Paukert pleased with good fortune of being an artist
The china hutch in Gretchen Paukert’s dining room does not display her fine china or hide linens in its drawers. Small canvas paintings and art supplies fill the hutch and serve as a reminder to Paukert, 45, that art is her calling.
Paukert’s art also decorates many of the walls in her Mica home, as well as tabletops and the shades on the lamps, which are painted and have handmade clay pieces dangling from the rims.
The basement floors are painted showing paths of rocks, bricks and swirls. Paintings that contain spiritual, childlike and ancient looking images fill much of the space.
Something about her work stirs emotions and tugs on heartstrings or memories. It is hard to put a finger on it. Paukert explained, “The artist sets aside his or her self to make room for the creative intelligent life force of God to express through them. What comes out of art created in this way is a secret language discernable to the soul. It’s divine play with a message. Whether it’s through film or painting or sculpture or dance, I’m driven in the long run to produce art that comes from this place of mystery.”
Paukert uses brushed on metal leaf in her work as well as embossing powder, a paint adhesive and acrylic paint. She uses mostly gold on black. Her style is surreal, naturalist and stylized. The shapes are flowing and curvy and may be symbols, ancient but new all at the same time.
On the flip side, Paukert creates crafty things. You need a table setting? She’ll hand paint placemats and create a matching centerpiece. She’ll create a world in your child’s bedroom. She makes jewelry, wine charms, bookmarks, cards and woodcarvings. “This type of creating is light-hearted and fun,” she said.
Paukert has always been a “doodler,” but it wasn’t until about eight years ago that she decided to try art full time. “I want to create. What good fortune to have stumbled unto this path. It feels like part of a future that I have long sensed coming – a destiny that I only half believed would ever come true.”
A wife, mother, and “Sit and Be Fit” employee, Paukert has made the decision to be an artist though she has a problem with the selling part. Her business, GWP Designs, is only beginning. “To be successful I’ll have to jump over certain hurdles that have tripped me up for a long time, like my loathing of marketing and the whole business end of art.”
Sitting in her warm and wonderfully decorated kitchen, she is quick to offer up a cup of tea, and she dashes about showing this and that. She could be Martha Stewart’s kid sister, only a little hipper and a little more conscientious. “Art has taught me many things … mostly to believe in myself and in something much bigger than myself.”
Paukert will be a featured artist on HGTV’s show “That’s Clever” sometime next year. Hopefully the exposure will give her an added push. “All I need is one wealthy patron to get the ball rolling,” Paukert said.