Check out Deborah Reilly’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Deborah Reilly.

Deborah, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I grew up in a small town in Montana with five brothers and sisters (I’d be the Jan Brady in the bunch) I’ve always loved Art, As a kid, I loved to paint and draw, spent hours at the kitchen counter sketching from comic books. When I entered jr. high, art was considered childish for someone with my talent or lack thereof so I had to give it up. I missed it and realized later in life that all those images I saw in my head needed an outlet. While living in San Francisco after a two-week stint of panic attacks and insomnia and no other reliable outlet to deal with the sleeplessness, I picked up some Crayola watercolors and started to paint again first like a 12-year-old then I evolved. I realized then that the pictures I saw in my head had already been painted by me in my head, I just had to find a way to get them onto paper. I had to trust the process. The children’s book “The Little Prince” came into my life as well as “Drawing on the Right Side of Your Brain” I was hooked.

This experience while rooted in pain informs my worldview. I believe everyone has a creative bone in their body and that that bone is an important part of our connection to the self and all of humanity. As I see it, there are two schools of thought in The Arts, one primarily ego-based, the other rooted in the soul. For me, the mathematical, scientific approaches to learning art don’t really work, I have to feel it. I realized along my journey that I had to go abstract before I could go real with my art. I bounce back and forth between abstract painting, portraits, children books, and dogs. I love my dogs.

This informs me as a teacher as well. Not the dogs, well okay yes, the dogs I incorporate them in connecting with my students and as subjects. I teach Art at an elementary school in Brentwood and a Kids Program in Santa Monica on Saturdays. And I love when given the opportunity to teach adults. Especially those who have the desire but feel they don’t have the talent. I believe when we look out into the world today, we see a society where the creative bone has been silenced, selected for a few with the talents that fit neatly inside a comfortable box. As a human, an artist and a teacher I look at The Caves of Lascaux to realize how important Art is to humanity.

In the end, I don’t care if you paint by numbers, dig in the dirt, knit, crochet or arrange magnets on a refrigerator I just care that you do something. One of the first shows that opened me up to the possibility of myself as an artist was a retrospective of Francis Bacon at MOMA in NYC. It took a few years until I was brave enough to face the blank canvas myself.

In San Francisco, I started with a comic strip. Words and images have always been synonymous and an abstract painting tells a story, the words dancing around in my head and landing as titles. During the 2016 election cycle, I found myself back at political cartooning. I made a cartoon of Donald Trump and fiends. I fund myself feeling ill, disheartened and deeply saddened by looking at and drawing this subject I found so distasteful. As an antidote, I decided to paint a portrait of

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
During the 2016 election cycle, I found myself back at political cartooning. I made a cartoon of Donald Trump and fiends. I found myself feeling ill, disheartened and deeply saddened by looking at and drawing this subject I found so distasteful. As an antidote, I decided to paint a portrait of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, someone I deeply admire.

The change in my disposition was significant. I was pleased it actually resembled her. Until then, I had never really been successful in painting portraits that actually looked like the subject, I could do a generic portrait that looked like a generic person but this was different. I found even though I was looking at Ruth via an iPad my mood lifted. Significantly. It was the perfect antidote for me during this time and as I was also looking for a daily meditation practice, I decided to paint a portrait a day for 365 days of people I admire. The project begins and ends with Ruth. I achieved my goals into ways A. I got better at portraits B. I found myself being more optimistic during this time. This is truly significant, I am like most artists prone to depression and I can’t really explain how that year unfolded me being more optimistic than many I had conversations with about the future.

Not to say there were no ups and downs, there were many. There were many times I had to drag myself to the Art table to paint, Nina Simone was one of those days which ended up being one of my favorite portraits. Initially, I had made a decision to paint only living people. When Prince died, I didn’t allow myself to feel it, he was such a big part of my teenage years. Then months later after a beach romp with my dogs in the car on the ride home on the radio the song “Purple Rain” came on. I couldn’t deny it any longer and Prince had to be the portrait that day.

The project is filled with topical events I painted Barack Obama on Inauguration Day. That day was hard, the portrait measuring 5″by7″ in watercolor took all day (the size and medium of all the portraits). Initially, I had intended the daily practice to be about a 35-45 minute daily undertaking and somedays that was true but most days it took much longer. Deciding who to paint, what image to paint from, which one spoke to me the most and then beginning with pencil, outlining with sharpie and then onto watercolor.

Somedays were magical, the portrait just flowed out of me, some days were more challenging and I ended up with a portrait I really wasn’t satisfied with but I had to carry on. Social media gets a good rap for this one because I was posting daily I had to keep it up and I posted the failures as well as the successes. This is a wonderful and vulnerable task for an artist.

The project is filled with celebrities like George Takei and Sarah Silverman, politicians like Kamala Harris and recently Stacey Abrams, journalists, animal rescuers, activists, grocery clerks friends, and family. Early on in the project I found myself trying to recount inspiring stories and I recalled the story of Lynn Zwerling, she founded the Knitting Behind Bars project. She knits with inmates and the outcome is extremely positive. I found the story on Upworthy. Googling inspiring stories leads to some unexpected results. I found the story of Chau Smith, a 70-year-old woman who ran 7 marathons in 7 days on 7 continents. When I would find these stories I would do a little research it turned out we had mutual friends, they confirmed she is wonderful. When I debuted the 365 portraits in my home studio Chau flew to Los Angeles from Missouri, I got to meet her. Wow. (last photo)

These moments and there were more encouraged me to keep going. This was a lonely practice in many but these moments provided seeds that I was onto something bigger than myself, that I was connected and I was committed to the outcome.

In the end, I painted every age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender etc. and I can say this just as with individual portraits a tweek of a line here and there can turn lines on a paper from a generic person to that of a specific person the same holds true to all of us. A tweek of a line here and a touch of color there we are all essentially the same. Lines, shapes and color, human beings. We really are that connected.

This project leads me to believe if our primary news sources reported more of the good than the bad and sensational we’d be in a better place.

As an artist, I would love to fit neatly in one box but I don’t. I explore all mediums and styles as mentioned above lately it’s been trees, reminiscent of my annual road trips to Montana, portraits, and dogs. I also have a children’s book featuring my rescue dog and give 20% to animal rescue groups.

Have things improved for artists? What should cities do to empower artists?
Yes, art is a lonely endeavor I find comfort in that loneliness, however. I do think it is important to engage with the community. Host an open house in your workspace, attend art openings and museums and reach out online.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I post daily on Instagram and have two websites:

deborahreilly.com

amorkusdog.com

I haven’t played the gallery scene much but show sporadically throughout town.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://deborahreilly.com http://www.amorkusdog.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: d.reilly.art amorkusdog dr.art.10101 (a new page for student artwork)
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deborahreillyart/ A. Morkus Dog Kids Books – Home
• Twitter: @dreillyart @AMorkusDog

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