Madison Locally Sourced–March/April 2023

Amy S. Johnson designers

Jennifer Denman, Crea Stellmacher, Linda Walker

administration

Lisa Abler, Olivia Seehafer

contributing writers

Chris Gargan, Off the Block, Kaitlin Svabek photographer

Eric Tadsen

Arlene Koziol, Off the Block, John Pahlas, Crystal Sutheimer

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A new year finds us with a new name. After a one-issue production break, we’re back with Madison Locally Sourced (spiritual successor of Madison Essentials ), and we continue our work to bring you the stories of the local people, places, and things that contribute to our communities and make them great.

You may notice the number of pages in this issue is a little smaller, but the articles themselves are as big and impactful as ever. We’re happy to highlight in our Eats & Drinks issue restaurants Ancora Cafe + Bakery and Cambridge Market Cafe, the wonderful Josey Chu and her Madame Chu sauces, and Mentoring Positives’ Off the Block program and products. We also continue to include Wisconsin artists starting with John Pahlas, and Madison Audubon has contributed a wonderful article about spring migration and the protection of birds.

My colleagues and I wish to offer our thanks to our readers, writers, photographers, and advertising sponsors (they’re great and you should visit them), many of whom have been with us and supported us since 2004. We are grateful, and we couldn’t have done this for 18 years without all of you. We look forward to bringing you more great stories for many more years to come.

cover photograph

Avocado Toast with Sunny Egg from Ancora Cafe + Bakery taken by Eric Tadsen

photographs on page 3 ( left to right ):

Cambridge Market taken by Eric Tadsen

Mentoring Positives provided by Off the Block Buck provided by John Pahlas Madame Chu taken by Eric Tadsen

Ancora

by

What would the world be like without Seattle? It’s a question I don’t think anyone should bother asking themselves, but here goes. The Packers would probably have at least one more Lombardi trophy. The introspective grunge movement would be without Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains. Oh, and there’d be no Ancora Cafe + Bakery in Madison, Wisconsin.

In 1994, when Friends and its iconic Central Perk forced a fabrication of East Coast coffee lifestyle into our homes, George and Sue Krug brought what they loved about West Coast coffee comfortably into our lives. Their sense of community and custom roasts took them all the way to their 2013 retirement. Six months before, however, they hired a fresh-out-of-college Tori Gerding.

Tori was meant to manage marketing and sales. She had a strong background in the service industry, mainly bartending, but was looking to put her business degree to work in an office setting. That perception

Kyle Jacobson

Mint Chocolate Zombie

changed when presented with the opportunity to take over Ancora after George and Sue metamorphosed from badgers to snowbirds.

A true brunchard, she always knew food had to be a core component of the business and its logo/interior updates. One problem, Ancora wasn’t designed with kitchen space in mind. Finding funding to move to a larger location proved challenging, so the only option was to convince a bank that the current model was profitable enough to expand into a brunch-friendly venue.

Some of these changes included trying things Ancora hadn’t done before. Tori was generous with the credence she gave to advice from strangers. “People would say, ‘You should try this.’ And I was 23, so I was like, ‘Yeah, I should.’ I listened to everyone. What was I doing? They would say, ‘You should sell these buttons my Aunt Kathy made.’

“And I’d be like, ‘Oh my god, yes. I need those buttons in my café.’

“And like, ‘You should sell this woman’s granola bars. You need granola bars.’

“And I’d be like, ‘I do.’

“’You should be open late. You should have live music.’ I don’t think there’s anything we didn’t have at one point.”

Chorizo Hash

Irish Cream Cold Brew

Honey Bacon Biscuit

Madison’s LGBTQ magazine since 2007

These little unfocused ideas became time sucks and didn’t make financial sense. Tori also started to crystalize her vision. After two years working within the original Ancora model, Tori’s bank agreed to take a large risk on her to give her what she needed to move from Ancora’s tiny University Avenue location to something larger with a kitchen. The new location was a reimagining of Ancora. With new branding, a fresh interior, and a food menu, there was something buzzing in the air. Then again, it might just have been growing pains.

