ART SCENE BY CINNAMON ROSSMAN PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAN EGGERT
Re-Presenting The Works of Bruce Basch
Bruce Basch is one of those rare artists who doesn’t measure his success by the number of works he sells, but rather by the success of new ideas, color nuances and kitschy provocations. Basch lives the kind of in-between life as an artist and waiter that affords the leisure of moving at whim – but always returns to Door County for the summers. His family owns land just on the north side of Ephraim and the site is an historic tract with a view you would take for granted if you lived here all year.
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Basch’s weathered little studio sits in this picture perfect scenery like a remnant of life 100 years ago. The wood-frame building was originally built in Minnesota in the 1800s. It was taken apart board by board and pieced
back together by Basch in 1970. The land has been in the family since 1865, and gracefully escapes the encroaching developments to the north and the south. The exterior of the studio is a simple wood-sided building, relatively unadorned but for the few collections of stones and pots at the doorstep and a little refrigerator “shrine” in the back which neatly displays a collection of disparate objects – a reflection on manmade versus natural creations.
finished artworks fill the available spaces. Bookshelves line the walls and are filled partially with books, but little oddities catch the eye: a vintage fan painted blue, Jesus at the center; books wrapped, sealed shut with astrological charts and other objects riveted to their covers; cigar boxes; religious icons (mostly Mary); and a plethora of odds and ends with no business here in the woods – except that they are the bits that make up Basch’s artworks.
Basch and I sat in his studio for several hours one night talking about everything in sight. The studio opens into a small entry with a steep ladder to the loft and collections of near-
Basch began his long student life with printmaking, photography, and other elective studies at Saint Cloud State University in Minnesota, and experimented with various art forms,
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