March 28, 2024

Arts Council’s featured artist

The Clarke Area Arts Council’s featured artist is Janet Heinicke of Indianola.

Heinicke is a professional artist with a studio in Indianola who paints, draws and hand pulls prints. She paints and draws what she sees in the world around her, mostly nature.

She has traveled across the United States and also around the world from Africa to Europe and the Far East. Her art has won her multiple awards and she often displayed her art for competitions. She has given lectures on art nationally and internationally. Heinicke has taught in Russia, the Ukraine, Latvia, Japan and Tanzania.

Heinicke came to Indianola in 1982 to assume the chairship of the art department at Simpson College. Between 2013 and 2018 she was the Superintendent of Fine Art at the Iowa State Fair and in 2016 she received the AWE AWARD (Arts Within Everything) by the Des Moines Metro Arts Organizations. She holds degrees from Northern Illinois University and the University of Wisconsin. She has also studied at Syracuse University and the Anderson Art Ranch.

Although technically retired, Heinicke continues to teach by offering classes at the Des Moines Art Center and working with selected private students.

“I want to elevate the awareness of the viewer to the beauty, as well as the fragility of small, overlooked things in the world around us,” said Heinicke.

The CAAC Artist Exhibit featuring Janet Heinicke is 4-6 p.m. July 28 at the Lakeside Casino Events Center Lobby. Heinicke will demonstrate Batik, an Indonesian method of hand painting textiles using wax. There will be refreshments and the chance to win a free piece of art by Heinicke.