“I think my paintings reflect a longing to live. I see them as an expression of who I am.”
The things that make us
When the Covid-19 pandemic started in spring 2020, Deborah Brown was already in the midst of a new challenge: self-portraits. She had been asked by fellow artist Patty Horing to collaborate on the exhibition Sit Still: Self-Portraits in the Age of Distraction. Brown began her self-portraiture journey painting herself how she had painted others in the past – often with pets, nudity and bodies of water. As her practice evolved, the physical self has vanished completely. For Brown, still life is less about the object itself, but rather a form of psychoanalysis – capturing the tangible things that...
Bio
Deborah Brown (she/her) was born in Pasadena, California in 1955. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Career
Brown has been a visiting artist and lecturer at universities around the USA, and had tenureship at Carleton College.
Process
After spending years mastering the history and craft of painting, Brown felt she had to let go of intellectual habits and paint intuitively.
