Artists selected for Waukesha GuitarTown project

Feb. 27, 2012

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By Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel

Feb. 27, 2012 0

Waukesha - Thirty artists from southeastern Wisconsin who will turn 10 replica and 20 regular Gibson Les Paul guitars into works of art as part of the Waukesha GuitarTown project were announced Monday afternoon at a downtown reception.

The artists were selected by members of the project steering committee based on tentative plans. Ten will tackle 10-foot-tall fiberglass guitar sculptures that will be staged beginning about June 1 mostly along Main St. on both public rights of way and private property. Another 20 artists will work on playable Gibson guitars, which will be finished off by the Gibson Guitar Corp. with strings and other finishing hardware. Their locations have not been determined.

Artists chosen for the large sculptures are:

Retired Carroll University art professor and sculptor Willis Guthrie, his son Jim and grandson Ryan; Racine sculptor of metal fantasy pieces Bill Reid; Waukesha portrait artist Chuck Weber; Waukesha painter noted for portraits of rock and blues musicians Tom Noll; mural artist Ben Stark of Milwaukee; Waukesha water colorist Marcia Schneider; retired art teacher, sculptor and pop art painter Ramona Audley of Oconomowoc; Jennifer Espenscheid, a Milwaukee artist who does murals, portraits, illustrations and abstracts; Waukesha artist specializing in plaster paintings Jeff Seymour; and Milwaukee graphics designer and painter Gene Evans.

The finished works will be unveiled at a May 31 VIP event and at the first of a summer Friday night concert series on June 1.

About Laurel Walker

Laurel Walker covered local, school and county government for 20 years -- the last half of that at the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- before she was named Waukesha County columnist in 1997. Today she writes about the people, places and events around metropolitan Milwaukee with a broad suburban focus. She was the youngest of nine children raised on a central Wisconsin farm before leaving the nest for journalism studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a masters degree at the University of Oregon. She has spent the last half of her life in Waukesha County, where she and her husband raised two sons. Though she has a fondness for life in Waukesha, she eagerly partakes in the culture of the big city to the east and the recreation of the forests to the west. With sons in the arts, she has a special fondness for symphonic music concerts and art museums. She finds peace in a good book at a Northwoods getaway weekend, adventure in family visits to the east and west coasts, and satisfaction in a column well-written that reaches readers.