The self-taught artist Eugene Von Bruenchenhein was a slight man of meager means. Born in Marinette, Wis., in 1910, the son of a sign painter and shopkeeper, he never finished high school, and once the family moved to Milwaukee, lived most of his life in a small house built by his father. He was too short to serve in the Army during World War II. He worked in a flower shop and then a bakery, and after health problems forced an early retirement in 1959, when he was 49, he got by on a Social Security check of $220 a month until his death in 1983.

But Von Bruenchenhein (pronounced BROON-shen-hine) made the most of everything that came his way. Everything included his love of plants and his wife and muse, Marie; his ability to make ingenious use of all kinds of scavenged materials; and an outsize imagination apparently further expanded by recreational drugs.

When he died, he left a large and unruly universe of muliple mediums crammed into the Milwaukee house. Comprising photographs, paintings, sculptures and drawings, it was known only to family and close friends. After his death a friend, Daniel Nycz, brought his work to the attention of Russell Bowman, who was director of the Milwaukee Art Museum.