But she was quick to wise up to what food items would work: from-scratch sandwiches and breakfast items that were either quick to make or ready-made. People would have the option to enjoy them in the café’s quaint ambiance or while fighting traffic on the beltline. pretty darn good

With customers’ needs varied as they were, a core menu had to be developed that those patrons could rely on alongside the seasonal options. The staples would become five lunch options; five brunch entrées; and five breakfast sandwiches, including the “Honey Bacon Biscuit. House-made biscuit with fried egg and cheddar and some honey sriracha, chives. It’s really good—I came up with that one while very pregnant and craving sweet and spicy things.”

Also on the menu since the beginning was the Chorizo Hash, featuring breakfast potatoes and chorizo topped with salsa roja and crema as well as some over easy eggs and toast. But don’t worry if you don’t like the spice. There’s also an avocado toast that’s too good to be vegan, but totally is (maple glazed brussels sprouts, cashew cream, sliced avocado, pea shoots, and sunflower seeds). Then there’s pancakes, omelets, brisket, and plenty of other options for everyone.

Just as impressive is the rotating drink menu, featuring syrups made in house. Lattes ranging from blackberry sage to mint chocolate zombie give customers something familiar with a delicious twist, and the Irish Cream Cold Brew, infused with Irish cream syrup and topped with sweet cream cold foam and cocoa powder, is the refreshing deserty pick-me-up you never knew you needed.

Sprinkle Donut, Cinnamon Roll, Lemon Bar

Zeroing in on the menu is a constant endeavor, and Tori embraces the meaningful and strategic pivots. Where she was most tested goes back to a wellknown competitor moving a few doors down from Ancora on Capitol Square: Colectivo. This lesson was a wakeup call. Tori shared with me her compulsive need to see how busy the new neighbors were and that them being so brazen moving in must mean they don’t see her as competition.

Ancora competing against a growing and regionally established brand is not a unique story. This is what every business in Madison is contending with on some level. To her immense credit, Tori didn’t shrivel up. She was open in discussing the worries and stress the experience gave her, but tells me the only option was to get to work, deciding on the more difficult, more rewarding course. “I’ve spent the last five years really honing in the service aspect of our business and growing our food program. We were always known for great coffee, but I knew we could be so much more than that.” Today, when the Farmers’ Market comes around, her business quintuples.

Tori is also testament to the too-oftenignored titans that are Wisconsin’s small towns. Hailing from Valders, better known as the 10,349th largest city in the entire country, Tori’s graduating class numbered fewer than 60. It’s impossible to speculate as to how successful each of her peers are, but safe to say there is value to their experiences and significance in having them represented in larger cities.

Pulling a business through COVID and coming out stronger on the other end, paying employees a fair wage with

great healthcare benefits and financial incentives, Ancora’s heart is even larger than its success. It’s the legacy George and Sue probably didn’t know they were creating 29 years ago that provides a reason for them to keep coming back in the warmer months. If all this hasn’t given you enough reason to check out what’s going on at Ancora, I should mention that it’s worth it just to get a good old-fashioned cup of coffee—it’s pretty darn good.

Kyle Jacobson is a writer/editor who believes it’s easier to take three lefts than commit two wrongs.

Photographs by Eric Tadsen

Photograph by Barbara Wilson

Kyle Jacobson

Madame Chu

by Kyle Jacobson

Not long ago, on a continent relatively far away, there lived a lady who made some delicious snack food. She would come down from her high rise and sell the snacks without the proper license, which could’ve meant a hefty fine. But the people loved the snacks, so when the police inspector was spotted a few blocks away, a customer would come running up to the lady and tell her to hurry up and go. The woman would pack everything into either end of a carrying pole, throw the pole over her shoulder, and run as fast as she could.

The woman was Josey Chu’s grandmother on her father’s side, a Cantonese cook who would take all the time needed (be it hours or days) to prepare food the way her family had for generations. This served as half the

inspiration behind the Madison area’s Madame Chu sauces. In fact, Ginger Garlic, the local customer favorite of Josey’s three sauces, comes from this grandmother.

