In another chapter of his long career as a portrait artist, John Deckert, 73, of Santa Rosa, stepped from behind his easel and in front of his computer for a remote appearance on national television Monday.
Most recently recognized for his series last year of more than 60 portraits of essential workers during the coronavirus pandemic, Deckert appeared on the “The Kelly Clarkson Show.”
During the program, he presented a portrait virtually to Kaiser emergency room nurse Haley Gonzalez of Ukiah, who cared for him just before the pandemic when he fell and broke bones in his “painting hand.”
“I took a photo of her on my phone, and once my hand was healed, I painted her portrait but I never got the chance to show it to her during the lockdown,” Deckert explained on the show.
Gonzalez, 31, who has been a nurse for the past six years, was on staff at another hospital and was helping out at Kaiser when she attended to Deckert, she said in a phone interview with The Press Democrat Tuesday. She joined the Kaiser ER staff a year ago.
“He was my patient and he asked to take my picture,” Gonzalez recalled. “That was the last I heard of it until ’The Kelly Clarkson Show.’ The whole thing was very beautiful that he decided to do this. We’re very appreciative.”
Deckert and Gonzalez arranged to meet in person this week so he could give her the portrait he painted of her.
Deckert has a long history as a professional artist. For 20 years, he lived in New York City. He came to live in Mill Valley in 2003 before settling in Santa Rosa’s Rincon Valley four years ago.
After the 2017 wildfires in Sonoma County, Deckert painted portraits of emergency crews and community leaders, including Hank Schreeder, then the Santa Rosa police chief, and Tony Gossner, then the Santa Rosa fire chief.
Last year, as the pandemic encroached, he painted portraits of essential workers and others still at work as many sheltered at home, from mail carriers and electrical repair crews to hospital workers and store cashiers.
A longtime Marine reservist, Deckert also has honored servicemen in his paintings. There are 35 of Deckert’s paintings in the permanent collection of the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia. Last year, the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation recognized him for his paintings of the military.
You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5243. On Twitter @danarts.