Wendi Turchan-Martin: Artist in Residence at Huiras Lake State Natural Area
June 2, 2026 | Topics: featured artist
The Natural Realm presents Wendi Turchan-Martin, who is among 12 artists participating in a year-long residency program called ARTservancy, now in its seventh year. ARTservancy is a collaboration between Gallery 224 in Port Washington and the Restoring Lands Land Trust, 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
I spend a great deal of time in the thinking and planning phases of artmaking. When it is time to act, I work quickly and intuitively. I may spend hours with my sketchbook, arranging scraps of paper, drawing weaving plans by hand, looking through patterns, or staring out the studio window noticing subtle seasonal changes. Although weaving software could speed up parts of the process, I value the slowness and physicality of working things out by hand.
I like to generate many fragments and possibilities to work from and edit through over time. I paint on paper, canvas, and linen, weave lengths of yardage, and later return to the accumulated pile of pieces to discover what wants to emerge. Rarely do I begin with a finished product in mind. The elements in my sketchbooks remain fragments — ideas that may later become part of something else when the time feels right. The process itself becomes inseparable from the work. The observing, collecting, waiting, and rearranging are not preliminary steps — they are the practice.
During my walks at the Huiras Lake State Natural Area, I find myself drawn equally to the large expanses of sumac trees and the small patches of moss growing on rocks. I am currently working on a weaving inspired by the ripples of water on the lake, while also developing larger paper weavings that track the seasonal changes of the sumac trees.
I consider myself a landscape painter and weaver, and I am grateful for the opportunity to explore one location over an extended period of time. My work often blends memory, history, and personal experience into landscape, but this is the first time I have worked so directly and continuously with a specific place.
Gallery
Bio
I am an interdisciplinary artist invested in the language of painting and the structure of weaving. I create woven paintings that reference landscapes, domestic interiors, maternal bodies, and everyday experiences. Through an intuitive process boundaries blur—between soft and hard, personal and abstract, surface and structure. I consider my work a quiet, persistent act of unraveling and remaking, exploring how histories, emotions, and spaces are held and transformed through material.
I have an MFA from the University of Oregon and have exhibited both nationally and internationally. Selected exhibitions include Disjecta (Portland, OR), Manifest Gallery (Cincinnati, OH), Ceres Gallery (New York, NY), and the Museum of Wisconsin Art (West Bend, WI). I have been awarded artist residencies at the Peninsula School of Art and Playa at Summer Lake.
In addition to my studio practice, I lead workshops focused on creativity and experimentation within 2D art practices. I have taught foundations-level courses at universities in Oregon and Wisconsin and recently served as a Museum Educator at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center.
For more information about Huiras Lake State Natural Area go to our Find-a-Park page.
Related stories:
Cynthia Lorenz: Artist in Residence at Huiras Lake State Natural Area. (2019)
Emily Rudolph: Artist in Residence at Huiras Lake State Natural Area. (2023)
Jordan Acker Anderson: Artist in Residence at Huiras Lake State Natural Area (2024)
Sara Willadsen: Artist in Residence at Huiras Lake State Natural Area (2025)
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 Wendi Turchan-Martin at Huiras Lake is by Eddee Daniel. Restoring Lands is a project partner of A Wealth of Nature.
The Natural Realm blog is part of A Wealth of Nature, which is a project of Preserve Our Parks.
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.