“The Ginger Garlic is our top seller because it’s so versatile,” says Josey. “We don’t encourage customers to cook the Ginger Garlic, but if you have a bowl of soup that’s already prepared, you can change and enhance the flavor by adding the Ginger Garlic over the top of your soup. Or if you have a pan of roasted vegetables, when you’re done roasting, you put it all in a bowl and then add a teaspoon or tablespoon of the sauce and toss it together.” Perhaps the easiest way

to think about how to use this sauce is if you go with your gut, nose, or instinct, it’s probably going to work out.

Part of Josey’s philosophy with all three of her sauces is to not tell customers how to use them. Sure, she has ideas on her website and she’ll share a recipe or two, but she believes cooking is about experimentation and discovery. The sauces themselves are meant to enhance recipes you already enjoy.

Speaking of recipes, Josey recalls that her aforementioned grandma on her father’s side wasn’t so ready to share her own. She wasn’t even allowed to stand next to her grandma while she cooked,

so Josey observed from a distance. Luckily, when it came to getting recipes from Josey’s grandma on her mother’s side, things were a little more straightforward.

Josey’s mother wasn’t the cook that her grandmother was, but when Josey’s mother passed away, Josey was surprised to find what she calls a “slew of cookbooks. It was a small miracle they weren’t thrown away.” Though Josey’s mother’s passing meant there’d be jade, gold, and other valuables for the siblings to split up, Josey just wanted the cookbooks, which included one written by Singapore’s former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s mother.

While Josey and her husband were looking through the cookbooks, loose pieces of paper were falling out, and they weren’t old pages that had separated from the spine. “I was like, what are all these? They were in my grandma’s writing.

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They were my grandma’s recipes.” The other half of the inspiration for Madame Chu sauces, this grandma was adept at Peranakan cooking and serves as the inspiration for the other two sauces.

The Satay Peanut Nyonya: not only is it her family’s take on a Southeast

Asian staple, it’s something that her white husband, Ben Johnson from Wisconsin Dells, managed to make just about perfectly from a recipe calling for measurements in bowls and stones. Josey jokingly mentioned how upset she was that her husband nailed the recipe before she did. One unique aspect of this sauce is its thickness; Josey actually wants customers to play with its viscosity.

“I always encourage my clients to use chicken broth, vegetable broth, water,

coconut milk to thin it out. Otherwise, it’s like a pesto base. So you always want to thin it out over the stove, and then you can use it like a dressing.”

Both of her grandmothers’ spirits of authenticity come through when Josey talks about what makes a good peanut sauce. “If a cookbook calls for peanut butter in satay peanut sauce, throw that cookbook away.” It’s apparently sacrilege and, furthermore, historically absurd. She tells me peanut butter was not available in Southeast Asia. That peanut butter wasn’t part of her community’s diet growing up.

Keeping things traditional, the third sauce is the Sambal Nyonya. Anything you put hot sauce or sriracha on will be even better with some of Madame Chu’s Sambal. “The Sambal is the spicy blend of chili paste. This Sambal can actually be used with a grilled cheese sandwich. Sandwiches sometimes can get really bland and dull. I call it an adult grilled cheese sandwich. You can add Sambal just on the side with your scrambled eggs, baked eggs, or toss it with your roasted vegetables. Sometimes people like to add it to their ramen noodles for that heat.”

go with your gut, nose, or instinct, it’s probably going to work out

Of course, there’s also chicken wings or just something to dip a chip in. “You don’t need to complicate things. I’ve done all the cooking for you.” But if you want to get fancy, that’s fine too. Josey shared a little holiday treat idea with me: brie, honey, pecans, and Sambal. “It’s just deliciousness. That’s what we do.”

Now maybe you’ve had a Sambal before, but in Southeast Asia, every family kind of has their own take, which makes Madame Chu’s Sambal Nyonya one of a kind. Josey notes the recipe goes back at least five generations. That’s at least five generations of taking the time to do the sauce justice—each iteration an homage to her family.

If any of these sauces sound appealing or you just want to support what Josey is doing while rewarding your tastebuds, check out madame-chu.com to find out where you can buy Josey’s sauces or simply purchase them online. She also has some recipe ideas to get you started on your journey in sauce-istry...sauceology... Whatever the case, it’s missing from your kitchen.

