I am a painter and linocut printmaker. I bounce between painting and printmaking so that I can experience the joys and challenges of each. I am generously supplied with ideas from the red rock landscape, which I experience on hikes and fields trips. I observe and photograph textures, patterns, shapes, forms, colors, and spaces, and then back in my climate-controlled workspace, with instrumental music playing, I work with the resources of my photos, drawings, and my remembered sensations. Although I admire artists who work en plein air, I am admittedly not one of them.

In my former life, I was mainly a figurative artist who spent years drawing the human figure from life. I became a rock lover when I came to Moab. I now find similar challenges in representing geologic structures. Like the human figure, rock forms have volume and gesture. They stand, or recline, and have profiles that change with your point of view. They have physical integrity. They have "Presence."

This past year, I've concentrated on making prints. If you visit my studio, I am happy to share my most recent artistic ventures. I'm taking a more improvisation approach, doing color variations, and enjoying the freedom of making one-of-a-kind prints called monoprints.

Deborah McDermott     2021