See 15 Artists’ Designs Along Downtown’s Holiday Ornament Trail
Originally published in Milwaukee Magazine 11/8/23Milwaukee’s beloved incandescent Holiday Lights Festival is back for the 25th year with a new addition that’s sure to be best in snow. The new Ornament Trail features fifteen local and national artists that were commissioned to design and create larger-than-life holiday ornaments.
Each participating artist, including notable names like Emma Daisy Gertel, Jeff Zimpel and Rozalia Singh, created a one-of-a-kind design that brings unique artistic vision to the traditional downtown holiday decorations. The celebratory works of art will be located near institutions across downtown including The Pfister Hotel, Saint Kates and the Railway Exchange Center.
Artist Nova Czarnecki’s ornament is titled “The Four Graces” and represents three goddesses from Greek mythology that bestowed the gifts of Light, Joy and Bloom to the world. Czarnecki added her own fourth goddess, Time; all gifts that she considers are “more precious than gold.”
“The ornament was so much fun to paint because of the distortion that happens from painting an orb,” says Czarnecki. “I started with one face and played with exaggerating the features, especially the eyes, and then kept adding the other faces, then the bear, then the swan and lastly, the jewels and the gold background. The gold was essential to make it feel more like an ornament.”
This new addition is just one of several festive offerings coordinated by Milwaukee Downtown BID #21. Other events include the holiday lights displays in Cathedral Square and Pere Marquette parks and Zeidler Union Square, 18 blocks of street decorations and the popular Jingle Bus, that brings merry holiday seekers around downtown’s beautiful displays on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from Nov. 17-Dec. 30.