Kyle Jacobson is a writer/editor who thinks life is plenty long enough to watch bad movies with good friends.

Photographs by Eric Tadsen

Photograph by Barbara Wilson

Kyle Jacobson

CAMBRIDGE MARKET CAFE Pretty Darn Local

BY KYLE JACOBSON

How do you determine whether you dig a cafe or not? Is it the food? The coffee? Surely these things are factors, but I’ve always gone off the vibe. How does the café put itself out there? Some like having that hole-in-the-wall feel; others focus on their open mic sessions. But there’s just something really special about those cafés that feel like the cornerstone of their communities, and Cambridge has that in Cambridge Market Cafe.

Owner Cathy Yerges spent a lot of time working with small businesses even before she created Cambridge Market Cafe four years ago. Holding banking and cash management positions

allowed her to work with and support local business owners while gaining an appreciation for what goes into running something on that scale. It also gave her an up-close view of just how downtowns were suffering all over as consumers moved towards larger enterprises, and Cathy wanted to be part of the solution.

The chance came when what’s probably best known as the old Rowe Pottery building had been vacant for almost a year. Cathy met a construction company that was planning to buy the space, and she committed to going in as a tenant, which made it easier for the construction company to commit to buying the

building. Right on Highway 12, she couldn’t ask for more than its convenient downtown location. Even better, the space would provide the means to do everything she’d want.

“My goal is just to provide a spot for the community to come together and to highlight other small businesses,” says Cathy. “I’ve been in Cambridge for 22 years. I raised my two boys here. It’s a really great community to give back to and invest and provide a gathering space.”

It didn’t take long before Cambridge Market Cafe was hosting regular meetings with business owners to coordinate and revitalize the downtown. “We don’t have a lot of industry in Cambridge to support a chamber, so when I started this, I began a biweekly meetup of business owners where we just get together for coffee and mainly give updates as to what everyone’s doing and what’s going on to find ways to collaborate. We’ve taken on some of the annual events that the chamber used to do: the chocolate walk and the Christmas events.”

There’s no doubt that, for Cathy, success is measured by achievements through collaboration. In the market half of the space, she represents “over 100 Wisconsin food makers, artists, brewers, crafters, and my focus is on food and beverage and consumable items.” There always has to be a connection or relationship to what’s being sold, and if she knows the story behind it, she shares it with customers.

One line of health products she sells come from a local CBD producer. To help educate customers, the maker comes to the café to do informational talks and Q&As. Thanks to the model Cathy has established, this maker is given a platform, and the result isn’t just helping with moving product, but bringing others in to experience everything Cambridge Market Cafe has to offer.

Beef Barley Soup (scratchmade soup of the day)

“I invite different artists to do paint nights here or cookie decorators to do cookie classes here. I teach charcuterie workshops because we do some catering of charcuterie boards from here. Across the street, Revive Salt Room & Spa started a mocktail mingle once a month. I saw an opportunity to collaborate through some of the alcohol-removed liquors and wines that we carry, so I reached out to see if I could add value to her events. The event is now drawing people throughout southern Wisconsin to Cambridge.”

And when it comes to attracting a diverse crowd, Cathy can’t imagine a more perfect spot. The CamRock Trail brings

in mountain bikers, Main Street brings in cyclists, Koshkonong Creek brings in kayakers, and the surrounding small businesses bring in people from all over the Midwest. Not to mention the Lake Ripley crowd, who come up during the warmer months.

The café is also going strong until 4:00 p.m. every night. “We transition from the morning coffee klatch to lunches for business owners in the afternoon.” On Thursdays, the doors don’t close until 7:00 p.m. as the market hosts Sip & Savor in Cambridge. “We actually bring in other food producers. Our kitchen closes at 2:30, but we invite other chefs or food trucks to come in on

Roasted Veggie Protein Bowl

Housemade Chicken Salad on Croissant

Thursdays to offer that variety and to collaborate with other small businesses.” These food producers include Pizza Ranch, Banzo Mediterranean cuisine, Migrants Mexican offerings, Jackknife sushi, and Mangiami Italiano.

