unveiling

the
“mysterious
artist”
Four local, professional
artists and how they came
to their calling

the geneva lake area

is filled with many talented artists—a stroll through
sunny downtown to see their wares in galleries and
fine shops will tell you that. So will the art events
that draw artists and art-lovers alike to enjoy their
gifts. Each summer there are art fairs, paint-ins,
tours and so on to celebrate the arts. There are
many such artists in your midst. Some you may
have heard of; some you may not have. They all
came to art at different times in their lives, in differ-
ent ways and work in a variety of media, whether
it’s oil painting, found-object sculpture, welding,
ceramics, or something new and experimental.
Their work is as unique and interesting as their sto-
ries. Here are four of them.

by Jamie Rhodes
photography by shanna wolf
40 n www.atthelakemagazine.com summer 2010 n At The Lake n 41
 william nelson, painter
“Most artists start as early as they can remember, and they never
give it up—if it’s in their blood,” says William Nelson, as a lakefront
breeze rippling through trees underscores his belief. Nelson grew up
in Chicago, where he was fortunate enough, he says, to have been
chosen for a special program in grammar school that sent particular
students to The Art Institute of Chicago. “I just took to it… It was
the greatest setting you could be in. My favorite artists were Toulouse-
Lautrec and Dalí.”
When Nelson was a junior in high school he sold his first piece of
art and had his first commission. “A lot of that was thanks to my art
teacher,” says Nelson. “I didn’t care too much. I wasn’t into the com-
mercial aspect of art, but it was nice.” Nelson went on to attend The
School of the Art Institute of Chicago on a scholarship.
For five years Nelson worked as a full-time illustrator for the Chicago
Tribune and as a painter in his spare time, but he always hoped to
be a full-time artist. Fortune was with him again when an art dealer
bought one of his paintings at a street fair. He came back a short
while later to buy all of Nelson’s paintings. It wasn’t long after that
Nelson realized his dream and began painting full time.
It’s now been nearly 40 years filled with adventures such as chroni-
cling the banned Oglala Sioux Sundance Ceremony in 1972 and
42 n www.atthelakemagazine.com
being chosen as the first official artist of the U.S. Olympics in 1976.
His work has been exhibited at The Art Institute of Chicago and is
in the collection of The Smithsonian Institution, among many other
esteemed collections worldwide.
“These days I’m content to paint at Lake Geneva and Chicago,”
says Nelson, who has been coming to Lake Geneva with his family
since he was a young boy. “My wife, Jean, and I come up a lot. I love
water. I love lakes. I love this lake,” he emphasizes, watching sunlight
dance on the unusually still surface of Big Foot Beach. “I sail and
study water; its reflections; what the wind does to it; what the sun
does… I also love to paint the Chicago River.”
Nelson takes particular joy in painting outdoors and has been
commissioned to paint various homes and other scenes around
Lake Geneva. His paintings and prints can be seen at the Corner-
stone Shoppe in downtown Lake Geneva where he has exhibited
his work. The Cornerstone Shoppe will now feature a new print
alongside his other works that are available. On Saturday, July 3,
Nelson will be at the Cornerstone Shoppe to sign his work and
talk with anyone interested in discussing art further. To learn
more about William Nelson, his art and his adventures, visit www.
williamnelsonart.com.
summer 2010 n At The Lake n 43
 nancy seidler, multimedia
One look at Nancy Seidler’s home, and it’s clear she’s a visual
artist. Outside her front door, a lilac bush holds dozens of blue
bottles on its branches. The house itself is a relocated, restored,
1850s Wisconsin barn. She designed the interior herself after get-
ting the go-ahead from the builder, who told her the barn was still
structurally sound.
“I like to build environments,” Seidler says. “I’m a maker of things.
I’ve been doing it since I was a little kid…building forts and so on.
I was a daydreamer.” From the rafters and stairwell hang triangular
sculptures—more than half a dozen of them. Upon closer look,
they are made from dress patterns and themed around fishing. On
other walls there are sculptures in bark, sweet gum pods and other
natural materials, wood, paper, found objects and more.
As a child, the teacher often asked for her to help with the bulletin
boards. There was also a running joke not to stand still near her
unless you wanted to get painted. Seidler continued to make art
as she got older, got married and had kids of her own. Fortunately,
she married a man as creative as herself. Her husband, Jim May, is
a popular, well-traveled storyteller and author.
Neighborhood parents recognized her passion and talent and asked
her to teach their children, which she gladly did. Eventually she
went to The School of the Art Institute of Chicago to get a teaching
44 n www.atthelakemagazine.com
degree, but once she graduated, there were no art teacher jobs to
be had. So she went back to school to get her master’s degree in
counseling, which she also had an interest in. For years, she was a
counselor at a local community college.
Teaching and psychology made for an interesting combination
and can influence one’s art in innumerable ways, as Seidler
believes it has in her own creations, adding, “My work through-
out these years has included personal narrative informed by
dreams, spiritual beliefs, world events and environmental issues,
including recycling.”
Twenty-six years ago, she and seven of her friends formed an art-
ist group called The Workshop for Contemporary Artists. Each
year they exhibit their work at the Old Courthouse Art Center in
Woodstock, Illinois from early August through September. “I’m
so lucky to work with a group of women who are like sisters for
all these years,” Seidler says. “We all have our different mediums,
but we always make the show work.” Next up for Seidler will be
learning how to weld. “I’m so excited!” Another project Seidler
is involved with includes her husband, the storyteller. They will
be leading a storytelling/writing/visual art workshop in Oaxaca,
Mexico next spring. For details, contact her at nanseidler@earth-
link.net, or her husband, Jim, at maystory@earthlink.net.
summer 2010 n At The Lake n 45
 karl borgeson, ceramist
Walking into Ken Borgeson’s studio, shelf upon shelf of ceramic objects in a
variety of stages are stacked throughout the room. Among them, near a wall
of windows by the door, sits Borgeson, smiling at his potter’s wheel, looking
like a man who has long-enjoyed working with his hands.

