Bud Green discovered his artistic talent was literally right under his feet.
By Rich Wicks | Panora Times, February 2025
“Silent Night…Holy Night” is an example of Bud’s creations with a Christmas theme.
“Find something you love to do, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” That quotation is sometimes attributed to Mark Twain and sometimes to Confucius. But regardless of who said it, the concept fits the situation of Bud and Doreen Green of Panora.
After a career spent in the technology and business world, Bud and Doreen moved to rural Panora and found a different calling. They now spend their time on something called B&D HeartArt. Bud recently showed examples and explained how he became an artist, despite not considering himself artistic while growing up.
“My father and his mother, both of them could draw really well, and I could only make stick figures,” he said.
Since Bud’s career path was in the business world, a lack of artistic expression didn’t seem to be an issue.
“To the Moon and Back” is one of the works of B&D HeartArt.
“Prior to retiring, I was an IT project manager, leadership consultant, and I’ve got a master’s degree in business administration,” Bud said. “Then, about a year ago, I was looking for something for my wife and I to do that fit us. We want to do things at home and things that are meaningful. I had experimented with woodworking, but I have no real skill or talent in that area.”
Eventually, Bud discovered his artistic talent was literally right under his feet.
“My whole life, I have been drawn to stones. Anytime I go for a walk or I go to the lake, my eyes are drawn to the stones,” Bud said. “I was looking online, and I came across pebble art, but now I’ve gone in a direction that expands on that. This is something that just feels like what we’re meant to do.”
Pebble art, as the name suggests, is finding pebbles and positioning or combining them to create a certain design or artistic image.
“Pebble art, traditionally, kind of has a stark background,” Bud said. “We did that for a while, but then I realized there was something that could be built on that. So, I created backgrounds using AI (Artificial Intelligence). And I’d never touched AI before. I might go through a thousand runs of AI before I find something that feels right to set the overall mood.”
Doreen and Bud Green say the most rewarding moments are when they get to witness a person finding their art meaningful and healing.
Bud quickly realized that he wanted to create art that would help those who need healing.
“It isn’t just a hobby; it’s more of a heart-calling,” Bud said. “It’s wanting to bring something to people who have a heavy heart for whatever reason and who could use some uplifting. That is at the core of why we do what we do. We really want to lighten things for people. So, we call it heart art.”
Some of Bud’s creations are for a broader appeal, such as pieces he has made with a Christmas theme or those celebrating love. Other creations are custom, like those commemorating a specific lost loved one (human or pet).
In either case, the art usually includes a background design with pebbles and/or sticks to create an image and a short wording or haiku created by Bud to match the intended feeling.
For the custom pieces, Bud works to truly understand what is needed.
“With the custom work, I dive in deep,” he said. “I have an empathetic way of working with people and being with people. I pick up on their feelings.”
Bud says the most rewarding moments are when he gets to witness a person finding his art meaningful and healing.
“The emotional reactions we’re getting from people were really unexpected,” he said. “It shows the heartache that’s out there.”
B&D HeartArt focuses on feelings, not finances.
“We try to keep the cost to a minimum. I’ve done about 80 pieces. Custom work can take anywhere from 10 to 30 hours. It’s not a business to make money. We’d like to recoup the costs, to some degree, but that’s not the goal,” Bud said. “The pieces that are part of the collection are $44, and the custom pieces are $50. We want to make sure that we don’t price anyone out of this.”
The couple’s art has a Facebook page (B&D HeartArt) and Instagram presence (bdheartart). They hope to eventually offer classes to teach others how to create similar art.
Although Bud is the creator of the pieces, he stressed the teamwork with his wife.
“I wouldn’t be doing this without the inspiration, love and support in so many ways of my wife, Doreen. The name B & D HeartArt honors the importance of our relationship to this work; the ‘B’ is me and the ‘D’ is Doreen,” Bud said. “Aside from the inspiration she provides, she does the planning, marketing, quality assurance, sales support and she is essentially our CEO/COO. It’s a blessing to be here and to be able to do this kind of work to help people, to bring them that healing feeling.”
Panora Times features local residents with interesting hobbies, collections or pastimes each month. If you know someone in the area with such a story, email rich@gctimesnews.com