Madison muralist Amy Zaremba was excited to be one of nine artists to participate this past June in Mural Fest in Sun Prairie, an homage\u2009\u2014\u2009at least in part\u2009\u2014\u2009to Georgia O\u2019Keeffe, the legendary modern artist born in Sun Prairie.<\/p>\n
Zaremba wasn\u2019t expected to imitate O\u2019Keeffe\u2019s style. Instead, the entry form\u2009\u2014\u2009which more than 100 artists submitted\u2009\u2014\u2009included a question about how O\u2019Keeffe inspired her.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Keeffe had stirred her. She\u2019d seen O\u2019Keeffe\u2019s work while visiting the Art Institute of Chicago as a young girl and, more recently, was struck by this O\u2019Keeffe quote: \u201cI had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking at\u2009\u2014\u2009not copy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zaremba\u2019s 13-by-16-foot mural on the side of the Washington Mills building in Sun Prairie portrays a young girl in the forest.<\/p>\n
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Photo by Larry Chua<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to capture the feeling of being in the forest without the specific details, breaking it down in a more abstract way with bright colors,\u201d Zaremba says.<\/p>\n
The nine artists worked simultaneously across about eight days in June, and Mural Fest included several ancillary events, among them a curated exhibit titled \u201cBeyond O\u2019Keeffe: Contemporary Artists in Wisconsin.\u201d<\/p>\n
The festival was \u201cvery well received by both residents and visitors,\u201d says Katie Scanlan, director of the Sun Prairie Historical Library and Museum.<\/p>\n
Yet\u2009\u2014\u2009and perhaps inevitably, because this is Georgia O\u2019Keeffe and Sun Prairie\u2009\u2014\u2009there was at least one prominent dissenting voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to paint it in a negative way,\u201d says Joe Chase, \u201cbut there\u2019s only one of the nine panels that reflects in any way Georgia O\u2019Keeffe and her artwork.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chase is a former mayor of Sun Prairie and the city\u2019s most passionate and enduring proponent of O\u2019Keeffe\u2019s art and local connection. He\u2019s even related to the artist\u2009\u2014\u2009second cousin, twice removed\u2009\u2014\u2009and as far back as 1978 secured a mayoral proclamation naming Nov. 15 \u201cGeorgia O\u2019Keeffe Day\u201d in Sun Prairie.<\/p>\n
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Photo by Larry Chua<\/p>\n
Of June\u2019s curated art exhibit, Chase says, \u201cDon\u2019t say \u2018Beyond O\u2019Keeffe,\u2019 unless you\u2019re going to educate people about O\u2019Keeffe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Questions about whether Sun Prairie appropriately appreciates Georgia O\u2019Keeffe, and how the artist felt about her hometown, are not new. They matter because O\u2019Keeffe mattered, significantly, in 20th-century America.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe undisputed doyenne of American painting,\u201d The New York Times noted in O\u2019Keeffe\u2019s 1986 obituary, calling her \u201ca reclusive but overwhelming personality\u201d and \u201ca woman in what was for a long time a man\u2019s world.\u201d Of her art, The Times wrote: \u201cHer colors dazzled, her erotic implications provoked and stimulated, her subjects astonished and amused.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Keeffe was born in Sun Prairie in 1887, stayed in the area until she was 15, but eventually moved to Virginia, where her family had moved.<\/p>\n
Sunshine Anderson, programming and design coordinator at the historical library and museum, thinks Sun Prairie\u2019s ambivalence about fully embracing the artist may date back more than a century, when O\u2019Keeffe met famed photographer Alfred Stieglitz, who became her husband.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the 1910s, he took photographs of her that were quite risqu\u00e9 and scandalous,\u201d Anderson says. \u201cAt the time, that\u2019s not something the people of Sun Prairie would have embraced.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anderson also notes that since O\u2019Keeffe never again lived in Sun Prairie, it was natural for the relationship with her birthplace to \u201cpeter out\u2009\u2014\u2009[but] it doesn\u2019t necessarily mean there\u2019s any bad blood.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Keeffe did return more than once\u2009\u2014\u2009one of her sisters, Catherine, lived in Portage\u2009\u2014\u2009including for a 1942 visit to receive an honorary doctor of letters degree from the University of Wisconsin.<\/p>\n
The episode that most conveys acrimony between the artist and her hometown occurred in the 1970s, when O\u2019Keeffe Park\u2009\u2014\u2009named for the artist\u2009\u2014\u2009became instead Sheehan Park, renamed for two brothers, longtime Sun Prairie educators and coaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think Georgia O\u2019Keeffe warrants having a park named after her,\u201d Sun Prairie Park Commissioner Charles Hoffman told the Wisconsin State Journal in November 1976. \u201cThe only thing she wanted to do is charge the city for one of her paintings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chase says New York Times writer Edith Evans Asbury (who eventually penned O\u2019Keeffe\u2019s Times obituary) later visited Sun Prairie and inquired about the city\u2019s ill will toward the artist.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said she stopped and asked at a gas station,\u201d Chase says, \u201cand the attendant said, \u2018I don\u2019t know no George O\u2019Keeffe.\u2019\u200a\u201d<\/p>\n
One of Sun Prairie\u2019s favorite sons, former U.S. Ambassador to Norway Tom Loftus, cautions against making too much of the park imbroglio.<\/p>\n
Loftus says Curtis and Francis Sheehan were \u201clegendary teachers\u201d deserving of having a park named for them. \u201cHonoring teachers happens too seldom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of O\u2019Keeffe, Loftus says, \u201cShe\u2019s a history lesson for kids, and that\u2019s great, too. Her historical marker is right at the municipal building. I think people are quite proud of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Photo by Larry Chua<\/p>\n
Beyond the historical marker, O\u2019Keeffe Avenue on the city\u2019s south side is named for the artist, and, according to museum director Katie Scanlan, \u201cabout a third of our exhibit space is dedicated to Georgia O\u2019Keeffe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chase, O\u2019Keeffe\u2019s indefatigable advocate in Sun Prairie, appreciates what has been done, but hopes for more. Chase has given numerous talks about the artist\u2009\u2009\u2014\u2009including one by invitation in Ireland\u2009\u2014\u2009and maintains a library of more than 380 books about O\u2019Keeffe and Stieglitz.<\/p>\n
Chase notes that a new $75 million Georgia O\u2019Keeffe Museum is scheduled to open in 2028 in Santa Fe\u2009\u2014\u2009the artist lived and worked in New Mexico for many years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy can\u2019t we put up something smaller here?\u201d Chase says. \u201cA dedicated museum? We should be capitalizing on \u2018the birthplace of Georgia O\u2019Keeffe.\u2019 Santa Fe will work with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The festival in June did bring O\u2019Keeffe\u2019s name again to the fore, while providing the artists a chance to find their own inspiration in her life and work.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really exciting and kind of terrifying to have that kind of freedom,\u201d Zaremba, the Madison muralist, says.<\/p>\n
The people of Sun Prairie came out in large numbers in June\u2009\u2014\u2009braving rain and heat\u2009\u2014\u2009to watch the artists.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was amazing,\u201d Zaremba says.<\/p>\n
The mural wall is meant to be a permanent addition to the Sun Prairie downtown, taking its place in the complex history of a legendary artist and her hometown.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a nod to Georgia,\u201d Sunshine Anderson says, \u201cand it contributes to the quality of life of people who really have built their lives in this community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doug Moe is a Madison writer and a former editor of Madison Magazine. Find more by Moe in his web-exclusive blog at madisonmagazine.com\/dougmoe<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u200bCOPYRIGHT 2025 BY MADISON MAGAZINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.<\/p>\n