Waupaca County Post

Top Menu

  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Advertiser Index
  • Subscribe
  • E-Editions
    • Clintonville Shoppers Guide
    • Clintonville Tribune Gazette
    • New London Buyers Guide
    • New London Press Star
    • Waupaca Buyers Guide
    • Waupaca County Post

Main Menu

  • Home
  • News
    • Video
    • Clintonville News
    • Hortonville News
    • Iola-Scandi News
    • Manawa News
    • New London News
    • Waupaca News
    • Wega-Fremont News
    • Business
  • Covid 19
  • Sports
    • Clintonville Sports
    • Iola-Scandy Sports
    • Manawa Sports
    • New London Sports
      • Leagues
      • Sports
      • Park & Rec Activities
    • Waupaca Sports
    • Wega-Fremont Sports
    • Hortonville Sports
    • Outdoor
    • High School Sports Scores
  • Courts
  • Opinion
  • Obits
  • Classifieds
    • View Ads
    • Place Ads
  • Legal Ads
    • Our Legals
    • Statewide
  • E-Editions
    • Clintonville Shoppers Guide
    • New London Buyers Guide
    • Waupaca Buyers Guide
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Advertiser Index
  • Subscribe
  • E-Editions
    • Clintonville Shoppers Guide
    • Clintonville Tribune Gazette
    • New London Buyers Guide
    • New London Press Star
    • Waupaca Buyers Guide
    • Waupaca County Post

logo

Waupaca County Post

  • Home
  • News
    • Video
    • Clintonville News
    • Hortonville News
    • Iola-Scandi News
    • Manawa News
    • New London News
    • Waupaca News
    • Wega-Fremont News
    • Business
  • Covid 19
  • Sports
    • Clintonville Sports
    • Iola-Scandy Sports
    • Manawa Sports
    • New London Sports
      • Leagues
      • Sports
      • Park & Rec Activities
    • Waupaca Sports
    • Wega-Fremont Sports
    • Hortonville Sports
    • Outdoor
    • High School Sports Scores
  • Courts
  • Opinion
  • Obits
  • Classifieds
    • View Ads
    • Place Ads
  • Legal Ads
    • Our Legals
    • Statewide
  • E-Editions
    • Clintonville Shoppers Guide
    • New London Buyers Guide
    • Waupaca Buyers Guide
Around Waupaca CountyWaupaca NewszHideFeatured
Home›News›Around Waupaca County›Arts on the Square chooses image

Arts on the Square chooses image

By WaupacaNow
June 26, 2015
2108
0

This summer’s winner is local artist

 

By Angie Landsverk


This watercolor by Leah Griffith Boyce is the winner of the 2015 Arts on the Square Poster Contest.

This watercolor by Leah Griffith Boyce is the winner of the 2015 Arts on the Square Poster Contest.

From the time Leah Griffith Boyce was a child, she loved art.

She grew up in a small town just outside of Madison and ran a weekly newspaper and later a wholesale greenhouse business with her husband before deciding to return to that love.

These days, she works out of a studio in her Waupaca home, where she typically works on more than one project at the same time.

“I’ve usually got some kind of painting project going on and sculpture project going on,” she said. “I’m just always staying open to what is next. I like the variety in that and the self direction in that. I like not having a boss. I feel very grateful that I’ve been able to put together a life that allows me to have this type of experience.”

Griffith Boyce is this year’s winner of the Arts on the Square Poster Contest.

She describes the image she created for the contest as a “happy, little watercolor. It’s loose. I wanted it to be all about joy and community.”

The ninth annual art festival is set for Friday and Saturday, Aug. 14 and 15, on the city square.

Her image will grace all of the publicity.

Griffith Boyce is a nationally recognized artist, known for her portrait images in bronze, oil, watercolor and charcoal.

Her bronze bust of John Steuart Curry is in the permanent collection of the Chazen Museum of Art.

Commissioned by the museum to do it, Griffith Boyce said she is probably most proud of that piece.

The UW-Madison Agriculture Department brought Curry, an artist from Kansas, to Wisconsin in 1936 to be the state’s first artist in residence, Griffith Boyce said.

