Jacklyn Gratzfeld was born on May 26, 1969 in Ilion, New York. Her maiden name is Murray. She spent the first 18 years of her life in Frankfort, New York. As a child she began to draw animals. Each summer she spent many weeks at her parents summer camp in Brantingham, New York, in the Adirondack Park. It was here that she and her two brothers, John and Terry, roamed and played in the lake and woods. These carefree summers and a father who shared his respect for all living things with his children helped her to develop a strong sense of a life intrinsically tied to the natural world. Jacklyn`s maternal grandmother was Italian. She designed and sewed her own wardrobe, and taught Jacklyn this skill as a small child. Using a child-size sewing machine Jacklyn designed and crafted the wardrobe for her dolls. Later as an adult designing and sewing clothing was a hobby she practiced in her spare time.
After High School Jacklyn attended Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. She graduated from Clarkson with a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering in 1983. At the school of Engineering (much unlike her fellow students) she most enjoyed and excelled in courses in technical drawing and creative writing. After graduation from Clarkson she pursued a career in Engineering at Dorr-Oliver and Millipore Corporations until moving to Germany in 1990. In 1991 she married Matthias Gratzfeld, a native German. She worked in Engineering and then in International Management in Europe. During the years she spent primarily in the Biotechnical and Pharmaceutical industries she continued to draw and paint in her free time.
In 2003 Jacklyn began studing drawing and painting formally with various artists and began intensive studies in art literature on her own. Her background in engineering and experience designing clothing have helped her to be able to visualize her subject in three dimensions, and translate this to a two dimensional work. This is evident in all of her paintings and drawings. She is currenly studying Lithography with Ursula Limbacher in Billigheim, Germany and oil painting and figure drawing with Werner Brand in Hochstadt, Germany. in addition she participates in the weekly nude figure drawing group of the southern Palatinate Arts Guild in Landau, Germany which is headed by Siglinde Enders. She also enjoys the priviledge of support, guidance and critique from Mitch and Kathleen Billis of Bar Harbor, Maine.
Jacklyn participates in about ten exhibits and competitions per year in the U.S. and in Germany. Her oil painting "The Night" was selected by Manhattan Arts International 2007/2008 in the catagory "Best in Painting". She works in oil, acrylic, watercolor and pastel. Her subject matter is found in nature. Her African themes are inspired from travel in Kenya and Tansania. She will get an idea and then decide which media to use to best realize this concept. She has the most fun working outdoors "Plein Air".
Jacklyn lives with her husband Matthias and son Sebastian in Ranschbach, Germany. Ranschbach is located in the lovely wine growing region of Paletina in southwest Germany. She is an active member of the Paletinate Stork club www.pfalzstorch.de . This environmental group is responsible for the re-introduction of the white stork to the Palatinate. A year ago she received a phone call asking her to translate the presentation of human rights and environmental activists from Indonesia (Friends of the Earth Indonesia and Save our Borneo) from English into German at the Landau Zoo. Since then she is working together with "Rettet der Regenwald" www.regenwald.org . They are a small and effective German organization working to save and preserve the rain forests of the world. It is very important that they support both the local people and animal species living in the rain forest.
