Local Artist Featured at Healing Arts Gallery
Dave Elvert
“Bedding Down” is one of seven watercolors by Dave Elvert on display in the Bill and Coreen Adamany Healing Arts Gallery in Crossing Rivers Health.
Local artist showing at Healing Arts Gallery
By Ted Pennekamp
David Elvert of Wauzeka is the latest area artist to have his works on display at the Bill and Coreen Adamany Healing Arts Gallery at the Crossing Rivers Health Medical Center.
“I feel pretty good about it,” said Elvert, who has seven watercolor paintings on display at the hospital through October. A local fan of Elvert’s oil and watercolor paintings found out about the gallery and told hospital staff about Elvert. The hospital then contacted the relatively well-known area artist.
Sasha Dull, chief development officer at Crossing Rivers Health, said the gallery has been up and running since the hospital opened in June of 2015.
“We saw an opportunity for local art to be displayed at no charge,” said Dull. “The gallery is a nice way to recognize Bill and Coreen Adamany who were donors to the capital campaign for the construction of Crossing Rivers Health.”
Dull said various artists rotate through for varying time periods. Two dimensional art such as paintings and photographs are displayed on the gallery walls, and some artists have sold some of their work as a result.
“The Healing Arts Gallery is an opportunity to display local artwork. The gallery brings an appreciation for art and there is also a healing element,” said Dull. “It’s uplifting, and new artwork every so often gives the area a fresh look and adds to the local hospital.”
“The current display is of nature scenes from our area or resembling our area,” said Elvert. Titles include Almost Sundown, Leaning Barn, Bedding Down, Going Home, August, Summer, and Goose Island.
“I was always drawing in my tablet and getting into trouble in class in grade school,” Elvert said with a smile. He said teachers first took notice when he was in kindergarten and a drawing he had done had details in it such as the threads in a pair of pants.
Paul Porvaznik was Elvert’s art teacher at Prairie du Chien High School. Elvert also said he had several excellent instructors when he attended Western Wisconsin Technical College in La Crosse while enrolled in their Commercial Art Program.
“In our class of 1974 at Western Wisconsin Technical College, 75 percent of the students were excellent artists,” Elvert said. “They were very good artists and very competitive. It made you work harder. They helped make me better.”
In creating his oils and watercolors, Elvert said his biggest influence among American artists is Andrew Wyeth.
“If I need inspiration, I read ‘Two Worlds of Andrew Wyeth: Kuerners and Olsons’ to re-energize myself,” said Elvert. “Wyeth is arguably America’s greatest artist.”
Elvert remembers a quote attributed to Wyeth, “Art is something you don’t just do and walk away from. It sticks with you.”
“That’s the type of thinking I admire about Wyeth,” said Elvert. “Art is hard work.”
Along with the watercolors at the Healing Arts Gallery at Crossing Rivers Health, interested persons can also view several of Elvert’s oil paintings at The Tavern, 205 W. Blackhawk Ave., Prairie du Chien.
Crossing Rivers Health is located at 37868 Highway 18, Prairie du Chien. Sasha Dull said that if anyone is interested in displaying their work at the Healing Arts Gallery, they can call (608) 357-2140. Professional as well as amateur painters and photographers are welcome to call.
