Marsha Gertenbach

Soaring , Contemporary bronze sculpture.

Marsha Gertenbach was born in Denver, Colorado in 1943. She was raised in Denver and Racine, Wisconsin. She moved to California after high school and attended UCLA, Santa Monica College, Otis Parsons School of Design, Orange Coast College, Rhode Island School of Design, and Palomar College. She also studied with noted sculptors Lathrop Bullini Gay in 1973, Martine Vaugel in 1980, and Richard Mac Donald's Master's Workshop,2003 Marsha has always been interested in the creative field. She started out as a painter and exhibited her work at the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts in 1965 along with her noted painting sister, Lynn. She began her career in illustration and design, creating greeting cards, wallpaper designs, kitchen and beach towel and fabric designs. She also spent 16 years painting backgrounds for animation and worked for Hanna Barbera, Filmation and several smaller studios. She also made pottery and eventually moved into sculpting figurative works which she has always loved. When she began sculpting she felt she had really found her life's passion. Her first job sculpting was for Silvestri Studio's in Los Angeles where she sculpted life size mannequins for retail store display. Later she worked for two of the largest toy companies, Mattel and Hasbro, designing and sculpting dolls and other toys. She's also done sculpting for the Danbury Mint and The Ashton Drake Galleries and continues to work as a freelance sculptor on special projects for several toy companies. Marsha's artistic style has been honed from her travels throughout the world and living a year in India studying art and music. The rich experiences of her travels have often influenced and inspired her work. Marsha was fortunate to have parents that were both very musical and as a result of their influence she also sang professionally for 5 years. She focuses most of her work on the human figure. However, she has also created several large direct-metal welded pieces which incorporate her figurative work with her cast glass. She has completed a large steel sculpture for the San Diego County Parks Dept. which has been installed in Wilderness Gardens, in North San Diego County. She was also commissioned to design and sculpt a large wall piece for the donor patrons to the Bob Burton Center for the Performing Arts, Fallbrook, CA. In 2001 she completed two bronze ballet figures under commission from the Victor Pankey family of Fallbrook,CA. In 2006 she completed a portrait commission of “Nicolas” for the “Nicolas Foundation for Autistic Children”. Her works have won numerous awards for First Prize as well as Best of Show awards in multi media exhibits and was chosen the winner of the prestigious Director's Award in the California Art Club's 2001 Gold Medal Exhibition. Marsha Gertenbach is a sculptor member of the California Art Club. She is also a member of the Fallbrook Art Assoc. She has exhibited her work in New York, Bombay, India as well as California.