Until 1946, he went throughout the state, teaching farmers, their wives and the farmhands how to paint, she said.
“That is why we have such a rural art culture in the state. That is why the arts are all throughout the state,” Griffith Boyce said.

It took her about a year to complete the bronze bust of him, and the piece is also a learning tool as it shows the entire lost wax method of casting, she said.

Many of Griffith Boyce’s oil portraits are in collections throughout the country, including prominent collections at the Circus World Museum, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Culver’s Corporate, the Erie Beer Corporation and the Hooper Cooperation.

In addition, she is a professional photo stylist with clients throughout the Midwest.

Griffith Boyce’s decision to pursue art was a gradual one.

She majored in art during her first two semesters of college, but discontinued the major after looking around the classroom and comparing her work to that of other students.

“I had no confidence in myself at that point. We live. We learn. We grow,” said Griffith Boyce.

For her, the decision to return to that love took place after her husband Steve died of a heart attack in 1992.
“When Steve died, it just ripped me all the way to the core,” she said. “I had been ignoring my gifts. I went back to school in the art department and never left.”

She moved to the Spring Green area with the couple’s young daughter Shannon to be near her parents.
Griffith Boyce went back to school, graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a bachelor’s degree in art.

In 2000, she completed her master’s degree in fine arts from UW-Madison.

“I wanted to keep studying,” she said. “I also felt I could teach if I wanted to.”

She applied for several teaching positions.

“I always came in second,” Griffith Boyce said.

She figured teaching was not what she was supposed to do and instead found other ways to make money, including working as an assistant in a photo studio.

Friends of hers owned a Spring Green studio and did work for Lands’ End.

As Griffith Boyce commented on how much she loved fabrics, they told her they sometimes needed help.

“I went from getting a master’s degree to steaming and ironing clothes,” she said. “I was their assistant for five years. Then I made the jump from being an assistant to a stylist.”

That jump took place about 5 1/2 years ago.

“It’s so fun,” she said. “It’s like painting with objects. You’re trying to illict an emotion.”

Griffith Boyce works with both hard goods and soft goods.

That is similar to her artwork.

“I can do both 3-D and 2-D,” she said.

She moved to Waupaca in March 2013, after considering a move to California.

Her parents once owned a cottage nearby on Long Lake, and being there with family helped her heal after her husband’s death.

“Everything about Waupaca is so beautiful. I feel like I found an old, vintage town,” she said.

As an artist, she does not like to be categorized.

“I feel it’s all about expression. If I can dream it, I can do it,” she said.

TagsArts on the SquareLeah Griffith BoyceWaupaca
Previous Article

Wega teen charged with battery

Next Article

City obligated to maintain road

Related articles More from author

  • Around Waupaca CountyWaupaca News

    ‘Growing Power’ of urban farms

    June 23, 2015
    By WaupacaNow
  • Waupaca SportszHideFeatured

    Waupaca splits first two games

    June 24, 2015
    By WaupacaNow
  • Waupaca Sports

    Dayton stays busy at baseball championships

    June 24, 2015
    By WaupacaNow
  • Around Waupaca CountyWaupaca News

    City radio station now on air

    June 25, 2015
    By WaupacaNow
  • Waupaca NewszHideFeatured

    New home for eco-park

    June 25, 2015
    By WaupacaNow
  • Waupaca News

    Like father, like daughter

    June 25, 2015
    By WaupacaNow

Leave a reply Cancel reply

Free WaupacaNow Newsletter

About Us


Waupaca County Post, New London Press Star and Clintonville Tribune-Gazette are published every Thursday by Multi Media Channels. The papers are locally owned, locally operated and locally written. Subscriptions are $59 annually, delivered via U.S. Postal Service.

To subscribe, go www.shopmmclocal.com/product-category/waupacanow-portal or call 715-258-4360

Timeline

  • February 8, 2023

    Bear Lake Resort has new owners

  • February 8, 2023

    Mortensen, William

  • February 8, 2023

    Art show opens in New London

  • February 8, 2023

    New president at Marion Body Works

  • February 8, 2023

    Helping those who need a lift

Find us on Facebook

Copyright © 2022 Multi Media Channels LLC.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted without the prior written consent of Multi Media Channels LLC.
×