One of the really neat things I noticed when visiting was the range of ages coming through her doors. It was finals week, so students were coming to get some food between their tests and studying. With a quiet upstairs (complete with privacy curtains), student groups could set up with their books and laptops as long as they needed, and people of all ages were reading books and enjoying lunch throughout.

One of the students even does flower arrangements for the tables in the summer, and another, who’s also an employee, sells some of her art in the market. Cathy shared a time when the Girl Scouts came for a workshop, and she showed them art done by people they most likely knew, like the local dentist and one of the aides at school.

I didn’t even get into the food and coffee, but you probably already guessed that the majority of ingredients are from local farmers. The coffee is from Rusty Dog, and if you haven’t heard of them yet, you’re in for a tasty surprise. “The community is growing and vibrant, and there are new families moving in.” These families aren’t moving to Cambridge on accident. Connection, collaboration, call it what you will, but Cambridge Market Cafe is a hub whose impact will continue to extend far beyond Cambridge for years to come.

Kyle Jacobson is a writer/editor who believes Mr. Knickerbocker put the bop in the bop shoo bop shoo bop.

Photographs by Eric Tadsen .

Photograph by Barbara Wilson

Kyle Jacobson

OFF THE Block

In 2004, Will and Becky Green started Mentoring Positives as a nonprofit organization to mentor and support at-risk youth in Dane County. “We knew from the beginning that we needed to find a way to help vulnerable youth become leaders in their community,” says Will. “We developed a program to do this through group mentoring, athletics, and entrepreneurship because, as we like to say, ‘the hook is the key!’ We guide our youth on a positive path of learning, practicing, and mastering socio-emotional well-being and leadership skills.

“Once we had the mentoring piece in place, we found we needed a way to generate income not only for the program to be able to serve the youth, but also so that we could provide employment opportunities for them.” They set up office in the heart of Madison’s Darbo-Worthington neighborhood and created Off the Block Salsas and Pizzas as a platform to inspire youth through social entrepreneurship while also providing job skills training and employment to those participating in the program.

In 2008, youth enrolled in the Mentoring Positives Leader Academy and worked with Will and Becky to create recipes for both a mild and a spicy salsa. The next year, the recipe won the first of many Battle of the Salsas at Metcalfe’s Market in Hilldale. Popularity continues to grow with these products, and today, the youth in this expanded program produce over 600 jars of salsa each month.

In 2016, a small group of Mentoring Positives youth began developing a frozen pizza product in collaboration with the UW People Program and UW Extension. In 2020, Off the Block frozen pizzas launched with an online store (offtheblock.store) just as the pandemic hit. Despite the many challenges the pandemic brought, the program had a very successful first year, and it continues to thrive today.

Mentoring Positives students now work on every angle of the production process for Off the Block products. This starts with food science and safety training then leads into recipe creation and testing, naming, logo design, packaging, labeling, marketing, selling, and even conducting sampling opportunities at local events.

“Watching these students grow through these experiences has been amazing,” says Becky. “Their creativity is so exciting! Being able to give them a space where they can not only learn and receive mentoring, but where they can also create has been so important. Over the last 19 years, we’ve had to rely on other facilities, like FEED Kitchens and Christine’s Kitchen,

for food preparation and storage. We’ve wanted our own space to be able to more efficiently serve the youth in our program.”

Today, Mentoring Positives houses Off the Block processes in their new space in the Ella Apartments on East Washington Avenue. This space is called Muriel’s Place in honor of Will’s Mother, Muriel Pipkins.

“My mom had me when she was 14 years old, and I never knew my father growing up,” says Will. “While in my hometown of Gary, Indiana, I was able to spend the last moments of my mom’s life with her, and that changed me forever. The loss of my mom really pushed me to become a social entrepreneur; I used that pain and turned it into passion to create impactful change in the Madison community. I took my mom’s initials, MP, and created Mentoring Positives. She would be so proud of what we’re doing with both Mentoring Positives and Off the Block, especially the way these programs are changing the lives of our youth. It’s amazing and humbling to see!”

After 19 years, Mentoring Positives has had hundreds of youths go through the program and has touched hundreds more families, local businesses, and community members. The following testimonials speak to the program’s success.

