Unusual rises from a grassy green field alongside the highway between Sauk City and Baraboo, drawing visitors and random passersby to stop on the shoulder for a look. The 10-acre site, called Dr. Evermor’s Sculpture Park, is one of several extravagant displays of outsider art in the Wisconsin countryside. Dr. Evermor is the nom de arte of Tom Every, whose work in demolition eventually turned his thoughts to building rather than destroying.
Evermor and his work is the subject of a DVD documentary, Statues by the Road, by Wisconsin filmmaker Bob Leff.
In the past 30 years, Evermor filled his field with assembled and welded metal bird, bugs, gladiators, musical instruments and chimerical hybrids, crowned by a fantastic Jules Verne construction called the Forevertron. Most of his sculpture is fashioned from scrap. The salvage habit came to Evermor early as a Cub Scout during World War II, scavenging for victory. In 1983, a state of depression triggered the start of the Sculpture Park.” I was upset about society,” he says, explaining that he wanted to make “a quiet haven.”
Statues on the Road can be ordered for $24 from Video Art Productions, 2217 Goecks Court, Cottage Grove, WI 53527.
