Thomas DeVillers
Ten seconds into our phone conversation Tim Browning starts teasing me. “Are you too chicken to join us on the lake?” I assure him that I do indeed intend to join him, to watch him install his annual art work on frozen Lake Monona. He then offers some advice: “Dress warm. Whining is not allowed. Everyone on the lake knows it is cold.”
Sure enough, it’s cold when we meet on the lake the morning of Jan. 14. The temperature is 10 degrees Fahrenheit but the wind chill makes it feel well below zero.
Browning has been “decorating” this same spot on Monona — about 100 feet off the shore from John Nolen Drive near the Monona Terrace — for 20 years. Today, he is wearing a Green Bay Packers stocking cap, hooded winter coat and a pair of black jeans covered in patches. His yellow mustache is frozen.
Kneeling on the ice, Browning hammers pieces of his wooden statue together with a mallet. “Oh shit,” Browning suddenly yells in disgust. “I just broke a head.” He stops and looks over the remaining polka-dotted pieces of wood lying around him. “Well, I ain’t stopping,” Browning finally says. “It’s too goddam cold.”
This year’s installation is two dinosaur-like creatures inspired by one of A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh stories. The idea came from Browning’s 87-year-old mother.
Browning’s first involvement with a lake sculpture was the sunken Statue of Liberty monument on Lake Mendota in 1979, which was orchestrated by legendary prankster Leon Varjian’s Pail and Shovel Party.
Browning doesn’t take any credit for planning that prank or even helping with the construction, but, as he puts it, “Somebody had to bring the beer!” Several winters later Browning noticed someone had constructed something to look like the State Capitol on Lake Monona where he now does his yearly installation. He thought it looked neat but was missing something. The following year Browning cut ostriches out of cardboard, meant to represent politicians with their heads in the sand, or in this case, ice, and put them around the “Capitol.”
Since that time Browning has created scenes depicting sea creatures, dancing bears, a mastodon, penguins and palm trees. He dismisses the idea that he’s an artist. “I just have a background in being really annoying.” However, he has received five BLINK grants, which help people create temporary outdoor art, from the city of Madison.
He stopped applying for the grants because now Home Depot donates wood, Hallman Lindsay donates paint, and MadCat Pet Supplies provides transportation and labor.
Planning and construction begins in the summer or early fall and installation usually takes place sometime in the first half of January — once the lake is frozen solid.
Today there are four helpers, but two only stay for a few minutes. In for the duration are MadCat owner Ted O’Donnell and Brian Standing. Standing made a documentary about BLINK grants in 2010 that featured Browning’s installations. Now he tags along for fun. “I get a text around September that says ‘we are starting construction’ and another around now that says ‘time to go out on the ice,’” Standing says. “I look forward to it every year.”
O’Donnell uses an auger to make holes in the ice and Standing helps secure the statues in the holes. But in the frigid weather, pieces of the statues continue breaking, fueling Browning’s frustration. O’Donnell and Standing, the last two helpers still out on the ice, step in to problem solve. “Maybe fresh eyes will help,” Browning says. “I am going to step away otherwise I might have a fit.”
But he soon rejoins O’Donnell and Standing to help. Together the three men work quickly, finally installing the structures.
Browning then steps back to look over his creation. “Judging by the difficulty of this installation, what we have here is a what-the-heck-do-you-call-it-a-saurus.” He then picks up his duffel bag and begins walking off the lake.
Date Lake Monona froze this winter: Dec. 26, 2017
Earliest freeze date on record for Lake Monona: Nov. 22, 1880
Latest freeze date: Jan. 30, 1932
Names of the what-the-heck-do-you-call-it-a-sauruses: Alan and Alexander
Date the art must come off the ice (if it lasts that long) per DNR rules: March 1
Overheard during the installation: “Would it be crazy for us to use a blowtorch?” — Ted O’Donnell