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“I feel honored to say that the Heiders were close friends of ours and that I knew Marie,” Wierzbicki said. “When my dad was young he stayed with Marie’s brother Henry out on Highway 16 so he could go to school in West Salem. Otherwise, it would have been too far from his home in Barre Mills,” Wierzbicki said.
For an artist who’s about to put on her own exhibition, Wierzbicki had kind of a slow beginning. “Growing up in Coon Valley, I wasn’t very good at art in school. I wasn’t a natural-born type of artist, but I did have an interest in painting,” Wierzbicki said.
In 1992, she took a course at a Ben Franklin store in La Crosse, but that was about it for instruction. “I was mostly self-taught until a couple of years ago,” she said.
About 1995 Wierzbicki and her husband Brian formed a business called Blade and Brushes. “Brian was doing the wood cutouts and making small cabinets for me to paint on. I did tole painting and folk art painting on the wood in acrylics. We did wholesale shows in Kansas, Illinois and Minnesota in addition to small craft shows in the area,” Wierzbicki said.
About two years ago, Wierzbicki took an oil painting class and became intrigued with the process.
Since then, she’s traveled to Indiana, Missouri, Illinois, Minnesota and Ohio taking seminars and courses on oil painting. “I’ve been pretty much traveling around taking courses from famous artists. My goal is to teach classes in oils at my house,” she said.
To that end, her husband will build a studio in the basement of their West Salem home next winter (he’s too busy right now with his new business — Precision Stump Removal).
Meanwhile, Wierzbicki enjoys her newfound love of oil painting.
“It’s fun to do in terms of colors and it definitely helps me become more aware of my surrounding. It opens your eyes to all the beauty around you, whether it’s a seascape, a landscape or the face of a child,” she said.
The show will feature 25 to 30 landscapes, portraits, waterfalls, still lifes and some florals. “I like to have a variety of subject so there will be something of interest for everyone. I’ve tried to get out of my ‘box’ so that I can appeal to more people,” Wierzbicki said.
She also makes it a point to single out the volunteers who work at the Heider Center: “If you can say anything good about them, please do. They help set up, tear down, do advertising and so many other things — without them it would not be possible to do shows like this.”
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