals Jerry Teclaw has become well known for.
Join GG for some wonderful energy this holiday season from November 28—January 3, 2025 for you to enjoy “I Heart Eau Claire Trees”.
The Simple Pleasures Intro
By Galaudet Gallery sibling curators
Michael Milewski and Vicki Milewski
Many of the artworks in I Heart Eau Claire Trees are from Vicki Milewski’s Eau Claire Collection which holds paintings, drawings, mixed media, music, NFT’s and short experimental films that are inspired by her time in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Collecting some of these artworks for this exhibit meant creating a theme and overarching idea that would assist in choosing which pieces to include. Through a circuitous path the curators have decided that the simple pleasure of enjoying trees best describes the artworks chosen while also connecting to other artworks and ideas that may be less than simple.
First are the Eau Claire Trees:
The Phoenix Park Balloon Tree Series
The Owen Park Pom Pom Tree Series
The Seaver Street Kissing Tree Series
The Seaver Street Red Maple Sequence
The Carson Park Dreaming Trees Series
The Tall Maple Dreaming Trees
The Cottonwood Dreaming Trees
The Wilson Park Fir Tree
The Red Maple on Seaver Street
Hoffman Hills Lines Sequence
Then are the other artworks which have been found through research like the antique reproductions of trees
drawn in and around Eau Claire. These valuable finds support the idea of Eau Claire as an artists’ town since it shows that artists from over 100 years ago were also drawn to create here too.
There are also a few trees that have helped inform the Galaudet Gallery curators’ practice like the Tree of Life fabric wall hanging chosen to be the “greeter” with its placement above the Egyptian Cabinet in the Entryway, artist Angela Gonzeles’ Tree of Life done for a Fermilab report cover or the wonderfully delicious Thomas Laird photograph of Nectar of Secret Instruction poured by a Dakini into Kumaripa’s thought formed cup from a Mural at The Lukhang Tibetan Buddhist Temple which the curators chose to crop to the moment the Dakini is pouring her secret instruction into Kumaripa’s thought formed cup which allowed Kumaripa to become enlightened and gain the Mahasiddha level which only 84 other individuals have attained. Kumaripa is instructive to the Galaudet Gallery curators because he gained enlightenment, teaching others along the way, through a revolutionary use of everyday life which fits into the Arts and Crafts ideology Galaudet Gallery follows learning from William Morris’ ideas on creating a lifestyle and outlook on life that captures everyday moments as chances to understand yourself better, support sustainably living and of course find enjoyment in the mundane. It seems Morris and Kumaripa might have shared some ideas even though they arrived at them from different paths during different times.
Dimensionally it may seem a contrast like the small Dakini and the life sized Kumaripa or the even smaller quarks racing in the particle accelerator at Fermilab casting shadows interpreted as possible solutions to the mysteries and questions we have about matter, energy, space and time or the millennia old idea of the Tree of Life and its use in many cultural myths about choosing and loving. It is in seeing all these ideas connect to Galaudet Gallery’s celebration of Eau Claire Trees that Galaudet Gallery curators know these trees are continuing the myth building Eau Clarains have done since the beginning of this wonderful city. In participating in this myth building, the Galaudet Gallery curators recognize how these myths and ideas hold communities together, create a shared sense of meaning and of course are for simple pleasures like enjoying trees.
Notes for “I Heart Eau Claire Trees”
Some of the artworks GG has found date to the 1800’s with trees from the Eau Claire area along with current artwork on canvas and prints and of course our Christmas Tree!
Galaudet Gallery is always open for appointments which can be made by calling us at 715-513-9994 or emailing us at galaudetgallery@gmail.com. GG understands that appointments may be made within a block of time and that there is always the possibility that an appointment might need to be rescheduled or missed!
The Phoenix Park Balloon Tree is a lilac tree that hold yellows blossoms that puff out looking like yellow ballons before opening into their bloom. There have been many years that the balloon part of the blossom does not take place since for that balloon to puff out there needs to be unseasonably warm and humid air and not very cold evenings for the balloon to last more than a hot humid day can create. There is a second balloon tree in Wilson Park that is much younger and has yet to create the balloons but we are always looking for it!
Other trees that will be included in this exhibit are the Seaver Street Kissing Tree, The Owen Park Pom Pom Tree, The Carson Park Dreaming Trees, The Chippewa River Cottonwoods (a heart as every leaf!), The Wilson Park Raindrop Evergreen, The Farwell Street Wishing Tree, The East Hill Rising Moon Trees, The Lady Alice Apple Tree, Lake Wissota Moon and Trees and others along with historic drawings of Eau Claire trees and poems found inside some of these trees.
