How nature, history and a little post-and-beam barn conspired to create a Fox Valley folk artist

By Mary Daniels
Tribune staff reporter
Published March 18, 2007

Though they love old houses, it wasn't the quaint and charming home made of cobbled additions that sold Susan Havens-Morris and her husband, Greg Morris, on the 2-acre property on the border between St. Charles and Wayne.

Not the garage's provenance as the former coach house on the Baker Memorial Church grounds in St. Charles.

Nor the guesthouse, created from two sheds or garages once donated by a mechanic shop in St. Charles, its concrete entrance step inscribed, "Who Loves a Garden, Still His Eden Keeps."

Nor the former little bull barn, now a free-standing horse stall. Nor the gazebo, a concrete beehive that was a warming house on the Aurora, Elgin and Fox River Electric Company train line that once ran along the Fox River.

It was the picturesque little post-and-beam barn in back of the house that closed the deal a year and a half ago. As soon as the real estate agent opened the door to it, and Havens-Morris stepped inside the 19-by 25- foot building -- built with the post-and-beam framing technique that was used with the vast majority of barns when this country was first settled -- she was smitten. Love at first sight -- which can happen not just with people, but also with places.

The barn, which had been used by some previous owners as an art studio, also inspired a career as a folk artist for Havens- Morris. The papier-mache figures she has been creating here will be displayed and sold at the upcoming Country Folk Art Festival (see accompanying story) in nearby St. Charles.

Serene angels, plump yellow chicks, pretty pink pigs on wheels, life-size paper fruit -- lemons and apples elegantly inscribed with sayings such as "Troubles melt like lemon drops" and "Friends are the seeds of life" -- are but a few of her themes. All have the look of something from times past, and all emerge from that barnturned- studio.

When she first looked in, at the old ox yoke hanging from one of them, the north wall with a huge window cut into it, she thought, "My God, this is perfect," she says.

 A door opens

Everything conspired to fall into place and in June 2005, that little barn, a pieced-together farmhouse and the four other outbuildings that sit on the property belonged to them.

The Morrises had just moved to Chicago from historic Middleburg, Va., where they had lived in a pre-Civil War reconverted barn house on 25 acres. "The fox hunts used to go through our land," Havens- Morris says nostalgically.

During her transitional discontent, Havens-Morris' sister suggested she take a look at Wayne, a small village west of Chicago first settled in May 1834. Believed to be named after Maj. Gen. Anthony Wayne, it has equestrian traditions going back to the late 19th Century, when it was a prominent center for breeding French Percheron draft horses. Today, it is the home of the Wayne-DuPage Hunt Club, plus many private horse farms and stables.

Why hadn't someone else bought this yet? Havens-Morris asked herself as she inspected the rest of the Wayne farmette.

If you care to think a little magically, a little poetically, perhaps it was because the spirit of the original creator of the barn/ studio, a remarkable woman named Mary Moulton, was hovering about and decided the Morrises were worthy new owners.

"The door to this barn opened and I promised myself it was going to be a studio. We'll make stuff and kind of putter in it and enjoy it," says Havens-Morris. "It was the perfect place for two art school people," she adds. Both she and her husband attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the mid-'80s. Both are graphic artists. Until recently, she was concept art director and creative director for an advertising firm. (He still is in advertising.)

"I thought: Just for painting" at first, she says. "I went around saying the whole place would be perfect for business. It has everything one would need, but little did I know."

 In short order, the post-and-beam barn brought out the creativity in both of them.

Husband Greg has been involved with photography. "Now he loves shooting old barns," she says, calling what he does "Red Barn Studio."

She created the Middleburg Folk Art Studio and began sculpting in January 2006. "It was editable and inexpensive," she says. "I had done 29 sculptures before I even cast one into plaster." That happened the following June.

Why paper? "I'm a graphic designer. I've had a love affair with paper for as long as I can remember. The feel of it is indescribable -- the amount of texture and warmth it gives even in feel. Paper is recyclable, I like the green aspect, so if a cast breaks, back to the bucket it goes. It was a medium I was comfortable with."

And, she adds, "I love the vintage papier-mache that was done for Halloween. My mother had a pumpkin-face bucket forever. My work doesn't resemble anything vintage, but yet it is intended to look old and worn."

After she sculpts in clay, Havens- Morris casts her figures in multipart plaster molds, taking paper pulp (recycled newspaper) and pressing it into the mold, to get positives. After they emerge, she sands, paints, embellishes, seals and waxes them.

has shown at other art shows around Chicago, this is her first participation in the St. Charles show, where she believes she has found her niche.

 She finds working with clay, "which is so tactile and is editable, very peaceful. Just the motion of moving fingers across it is therapeutic. The thing I like about it is I can totally get it the way I want it before I cast it."

 First-born of her figures and most popular is her series of angels, each one symbolizing a particular emotion -- "I will always protect you," "I will always bring you peace," "I will always remember you," "I will always love you," "I will always comfort you."

 "Lots of country themes keep me going. . . . I'm inspired by everything in nature, birds, animals and feeling which come out as figures."

 "My pieces have a historic bent to them," she says "When I started sculpting the angels, the hair became very important to me. The hair has a wide part and long sides and a bun, very Civil War period," for which she has a predilection. "There have been a few people in my life who you can say they were done for."

 Recently she began to combine the papier-mache with fabric for a unique texture. She uses this approach mainly in her one-of-a-kind pieces, such as Humpty Dumpty on a wall, and in the reindeer and other figures for her seasonal themes, Christmas and Halloween.

 Next on Havens-Morris' list of endeavors for inspiration is a spook-proof horse that she can ride down the picturesque paths of Wayne and absorb the ambience in fitting fashion. His home will be the bull barn.

 "This is as close to the historic feeling of Middleburg as I can get," she says of what she calls her "love affair with Wayne."

 "The studio is like a loft in the country. We lived in some great lofts in the city and a barn house in Virginia, so when we saw this space, it felt like home to both of us. The high ceilings and the north windows are beautiful. The big south doors you can just open up on warm days and look out. It's like a living room in nature.

 "I painted the cabinets all white to unify them and I hung stuff around that I like," she says. "My daughter's antique bed as well as my doll house from my childhood hangs in there. It never feels like a mess out there. It's all inspiring."

 For more information about Susan Havens-Morris' papiermache creations, visit www.middleburgfolkartstudio.com.

Country Folk Art Festival

What: The 24th annual spring festival brings fine reproductions of period furniture -- from country to formal, Shaker and Mission styles. This year, Bill Johnson, a wood carver from Winfield, favors the Queen Anne-style in rockers, side chairs, tea tables, cupboards and more. Other highlights are: garden items, Easter specialties, reproductions of historic crafts such as chalkware, papier-mache and other historic crafts.

When: 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 25

Where: Kane County Fairgrounds, Randall Road between Illinois Highways 64 North Avenue) and 38 Roosevelt Road), 1 mile west of downtown St. Charles. Parking is free.

Extras: Home-made food and refreshments; all exhibits indoors; handicapped accessible; strollers allowed.

Show information: Judy Marks, 630-858-1568, or www.folkartfest.com