Hanging on the wall next to her computer, Lake Zurich resident Shari Gullo keeps a quote from American philosopher and conservationist Aldo Leopold: “To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.”
Gullo is no stranger to tinkering. She and her frequent collaborators – Cathy McCauley from Lake Zurich and Pam Self of Arlington Heights – have brought beauty to our community with the Phoebe Snetsinger Memorial Garden (in Hawthorn Woods) and the Ela Peace Pole (in Lake Zurich).
The partnership continues with what Gullo says is a shared vision of art where “women’s accomplishments are celebrated, nature is revered, peace is worked toward, and diversity in nature and amongst human beings is fervently treasured.”
Working under the name Preserve Collaborative, the trio is just one of eight groups or individuals out of 160 applicants who were selected to design, build and show large scale artwork as part of the Farm Art DTour hosted by the Wormfarm Institute last month. The annual driving tour is in Sauk County, about two and a half hours northwest of SW Lake County in the hilly, picturesque Driftless region of southwest Wisconsin.
According to their website, the Wormfarm Institute’s mission is to “cultivate connections between our rural and urban neighbors through art, food, and land.” The Farm Art DTour program allows for exploration of these connections via a 50-mile backroad route.
Leopold lived in Wisconsin when he wrote the best-selling book A Sand County Almanac. In the 1930s, he used simple tools and reclaimed materials from an old chicken coop to create a retreat for his family so they could get closer to nature.
Using Leopold as inspiration, Preserve Collaborative used boards from old fences and discarded pallets, along with chicken wire as a nod to Leopold's design. Building the sixteen modular pieces that will comprise the display took place over the summer on weekends and evenings in Shari Gullo’s garage in Lake Zurich. Family members volunteered to assist in building pieces for the installation, including nine-year-old June McCauley and 11-year-old Willow McCauley who helped with measuring reclaimed wood, stapling chicken wire and drilling screws that hold the structure together. Vince Gullo built three Aldo Leopoldo benches that will be included at the installation for visitors to use while taking in the images and surrounding landscape. Over multiple weekends during August, the artist team rented U-Haul trailers and hauled all the pieces that will be used for the final installation to a family’s farm in Spring Green, WI for storage close to the installation site.The sections were then driven to Sauk County and assembled into the final display by Preserve Collective the first week of October.
The installation includes representations of about 25% of the total species present in Sauk County, with 1,000 specimen images viewable in glass jars. There are empty jars meant to highlight the ongoing challenge of taking care of our planet. Gullo hopes that this display “will inspire awe, wonder, and a desire to conserve and protect by all who see it.”
The group is grateful for this project and the opportunity to work together again. Self says, “I am filled with gratitude to work with these two women who can accomplish any goal, put collaboration first and continue to challenge me.”
McCauley wants people to feel inspired by the natural world and how we can all work together to keep it thriving. She says, “I am in awe of how much natural diversity exists. I hope people will feel joy and gratitude, and a sense of responsibility to the natural world.”
The team’s intelligent tinkering led to months of work, including help from spouses and children, with cutting, painting, and using tools, all with the goal of staying true to Leopold’s desire to protect and restore natural habitats.
Learn more at wormfarminstitute.org/programs/farm-art-dtour or visit the Preserve’s Instagram page: @preserve.collaborative.art.
Publisher's Note: Farm Art DTour, including the installation created by Gullo, McCauley and Self, will be featured in an upcoming issue of SW Lake.
“Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching — even when doing the wrong thing is legal.”
Aldo Leopold