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“I did a lot of drawing and constructing
as a child,” he explains. “My dad built
a lot of the things for our house because
we couldn’t afford to buy them. And my
mom cooked and sewed. They built the
house we lived in. So, of course, I had to
build my own, too, with the help of some
students,” he sweeps his arms around the
studio to the house beyond.
their new furniture and whatever else he
could get his hands on… until he took a
ceramics class his junior year. “From then
on, I knew that was it for me. I trans-
ferred to St. Cloud State University to
finish my degree.”
After he got his graduate degree in 1969
from the University of Minnesota and
worked for a time in the Twin Cities, he
and his wife of five years packed up their
child and moved to California, where he
had been offered a job. But that was to be
a brief interlude before he relocated to the
city he would build his home in, White-
water, Wisconsin. He was offered a job at
the university in 1970, where he taught
for 32 years. Borgeson retired eight years
ago and now works in his studio full-time
in addition to traveling and taking care of
foster children with his wife.
Borgeson’s most recent trip was to West
Africa, which inspired his ceramics show
near the end of last year at Concordia
University in Mequon. His work can
be seen in a long list of galleries and on
a variety of Web sites. Some of those
include schallergaller y.
com, terraincognitoclaystu-
dio.com, akardesign.com,
redlodgeclaycenter.com,
artisangallery.com, bindley-
collection.com and Murray
Hill Pottery in Milwaukee.
To see more of Karl Borge-
son’s collection of works,
check out his Web site
online at www.karlborgeson-
ceramics.com.
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Growing up, however, Borgeson says he

abandoned art. “My drawing wasn’t any
good. I took maybe a half a semester of
art in high school. I started at University
of Minnesota for business.”

Early on in the program, however, his

advisor suggested he go to the testing
service to review possible career interests.
After two days of answering questions, he
was presented with the area he should
pursue in life: aesthetics. “And a light
turned on!” he shares. “I remembered I
used to make things. I took some classes
and my interests just exploded.”

