Wauwatosa's Firefly Grove Park Unveils 11-Foot Willow Mother Earth Sculpture

An 11-foot-tall willow-and-buckthorn head of Mother Earth was set to make its debut Friday evening in Wauwatosa's Firefly Grove Park, part of a free public unveiling that also featured poetry readings, live music and food trucks. The new sculpture, called Sacred Rhythm Mother, extends a 22-foot-long arm down the park's southeast slope, releasing seven sculpted native animals into the surrounding landscape.

According to OnMilwaukee, artist Justin Roberts was putting the final touches on the piece the day of the unveiling, which was scheduled for 6 p.m. at the park, located at 116th and Gilbert. Roberts, who works under the name Walk the Willow, built the interactive, ADA-accessible installation from buckthorn, willow, driftwood and recycled metal. Per Urban Milwaukee, the finished work stands roughly 11 feet tall and 18 feet wide, with its right arm reaching 34 feet long and 8 feet high as it slopes downhill.

The seven animal figures spilling from Mother Earth's outstretched arm include a green heron, a great blue heron, a mallard duck, a belted kingfisher, a mink, a muskrat and turtles, ranging from 1 to 7 feet in height, the same Urban Milwaukee report notes. The sculpture's head was designed with an archway and ear openings so visitors can walk inside it, and its placement on the southeast slope was chosen deliberately so the piece and its animal figures wouldn't interfere with the park's popular winter sledding hill.

Volunteers Cleared Invasive Buckthorn to Build It

Much of the raw material for Sacred Rhythm Mother came from the park itself. As reported by WTMJ, Roberts and local volunteers harvested invasive buckthorn directly from Firefly Grove Park to help build the sculpture, pairing it with willow, driftwood and recycled metal — a process that doubled as habitat restoration by clearing out the unwanted plant species.

Roberts learned willow craft the unconventional way. The former restaurant chef from Murray, Kentucky, apprenticed under master artisan George Beard and named his studio Walk the Willow after the technique of using his feet to bend raw willow saplings into shape. During Friday's event, Roberts was set to talk about the piece he created for the park.

Poetry and Storytelling Round Out the Celebration

The unveiling wasn't just about sculpture. Wisconsin Poet Laureate Brenda Cárdenas, appointed to the 2025–2027 term, was scheduled to give live readings at the event. Cárdenas is a former Milwaukee Poet Laureate and professor emerita at UW-Milwaukee whose 2023 collection Trace won the Society of Midland Authors Award, and she specializes in ekphrastic poetry written in response to visual artworks.

Local children's author Jessica Stremer also gave live readings as part of the celebration. Stremer, a biology graduate of UW-Oshkosh, published Wonderfully Wild: Rewilding a School and Community in May 2025, a picture book about children growing new trees from willow clippings — a thematic echo of the willow craft on display in the park.

The event fell under Firefly Fridays, the park's recurring series that includes live music, food trucks and family-friendly fun, with free admission for the sculpture unveiling itself.

A Second Landmark for a Park Built Without Property Taxes

Sacred Rhythm Mother now shares the park with Thomas Dambo's Mama Rosa troll, which had stood alone in Firefly Grove Park for just over a year before the new installation joined it. The Danish artist unveiled the 24.5-foot troll in May 2025, built from recycled local street trees and vintage light posts discarded during a streetlight upgrade in Wauwatosa Village, according to A Wealth of Nature.

Discover Wauwatosa funded the new sculpture using municipal room tax dollars collected from local hotel and lodging stays, per the City of Wauwatosa. The park itself, which opened in May 2025 on city land next to a former landfill, was built entirely through grants, ARPA allocations and private donations without drawing on local property tax dollars, the city's records show.

Firefly Grove Park has also grown into a showcase for sustainable infrastructure beyond its art. The site includes permeable pavement walking paths, solar arrays powering park facilities, a wetland restoration project funded by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, and what Discover Wauwatosa describes as Southeastern Wisconsin's first multidirectional bicycle pump track — features that place the new sculpture within a park designed from the ground up around ecological reuse.