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Deborah Webster, when not teaching art at the Schenectady School of Fine
Arts, will be found in her studio in Rexford, NY. There she is busy
creating art of many layers. It is these multiple layers of handmade
papers, old drawings, and three-dimensional objects, oils, and metallic
pigments that reflect the intertwining of thoughts memories, and
emotions. Deborah states that as she works, she focuses “on the ways
patterns interact throughout the layering process until suddenly the
image in front of me comes to life. My thinking now has visual form. ”
Her desire to be an artist has roots in childhood
when she thought it would be great fun to be a Disney cartoonist. After
switching from psychology to art in college, Deborah's earlier work
incorporated cartoon-like narrative images with a psychological twist.
Her current work continues to reflect her interest in psychology and
painting as she presents narrative images in more abstract forms. She states, “I am fascinated by how memories affect our
thoughts and emotional responses. I consider each piece to be a
fragment of thought – connected, disconnected, entangled, and attached
to other thoughts and emotions.”
After college graduation, Deborah was creating etchings on hand-made
paper, in work as large as 6 feet. In graduate school, she began
painting and creating images of women “in the chaos of everyday moments”
also in formats as large as 8 or 9 feet. It was living in Hawaii that
nature worked its magic. She found a kinship with the earth, took her
hand-made papers, her narrative paintings, and began a process with
her chosen media to reflect the layering of connected memories and emotions. These
creations were often as small as 4-5 inches, which she matted and framed
behind glass. Now she is evolving again to create larger triptychs and
diptychs that incorporate her layering techniques and her love of
gardening. Much of her new work will be on display at Gallery 100 in
Saratoga Springs in April.
Deborah was selected to paint a horse for “Horses: Saratoga Style”,
an August 2002 outdoor exhibit of twenty four horses. Her piece, Sargo,
a mixed media compilation of handmade papers and items from Saratoga
National and their restaurant, was purchased by Saratoga National Golf
Club and is now a permanent installation in their collection. She says,
“Sargo is the whimsical embodiment of our memories old and new.”
Visitors enjoy the search-and-find aspect of Sargo, looking for embedded
golf balls, tees, club heads, sushi mats, golf gloves and many other
items. In addition, Deborah was one of four artists to be showcased by
WMHT-TV in the publicity for this city-wide exhibit.
Deborah's work has been exhibited in several solo shows as well as
numerous juried and invitational exhibits in galleries such as Long Island
University, Cork Gallery in NYC, and Amos Eno in SOHO among others. Currently her work
can be seen in an international juried show, “Fire and Ice”, through
March 22 at the Fulton Street Gallery in Troy. She will also have work
on display in LARAC’s Members’ Show (March 23-April 18). From April
12-May 31, she will be showing her new work as one of a select group of
artists to be featured in “Works on Paper” at Gallery 100, Saratoga
Springs . In 2004, she has a solo show at the Columbia-Greene Community college. |
