LEARNING TO CELEBRATE LIFE AGAIN IN THE HUNDRED-ACRE WOOD ..
Dennis Taylor, Carmel Pine Cone
A big window in Studio 3 at the Pacific Grove Art Center brightens the world of Pacia Platzek, whose life was in a dark place until she accidentally rediscovered her childhood passion.
At 70, she’s an artist again, crafting wool and felt into indescribably-cuddly critters, creatures, and cartoon characters, including the “Winnie the Pooh” characters her son adored as a toddler.
She’s happy again, a transformation she doesn’t take for granted.
Unspeakable Tragedy
Forest Platzek, the younger of her two children, was 37 in 2017 when he died suddenly after a lengthy struggle with multiple health challenges, several surgeries, and an addiction to painkilling medications prescribed by physicians throughout his ordeal. He was 87 percent disabled by the time his life ended. The official cause of death was an overdose of opiates.
Pacia believes her son, a former U.S. Navy radar technician, became afflicted with his maladies after serving aboard the USS Bremerton, a submarine that leaked nuclear waste.
Mysterious Kidney Stones
Two of his fellow shipmates struggled with the same very-rare health problems, including mysterious kidney stones that required multiple surgeries on both kidneys, and complications that included malignant hypothermia (a genetic reaction to anesthesia that occurs in 1 of 60,000 people).
Pacia and her husband, Gary Buck, were vacationing in Italy, when they received the devastating news of his death via text message, and immediately flew home to Pacific Grove in Monterey California.
“It was horrible … so horrible,” remembered Pacia, whose grief was crippling.
Winnie The Pooh
"It was such a difficult time,” she said. “All I could do when I got home was read the Winnie the Pooh books I always read to Forest when he was young. I used to read those to him every single night. It was the only thing that gave me comfort, and I’ve got those books memorized today.” Platzek found additional relief when she found the Whole Hearted Chorus, a singing group that practiced at the American Tin Cannery. She’s still a member today.
A Cathartic Breakthrough
But the greatest breakthrough in her healing process came from rediscovering art, an epiphany sparked by her daughter, Calypso (Forest’s big sister), a middle-school science teacher in Santa Cruz, and the mother of Pacia’s two grandsons. “She showed me some little things her boys had made out of felt, and she helped me make a soft, little ball for my hat,” she remembered. “And then, at Christmas time, when she needed decorations for her outdoor tree, we sat at her table and made felted Christmas ornaments. I was hooked.”
A Bright, New Sanctuary
In 2018, Platzek accommodated her newfound love for art by renting a space at the Pacific Grove Art Center. She uses her
art studio as a gallery, and venue where she sells her original artwork .
And on the second Sunday of every month, Platzek teaches a 3-hour felting workshop to adults and kids in the Art Center's classroom.
A self-described “Navy brat,” Platzek spent her earliest years in Hawaii, entered kindergarten in Maryland, then attending first and second grade in Pacific Grove while her father, Eugene Platzek, studied as an engineer and cryptologist at the Naval Postgraduate School.
Full-Circle Coincidence
“Funny story: I studied ballet from age 6 to 18, for the first few of years in PG,” she said. “All these years later, I found out they teach ballet right across the hall from my art studio at Pacific Grove Art Center. The ballet instructor, Mei Liu, showed me an old photograph, and I realized her mother had been my teacher when I was 6. How amazing is that?”
Other stops for the Platzek's included Japan, North San Francisco Bay, Maryland, and Virginia, where she finished high school.
"Now you’re an artist!"
Through the years, her interest in art was encouraged by her mother (Katheryn) and a grandmother (Zella) who lived in the Santa Cruz mountains and her brother (Bill Living in New York) – all artists. Her father was also a loving supporter. “When I was 6 or 7, we were driving along 17 Mile Drive one day after church,” Platzek remembered, “My dad looked at me in the back seat, saw the picture I was drawing, and bought it from me for 25 cents. Then he said, "You just sold your first picture. Now you’re an artist!" That moment has stayed in my heart ever since,” she reminisced.
Drafting And Engineering
She was the first female at her Virginia Jr. high school to beg out of the all-girl sewing class, and enroll instead in drafting, where the rest of her classmates were boys. Inspired by that experience, and also by her father's engineering background, she earned college degrees in Engineering Technology, Surveying Technology, Computer-Aided Drafting, all of which contributed to careers she enjoyed during her professional life.
Connecting Over Coffee
In 2000, she met Gary Buck at a contra dance at the Aromas Grange, then saw him again at Monterey’s YMCA. “He invited me to go out for coffee, and we haven’t been apart since,” she said of her husband of 24 years, a native of England who holds a Ph.D. in linguistics, and is a former Director of Testing at the Defense Language Institute and the University of Michigan. For the past 21 years, Platzek and Buck have been co-owners of Lidget Green, Inc., an international consulting business specializing in education testing programs. The business still has clients, but they’re otherwise retired.
.Full-time Pleasures
“Art and singing have been my full-time interests since we moved to Pacific Grove (in 2016). “I feel so blessed, so fortunate, so lucky to live in such a beautiful and inspiring place,” she said. Platzek is entirely self-taught. Much of her knowledge was gleaned from a small library of reference books in her studio, and from instructional videos she found online.
PGAC’S 2024 Summer Exhibit
Her art is currently part of a multi-faceted exhibition that runs through Aug. 29, at Pacific Grove Art Center (568 Lighthouse Ave). Platzek welcomes visitors Wednesday through Sunday, 12 noon to 3 p.m., in her art studio #3, where her art is available for viewing and purchase (cash only). For information about Platzek’s upcoming felting workshops visit Multiple images of her work can be viewed here: https://heartfeltcreations.art/gallery
