“I also love sharing this vision, by teaching others to be able create their own ideas.”

Bernie creates Sculptures made of Fabric and has also made many Metal Sculptures made of Aluminum, Barbed Wire, Steel and Other Metals that represent Birds, Animals, Wildlife, and People and many Miscellaneous subjects.

Acclaimed sculptor Bernie Jestrabek-Hart, a graduate of Boise State University, she has made sculptures for collectors throughout the world.  For 32 years she created with steel, aluminum, and stainless steel, as well as barbed wire. In 2011 due to worn out shoulders which have been replaced Bernie is no longer able to do the hammering required to shape metal, so she has turned to creating with fabric.

She has sculpted in many different styles, a multitude of subjects and sizes, from monumental works for landmarks and school mascots, as well as smaller for homes and gardens, including tiny sculptures and pieces of jewelry. She is working to make the fabric a viable medium to be displayed outside with the use of Powertex or Paverpol added to the fabric or with a coating of Belzona, (a molecular metal) added which makes it look and feel like metal.

Bernie has won many awards and is most proud of being co-awarded with Bob Gerdes, the °Caldwell Fine Arts Excellence in Fine Arts Award¡” in 2010 for the Great Blue Heron in Indian Creek, Caldwell, Idaho. (see on miscellaneous birds’ page) This is the first time in the 48 years of this association’s existence that this award was given to a metal sculptor!

Her first book, entitled, “Creating Realistic Works of Art with Barbed Wire” is now available and is an explicit tutorial, sharing her personal techniques for using the medium of barbed wire.  It is available through her website and has sold all over the world.

The second, “Finding Beauty in Devastation” is a book of photos of the beauty she saw after the devastating shop fire in 2010.  It was finished and published the fall of 2013 and is available through this website.

Fabric has now become her passion and she created a red-tailed hawk for the Wyandot Middle School in the Clinton Township, MN.  Instead of the browns and reds of the red-tailed hawk they wanted the blues and gold of their school colors. Her largest fabric to date is an 11-foot wingspan red tailed hawk for Indian Trail High School and Academy in Kenosha, WI.

In the last couple of years Bernie has developed he skills of Pencil Portrait Drawing.  She has to date drawn over 300 of her fellow residence.  She strives to show the beauty and inner glow she sees in her peers here at the facility.  Many are not aware of their beauty.

Due to the physical limitations, she now requires assistance for some personal activities and is currently residing with assisted living in Brookdale, Scotts Valley Senior Living complex in Scotts Valley, CA, where she is close to both of her sons and theirfamilies and is also able to be part of her grand children’s lives.  At Brookdale. Bernie serves as chairman of the Residents’ Association.

Bernie’s studio is her apartment living room where she creates with fabric.

Regarding commission work, her motto is °You imagine it and I will work with you to create it.”