Heidi Wirtner through her Heidi Wirtner Art has tapped into Catchflo Customs to create his own custom Heidi Wirtner Catchflo footwear AND 10% of your purchase goes to Heidi.
Here's some cool background on Heidi from Heidi herself.
I grew up on a farm in western Pennsylvania with my summers filled with fishing on the Allegheny River and my neighbor's pond. My dad started me fishing at 3 years old with a cane pole, bobber, and worms. This early start sparked a love for the sport that just grew and grew as I did. At the age of 13, I was going to visit a cousin in Pittsburgh who was into fly fishing. My dad said I should ask him to teach me how to use a fly rod since we had my grandfather's old one, but my dad had no idea how to use it. It only took one hour of casting and I knew that I had found a new way of fishing that would become an obsession that is still going strong over 30 years later.
Not only did my dad nurture my fly fishing, but he and my mother both encouraged my other passion of art. When they saw that art was something that I was really drawn to, they encouraged me to go in that career direction. I attended Edinboro University of Pennsylvania for Graphic Design, but I also received my teaching certification. I have loved working with the kids and I've used the summers to pursue my fishing and art.
As the years have gone on, I've put more and more time into both my art and my fly fishing. Along the way, I have learned to tie my own flies and even built my own 9 wt fly rod. My artwork took on more nature and especially water themes as I experimented with different mediums to find my favorites. I even met my significant other through our mutual obsession for fly fishing.
It was only 3-4 years ago that I combined my love for fishing with my love of making art. My boyfriend had been telling me for years that I should be painting fish and fishing related subjects, since I loved to fish so much. All along, I kept voicing that I just didn't feel like that was what I was ready to do. Finally, I decided to do a painting of a salmon fly and that was it, I was hooked.
Now, the majority of the work that I create is based on fish and fishing. I've developed a style of mixing the use of watercolors on watercolor paper that is then collaged onto an acrylic background.
I love experimenting on the backgrounds to make them look like water by using pour techniques and different ways of adding watercolor elements to them. People always comment on my use of bright colors. I tell them that color makes me feel happy, so I hope that color and the subject matter will also make people feel that joy.
I love all of the water in nature, from the smallest pond to our rivers as well as the fish and other creatures that live there. It is so very important to take care of the water and animals. Hopefully, by creating artwork with these themes, people will become more aware of the need to protect them.
As I'm getting ready to wind down my teaching career, I'm excited to begin doing my art on a full-time basis. The more I'm on the water, the more ideas that keep jumping into my brain, leading to more awesome art. I can't wait to build on my art career by bringing more to my website and spending more time on commissions.
