Spring is on its way, but some northern Illinois artists have frozen the essence of winter for an upcoming art auction. WNIJ’s Yvonne Boose and Jess Savage took a trip to Volo Bog to capture the experience.
This journey took us all the way to Ingleside, Illinois — about 30 miles north of Elgin. The nature center at the bog was warm and cozy but the art on the wall depicted beautiful icy images for its Winter Art Show and Silent Auction. You can see things like a picture of a naked tree covered in snow created by Joyce John, 92, of McHenry. She appropriately named this piece “Winter Lace.”
“The Barn Owl here by Barbara Wagner. It's just so gorgeous. And a barn owl is a ubiquitous bird that is species wise,” said Stacy Iwanicki, natural resources coordinator at the bog. “It's a worldwide bird, but it's also kind of a rare bird, and in Illinois, it doesn't like cold weather too much, so it's more found to the southern half of Illinois.”
Iwanicki said she prefers to go by naturalist and environmental educator. She recalled the first time the center used art to celebrate nature.
“A reporter walked in the front door and asked me how we were celebrating International Bog Day,” she said, “I'd never heard of it. This was 2008. I've been working here since 1987 so we're talking 21 years.
International Bog Day is the fourth Sunday in July. Iwanicki said the first show focused on bogs.
Iwanicki said some of the images on the wall are from the bog but some of them are inspired by the landscape of Northeastern Illinois, like Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry County Conservation District areas and other sites.
Lisa Haag was there bidding on some of the works. She’s the neighbor of the 92-year-old artist who created the “Winter Lace” piece.
“I found out about the bog here because of her having her own art shows here, but that was years ago,” she explained, “but we have a walking club that we started, and we go through the rotation of all the local parks, the Volo Bog, the Dam, Moraine Hills, Glacial Chain of Lakes.”
This art show isn’t specifically about bogs but there are times where the center has those types. Iwanicki said those have a different twist.
“And participating in bogs and art is a challenge, because our artists are not necessarily - most of them - all that deeply scientific,” Iwanicki said.
A bog is a wetland with plants. However, I won’t go too deep into the mossy waters with an explanation. I’ll leave that up to our environmental reporter Jess Savage.
Volo is the only remaining open water quaking bog in Illinois. Among other natural features, its main attraction is a big, floating mass of wetland plants like sphagnum moss. The plants are slowly creeping in from the edges of an old glacial lake, left behind when glaciers receded about 12 thousand years ago.
It received a National Natural Landmark Designation in 1973, and it is protected and managed by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
Iwanicki said art shows like this one help to bring people, who might not typically come out to the bog, experience it in their own way.
“We started doing art shows to bring in artists and people who love art. And then, while we've got them here, it's like, hey, you know, go out into the bog itself. Go hike, go enjoy nature.”
Bidder Lisa Haag points to the opportunity visitors have to connect the works of art to the world that surrounds us – an opportunity to be curious and do a bit of research.
“They need to come to a place like this and see what a hand of a human actually does. And then maybe they can Google the bird and say, Wow, that's pretty good.”
Illinois has lost more than 90% of its wetlands, mainly due to agriculture and development. Volo Bog’s protected status allows visitors to experience an ecosystem that is now difficult to find in the state.
Artists who come out to paint or draw Volo Bog get to see the area in an even more special light, Iwanicki said.
“You've set up an easel, and you're out there for an hour or two, things start happening around you that aren't going to happen if you're just passing through," she said. "Because the critters react to you intruding upon their space. They hide, they scurry, they fly, they disappear, they go down their burrow. But if you're standing there for 10 minutes, quietly doing your thing and not looking at them, then they come back out and they start doing their thing again, like you're not there. It's like you become invisible.”
Ultimately, Iwanicki said that it’s about getting out into these spaces and being curious about what you find -- which, hopefully, leads to a desire to protect what we’ve got left.
“People don't understand what they don't experience," she added, "and people don't love what they don't understand, and they don't experience. You've got to be out there.”
Artists will receive 75% of the auction’s proceeds, while 25% go towards protecting and restoring Volo Bog. The show closes on March 2.