“I met Will Green when I was 11,” says Mo. “His Mentoring Positives group played basketball in the same place I did, and I realized if I wanted to play ball, I needed to join the group. I didn’t know it then, but before we played basketball, the whole group talked about life, school, family, and what it was like being a Black man. Now I know those talks were actually lessons, and those lessons kept me out of trouble. Many of my old friends fell into the system. But now I’m 24, and I want to mentor youth like Mentoring Positives did for me.”

Ania says, “Working with Mentoring Positives has brought me out of my shell, because I’m really shy. The girl’s group has helped me make lots of new friends and also taught me some working skills that will be great for me in the future.”

Serena says, “Mentoring Positives has built up my confidence. Before, I couldn’t really talk to people, but now, I love working with people at our pop-up pizza and salsa events!”

For more information about Mentoring Positives and Off the Block products, please visit mentoringpositives.org.

Photographs provided by Off the Block .

You can find Off the Block products at several Madison locations:

Willy Street Co-op (East, West, and North) Metcalfe’s Market (Hilldale and West Towne) Regent Street Market

Spring Migration and Bird Protection

by Kaitlin Svabek

Spring migration is always a spectacle in Wisconsin. As early as February, birds begin to return from their wintering grounds, setting up territories to prepare for breeding season— maybe you’ve already seen young birds peeking out of nests. The month of May typically marks peak migration around much of the state, when birders of all ages and skill levels can look and listen for several species at once, including bright colorful warblers.

Finding these birds can be as easy as pausing to listen and watch in your neighborhood or seeking them in places like Cherokee Marsh, Nine Springs E-Way, and UW Arboretum. In different habitats, you’ll encounter different species; there are so many to enjoy!

Wisconsin Migratory Species We Love

Many waterfowl species return while snow and ice are melting at winter’s end. Geese and ducks are some of the earliest. Soon, they’re joined near ponds and marshy areas by herons, egrets, and the iconic sandhill cranes. Blackbirds,

robins, and sparrows once again become abundant on the landscape.

Thawing ground in prairies and wetlands provides stopover grounds for groups of gulls and shorebirds, such as plovers and sandpipers, fueling up for journeys that may extend into the Arctic region. As spring continues, the warmer weather in April means the reemergence of many insects—the diets of several kinds of songbirds. Swallows, gnatcatchers, bluebirds, and flycatchers are then found flitting around catching bugs in the skies and treetops.

Next, energetic little hummingbirds will begin to buzz around native plants and feeders. Striking orange-andblack orioles arrive and make their presence known through their bright coloring and songs. Warblers, one of the most popular and challenging species for birders, also tend to pass through our area around this time. These small, round little birds, in vibrant shades of yellows, oranges, and even some blues, hover around in wooded areas, sometimes moving

Photograph by Arlene Koziol

in small flocks as they chase a cloud of insects.

The Plight of Migratory Birds

The sheer number of birds moving through the Madison area during migration provides amazing opportunities for bird lovers to encounter them. But over the past couple of decades, the average population of birds in the United States and Canada has decreased by roughly three billion.

Humans are responsible for many of the continuing threats facing migratory species. The reduction of natural spaces as critical stopover areas for traveling birds to rest and refuel makes migration difficult. Outdoor cats hunt and kill a disproportionately large number of birds—billions each year—making them one of the leading causes of avian deaths.

Researchers have found that migrating birds navigate using the light of the

sun, the position of stars, and Earth’s magnetic field. Human-made structures, such as bright lights and glass on buildings, can mirror or disrupt their natural navigation systems, leading to injury and death.

Across the nation, up to a billion birds die annually when they collide with windows. Data collected through Madison Audubon’s Bird Collision Corps program suggests that tens of thousands of birds die each year in Madison alone. As a community, we can work together to reduce the dangers faced by our feathered friends.

Making Migration Safer

In addition to placing feeders less than 3 or greater than 30 feet away from windows, there are other ways to make windows more visible to birds. Using anticollision dot stickers on your home or hanging zen window curtains can reduce the number of incidents at your home considerably.

