Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Award. In the end, Mary Nohl remained true to her own heart, but whatever qualities set her apart, she shared in an ancient conception of art as a way of life, an all-encompassing experience that transforms the spirit. 

Leslie Umberger is Senior Curator of Exhibitions and Collections at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and primary author of Sublime Spaces & Visionary Worlds: Built Environments of Vernacular Artists, (co-published by Princeton Architectural Press and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2007). Jane Bianco is an independent scholar and former Collections Assistant at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, whose research has focused on Mary Nohl; she is a contributor to Sublime Spaces. Material from their research on Nohl is permanently housed in the John Michael Kohler Arts Center Artist Archives.

All jewelry and artwork pictured is from the John Michael Kohler Arts Center Collection, Gift of Mary Nohl. Photos courtesy of the Kohler Arts Center.