Featured Artist

Deborah Ann

Creating art has been the focus most of my life for as long as I can remember. In grade school I started oil painting and clay sculpturing in my room and would spend days in quiet solitude creating in my own world. In high school a friend introduced me to his mother who introduced me to her loom, which she loaned to me for many years. This was a beginning of as lifetime love of fiber arts. By the late '60's I was working exclusively in fibers and started making off-the-loom pieces, macrame' and large scale crocheting.

In 1974, I came across a book called "Stitched and Stuffed Art" by Carolyn Vosburg Hall and knew that was what I wanted to do. Fabric sculpture became my art form until the late 80's when I started doing 2 dimensional works. Quilting was beginning to become more creative and people were starting to accept fabric work as art. I have continued to push the medium and work with drawing, painting and embellishments on fabric art. Portraiture is one of my greatest challenges. Doing this in fabric required much in precision to not distort the features and I thrive on the challenges this presents.

I want to show how I see the world so include many images of people who are less fortunate and often overlooked. When I traveled I have brought back images of Spain, Mexico, Germany and Prague to share in fabric.

To achieve the detail that I felt in my portraits, I start with a photograph(s) taken by me and translate it into a full size drawing on freezer paper. When cut apart the freezer paper can be ironed onto the selected fabric to insure accurate features. From there the individual pieces are fused or glued in place before stitching. Thread work is incorporated not only to secure the sections but to act as drawing for extra detail. On certain pieces I also will draw with crayons, pencils or dye sticks.

Many thanks to the Anything Goes Fiber Artists, a group we started 19 years ago as the sharing of our work has educated us all and pushed for fabric art accepted as "real" art. Finally finding people who are doing fabric art has been a wonderful surprise and is the reason I will stay in Yakima for a long time.

I was able to retire to my studio in 2010 and have since started working in mixed media creating table size sculptures. They are very spontaneous and often quite whimsical which is a nice departure from my fabric art. This has expanded my creative energies in exciting ways. Life is always an adventure when I go to the studio.