On Collecting Art > Lynn and Dan Tarrence live in Milwaukee, where she works as an interior designer and he helps investors support environmentally sustainable companies.
Their collecting journey began with a shared love of vintage black-and-white photographs featuring such iconic figures as Frida Kahlo, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Paul McCartney. In 2016, when Dan was serving on a nonprofit board, he was invited by a fellow trustee to visit his newly opened Lily Pad West Gallery. Through the friendships the Tarrences formed with this Milwaukee gallery’s owners, Alan Perlstein and Terry Hamann, “we soon embarked on an inspiring journey into the art world.”
During their first visit to Lily Pad West, Lynn was immediately captivated by Dan McCaw’s painting “Waiting,” illustrated above. “In fact,” the Tarrences recall, “she couldn’t take her eyes off it, overwhelmed by the poignancy of its solitary figure. A week later, we returned, and ‘Waiting’ still held the same magic. On our third visit, Lynn made up her mind, pulled out her checkbook, and purchased the painting with her own money. It was a moment of pure connection and the start of our art collection.”
Since then, the Tarrences have acquired pieces by Peter Layne Arguimbau, Peter Batchelder, Jeff Faust, Guido Garaycochea, Susan Hall, France Jodoin, Dan McCaw, John Robert McDonald, Tim Meyerring, Andy Newman, David Patterson, and Christopher Pierce. They enjoy attending gallery shows featuring new work by these artists, and over the years they’ve had the pleasure of meeting Faust, Garaycochea, Jodoin, McDonald, and Patterson in person. “Hearing directly from artists about the inspiration and thought processes behind their creations is always inspiring,” Lynn notes.
The Tarrences enjoy participating in Milwaukee’s lively Gallery Night events, held four times per year, which “provide an engaging way to explore and celebrate the local art scene.” Other venues they visit include the Saint Kate Arts Hotel, student shows at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and various plein air shows, but they buy primarily through Lily Pad West.
Art has enriched their lives in other ways: “Now our travels take us to famous art destinations such as Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, and those visits often inspire us to purchase art there when we have the opportunity.” Visiting Tucson, for example, the Tarrences acquired two 1953 pieces by the French artist and writer Jean Cocteau, who was deeply influential on the surrealist and Dada movements.
Speaking of surrealism, “When we bought our second painting by Jeff Faust,” Lynn observes, “it was the first time we had decided to collect a particular artist as a conscious choice. Previously, it had all been by heart.” One of their Faust works, “Clouds for the Poets,” is illustrated below; Dan says, “We loved it so much that Lynn designed our entire kitchen around it. Jeff even came to see the painting in its new home, and we hosted a small cocktail party to mark the occasion.” Of course, one is unlikely to see a cow resting with a cloud-filled rowboat floating above it, and that delightful streak of magic realism appeals to the Tarrences and can also be seen in two other Lily Pad West artists, Guido Garaycochea and H.M. Saffer II.
As for displaying their treasures, the couple face the same logistical challenges other collectors do: “When Lynn likes a painting she sees at the gallery, Dan usually says all our wall space is taken. Yet somehow Lynn can always find space for a new one!”
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