Barbara Kettner
Viola, Wisconsin

Barb Kettner, once “a frustrated artist,” was born in Milwaukee, spent 10 years waitressing, and then earned a bachelors degree in education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a masters in exceptional education at Cardinal Stritch College.

In 1981 she began teaching emotionally disturbed children in second, third and fourth grades, and daily incorporated some form of art into her teaching. “Children need to be able to look for beauty and then express it, “ says this teacher who retired in 2006 after a 25-year career.

 But already in 2002 she was preparing for her own serious pursuit of art, taking classes part-time at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and at the Milwaukee Art Museum.  She started drawing, using colored pencils, pastels and oils, the media in which she works today.

When Barb and her husband Rick started planning for retirement, they bought 45 acres along the Kickapoo River, just outside of Viola. But their retirement cabin soon became the first of several dwellings on what is now Kettners’ Riverfront Cabins, which opened in 2008, the year Rick formally retired from administration at Milwaukee Area Technical College.

In the little studio log cabin Rick built for her, Barb does art at least a couple hours each day. She works with pencils, sometimes spending as much as 20 hours on a single drawing, applying layer upon layer, often working from photographs as she creates landscapes, draws people and animals. “I draw what I want to remember, the insights I want to share.”

And, though she has focused up till now on colored pencils and pastels, Barb says she is currently in a “learning mode.” She has found that her drawings are sometimes too realistic, and she wants to free herself from some of the realism. So she is expanding her artistic horizons by taking classes in watercolor and oil painting from local artists Anne Tedeschi, Jeanne Ruchti and Ken DeWaard, whose profiles are also found on this Website.

“I’m so glad I found the Kickapoo Valley because it inspires me,” she says. “I never run out of subject matter” in what she calls “an artist’s paradise,” with the ways the morning fog lifts, the rolling of the multi-colored hills, the many contrasts winter brings, and the meandering, sometimes landscape-changing Kickapoo River itself. She also calls the Valley a birder’s paradise, because of the green and blue herons, the egrets, sandhill cranes and kingfishers.

She remembers what one of her teachers at MIAD told her: “Until you have done your art for 10,000 hours, you haven’t really mastered it.  I guess I’m almost there.” And, she explains further, “When you paint or draw something, you get to know it, you almost make it a part of you, because you’ve experienced it. You almost own it.”

“I’m not drawing for other people,” she says, and points to a favorite pencil drawing of her two sons, Lucien and Laurent, or a drawing of her dog Casey. “I draw what I love,” or portraits of what other people love -  their children, their pets, their homes, their favorite spots. 

In doing portraits, Barb says, “The eyes are important.” And using photographs helps her to “capture the soul of the person.”  Photos also make it easier for a subject. “It’s hard to sit still for as long as it takes to do a portrait. The printed photograph is a good substitute.”

“People often come to art shows looking for pictures of the area. The Kickapoo Valley is so beautiful people want to take some of it home with them.” The 2009 Driftless Area Art Festival is the second art show in which she has participated. Barb is also on the committee to plan the festival, an event she calls “The highlight of my year”

Contact Barb Kettner: kettnerr@sbcglobal.net