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Gretchen Papka’s art career began long before she moved to New York City. Her family owned and operated newspaper in central Wyoming gave her years of experience in graphics. After moving to New York and taking a painting class at Brooklyn Museum, the art instructor encouraged her to apply to art school. Those encounters lead her to enter & eventually graduate from Parson’s with a degree in Communication Design, after which she was employed as an Admission’s Assistant.
Later, she worked in graphic arts studios in up-state New York; becoming experienced in photography, cartography and graphic design. Each of these experiences contributes to the Encaustic Assemblage pieces you see today. She uses beeswax, pigment, paper and found objects in her artwork. Her favorite period of art is the Abstract Expressionist era and she is drawn to the works of artists Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Marcel Duchamp, Jasper Johns, Lee Bontecou, Brenda Harthill, Florence Rondel of France, Guy Guluskey, John Fraser, Katherine Frund and Louis Pons (just to name a few). |
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One recent description of her work: “Gretchen creates visual dialogues out of textures and colors and found objects connect her assemblage pieces to our familiar material world, though typically in an off-beat way as the objects are repurposed and juxtaposed to create the sensation of viewing that familiar world from a very unfamiliar and unexpected angle. The encaustic lends a dreamy, mysterious quality, as if it belonged to another time.”
Favorite Links:
Robyn Gordon’s blog and website http://artpropelled.blogspot.com/ & http://robyngordon.weebly.com/current.html
Nancy Natale’s http://artinthestudio.blogspot.com especially her retrospective Part 1 & 2 on Lee Bontecou’s career as an artist.
Gretchen Papka
www.gpapka.com
artgpapka@gmail.com
Represented by:
Mowen Solinsky Gallery, Nevada City, CA
www.mowensolinskygallery.com
B Deemer Gallery, Louisville, KY
www.bdeemer.com
Laughing Gull Artisan's Gallery
Bay Walk, Ocean Beach, Fire Island
Long Island, NY
Gallery MAR, Park City, UT
www.gallerymar.com
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