About deborah

I am an artist and the daughter of Iowa farm country. For most of my childhood, my father worked for the Soil Conservation Service, talking to farmers about soil and water. I listened.

Watching him, I learned that to do that job effectively, it took a storyteller who could connect the work of farming with the science of conservation. Now it’s my turn to share the love, knowledge, and stories, of our living, giving earth.

My fiber/mixed media depictions of soil horizons and processes of charging aquifers began as a tribute to my Dads work. Doing the research to see if I was getting the layers right reignited my interested in the earth science I’m attempting to express.

An article on the evolution of soil I recently read an article on the evolution of soil that said, “No single organism had the adaptations necessary to move away from the shore and fully colonize the poor-quality soils. The key…was cooperation.”

The stories we tell matter. I want my art about the living world showing symbiotic systems to further understanding about what it takes to support and conserve a complex living world.

I want my work to be a path toward cooperation that is as rich as the soil we stand on.