2. How do you jump start your creativity when you are in a slump? I'm never at a loss for ideas but sometimes I get in a bit of a funk when I am not able to bring my ideas to life with the materials, techniques or time I have at hand. Then I really have to get creative and find new solutions or revise my vision of a particular piece of art.
3. If money wasn't an issue, what would you do with your art? Honestly, I'm not sure that money is what's holding me back. It's time and discipline. That said, I would love to do more fiber art projects with students in my local schools. I did an art quilt project with fourth graders that was an inspiring experience for the kids and for me.
4. Do you keep a sketchbook, journal, etc.? I like to make sketches of possible compositions for art quilts. Sometimes I sketch the same thing over and over just playing with the proportion of different elements. My sketchbooks also include lists of various techniques I'd like to try, materials I'd like to include and things I need to pick up on my next trip to the art supply store.
5. Where can people see your other work this year? I am thrilled to be one of the authors of Twelve by Twelve: The International Art Quilt Challenge, so you can see lots of my small art quilts in that book. The quilts from the book will also be on display at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. I also have a quilt traveling all over the country with the exhibit "Thread Tails and Vapor Trails" which celebrates the one hundredth anniversary of naval aviation. I wrote an article for Volume 2 of In Stitches emag about using sheer fabrics to create silhouettes. And I just got word that my quilt Refuge Radiant will be in the Sacred Threads exhibit.
6. Do you teach? I love teaching. It is so exciting to see students come away with tiny nuggets of inspiration that may change the way they think of fabric and art quilting. I teach mostly in the Maryland/Virginia/DC area, but I've got some longer trips on the horizon too.
7. Is there a particular artist who had influenced you in your art life? and why? My great grandmother, Mabel, was an amazing renaissance woman. I have a picture of the two of us sitting together in about 1975. There is a latch hook pillow on the couch and a tie-dyed discharged wall hanging behind us. Apparently, fiber art was in the genes!
8. Where or what show do you hope your work will be in someday? I am trying to adjust my mindset toward continuing to create a body of work that really fits my personal style and creative spirit -- rather than creating work to enter in specific shows. But, of course, I am hoping that those two directions will eventually merge and I'll have work that fits perfectly at various venues. I am new to Maryland and I'm eager to get to know the local art scene and display my work here.
9. Describe your studio workspace. I'm in the basement! The lighting is not great, but it's cool in the summer and warm in the winter and there is lots of space to sprawl. I have a big work table that is up on risers since I prefer to stand when I'm working. I bounce back and forth between the table, the ironing board and the design wall. Drawers and boxes of fabrics, embellishments, tools and odd bits of this and that are easily at hand.
10. What 3 tools could you not live without? Recently, my husband found my favorite thimble under the couch. So, I had been living without it, but I was very very happy to have it back. My camera is a great tool for taking pictures for inspiration and also for taking in-progress shots as part of the design process. Most of my work is constructed with fusible webbing. Is that a tool? I buy it by the bolt!
11. What drives you to make the work that you do? I just really enjoy the whole process. I love the seed of an idea, picking out fabric, exploring relationships between colors and shapes, adding paint or other surface designs, and stitching by hand and by machine. Even when I encounter problems or disappointments and I have to work hard to make changes, I enjoy the fist pounding, teeth clenching challenge of getting from start to finish.
12. How do you balance your life? I just have to know when it's ok to let something go. Sometimes that means I miss a deadline; sometimes that means we have sandwiches on paper plates for dinner.
http://www.DeborahsStudio.com/
http://DeborahsJournal.blogspot.com/
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