Art teacher follows in dad’s footsteps

Broken pencils. Crayons. Rocks. Batteries.

They may sound just like a bunch of random items, but to Lizzie Hughes they’re potential art pieces.

Creating mixed media art pieces using recycled or found objects is one of Hughes’ favorite hobbies when she’s not in the classroom teaching elementary art for Fremont Public Schools.

Just by taking a look around Hughes’ art room at Bell Field Elementary School, it’s evident anything is fair game in her art work.

One piece features pencil sketches mixed in with colorful crayons scattered in all different directions.

While the common home improvement supply of insulation foam is typically used for filling cracks, Hughes has found that it makes sculptures that her students think are pretty cool.

“They love it,” Hughes said. “They’re kind of like cartoon characters. One’s a worm. One’s a mixture between an elephant and a fish.

“I use a lot of bright colors. I think that’s kind of what gets them thinking about it because I have some that are black and white and they don’t really notice them as much.”

Hughes realized she loved art at an early age. She credits her parents, John and Sharon, with influencing her creative side.

Her father was her art teacher from first through 12th grades at Wisner-Pilger Public Schools.

“I don’t remember not having one of his felt tip pens in my hands,” she said. “As long as I can remember I’ve enjoyed drawing or doodling of some sort.”

Hughes chose to follow in her dad’s footsteps and majored in art education at Wayne State College. She’s now in her second year of teaching art at Bell Field, Grant and Washington elementary schools.

“I always thought I wanted to teach high school until I student taught (in Lincoln),” said the 2008 Wayne State graduate. “The energy that these kids have is out of this world. It’s great.”

She wants her students to appreciate different kinds of art and not be afraid to be creative.

“I rarely let them use pencils and erasers just so they can use their mistakes to maybe use it as their own design,” Hughes said. “We’re doing a lot of sunflowers lately and they’re doing awesome. ... They can choose how they want their petals; they can be different. I talk about how their handwriting is not the same so their art work is not going to look the same either.”

Hughes describes her own art style as full of expression, a little abstract and sometimes a little random.

A collection of her work is on display this month at the Nebraska Loess Hills Resource Conservation and Development Council’s office in Oakland.

As the September artist of the month, Hughes put together about 40 art pieces for the exhibit. Visitors can view paintings, sculptures, ceramics, metalwork, drawings and mixed media pieces.

“I can not stick to one thing. I get bored with it pretty easily so I do a variety,” Hughes said of her diverse art collection.

Due to an artist cancellation, Hughes had to act quickly to put together the exhibit. Even though she was in the middle of moving and the start of school was approaching, she didn’t let that get in the way of her creativity.

“It was crazy to do this, but I handmade all of my postcards that I mailed out to my friends,” said Hughes, estimating that to be about 200 postcards. “It’s just kind of a little piece of artwork that they could get. It was fun.”

Hughes uses an assortment of sources when developing ideas for her art work.

“Most of my inspiration comes from different event,” she said. “I have a lot of personalities that I work with, that’s definitely inspiration. I love to spend time outside, that’s inspiration. I got a bike this summer so I’ve been painting a lot of bikes lately.”

Now that the school year is underway, most of Hughes’ art time is reserved for the weekends.

“I don’t like to force schedule any time,” she said. “I know when I need to sit down and do something because it’s a peace of mind kind of thing.”

Besides her art hobby, Hughes also enjoys going to concerts, fishing and traveling. When she’s visiting such cities as New York and Kansas City, she likes to visit their art museums or view the public art that is on display.

“There’s inspiration everywhere I think,” she said.