Who is Debi?

I am the designated driver. Always. I am a believer in the Universe sending signs, and when I accidentally typed river instead of driver, I believe that is the Universe talking to me, telling me to rethink that thought, that perhaps I am a river and I flow endlessly & easily toward the ocean. I am a painter becoming a writer, an artist learning to use her camera like a paintbrush. Moving forward. A water sign, a lover of animals, a Texan.

As an Artist, what are your favorite ways to express yourself?

Writing, painting, photography, building assemblages. I am also a secret room re-decorator – I redo in my mind every room I visit.

What is your creative process?

I pay attention and I remember. I own notebooks that are scattered everywhere, words & phrases jotted down, but my ideas are mostly in my head. I see a shade of blue in a movie and remember, and I notice how it made me feel. That feeling is the important thing to me, what I want to impart, a rhythm I feel inside, always my own rhythm. I never listen to music when I work. I work to silence or to movies on tv, easy to ignore; I can’t ignore music. It is oddly easier in the morning; though I am not a morning person, there are days I wake full of ideas or solved problems and must immediately set to work, breakfast can always be later, a shower can always be later.

When writing I let the words come, it is very much improvisational jazz, my writing, not thought out at all; I just begin with an idea and, if blogging, I begin with a photograph, and just start and my fingers know where to go. It is easier than I should admit, but it just comes from somewhere and flows through me. (That me-as-river idea begins to make sense.)

If I am painting, it is much the same, but it is exhausting. It is never ever relaxing and I must remind myself to breathe and I am annoyed at interruptions when in the grasp of my muse. I paint over images again and again, I write words and paint over them, sometimes leave bits and pieces visible. I don’t like to see the texture of canvas under paint, so I glue many, many, many layers of papers to the canvas before I can begin, a long, long process for which I have just hired an assistant (the real Emma), and also part of the reason I am gravitating to photography, in which I work in much the same way, treating the image as a piece of canvas. I don’t use preset actions – I let the image guide me. I want the viewer to feel what I felt when the picture was taken.

What are you moved to express in your art?

My need for silence and space and stillness, but as I always say, it is the stillness and silence surrounding movement. The energy left behind, such as that in Suttee Gate 1.

How do you handle an interruption in the flow of imagination or writer’s block?

To be honest, this is not a problem I encounter much when writing. I ignore it and just keep typing. The words will know when they are finished. I may not show those words to anyone, but the keeping on pushes me through the blocks. When painting, I walk away. You can’t force the paint to do what it refuses, and I don’t want my sense of frustration in the finished piece. I try to approach a painting with Namaste hands. And heart.

What brings you joy, contentment, happiness?

Being in a boat on a lake at midnight is way up there for me. Nothing to do but lay back and look at the stars, count satellites as they travel across the sky, perhaps getting out of the boat, floating on my back, thinking nothing. My cat, my niece, sitting under my neighbor’s blue Christmas lights that she leaves up all year long, wound around her spiral staircase. Meeting my boyfriend’s eyes and knowing what he’s thinking. Small things.

How has saying ‘yes’ changed the trajectory of your life?

I am a latecomer to saying yes and am amazed at the power it holds. I now call myself an artist without cringing. I now call myself a writer without feeling a fraud. By opening myself up to the power of ‘Yes’, I have made new friends, have had long overdue art shows, have seen my words published, with more to come.

What holds you back?

A severe anxiety disorder which keeps me from traveling, from meeting new people. Overwhelming shyness. I daily battle it and there are victories here and there. I intend one day to win the war.

Who are your creative role models? What books, art or music inspire and ignite you?

This sounds horrible, but as much as I love other people’s work, I don’t consider them role models. In fact, I will purposely avoid museums and magazines and blogs when painting, not wanting to color my painting with someone else’s ideas – much the same as not listening to music when working. I need to just be with me. That said, there are writers who just kill me with their words – Antoine de St. Exupery, Frances Mayes, Beryl Markham, Isak Dinesen, T.R. Pearson, Joanne Harris. Plot is almost secondary to me – I want words that read like paintings, that, when spoken aloud, are a prayer. Songwriters Guy Clark, Kevin Welch, Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle. Singers Willy deVille, Van Morrison. Cellist Jami Sieber. Movies? Water, The Little Princess. Anything that is just as good with the sound off.

To what in life do you give yourself unconditionally?

Those I love. I am fiercely loyal.

Where has love taken you?

There and back again. And back to There.

If there were absolutely no obstacles whatsoever, what would you do tomorrow?

First I would sleep. Then sleep some more. After that? I’m unsure. What a boring answer. But it calls to mind the days after 9/11, perhaps the next year. I remember seeing articles and television pieces asking people how their lives had changed since then, and I realized mine hadn’t. I still believed the same way. It was a very eye-opening moment, knowing I was truly myself, that I truly believed in the things I said I did. But. If tomorrow my anxiety disorder disappeared, I would begin to travel; it is the only experience/thing I miss. I would start with East Africa .

What is on your wish list?

Big stuff. A small house on a lake, a white Mac, money.

What is on your inspiration board?

I have tons. My whole house is an inspiration board, so you can imagine the mess.

Where is your creative space/corner of the world?

It is really everywhere and in my head and at my fingertips, but once I begin it is on either side of these curtains. They divide my living area from my “studio” area and are pulled back when I am painting to let light in from all sides of the outdoors. When I am writing, I am squooshed up on the couch, laptop on my lap,and the curtains are down, behind me. It is very small & very small & very small.

Take a photo of a place you go to reground and root yourself when life gets a bit overwhelming, and if you like, tell us why it is so meaningful to you.

I live in Texas . I get in my Jeep and drive.

Famous last words?

“It just bees that way sometimes.”

bio ~

‘I cannot remember a time when I wasn’t fascinated by objects, space, color, words, and their relationships with each other.  The shape of a word can enchant me more than its meaning, my favorite books paint pictures with words and where a chair is placed in a room tells me all I need to know about the occupant.  I am a painter, mostly a writer, learning once again to see the world through the lens of a camera.    My life has been Texas/Arizona/Texas, my growing up years spent in Arizona, where I eventually became part owner of an interior design workshop, putting off college until Texas and family called me home.  I found a job in a camera store that catered to professional photographers and at school majored in photography and art, but life, as it is wont to do, got in the way of what I had to say.  I became a photo retoucher, took a part time job in an art museum, and I stayed quiet, but continued to paint, showing my work here, there, wherever possible, and I’ve spent the last 20 years helping my ever-wonderful “significant other” operate a photography business and professional photo lab.  He will tell you that I have not stayed quiet.    I use whatever camera the photographers at work no longer want, all Canon equipment, but have my own lenses, and I am currently in love with the quirkiness and freedom of cell phone camera images.  I am also in love with words again, with writing, storytelling, and often use my images as illustrations for the tale I have to tell.    You can find me at www.emmatree.blogspot.com, where, as I say, come sit under the Emma Tree and let’s talk.’