GG continues its multi-year look at symbolic and ever joyful hearts with artworks curated for aesthetic pleasures, gifting ideas and fun.
The sibling gallerists Mike Milewski and Vicki Milewski are becoming known for seeing the changes happening in our 21st Century culture and then amplifying those changes with their well-known mixings of media and materials. Their exhibit “Shakers and Makers” was hosted by many institutions because of their thoughtful research into both the mystical elements of Shaker “Gift Drawings” and their own published writings about redefining folk art and self-taught artists in new ways which includes them in art history and recognizes their influence. 21st Century changes in healing were seen in GG’s award winning 4-year art series “My Medicine” showing artworks’ medicinal qualities being used as healing agents. GG’s “Landscape Rebels” exhibit was both a traditional landscape art show in the galleries while also showing land art installations in different Midwest locations. And GG’s Beauty in Glass Tiffany Replica exhibit is still touring after over 10 years of locations, sales and new additions and will be coming back to Eau Claire with new pieces soon. These and other exhibits around the world, most recently in Berlin, have won these sibling gallerists accolades, awards and invitations to speak about 21st Century Art, Exhibition Planning, The Art of Collecting Art and How Artists Should Curate Their Own Art and other such topics that both Mike and Vicki like to make meaningful, frolicking and fun.
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As an artist Vicki Milewski has worked with trees from the beginning, championing trees and often helping to save trees, forests and communities of trees with her latest work in the Black Hills National Forest when she worked with forest rangers painting her dreaming tree symbols onto pine beetle suffering trees as a way to trap the beetles inside the trees so they could not spread and as a glow in the dark reminder to travelers to not transport wood anywhere. Vicki began recording her experiences with trees through drawings, poetry, songs, music and experimental films capturing scenes and inscriptions on trees much like an Epigraphic Survey [1] like the ones done in the pyramids of Luxor, Egypt to both copy and publish all the historical texts in the Nile Valley—Vicki seeks to copy and publish the historical texts and moments of trees. This unimaginably ambitious program of field research has led Vicki to sit with trees for years learning their seasons and shapes
As Vicki’s fellow artist T Oa believes, “All living things store genetic information using the same molecules—DNA and RNA. Written in this genetic code is compelling evidence of the shared ancestry of all living things. Many mystical peoples feel that even the seemingly inorganic things share in this ancestry.”
And as Walt Whitman wrote in his poem “Song of the Redwood”
O the great patient rugged joys
my soul’s strong joys unwrecked by man
For I know I hear the soul befitting me
I too have consciousness
I too have identity
Ever a tree hugger, Vicki has had a lifetime of trees as friends but moments when her breath is taken away by an experience shared with a tree. The fluttering of blossoms, the hundreds year old and hundreds of feet high, the fire lit tips of branches when covered in snow. These are some of the experiences which have created these artworks.
Bibliography (Some books we found inspiring and helpful in our curatorial work for this exhibit)
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Krishnamurti, Jiddu. A Dialogue with Oneself 1977. Published by Galaudet Gallery Publishing
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Rimbaud, Arthur. Illuminations. (1886) Translated by Vicki Milewski (2025)
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John Heywood The Proverbs of 1546
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Walt Whitman Song of Myself 1892
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Yves Klein Overcoming the Problems of Art : The Writings of Yves Klein (2007)
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David Cave Mircea Eliade's Vision for a New Humanism 1st Edition
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Unpublished Lectures of William Morris edited by Eugene Lemire
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L. de La Vallée PoussinThe Way to Nirvana: Six lectures on Ancient Buddhism as a Discipline of Salvatio 2011
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J. Ernest Phythian Trees In Nature, Myth And Art -1907
Andrews, Edward Deming Visions of the Heavenly Sphere: A Study of Shaker Religious Art-1969
[1] In 1924, an Egyptologist, an artist, and a photographer—the staff of the University of Chicago’s new Epigraphic Survey— began the task of recording the scenes and inscriptions carved on the walls of the enormous, 3,000-year-old temple of Pharaoh Ramesses III at Medinet Habu near Luxor, Egypt. It was the culmination of a long-standing dream of James Henry Breasted, the first American Egyptologist and founder of ISAC (then the Oriental Institute), to both copy and publish all the historical texts in the Nile Valley. The Epigraphic Survey was established to undertake this unimaginably ambitious program of field research.
Contact Galaudet Gallery to inquire about any of these artworks 715-513-9994 or Mike@galaudetgallery.com
Have a gala-day! (Galaudet)