Thinking Spring with Tammy Olson, Ken & Michelle Workowski



Tammy Olson is a mixed media artist who resides in rural Wisconsin.  After 15 years of working as a registered nurse, Tammy rediscovered her love for creating art and now spends her time as a stay-at-home mom and an artist.  Some of her favorite days are when she is able to find a little time to spend in her studio with a nice cup of hot tea, her pencils and paint.
In her art she enjoys bringing many different mediums together into one piece.  She works with watercolor, coffee, acrylic, ink, pencil, found papers, old text and recycled coffee filters.  She is especially fond of using recycled tea bags.  This works out wonderfully because she likes to drink a lot of tea! Tea bags are incredibly versatile, they can be painted, ripped, cut, drawn on and glued or used just as they are with their beautiful tea stained colors.   Tea bags have a wonderful transparency to them which gives them a bit of unpredictability when using them, but also can result in some delightful surprises!
Her work is filled with a lot of color.   She is drawn to bright, lively and vivid colors especially orange, lime green and aqua. 



Michelle and Ken Workowski are Featured VIVA Member Artists  in May.   They work with natural and sustainable materials in their home business The Nature of Things.  Their work includes beautifully crafted birch-bark frames, poplar-bark baskets, lamps, lampshades, antler chandeliers and more.  Come and see their unique creations






Driftless Art Festival Peoples Choice - Jamie Heiden




Jamie Heiden is a photographer first.  She gets the most satisfaction out of taking a picture.  But when she sits down at her computer, the beginnings unfold.  Most of her finished images contain multiple photographic layers.  Playing with each layer individually allows for a finished product ever-so-slightly varied from traditional photography and represents slices of time showing the magic in our reality; finding that little bit of fairytale everyday. 

Jamie has won the Driftless  Area Art Festival’s People’s Choice Award, sponsored by VIVA Gallery, for the last three years.

VIVA’s featured member artist is oil painter Lisbeth Quebe.  Liz’s work includes landscapes that feature the rolling hills of the Driftless Area, its creeks and streams, and its iconic family farms.  Her still life paintings resonate with people because of the subjects and the memories they prompt.  Her recent work includes farm animals, capturing the personality of cows and chickens on canvas.

Liz Quebe  - VIVA Gallery Featured Member in April






Pete Daniels February Guest Artist / M'Lou Wilke Featured VIVA Member Artist

Pete Daniels Artist Statement

            In nature, the paradox of mystery and logic, flatness and thrust, stillness and torrent, the gray of solitude and the color of community all await observation and experience.

            A simple line separates the water from the sky.  Repeating hexagons form the structure for the community of bees.

            Nature first inspired me to seek peace.  Nature inspires much of my art. 

In this show I explore the dynamic between water and sky, so magnificently observable on the shore of an ocean or great lake.  I explore the hexagon and the circle, often hidden structures, but brought into my experience as a beekeeper or gardener.  Yet the sun and the moon are there every day, and when I remind myself to take them in again I am fascinated by the mystery of the simplicity of their form.

I enjoy working conceptually, and exploring my concepts and subjects in the abstract and surreal, yet informed by realistic subjects.

Art, for me is an experience.  Thank you for journeying with me.








M'Lou Wilke
Featured VIVA Member Artist




From M'Lou

I work in a variety of mediums as I am an art educator. Stained glass and beaded jewelry are the two mediums that represent me at VIVA Gallery. I am focused on species of birds and flora found in the Driftless region for my original stained glass designs. My beadwork is all about color and texture and intricate processes such as brick stitch, peyote stitch and bead knitting.  





Happy 2013 • Our January Headliners

Daryl Skrupky was a guest at our Holiday Market in November and December.  He's at VIVA on his own for January.  Come see his spectacular work, it features fish, deer and turkeys.  He loves the outdoors and puts that love into his art.

Maureen is a VIVA founding member, she took some time off to focus on teaching, now she and her work are back at VIVA.  She is always exploring new ideas in her art, her work is beautiful and functional.  Come, See.






November and December Holiday Market at VIVA

Viva Gallery wants holiday shoppers to find more variety this year at the gallery.  We invited 8 Guest Artists!  Shopper and Gallery-goers can peruse the handmade, local art and find lots of great gifts now through December, there's something for everyone!

Besides our member works and goods we have:
Amy Arnold - Peepwool hats and pot-holders
Terry Beck - beautiful hand-carved wooden spoons
Zeba Due - wire-wrapped stone and gem jewelry
Jeauxi Gaines - Handmade creations from upcycled materials
Joseph Schwarte - Handmade cutting boards and custom furniture
Nick Smolen - Hand-forged ornamental iron work
Daryl Skrupky - realistic pencil drawings of wildlife
Jensine D. Wing - Jewelry creator using semi-precious stones, copper, sterling or brass










October Guest Artist Jack Hill, Photographer and Anne Tedeschi, Featured VIVA Artist


Jack Hill Photography



In October, VIVA Gallery (Viroqua Independent Visual Artists Cooperative) welcomes Fine Art Photographer Jack Hill.  Jack studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Center of the Eye School of photography I Aspen. Colorado.
Jack began his work with film photography.  He now uses the knowledge gained from traditional photography with digital techniques and processes.  He makes his own prints using archival pigment inks with a variety of fine art papers.
Jack resides in the beautiful and photogenic Kickapoo River Valley.  He works to create pictures that reach out with an invitation to enter emotionally and explore.  He loves images that grow and allow for a deepening relationship.  His goal is to present work which stimulates the people that view it.
The VIVA Featured Member Artist for October is :  Anne Tedeschi,  Watercolorist.  She will have   “Pouring Watercolor”  Demonstrations on October 13 &17th :  11:00 AM and 2:00 PM.
The gallery is located at: 217 South Main Street in Viroqua.  For more information you can contact the gallery at 608-637-6918 or visit us on the web at www.vivagallery.net.  See Jack and Anne's work at the artist cooperative gallery throughout the month of October, as well as the work of 18
members. 






Anne Tedeschi, Watercolorist




September Guest and Featured Artist Member






In September, VIVA Gallery (Viroqua Independent Visual Artists Cooperative) welcomes Laura Siitari as our guest artist for September. Laura has always thought of herself as an artist, starting with scratching “The Creature” in scary letters into the windowsill as a child. She earned her degree in painting from UW-Milwaukee. In 1999, she and her husband moved from Milwaukee to the Mississippi River valley area, where she began painting again in earnest, including running a gallery for five years in Lansing, Iowa. Laura is often drawn to familiar objects and scenery.

 Her intent is to show the grace and tranquility of everyday scenes as an antidote to the fast-paced, mindless routines so many of us get caught up in. Though her style is realistic, she is not trying to fool the eye; rather, to distill the elegance of shapes, patterns and mystery of shadows.


Our featured artist member in September is Monica Jagel. She describes her work as simple in
composition, with colored pencil the details shine. She loves the nuance and subtleties of the medium. Through her work her passion is revealed – the diversity, beauty and intricacy of the natural world. If she can make someone pause and consider the importance of protecting the natural environment she has succeeded in her work. 





a Halloween card by Monica Jagel
look for it at VIVA!