“The lake is the boss.” – Julian Nelson, Commercial Fisherman on Lake Superior

When I read that statement in the National Park brochure for the Apostle Islands, it gave shape to everything I would see and learn during my week on Madeline Island, Wisconsin. I was there to teach a workshop for Madeline Island School of the Arts, and my class outings took us to forests, cliffs, and dunes on the lakeshore, and to the local historical museum in the tiny town of La Pointe. The lake—big, cold, deep, and windswept—influences it all. Nature and culture, people and place, have been bound to one another and to the lake for centuries. These pages reflect some of my experiences and a few ways a new place can be understood—and sketched.