Gardener-alumna exhibits at Knapp House

“Long live the ivy! Damn the aphids! Full green ahead!”
And so artist Jennifer Anne charges into her new exhibition, “Uncultivated,” now on display at the Knapp House.

“Nothing gives me more pleasure than making the rounds on my plants, removing dead leaves, checking the soil moisture and most of all observing the buds and new growth,” she says.

Not surprisingly, the seven sculptures and nine mixed media prints at Knapp House, 130 E. Gilman St., use organic patterns of leaves, vines and flowers to render abstracts, landscapes and meditative subjects, Anne says.

“The growing world is taken for granted. I hope that students and other visitors might take away from the exhibition a heightened awareness of and appreciation for the natural world. It’s reassuring to know that the rest of my life is not enough time to examine and draw all the leaves and plants on earth,” says Anne, an alumna who earned her bachelor of fine arts degree in 1994 and her master of fine arts degree in 1997.

The exhibition, free and open to the public, will be on view until Tuesday, Dec. 21. Visitors are welcome from noon-5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays and Monday-Friday by appointment. To schedule, e-mail your request to knapphouse@yahoo.com.

The UW purchased the former Wisconsin governor’s mansion in 1951 with funds from the Kemper Knapp endowment. The house itself, dating from 1854 and declared a city landmark in 1972, also has served as a private residence and, since the late 1950s, a residential community for graduate students. For more information on it, visit the Knapp House Web site.