Eco-art on display in New Bohemia

Jeff Heitt enjoys hiking the trails at the Indian Creek Nature Center.

Others walk for health and leisure, but Heitt hikes with a watchful eye. He's looking for good wood.

'Working with wood requires lots of patience,' Heitt said. 'You have to go with the flow of the wood, with the grain . . .

if you had something in mind when you started you have to be willing to adapt.' Using a hatchet and a chisel, Heitt hews art out of fallen trees. He puts hundreds of hours of hard, sweaty and detailed work into dead or dying pieces of wood and brings them back to life as abstract art.

'Three of these projects washed up in the creek after the flood,' Heitt said. 'They used to be in someone's yard, someone's home.' The act of recovery through art carried the day in New Bohemia on Saturday as artists, environmentalists and neighbors merged to celebrate the city's annual CREco-Art Fest.

'Following a disaster like (the flood), we wanted to do something to celebrate the renewal, the revitalization and the recovery we're going through here,' said Jim Jacobmeyer, the director of the New Bohemia Group. 'This event fits where we're at both physically and mentally (as a community).' Jacobmeyer said more than 60 artists and vendors displayed more than 300 different pieces during an event that required entries to be made with at least 75-percent recyclable or recovered materials.

A carpenter by trade, Todd Sabin used wood recovered from the flood damaged restaurant Becketts along with old gears and plumbing fixtures to build a 15-footlong airplane propeller.

Sabin split open his hand with a circular chain saw while working on the piece, but that wasn't enough to stop him. 'Within three days of surgery I was back at it,' Sabin said. 'I had to finish it with seven fingers ... but it's worth it.' Beyond art, organizers said the daylong celebration is meant to honor the upcoming 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

Workshops and seminars on greener living, along with a variety of eco-art and fashion installations were spread throughout the New Boho community and gave the public a moment to interact with and reflect on the idea of greener living.

'If anything, days like today reconfirm your commitment to the environment,' Jacobmeyer said. 'It's something you have to think about every time you throw something away or fill up your gas tank.'