Artist Statement:

Deborah believes all Art tells a story, a moment in time captured on canvas, paper or sculpture. It represents one’s history.  Plein Air captures current time.  Creating art from the use of photos can capture past history, be it yesterday or many years ago. Artists who create from memory draw on experiences that stay rooted within their minds.   Even the person acquiring a piece of art has added to its story by the circumstances of the purchase.

Deborah Rabel is a mostly self taught artist. She has had few formal art classes; most of her knowledge and training come from books that she has acquired. After mastering graphite, Deborah wanted to explore color. Her medium of choice at the present time is Colored Pencils and she is a member of CPSA.  Deborah credits her interest in Colored Pencils to her favorite artists / authors, Ann Kullberg and Janie Gildow.  Their instructional books have been inspirational.

She has recently done a series of pen and ink drawings for a client, which she found just as exciting and a great learning experience.

Photographs have played an important part in Deborah’s creative process.  Having numerous pictures taken by her husband of places they have visited, she will select the ones that are interesting to her and recreate them in Colored Pencils.  So as not to have her drawings be an exact replica, she will leave out and add things of interest.  Her favorite subjects are landscapes and animals, but lately she has become fascinated with portraitures.  Having acquired old black and white photos of family members and concerned that these picture are about to become obsolete and lost, she plans on recreating them into pieces of art that can be appreciated by anyone.   Each of her drawings has a story. They are her moment in time, a captured piece of history.

Joining the Vista Art Foundation in October 2004, Deborah became involved as much as her employment permits.  She had been the Membership Director in 2006 and Secretary in 2007.  This is her first gallery experience and she has found VAF members to be generous in sharing their knowledge and expertise.

One of her favorite quotes is, “When you’re green you’re growing. When you’re ripe you rot.” She applies this to her art and she plans to continue learning and growing. She never wants to feel that she has ripened.