Partly in response to the Bird Collision Corps data, the City of Madison

Photograph by Arlene Koziol

Photograph by Arlene Koziol

Famous for Steaks

Home

• Charbroiled Steaks

• Saturday Night—Prime Rib

• Sunday—Chicken Dinner

• Late Night Bar Menu & Happy Hour (Beginning at 10:00 pm)

• Seasonal Outdoor Dining in our Grotto

• Corral Room Available for Private Parties

OPEN DAILY Mon-Fri Bar Opens at 4:30 pm—Dinner at 5:00 pm Weekends Open at 5:00 pm

For Reservations Call: 256-3570

Entrances at 116 S. Hamilton & 115 W. Main Street

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enacted a bird-safe glass ordinance requiring that new construction take into account the impact it could have on birds. The ordinance passed with broad public support, but is currently facing a legal challenge. To continue protecting birds, share your support for the ordinance by signing the petition at madisonaudubon.org/bird-safe-glass.

Happy birding!

Kaitlin Svabek is communications coordinator for Madison Audubon. Connect with the team at info@madisonaudubon.org or follow them on social media @madisonaudubon.org.

General Resource Lists Consulted:

• madisonaudubon.org

/bird-collision-corps

• wpr.org/spring-bird-migration -well-underway

• dnr.wi.gov/files/pdf

/pubs/er/er0633.pdf

Acopian BirdSavers is a company that makes zen window curtains for the outside of windows to protect birds from hitting the glass. Using dark-colored 1/8-inch parachute cord (paracord), you can follow these instructions from their website to make your own:

Step 1: Measure the width of the glass for the horizontal paracord piece. You will use this as the top of your curtain.

Step 2: Determine the number of vertical paracord pieces you’ll

Kaitlin Svabek

Photograph by Crystal Sutheimer

need, spaced four inches apart, then measure the height of the window for length.

• Keep in mind that most paracord will shrink after getting wet. Because of this, you might want to soak the paracord in a bucket of hot water for a few hours and then let it dry to preshrink it before making your curtains.

Step 3: Cut the vertical paracord pieces to the length you need and melt the ends with a match.

Step 4: Tie a single knot at one end of each vertical paracord piece.

Step 5: Attach the vertical paracord pieces to the top horizontal paracord piece.

Step 6: Position the curtain against a window. Install the curtain in a fashion that works with the materials on the outside of your home. BirdSavers suggests using 1/4-inch cable clamps and #6 x 3/8-inch stainless steel sheet metal screws.

Field guides are very useful for bird enthusiasts interested in learning more about what specific species they encounter. These guides can be found at your local bookstore, public library, or thrift shop. Here are some excellent resources for identification:

• Birds of Wisconsin Field Guide by Stan Tekiela

• Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America by Kenn Kaufman

• Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern & Central North America by Roger Tory Peterson

• The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America: Second Edition by David Allen Sibley

• Merlin Bird ID app by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (available to download from the Apple Store or Google Play)

Photograph by Arlene Koziol

JOHN Pahlas

by Chris Gargan

The anvil must be somewhere in the centre, Horned as a unicorn, at one end and square, Set there immoveable: an altar Where he expends himself in shape and music.

—from “The Forge” by Seamus

Heaney

In 1941, the electric power authorities in the Village of Mount Horeb saw fit to erect a solid, squat, glazed brick and glass block building, The Municipal Electric Building, to facilitate the expansion of the utility to the growing community’s citizens.

At nearly the same moment, thousands of miles across the Atlantic, a Spanish expatriate living in Paris glanced in passing at a pile of junk and debris, the refuse of a churning industrial age. Within the scattered castoffs, Pablo Picasso

noticed the remnants of a deconstructed, disposed-of bicycle. Selecting the seat and handlebars, he welded them together in an abstract approximation of a bovine skull with accompanying horns. Entitled Bull’s Head , through this work, springing from the memory of a ritual embedded in Spanish culture, the brutal conflict between man and beast, Picasso essentially invented a new field of sculpture: one that resulted from the combination of disparate found forms taking on a new existence as the embodied expression of artistic imagination.

