Sara Willadsen: Artist in Residence at Huiras Lake State Natural Area

October 7, 2025  |  Topics: featured artist

---

The Natural Realm presents Sara Willadsen, who is among 10 artists participating in a year-long residency program called ARTservancy, now in its sixth year. ARTservancy is a collaboration between Gallery 224 in Port Washington and the Restoring Lands Land Trust, (formerly Ozaukee Washington Land Trust and River Revitalization Foundation).  Milwaukee Area Land Conservancy, Tall Pines Conservancy, and Lake Michigan Bird Observatory. The mission of ARTservancy is to promote the visionary work of both the artists and conservationists. Each artist has selected a preserve to spend time in and to engage with.

Reflections from the Artist

During my ARTservancy residency at Huiras Lake State Natural Area, I have spent the past nine months walking, observing, and documenting its unique and varied physical landscape. The site features a dynamic blend of lake, hardwood forest, conifer swamp and open prairie, a source of endless inspiration and depth. Working primarily with paint, collage, and mixed media, I allow the environment to guide my practice both visually and conceptually, shaping a new body of work that responds directly to this landscape.

My creative process has evolved organically through repeated interaction with the space. Each visit to Huiras Lake reveals something new, like subtle seasonal shifts, while also reinforcing familiar elements, such as the persistent presence of cattails and sumac. These observations continually inform my materials, color choices, and compositions. From the beginning, I approached this residency as a focused extension of my broader studio practice, which has always drawn from my immediate surroundings and used abstraction as a way to process and respond to the world around me.

While working in the studio, I’ve been developing a series of collages, cyanotypes, and paintings that document my interaction and collaboration with the land. This includes site-specific techniques such as rubbings from trees, cyanotype prints made in the studio using photographs taken during my visits, and laser-cut paper elements inspired by native shapes and organic forms. I incorporate a variety of materials, including acrylic, ink, modeling paste, tissue paper, pumice and found fabrics, to mimic the textures, colors, and layering found in the environment. These layered and tactile compositions function as abstracted landscapes, both real and imagined, built from fragments of my experience at Huiras Lake.

The site’s untouched landscape, set within a rapidly developing area of southeastern Wisconsin, makes it a vital refuge for wildlife. It provides both a home and a sanctuary for a wide range of animals and plants that might otherwise have nowhere else to thrive. As I walk the trails or observe from the water’s edge, I’m constantly reminded of how delicate and essential this ecosystem is. My goal with this residency has been not only to highlight the beauty and richness of this protected space but also to advocate for its continued preservation.

The formal qualities of the preserve, its variety of habitats, textures, and colors, have reshaped the way I approach my work. My studio process is fast-paced and intuitive. I move quickly between pieces, layering and editing with a sense of urgency that often mirrors the energy of the natural world. While improvisational and sometimes aggressive, this approach is grounded by a sense of when to stop, when a piece feels complete. I frequently reuse and recontextualize patterns and marks from past works, layering them into new compositions. This allows me to draw connections between past and present experiences, between internal states and external environments.

Throughout this residency, I’ve found myself not just creating, but also reflecting, emotionally and intellectually, on what this habitat represents. Huiras Lake has become a space of refuge, comfort, and growth. This yearlong immersion has allowed me to engage with the environment more fully than a shorter residency could, revealing subtle details and rhythms I might otherwise have missed. This sustained attention has shifted how I think about space, time, and ecology in my work.

Primarily, this residency has been about building a relationship with place. My art has always been a way of responding to the world around me, and Huiras Lake has offered a rare opportunity to do that with a deeper level of focus and care. The resulting work is not a literal documentation of the site, but rather a series of layered, abstracted reflections built from memory, material, and emotional resonance. I hope the work invites viewers to slow down, to look more closely, and to consider the value of these kinds of spaces.

Gallery

BIO

Working primarily with paint and various collage elements, I create abstract works that explore constructed spaces and objects influenced by my surroundings. I earned a BA in Studio Art and Graphic Arts from Lakeland University and an MFA in Painting from Northern Illinois University. My work has been featured in New American Paintings, and I exhibit regularly in both regional and national shows. I currently work as a visual artist and graphic designer in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

Website: SaraWilladsen.com

This residency is sponsored Restoring Lands: A Wisconsin Land Trust. Additional ARTservancy artists in residence at other sites can be found here.

This is the latest in our series of featured artists, which is intended to showcase the work of photographers, artists, writers and other creative individuals in our community whose subjects or themes relate in some broad sense to nature, urban nature, people in nature, etc. To see a list of previously featured artists, click here. The work of the 2022-2023 ARTservancy artists in residence is currently being exhibited monthly at Gallery 224. To meet the other ARTservancy artists in residence, click here and then use the drop-down menu.

All images courtesy of the artist, except as noted. The featured photo at the top of Sara Willadsen at Huiras Lake is by Eddee Daniel. Restoring Lands is a project partner of A Wealth of Nature.

About Preserve Our Parks

Preserve Our Parks, Inc. is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of parks and green spaces.  Our mission: To advocate for and promote Milwaukee area parks and open spaces and to strive to protect the tenets of Wisconsin’s Public Trust Doctrine. 

For more than 25 years, we have been a leader in advocating for the protection of Milwaukee County park lands, halting many proposals to develop, privatize, or sell local parkland and lakefront spaces.  More information about POP, including past accomplishments, is available at www.preserveourparks.org.

---