Borgeson soon discovered an interest in

interior design and architecture. And he
enthusiastically redesigned his parents’
house; he painted the interior and chose
48 n www.atthelakemagazine.com summer 2010 n At The Lake n 49
 alice white,
painter, sculptor
“I never picked up a brush until I was
almost 40 years old,” Alice White says
matter-of-factly as she touches up her
most recent painting, which she’s moved
back to after nearly 10 years of doing
mostly sculpture. “Well, not since I was
seven, anyway. And when I was just fin-
ishing up my art degree and a collector
approached me and said ‘I hear you’re
a new artist,’ I responded, without even
knowing it was going to come out of my
mouth, ‘I’ve always been an artist.’”

White says everyone in her family could

draw. Her dad drew caricatures. And in
grade school, White’s art teacher often
asked her to teach the class in order to
keep her from talking.

As she grew up, White got married and

had children. She opened a craft shop in
the ’70s, where she often copied patterns

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50 n www.atthelakemagazine.com summer 2010 n At The Lake n 51

 Lake Geneva Paint-In
June 12 and 13 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in
downtown Lake Geneva.
Art by the Bay
July 24 and 25. Edgewater Park,
Williams Bay.
Art in the Park
August 14 and 15 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
on Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday in
Flat Iron park in downtown Lake Geneva.
Kettle Moraine Studio Tour
October 9 and 10 from 10 a.m. to
6 p.m., Kettle Moraine area, southeastern
Wisconsin. For details visit www.
kettlemorainestudiotour.com.
Lake Geneva Art Museum
The Lake Geneva Art Museum, a welcome
new local museum, is temporarily located
summer arts events
© bill frantz
at the C. Berger Gallery, 237 Broad
Street. It was founded in 2009 by area
One thing these artists have in common is that they love making art. They don’t artist Elizabeth Chappell. The goal of the
museum is to bring a variety of artist works
make art for money. They make art for the love of the it. And when their vision
together, achieve a nonprofit status and
coincides with what someone is willing to pay to put it in their home, both parties find a permanent home. The museum
win. In order to share their vision with the public, many artists sign up to display welcomes art bequests as a part of their
their art works at fairs or gallery walks, or show off their talents at tours or paint-in permanent collection, highlights local and
demonstrations. Here are some events that artists and purveyors alike look forward regional artists, and seeks to bring national,
to this summer into fall. educational shows for people to enjoy.
52 n www.atthelakemagazine.com
portraits by Jim Frost
view portfolio at www.jimfrostphoto.com 262-275-1066
to keep a sale, but eventually the shop
closed. “I didn’t want to lose that aspect
of my life so I started taking one art class
after another, which eventually turned into
a B.A., then M.A., then M.F.A.”
When she had her fourth and last child,
White suffered severe blood clots in her
legs, which moved into her lungs. “It
changed my life. I didn’t want to die with-
out having lived my life. Now I embrace
and welcome all things in my life, includ-
ing the bad. Art gives me a voice and I
was lucky to get into when I did.” In May
of 2000, art saved White again when she
called upon it to help her cope with the
death of her daughter after a car accident.
“Art is living, is breathing,” she states.
White has shown her work in numer-
ous shows and prestigious collections,
and has an upcoming show, along with
Nancy Seidler, at the Old Courthouse Art
Center in Woodstock, Illinois from early
August through September. These days
she teaches art classes in her studio on the
south shore of Geneva Lake on weekday
mornings, is a guest lecturer and juror at
art groups and shows, and works full time
on her art. Her works primarily include
people, usually in some kind of group,
whether it’s an oil painting filled with
people, or a wax or clay sculpture of a
grand dame.
“I love art,” White says. “I am so lucky to
have it. I just feel so lucky. Art is a gift.”
To learn more about White’s work, visit
www.alicewhiteartist.com.
summer 2010 n At The Lake n 53