Gretchen Weidner
Gretchen Weidner is a young, up and coming muralist and commissioned painter in Southern California. Landing in San Diego in 2014, she has made the city her canvas, painting her art on the walls of public and private businesses. Her recent passion and expertise has become painting murals. She enjoys the entire process, from the planning and research to the sketching and painting.
She has worked with small and large business owners, private clients and firms, to design and create memorable and inspiring murals. Gretchen also creates her personal series and collections, which often play off stereotypical gender roles. Gretchen’s inspiration comes from her encounters and experiences with life. All her series and collections are available for purchase on prints, apparel, and home goods, as well as the originals paintings if available. In 2014 Gretchen left snowy Buffalo to move to sunny San Diego to expand her career in the arts. Having spent nearly a decade in the classroom teaching our youth the technical aspects, as well as how to appreciate art, it was time to share her personal experiences with the public.
Traveling the 2,500 miles with a carload of belongings, a B.A. in Fine Arts from Alfred University and an M.A. in Art Education from Buffalo
State College, she was ready to begin a new chapter of her creative life. Since beginning her career in San Diego, you can find her artwork all over the city: in Kearny Mesa, North Park, Normal Heights, Ocean Beach, Temecula, and Coronado, in businesses, fire departments, hotels, bars, restaurants and private homes. She has had her work shown in North Park, Ocean Beach, Coronado and the Gaslamp.
In March of 2015, she held her largest personal show, bringing in nearly 200 guests. As she ventures into her 30s, her paintings have been focused on romance and the intimacy that comes with interpersonal interactions.
Her work has sexual undertones at times and reveals her intimate encounters with life and love. Every experience she encounters subconsciously reveals itself on her canvases. Her art has a surreal aesthetic, and she takes pride in creating her work free hand, revealing a clear and consistent path from one’s mind, to hand, to the canvas. Art has always been a big part of her life—celebrating the creation process with the past two generations of female artists in her family, her grandmother, and mother.
An entrepreneur at heart, she mass-produced her first coloring book when she was 8 years old, sold her first painting at 16, exhibited in her first solo show at 21, and opened her first art teaching studio at 25.
