'Art makes me smile': Retired Alexander County teacher featured in first solo art show
An Alexander County woman makes art that makes her happy through textures and colors.
April Eckard, 64, started creating after her husband’s aunt cleared out her crafting room and gifted all the supplies to Eckard. Eckard found her specialty in upcycling thrifted clothes and embroidery by hand.
“Watercolors and embroidery make me smile,” Eckard said. “What I like about watercolor is I was never a fan of crayons and coloring books because I really felt like the bluebird did not have to be blue. Some people were really upset with that.”
April Eckard stands in front of a quilt panel she decorated using embroidery to bring color and character to each animal.
Eckard added she loves the unpredictability of watercolors versus painting with acrylics. Eckard does not like oil paints or pastels, she said.
After 30 years, Eckard retired from teaching cooking courses at Alexander Central High School eight years ago. Since then, she has let her husband take over cooking their meals while she works on her latest artistic creation.
Eckard sat on a burgundy couch on the second floor of the Lucas Mansion in Hiddenite on a late summer morning. She sported a light blue jacket with white floral details that she added to the jacket using embroidery and a deconstructed blouse from a thrift store.
“The two things that won first place this year (in an art contest) were painted, deconstructed and put back together in a different form,” Eckard said. “I can't replicate, and I've never wanted to. I've never seen my art as a commercial market with note cards. That's business. That's not fun. But when I can take a shirt apart and make a dozen flowers out of it, and use old buttons, I could see that shirt (from the thrift store) would go with this (jacket), and I could come home and do it.”
Eckard wants her art to be specially made for the person receiving the piece. “That’s what makes me happy,” she said.
Eckard’s art is on display at the Hiddenite Arts Center in the historic Lucas Mansion. Eckard was picked to be featured as a local emerging artist from August to October. The Hiddenite Arts Center is located at 316 Hiddenite Church Road in Alexander County.
Eckard shared her inspiration, artistic process and love of cooking. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Embroidery projects
I've embroidered and hand-sewn pretty much since high school when I was taught how to do it. I cannot make a quilt from scratch, a block quilt that a lot of times involves straight lines and matching little points. It's beyond my ability, but I saw some quilt panels. When I found panels, and they spoke to me, it was like, “Oh my God, I can do that.” I can bling the quilt panel out, and that's what I call it, blinging it out.
The quilt panel of animals that's on display, I started on the rabbit's tail, and I put 100 French knots in that bunny tail that I can feel. With many colors out there, I can feel the pieces, and I can touch it. If I don't like the thread, I'm not touching it. But I get stuff that I love to play with, I can do it and I still come out with a quilted-looking blanket, but I didn't have to piece it together.
Art on display
One year, I got an honorable mention for one of my artworks in a juried show at the Hiddenite Arts Center. This past year, when I entered, I got two blue ribbons; they said, “We would like you to be the emerging artist for whatever month, and would you mind sharing your art with us?” And I did, and here I am. I did have to call my friend to say, "Can I have the blanket back for just a little bit so I can share?”
I'm still dumbfounded that I was picked. I like my work, but I usually just give one to the person and then it goes away. To have more than one person to see my art, it's thrilled me. Apparently, God says that I need to get my art out a little bit more and share it. I would love to share my art. I would love for somebody to say, "Can you create this,” and be given the opportunity.
April Eckard laughs as she discusses the various crafting techniques she uses to make art.
Gifted crafting supplies
Art costs money. (My husband’s) aunt, she was in her 80s. She called me one day, and she says, "April, I saw your work on Facebook. My family says that I need to get rid of my craft room, and they don't want any of this crap is what they say. Can I share it with you?” I said, “Of course.”
I’d go to her house with containers in my truck and lots of Food Lion bags. She and I would go upstairs. I just pick one cabinet at a time and I would take everything. She could share with me the stories of what she did with the supplies. There were many tears on both of us, but I listened to her stories.
I would take the bags, I'd go down the steps, and her husband and my father-in-law would say, "Where do you put it?” And I said, "Put it in any container. I don't care where you put it.” But if I had canvases, I would tell them to put the canvases in the back seat. They would load up my truck, and when I got back home with a truckload, I would take out one carton at a time. It was a bite off what you can chew and not be overwhelmed process. She had lots of canvases at her house, more than I could use.
I took 75 of the canvases to Robin Isenhower-Stewart, an art teacher at Saint Stephens High School. She told her students they could just go over the painting and reuse the canvases. The students wanted to take the paintings home to hang up instead.
April Eckard made an art piece featuring colorful Easter eggs made of paper. Inside the artwork, Eckard hid a bee.
Teaching career
In ninth grade, God told me I was going to feed people, and I said, “I don't want to do it on foreign land.” You know, you don't usually get a choice with God. He tells you. So, I chose a career where I fed people. In prisons, hospitals, the WIC and then my WIC kids became my students, and I got to see it come full circle.
I always felt you cannot save a soul if their stomach’s growling. I do have the gift of cooking, and it's my gift from God. Since my husband retired, he's taken on the cooking role, and has left me time to sit back and do the art.
I loved watching kids create. The cake-decorating part of the class was the hardest, but everybody walked away with something that they had created. I went in for a medical procedure this past year. The nurse that pushed me down the hall said, "Miss Eckard, I did the horse (cake).” I said, “With the blue bridle?” She said, “Yes, and now I have a little boy, and I made his birthday cake.” That was the best part. She carried it on to another generation.
Sarah Johnson is the courts and breaking news reporter for the Hickory Daily Record.
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April Eckard shares how she upcycled a quilt panel using embroidery techniques.
