Sculpture – an intuitive perspective

July 26, 2026

Stealth Public Sculpture In Milwaukee County’s Lake Park! Fini?

I have posted six different posts about the “Stealth Public Sculpture In Milwaukee County’s Lake Park!” starting in unbelievably, 2021. They have moved and morphed and engaged me constantly over that period. I have linked all of the posts below if you want to review their history as much as I have been able to gather.

In the post just prior to this, I posted that the sculptor works under the alias of McMo. We learned that from a comment eventually posted on my very first stealth sculpture post. But McMo to my knowledge has been quiet recently and I thought all of his work had been removed late last fall, even the grande dame on private property just north of Villa Terrace Museum (see post #1 for photos).

And early this year into spring Milwaukee County was particularly aggressive in removing brush and dead trees along Lincoln Memorial Drive. So I thought an era had ended.

But then one day while heading home from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, late in the 2025 2026 Spring semester, a small stand alone piece appeared just south Colectivo Coffee where Athena’s Necklace had stood for a number of years (see the Stealth Public Sculpture In Milwaukee County’s Lake Park! McMo link below for a photo). I was very happy to see a work appear there again and I really fell in love with it. It had smaller appendages, more egg like, smaller in scale, smoother in texture, similar to his earlier work. Maybe six such eggs skewered on rods again and supported by a round or oval concrete base sitting on the bare ground. I expected it to last a while in situ, so I didn’t rush to get a photo…sadly.

But it was replaced by a large, long, bright, very energetic piece that plays back to McMo’s strength. Formed washed concrete or stone against rusting steel rods embedded and embracing a dead and collapsed tree trunk and waving in the air for all of us to admire. A perfect amalgam of man-made collapsing structure wedded with the end of life phase of the natural environment.

I am suspecting that this play has run…so I have included Fini? in the title. But it has been a marvelous experience viewing and documenting these works.

If you go to visit this incredibly beautiful work of art, please please please, be respectful of the work and the environment.

I think I know of one other piece but it is at a private residence. So I just smile and nod whenever I pass that way.

And the other links are here:

Stealth Public Sculpture In Milwaukee County’s Lake Park!

Stealth Public Sculpture In Milwaukee County’s Lake Park! Part 2

Stealth Public Sculpture In Milwaukee County’s Lake Park! Part 3: It’s Alive!

Stealth Public Sculpture In Milwaukee County’s Lake Park! Part 4: New Sculpture and Some Disappearing Acts

Stealth Public Sculpture In Milwaukee County’s Lake Park! Part 5: One New Sculpture and Two Disappearing Acts

Stealth Public Sculpture In Milwaukee County’s Lake Park! And The Sculptor Is? McMo

October 19, 2024March 23, 2025

Stealth Public Sculpture In Milwaukee County’s Lake Park! And The Sculptor Is? McMo

In case you missed it, Dan left a comment on my original post Stealth Public Sculpture In Milwaukee County’s Lake Park! (I am guessing Dan Randa from what I gather from the website) His comment: ” The artist is a local Milwaukee resident who goes by the name of “McMo”. You can find everything you need to know at his website:
http://www.mcmo.is”

Well yes, the website identifies the sculptor as McMo but that is an alias and we aren’t really much closer to who McMo is. But here is some of the information from the landing page on his site:

Who Is McMo? McMo is an Earthworks Artist who creates and displays Earthworks Art on Lincoln Memorial Drive in Milwaukee Wisconsin. Displayed just down the road from the Milwaukee Art Museum are his Milwaukee Lakefront Art Installations built from materials found off the Shores of Lake Michigan. They have been described by his colleagues as “Brutal Elegance“, and have garnered local critical acclaim from the Milwaukee artist community.

And from his ABOUT page, a little more detail:

THE MCMO VISION McMo has been hand crafting beautiful installations, creating stunning designs, and making clients happy for years. With his remarkable eye for Earthworks and Land Art, combined with an everlasting thirst for pop-up installations, McMo has propelled himself onto a new artistic plateau as a Milwaukeean. McMo describes his art as “BRUTAL ELEGANCE“, due to the rigorous and tiresome process of moving massive pieces of newly discovered stone, metal, and mortar to his art space, where he bends, modify’s, constructs, designs, and builds his BRUTALLY ELEGANT art installations.

Please visit his site because he has a gallery of his work going back some years and they are quite beautiful as are the public sculptures that he has installed along Lincoln Memorial Drive over the years. The photos that I am using to illustrate this article were taken from his site. I wanted to show different pieces than those I photographed in situ. And he briefly describes his process for assembling raw materials, assembling his pieces, and then installing and distributing them. He also has pieces that are available for sale.

One fun bit of whimsy is the physical address shown on the ABOUT page: 2400 N Lincoln Memorial Dr Milwaukee, WI 53211. That just happens to be the art deco bath house building at Bradford Beach!!

So there you have it, part of the mystery is solved. And I for one will keep an eye out for other pieces as they may appear!! Thank you for your art, McMo!

McMo: ATHENA’S NECKLACE. 2023. This piece is currently on view just south of Colectivo Coffee on the west side of Lincoln Memorial Drive in Milwaukee.

May 1, 2024

What The Folk? American Objects From The UWM Art Collections!

This is a very exciting and challenging show and I apologize for taking so long to post about it. What The Folk? is a show of American Art Objects selected from the UWM Art Collections by curators Professor Kay Wells and Gallery Director Leigh Mahlik as well as students from Prof. Wells art history class on American Folk Art. The show is in the Emile H Mathis Gallery in Mitchell Hall and runs through May 9, 2024. The gallery is open from 10 AM to 4 PM next Monday through Thursday and admission is free and it is open to the public. If you want some additional background on the Mathis, check out my earlier post here.

The University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee is fortunate to have an extensive collection of objects that fall into the various categories that make up the broad arena of Folk Art. This particular show focuses on American art objects, but of course not all Folk Art is American.

What The Folk? presents us with objects in all media, from paintings to sculpture, from assemblages to collage, from paper silhouettes to tin cutout street scenes and table top dioramas. All in a panoply of color and style…and just a joy to behold. But it’s not just the visuals that inform here. There is a clear explanation of the sub-genres considered part of Folk Art written on the walls of the exhibit: Outsider Art; Americana; Visionary Art; Self Taught Art. So at this point I am going to stop writing and just show you a few of my favorites from the show!!