Blues, greens and grays flow into one another to create the great blue heron that appears on the county’s upcoming fiscal year budget cover.
The painting was created by Lisa Krzmarzick, an administrative specialist in the Department of Community Justice’s Juvenile Services Division.
Chair Jeff Cogen selected Krzmarzick’s artwork as part of a joint contest the Chair’s Office and Budget Office held to feature employee artwork on the fiscal year 2014 budget document.
Krzmarzick painted the heron in 2012 as a tribute to her late grandfather, whom she used to go camping with at Pelton Dam where they’d encounter the majestic birds. Whenever she sees a great blue heron, she thinks of her grandfather and smiles. The reaction is fitting since she called her grandfather “Happy.”
As a kid, saying “Grandpa Krzmarzick” was a mouthful, so her family suggested “Pappy.” But she mispronounced that too. Soon, Pappy became Happy. And it stuck.
Though Krzmarzick took graphics and design classes more than 20 years ago, she said this is her first completed acrylic. She also dabbles in card-making and other arts projects.
"When I say I felt like I was watching my hand paint without me, I mean it," she said. "It was one of those weird zones I have heard about where all of the training and dabbling come together and coalesced right in front of my eyes without any interference from the barriers of my mind."
Krzmarzick will join Chair Cogen and Chief Operating Officer Joanne Fuller for lunch to celebrate the selection of her artwork.
-News article created by Melissa Navas, Communications Office.