Peace, pixels and purpose

Restlessness gives way to peace for Des Moines artist opening exhibit in CC

By Kate Hayden | khayden@charlescitypress.com

Judy Sebern Beachy was searching for a way to rest in the mornings, to shore up her soul and focus on the day ahead. Her work in cancer data collection research kept the logical and mathematical side of her fulfilled –– but there was another side Sebern Beachy needed to reach.

“I would never call myself an artist, but I knew I was creative. I think of an artist as somebody being more proficient,” Sebern Beachy said. “I’m kind of a peace freak. I’ve got the hippie soul in me.”

That ‘hippie soul’-inspired work will be on display at the Charles City Arts Center tonight, starting with a 5 p.m. reception with Sebern Beachy.

“I’m bringing all three pastels I started originally 20 years ago, and then I evolved,” Sebern Beachy said. “It’s kinda showing my journey of creativity, the three distinct timeframes of what I’ve done over the past 20 years.”

Her work will span from those realistic pastels into her ‘peace art’, created on top of abandoned office CDs and vinyl records found by friends in thrift shops. From there, Sebern Beachy explored even further with her newest ‘pixel art’ explorations –– small squares or circles in bold colors, arranged on canvas in abstract or realistic-inspired arrangements.

Always a creative spirit, Sebern Beachy was drawn back into the art world with a watercolor class. She spent ten years exploring realism before she “kind of got bored,” she said, and started exploring in the mornings before work –– her daily fifteen minutes of rest and meditation.

Since that start, and the beginning of her blog in 2011, Sebern Beachy has had several galleries and a few large-scale installations of her peace art spelling out messages to viewers –– a six-foot by six-foot piece will greet visitors at the Arts Center as they visit her showing.

“Definitely for me, creating is all about getting to a certain state of mind. When I was doing my peace art, it was a focus on slowing my life down and starting the day with my passion, art,” she said. “That’s the place I always want to be. I love the state of creating. It’s just happiness and joy.”

Sebern Beachy grew up in Charles City, where her parents still reside, and now works from her Beaverdale home surrounding Des Moines. Her morning creative habits settled in around middle age, she said, leaving her feeling a bit bored and lost during the day.

“Getting back in touch with my creative side was very healing for me,” Sebern Beachy said. “I stuck with it for 20 years now. You can start in middle age, being an artist…you can always add that in your life.”

A chance encounter with Arts Center director Torey Kiehlman at her Art-a-Fest booth last summer presented the opportunity to show, revisiting the progress she’s made in her work.

“I’d like to do a little more realism in my pixels,” she said. “I really don’t know what my next step is, but I don’t think I’m really done with my pixels.”

Sebern Beachy will also have a smaller collection of what she calls her “storytelling art”, which will hang art pieces and poetry side by side in her exhibit.

“Art that inspired a poem, or a certain event that I write about that inspired the art piece,” she said. “An example is the 2005 tsunami. I wanted to express that in a piece of artwork. From that, a piece of poetry came out.”

“It’s just a way to get that creative spirit out,” she added.

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