Join Upcycle Dubuque for First Friday on the Central Curve. The Central Curve is becoming a artist and maker destination. Come by and see what we have been up to and help us celebrate the work of Elizabeth Heisler.

I have used art as an expression of my thoughts, visions of life, nature and my spirit. I Work at Hillcrest Family Services as a Nurse and have been able to share my art with some of our clients as a tool to express themselves. We worked with acrylics and the kids looked to forward to being creative.

Working with wire:
I love trees and what they mean to me and our planet. The lessons we should learn from destroying trees, the air we breathe, the animals that take shelter in them and just the simple beauty they bring.
I have been using wire and stone lately as a form of art, trying to capture a sense of where a stone came from, what trees might have lived on or around it. I find myself learning lessons from the wire that it might not be the path I have planned but the path it wants to take. A life lesson I suppose. Although wire is challenging, when I’m done and the piece speaks to me, feeling I was present under the tree at some other time, the sadness or emotion perhaps of the years the tree has seen and then destroyed.

Acrylics and Stained Glass:
I also love working with glass and acrylics. I have worked with stained for years; when the sunlight catches the glass at different times of the day it can change your mood, it expresses how I am feeling at a certain time of day. When the sun rises or when the sun is setting, stained glass will look different putting you in just the right mood.

When working with acrylics I have a feeling of being free, I have been working not trying to create something particular but to add color and see where it takes me. I can say when I get a chance to work with flow acrylics I feel like my spirit is set free, there is no explanation, it’s a wonderful feeling. I don’t feel critical, I don’t feel I need to be a certain way, it doesn’t feel anxious or down, it’s just simply free expression.

I will continue to learn and use different mediums to help express how I feel, my passion about life and the importance of the simple things that are so meaningful to me. I hope that as I continue with my art work those feelings will show through my pieces. I love to share what I have learned to others. I believe giving others the opportunity of art gives them an outlet to express their ideas, there emotions, bottled up fear, depression and anxiety. Art brings people together.