On the Road: Madeline Island, WI

When I left on my two-week teaching junket, it was summer in Maine—when I arrived on Madeline Island it was a very similar summer in Wisconsin, with just a tinge of fall. I was teaching for MISA, Madeline Island School of the Arts, headquartered on a farmstead in the middle of the island.

MISA is the vision of Charlie Meech. The school typically offers a wide variety of different artistic instruction, such as painting, photography, and writing. Its location on Madeline Island actually reminded me of home, the coast of Maine. Its proximity to water, its climate, the fact that its a vacation-oriented area, all are similar to where I live. MISA also offers winter sessions in Arizona (see my post On the Road: MISA at Tanque Verde, Tucson, AZ) and where I’ll be heading back to next January. MISA also has winter sessions in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

But where, you may ask, is Madeline Island? Well, take a look at the back-of-the-seat screens below, taken from my airplane seat upon landing in Minneapolis—prior to my final puddle-jump connection to Duluth. On the left (click on any photos for a larger view), there’s a white airplane superimposed over the map in the center of the USA, which shows the general location. The right photo shows a close-up. North of that plane is Duluth, my next stop. To the east of Duluth (and in Wisconsin) is a bump of land into Lake Superior, and off the tip of that bump is a grouping of islands called the Apostle Islands. Madeline Island is the largest of the 22 Apostle Islands at 14 miles long and 3 miles wide, and was my final destination.

The worst part about travel is of course: the travel. The destinations are dependably wonderful. It’s the getting there that’s no fun. Fortunately the flights to Duluth were uneventful (unlike my return trip which you’ll read about next week).

As I was making my final connection in Minneapolis, I was approached by two ladies who recognized me. They were students in my upcoming class at the Madeline Island School of the Arts. They were on the same flight and offered to share a rental car to make the final 2.5 hour drive from the airport to Madeline Island. This was much appreciated as I had been up all night previously in order to catch the 3:15 a.m. bus from Portland, Maine to Logan Airport in Boston.

Sandi and Beverly were great travel companions. The talk was lively enough that I didn’t even begin to get sleepy. We took the scenic route along the southern shore of Lake Superior, stretching our legs in the little town of Cornucopia, above. We had seen a billboard for Ehler’s Country Store (established 1915!) and thought it a good excuse to stop. What fun to find tourist photo-ops as well! And I didn’t even have to twist Sandi and Bev’s arms to pose for me. That’s Bev up in the chair with me, they’re together in the “postcard”, and Sandi is in the “kayak” with me below. That one was taken after we arrived in Bayfield, waiting for the ferry to Madeline Island and completing our voyage to MISA.

It’s a short ferry trip to Madeline Island from Bayfield. Above and below, first glimpses of the little town of LaPointe on the western side of the island.

An even shorter mile and a half drive due east got us to the quaint farmstead that is the Madeline Island School of the Arts.

Because of its relative isolation in the countryside, it was very quiet and dark at night. The stars were usually out with clear viewing of the Milky Way. One night there was the sound of a saxophone and drum joining the late summer crickets, coming across from the barn. A student had brought her drum and another student’s husband had brought his saxophone. The next night they performed for all of us.

Grazing in the tall grass is MISA’s resident bovine (below left), keeping us company during our picnic table lunches. Wait, she didn’t move since the day before… hmmm… she’s kinda thin… like plywood. Charlie of MISA just smiled—he moves her around every so often, just for the fun of it.

The class space is beautiful. Because we had the place to ourselves, we expanded into the two classrooms to give us more space to work and move around. A nice addition to my teaching tools was a demonstration table set up for painting. It had a mirror above it and angled so everyone could view what I was doing very easily. It made for a great place to begin the day’s demo with my 19 students.

The MISA employees were all very nice and helpful. Erin took care of signing people up, Kelley was my contact and always available, and Carol visited the class with camera in hand. The following slide show is some of the photos she took while I was otherwise occupied. Thanks to all involved!

Happy Class Slideshow

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The class bonded very well and were able to commiserate and help each other during the first couple tough going days. They certainly pulled through though, check out their work in the slides below.

Student Classwork Slideshow

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Dive Bar and Ark for the Arts Car Slideshow

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Dinner was provided in the MISA barn the first two weeknights, no doubt adding to the bonding experience. A couple other evenings, about half took off for a local restaurant, others split into smaller groups—two were there with husbands, and there was one sister pair.

One dinner was at the Seiche Cafe. I didn’t even think twice about the name until someone asked me if I knew what it meant. No, not at all. Sounds kinda French? So what, pray tell, does seiche mean?

A seiche is a phenomenon similar to a tide or storm surge that happens on large bodies of water such as Lake Superior. Superior does have a teeny tiny tide, about two inches worth during the full moon. But sometimes wind or high or low pressure pushes on the water so that it gets “piled up” against one shore. Then when that pressure is released the water sloshes back. Imagine water sloshing back and forth in a tub. The changes in water level can be dramatic, causing dangerous flooding or stranding boats as the water drains away. Seiche is a French word meaning to sway back and forth, and considering the Seiche Cafe served alcohol, maybe the swaying they were referring to was from its guests after they’ve had a few too many. (Thank you to my husband Tom, for researching and providing this full explanation.)

Parked next to the student cottages are bicycles for general use. One early morning I commandeered a cute and basic one-speed and headed east hoping for a good sunrise. On the map below, I peddled from #3 to #6 and back—about 9 miles by my estimation.

The only sunrise I got that cloudy morning was at “Turtle Crossing” (photo below)—marked on map above between #4 and #5. On the way back I noticed a pretty little pond at about that same spot, island side.

When class ended on Friday, and most everyone had dispersed, I had about 24 hours before my next flight and destination. That evening I was able to catch up with a friend from 40 years ago, meeting in walkable Bayfield, on the other side of the ferry.

I highly recommend The Fat Radish for a fresh and delicious varied menu—good for vegans and omnivores alike. Then I caught the second-to-last nighttime ferry back to Madeline Island.

On Saturday morning, Charlie took me and Martha (a last remaining student) for a little tour of the Big Bay parks—both the State Park and Town Park. Charlie spent summers on the island with his family and is a wealth of information about Madeline Island.

Madeline Island’s Ojibwe name means “Home of the Golden Breasted Woodpecker” (or flicker). Charlie pointed out their nesting holes in the trees, photo below. I was told the birds were often sighted around MISA, I was hoping to but didn’t see any.

Charlie took us to a point of land in Big Bay State Park that MISA painting classes tend to gravitate to—photos above and below. It’s no wonder. If it wouldn’t be for fabric scraps blowing in the wind, I’m sure my students would like to spend the day at that location as well. However, fabric collage is just not a plein air art form.

After parting with Charlie and Martha, I had a few more hours to explore the island on my own. Borrowing the school’s van, I went back to the Big Bay Parks with their lovely views and trails, a few photos are below.

Big Bay, Madeline Island Slideshow

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Before catching a late afternoon ferry back to the mainland, I checked out a couple of the local art galleries in the downtown of LaPointe. Could have used some more time there, heard their museum is very nice. Something else for next time.

Via a shuttle, I was back in Duluth by evening and re-packing for the next leg of my teaching trip to the Stitchin’ Post in Sisters, Oregon, which you’ll read about in next week’s post.