That coincidence eventuated in the founding of Center Ground Studios at the Lincoln Street location of that utility property. It’s here that John Pahlas shares a studio space with his wife, ceramicist Heidi Clayton. While Heidi works in the plastic medium of wet clay, John is forging; bending; breaking; cutting; grinding; and, most importantly, welding heroically scaled sculptures that are predominantly constructed of found metal much in the same sense of playful discovery that motivated Picasso eight decades earlier.

John descends from a family embedded in the metalworking industries and arts over generations on both his mother’s and father’s side. The Armstrong Blum Company, founded in 1904 as a tool and die manufacturer that since has been subsumed into the Marvel Manufacturing Company, makers of the Marvel Draw Cut power hacksaw for metalworking, was originally part of his family legacy. John’s mother and father continue to work at Metalworks in Ripon fabricating custom wrought iron railings, furnishings, and sculptures. As a consequence, he was inculcated into the lore and

practice of artistic metal manufacturing at an early age, where he learned craftsmanship; planning; a respect for his materials; and, most importantly, the discipline that enables him to sustain his efforts to create the labor intensive and physically demanding art he produces.

In a visit to photographer George Brassai in 1943, Picasso remarked on his sculpture Bull’s Head , “If you were

forging; bending; breaking; cutting; grinding

only to see the bull’s head and not the bicycle seat and handlebars that form it, the sculpture would lose some of its impact.” In like fashion, it’s immediately apparent, regardless of the final forms John’s sculptures take, that he has retained the integrity of the source materials with respect to their originally intended functions. A wrench remains a wrench, a gear a gear, a tractor seat a seat, and a drive chain is still a chain. But in the alchemy of his art, these materials take on a new purpose as the form, structure, and texture of his subjects, whether it be a soaring eagle; a fishing heron; a wild dog; or, in the case of a major commission he completed for Duluth Trading Company, a huge angry beaver.

John attended the University of Wisconsin‒Stevens Point and finished his BFA degree at the University of Wisconsin‒Oshkosh, initially favoring his experiential learning over the demands of formal education. But once there, he acquired a solid grounding in art historical precedent while developing studio discipline and sculptural mastery. And, of course, he met Heidi.

Careful to point out that he was a working artist before attending college, John grew up with a sense of the materials and the involvement of working with his father in the shop learning blacksmithing. He started welding at the age of 12, a knowledge that certainly gave him an advantage over his collegiate peers in terms of his fabrication skills, but his art is not simply an accretion of elements or mimicry of animal or human forms. John is keen on insisting that his work has a deeper purpose and social intent.

“History does show us, however, that art plays a foundational role in providing a universal language that digs into parts of our brains that spark up the flames of attention, gets people thinking outside the foggy fatigue box, and brings about resolutions to conflicts great and small,” says John. “Through the acts of making

art, investing in art, and celebrating art, we are providing safe areas in our communities that can ignite the creative energy in those that need it most so they can bring clarity and resolve to the wars going on in their heads and homes.”

Inspired by the book The Forge and the Crucible, which describes the development of metalworking from the earliest times of the human adventure with a focus on the cultural passage of knowledge and skills rather than formal learning, John sees the making of art as an almost shamanistic practice in which he serves as a go-between for viewers’ casual appreciation of their natural world and his insight and expression that enables them to deepen their daily visual awareness. The rigid heavy steel transforms; it metamorphoses into flight and power and primal animation.

The underlying structure to much of John’s work is based on an armature composed of rods and plates of mild steel. Onto this armature, he adds the textural materials drawn from piles of discarded tools; machine parts; signage; and heated, crushed, and abraded steel tubing. Suddenly, knives become feathers, bolts become fur, washers transform into scales, and the detritus of our material culture takes on new life as art that celebrates nature and engages with the environment and the viewer. As John describes his work, “It has to be exhausting, and I need instantaneous results.”

Chris Gargan is a landscape artist and freelance writer working from his farm southwest of Verona. You can find his work at Abel Contemporary Gallery in Stoughton. He is seen here with his dog Tycho Brahe.

Chris Gargan

Photograph by Larassa Kabel

Photographs provided by John Pahlas.

Abel Contemporary Gallery

Just minutes from Madison. Find us in Stoughton, WI and online.

Image: Dennis Nechvatal

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