Deb Baker Hall
Contemporary Mixed Media Artist
Lives & creates in Sacramento, CA
I am a mixed media artist who employs acrylic paints, mono-prints, found papers and other scavenged materials to create what I call "storied surfaces" -- non-representational passages of color, texture, pattern and line meant to convey a sense of time passing, experiences garnered and memories held and fading.
My work focuses on the archaeology of self -- exploring the essence of personal identity through the building, scoring, abrading and resurfacing of the image plane.
Discovery, not perfection, is my ultimate goal in art making.
Discovery about how far I can push paint, paper, graphite, inks, pastels and found materials to form a visual narrative.
Discovery of what lights and excites me given the hues, textures, random marks and forms that find their way into my work.
Discovery of how willing I am to risk loss-for-reward as I take each work through a cycle of building, degrading, adding and removing multiple elements and materials.
As an emerging artist, at a mature age, I find myself exploring a most liminal psychic space. I have a lifetime of "was-es" (was this/was that) -- experiences not irrelevant to who I am now but not primary to the life I have unfolding. I am the space of pure potential, both personally and artistically.
Of course, all art is personal. The record of who I've been is referenced in the scared surfaces, torn paper edges, broken lines and often muted colors of my backgrounds. It is the bolder forms, in strong contrast to those backgrounds, that convey the threshold of discovery I now occupy.
Shows & Exhibitions
2020
SAC Open Studio Tour
Sacramento, CA
Blue Line Gallery Member Medley
Roseville, CA
2019
SAC Open Studio Tour
Sacramento, CA
Verge Center for the Arts
Annual Auction (Juried)
Sacramento, CA
2018
SAC Open Studio Tour
Sacramento, CA
Verge Center for the Arts
Annual Auction (Juried)
Sacramento, CA
Education
2016
Creative Vision Program
Art 2 Life Academy
Marin, CA
1991 - 1996
Mary Schiller Meyers School of Art
University of Akron
(Emphasis in Printmaking)
Akron, OH