Debra Elizabeth Martin Artistry
ARTIST STATEMENT
As a contemporary artist, I enjoy using acrylic paint often to explore Black female representation--relying on my own personal navigation throughout the world with the knowledge of Black womanhood. The artistic translation then being a place in which Black female representation is vulnerable. I strive to create expressionistic work that will connect with my audience emotionally and educationally. Consistently, I am the women in my paintings making a voyage to connect to the depicted characters. Connection was a challenge growing up in a military family, we moved from state to state often. Consequently, I learned that friendships were difficult to sustain, and would frequently end in an untimely manner. This pattern of connection to eventual loss wore on my heart but, art offered an escape from that reality. I consider my craft to be, not only an enjoyable activity, but also an introspective destination meant to regenerate my spirit.
BIOGRAPHY
Debra Elizabeth Martin is an mixed media artist and educator working in Oklahoma City. She earned a master degree from The University of Oklahoma with a background in Commercial Art and has garnered attention throughout her career for her vibrant paintings. Her wide range of images, from landscapes to figurative portraits to abstraction works on canvas and paper, all speak to her experience as a Black woman living in the mid-South. Debra's mediums are acrylic paints, West African textiles, and mixed- media materials. She enjoys experimenting and producing unique pigment combinations that manifest in bright tropical colors--bold, colorful creations that reflect her identity, ancestry, and community. Her mother, a self-taught artist, inspired her early creative ambitions. As a child, she embraced art whenever her parents’ military lifestyle made it difficult to acclimate to new places and sustain friendships across long distances. As a striving art student in college, she received a prestigious award for selling the most artwork in a student art show.
For several decades, the artist has partnered with non-profit organizations in Oklahoma communities. She is a visual arts instructor in after-school arts programs for underserved youth as well as for art camps and senior adult arts programs. Debra also demonstrates her advocacy for the arts by participating in fundraisers, volunteering, and charitable contributions.
2013 Summer Arts Intensive - Northeast A & M College
Miami, Oklahoma