Art at the Arboretum

This project is an intergenerational collaboration between Maggie Thompson (Fond du Lac Ojibwe) and her mother, Peggy Thompson. Their work brings together weaving, painting and shared observation of land. Using the grounds of the Arboretum as their common point of reference, they explore how two distinct visual languages – Ojibwe floral design and painterly depictions of ground – interpret the same environment.

Maggie created woven textile works using ribbon and beads to create Ojibwe florals, inspired by flowers growing in and around the Arboretum, while her mother painted a series focused on the ground, dirt and earth found at the Arboretum. Rather than depicting flowers directly, her work centers the soil that sustains them, emphasizing texture and a mother’s role as nurturer. Her paintings function as both physical and conceptual foundations for Maggie’s woven and beaded pieces. 

This exhibit brings together two Ojibwe artists who create contemporary work about Native life. "Stratigraphy" (/strəˈtiɡrəfē/) spirals through the cyclical nature of generations, land and time. The word stratigraphy refers to the structure and order of a particular set of strata, or layers of earth. Geologists and archaeologists alike use stratigraphy to understand the passage of time. The exhibit showcases the way that these three artists conceptualize time: through generations. This exhibit complements artist Maggie Thompson’s intergenerational collaboration, Inherited Ground.