Artist Larry Welo has been creating etchings since the early 1970s.  Blue Mounds Opera House.  Mount Horeb.  Madison.

Blue Mounds is a small community nestled in the scenic rolling hills and farmland of southern Wisconsin. It is located approximately twenty miles west of Madison, near Highway 18-151.

My printmaking studio has been located in the former Blue Mounds Opera House since 2001. Built in the town center in 1870, the Opera House for many years was the hub of the town's community life. 

The storefront has become the showroom for my current works, and the second floor is a large, open room with a small stage at one end. This room was, at one time, the site of everything from school plays and graduations to town meetings and performances by a variety of traveling acts. These acts would sometimes use the back side of the stage backdrops as a kind of guest book.  One of the performing guests was Harry Houdini in 1923.

I like to think that magic continues to happen in the Opera House auditorium, which is now my studio. The size, the space, and the light are wonderful. The building affords me the space to work on a wide variety of printmaking projects. 

I hope you will contact me and arrange to visit!