Today we’d like to introduce you to Gretka Domer.
Hi Gretka, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
The way I arrived in Grand Rapids was not by choice, but it has turned out to be a wonderful place to live and grow. My story started with my parents. They were both creatives in art, music and literature. They made sure I had the tools and time to experiment as a very young child. They also had a social conscience and love of nature and cultural roots.
I came to Grand Rapids in 1997 and got my Bachelor of Fine Art at Kendall College of Art and Design, and for the first time felt I had a voice. But then came 2008 and I had to find work in other fields so support my family. So I started a summer art camp at the farm in Alto I owned. I was also a substitute teacher in the Grand Rapids Public Schools and an activities assistant for Alzheimers elders. I joined the Grand Rapids Women’s Chorus and the Grand Valley Artists and currently I’m making weekly visits to Baldwin where there is a Detention Center for undocumented innocent immigrants, Being involved so closely with blatant injustice makes me feel an urgency to help where I can. Otherwise I would just be a retired artist and plant fancier.
I no longer have a garden since I sold my farm last year , so I planted and tend tomatoes and cucumbers in pots on my deck. Sadly the tomatoes are blighted. The moral of the story is you can’t always get what you want, but if you try, sometimes you get what you need.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Struggle has been the theme of my life. If I had known more about reality I would not have chosen art for my career. But my reality was a cloistered one until I was forty four. Art was what I knew and loved, but by 1997 I had six children, and we all were raised in an alternative lifestyle, namely a religious commune.
We were expelled from the commune with $300, an old Ford Taurus, a rental house and no job. The damage to my children has been significant. We all have PTSD. It would have been nice to know something about money and about predators. But I did not.
Now, thirty years later, we are all finding our footing and making wonderful rich relationships.
Is creativity adjacent to madness, or is it all that matters?
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Right now I have two paintings in progress. One is a four by six foot oil on masonite. It is inspired by my daughter’s work in the northern Rocky Mountains as a silviculture forester. The other is a commission: oil on canvas, memorial painting of a one hundred year old cottage north of Big Rapids. The cottage will be torn down this fall and important things happened there.
I’m also a print maker with a small offset press. I design block prints and sell them on Etsy and at Crow’s Hold Vendor’s Market on Division and Cherry street in Grand Rapids.
I’m probably better known for working with children in Caledonia and Grand Rapids Public schools. I used to paint murals in churches, schools, restaurants and hospitals. I wrote a grant and led a collage project in Caledonia with district-wide fourth graders. I led a mural project with advanced placement seniors in the Caledonia High school Cafeteria.
People respond to my connection with nature . My style is unsophisticated and perhaps primitive, but the faces I paint have heart. Since childhood, people have come to me for my drawing skills and trusted my handling of sensitive subject matter. Recently, in all humility, I like to believe I’m channelling the Creator when I have a brush in my hand and a canvas before me. But I would not like to scare away the Creator with self importance, For low is the way to the upper bright world, Oh brother you must bow so low.
I’m very satisfied with my art prize painting , a four by five foot oil on masonite of the forest floor along the Coldwater River in Alto. It will hang in the Park Congregational Church in Grand Rapids starting September 14th.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
Since moving to the city, I have closed my art camp. But I have a studio in my spacious basement where I could teach or hold activities. I’m considering offering studio time and space to artists young or old for rent. I’m thinking especially for use of the printing press. Guests could design and print their own greeting cards or posters for a reasonable fee.
I’m always looking for commissions and buyers. At the moment I don’t have a website and I’m not fluent in marketing.
Pricing:
- My greeting card sell for $6 or $20 for a set of five.
- small oil paintings are from $100 to $300. Large oil paintings are from $800 to $4000.
- Each commission is worked out with the patron based on a formula that includes materials, size, and time which is now $65 hourly.
Contact Info:
- Website: none
- Instagram: coldwaterstudio
- Facebook: Coldwater Studio, Gretka Domer.
