Tell All Tuesday ~ Featured Artist: Gretchen Bauer

Hi guys, so after last weeks interview post where I stated I would be stopping TAT soon as the participation was beginning to dry up guess what?!?? We have lots of participation again!! Whoop! lol so I've lots of emails to be getting on with & TAT will be continuing for the foreseeable future ~ as I promised when I started I will do it for as long as people want it - you just gotta show me sometimes yo!!! lol ok so this week is someone I'd be very artistically jealous of if I were 18 again & we were in class together, please enjoy the work of wonderful Gretchen:

Tell us a little bit about yourself & what kind of artist you are.

My name is Gretchen. I’m a self taught 18 year old who likes to dabble in pretty much any kind of medium at least once. I guess you could say I’m sort of a mixed media, multimedia type of artists in the sense that I like to try a bit of everything. Art has always been a part of my life from the day I was born. Each of my family members have artistic desire and ability, and have kept me encouraged from the day I started creating. My very first art form I fell in love with was collage, at the age of four, when my oldest sister introduced it to me. That led to my passion for paper, which has never worn off since then. ^.^ I was also given a sketch book at the age of 13 from my brother; those were the beginning days of my journal keeping craze, and I’ve continued doing it to this very day.

Indeed, I love art, and will never stop doing it.

What is the biggest challenge you personally face as an artist and how do you overcome it? 

I face several big challenges. It’s hard for me to be inspired or driven because of where I live for one. The place I live lacks beauty; being that it’s an industrial, urban city with all the bad qualities of a city, and none of the good qualities to make up for it. I also find it quite devastating to not be able to interact with other artists like me, being that I enjoy sharing. It makes me sad that there are absolutely no art groups I can attend to around here, and there are no galleries or museums that have art which interest me. In order to overcome these challenges, I’ve turned to the internet in hopes of finding others like me, and have a place to share, at anytime. Though I still struggle, I feel that my art is what matters, and it makes me happy to create and share, so I continue doing it because I enjoy what I do. 

What daunts you most as an artist?

The thing that daunts me most is lack of space and privacy. My art studio (the corner of my living room) is out in the open and increasing in messiness by the day. I have so many ideas and so much I want to make, but it seems like every time I sit down I feel watched, or I feel like someone is going to come in and turn on the tv. So to avoid this I work as quickly as possible, and commonly stow away to my room where I’ll work on parts of a project on by bed, and work on larger parts of a project late at night in the living room. I also face an issue with lack of energy on some days… where I really want to make something, but my apathetic side kicks in and I sit there like a slug.

What is your heart’s greatest desire for your life as an artist?

My greatest desire is to start a coffee shop somewhere that makes me happy, and I actually enjoy living in. I want to combine me and my families passions into one building, where each section has a different art form. One spot for papers and journals, another spot for jewelry and costume, and so on. I feel that coffee and art go together, and what better place to have hand crafted journals on display for people who might want a book to sketch and write in while they drink their coffee and discuss their ideas with others. I feel that to live above our dream coffee shop would be the best thing, so I can go to my studios at anytime, and work till I’m too tired, get up in the morning and make coffee, maybe even have art classes on the weekends.

Tell us where can we find out more about you & your art?

You can find me at http://pearllightstudio.blogspot.com/ 

Yay thank you Gretchen, I really enjoyed taking a trip into your arty life especially when...I have a secret, I have never shared this on here before but...

I WANT TO OPEN AN ARTIST COFFEE SHOP!! 

eeek =) I've ALWAYS loved my coffee shops and a great desire for me too is to open an artist & writers coffee shop (in my head it's in some fabulous area of London), I'd have sections for different purposes with supplies and inspiration all around, again like yours with art classes I can both take and teach. Hmmm **Dreamy Glare** may be one day we can open one together? lol I also have the same issue as you do with location, if you want to hear more about this Gretchen and how I deal with it please check out this post, I mention it in the same section as this one here.

I hope everyone enjoyed that =) if you want to be a featured artist and keep this series going email me, you can find all the details here =)