Carol Wacha

Alcohol inks

St. Luke’s School of Nursing, Cedar Rapids
Grandview College, Des Moines
CAA instructor

In 2013, after retiring from 42 years in the high-stress career of nursing, Carol Wacha had some time on her hands and she was looking for something completely outside her realm of experience. Maybe a place where she could volunteer, and have some fun too.

Well, she found the CAA and immediately began helping with art classes. She immediately enjoyed the camaraderie and getting to know the studio artists. Stimulated by the environment and inspired by the work going on around her, she became encouraged to start painting.

During this same time, Wacha became aware of alcohol inks — an acid-free, highly pigmented and fast-drying medium that is applied to non-porous surfaces like metal, glass, ceramic and plastic. She became fascinated by its translucence and the versatile effects that can be achieved.

So she began to experiment and learned how to use, manipulate and direct the flow. Completely self-taught, she has worked to develop her artistic skills and now that she's been working in the medium for a few years, she's found others who are interested in the medium too.. Now she's enjoying the role of instructor, helping students to discover a hidden artistic expression and that, too, is enormously satisfying.