{"id":2,"date":"2021-08-01T11:16:54","date_gmt":"2021-08-01T11:16:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.itzadebdesign.com\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2023-07-10T02:20:38","modified_gmt":"2023-07-10T02:20:38","slug":"artist-bio","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.itzadebdesign.com\/index.php\/artist-bio\/","title":{"rendered":"Debra E. Olson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Port Townsend, Washington<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n

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When I was 6 years old, I was allowed to choose the d\u00e9cor for my bedroom. I chose pink ballerina wallpaper, a pink dotted chenille bedspread, pink and white striped caf\u00e9 curtains, and a fuzzy pink rug beside my bed. Over the years I gave up pink but held onto design and expanded greatly my fabric choices. My mother and grandmother instilled a love for handmade quilts, though I eventually realized I didn\u2019t have the patience for hand sewing or the repetition of completing a pieced quilt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I attended university at Montana State in Bozeman, where I studied Fine Arts and gained a BS in Landscape Design. Life unfolded as it does, and I worked at many different jobs including making wooden kaleidoscopes with my first husband, managing a greenhouse, returning to the University after becoming a single parent to work in the Residence Life Department, and then with my second husband, moving to British Columbia, owning a Bed and Breakfast on Salt Spring Island. Throughout those years I dabbled in art when I could and created new landscapes on 8 different properties as well as for several clients and friends.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Upon retirement in 2012, I turned my thoughts and energy to art, joined a couple of fiber groups and fell in love with the many aspects of Fiber Art. While living on Vancouver Island I entered the Sidney Fine Arts Show and won Juror\u2019s and People\u2019s Choice awards each of the three years there. I have also exhibited in galleries in Victoria BC, Port Townsend, Seqium, and Port Angeles, WA, Tillamook, OR, and at D\u2019Art Center, Norfolk, VA. I have been published in Quilting Arts Magazine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I have found my way as a mixed media artist, using fabric, paper, paint, beads, found and repurposed objects, – whatever suits a project. I have come to enjoy 3 dimensional work and relish the experimentation and challenges in problem solving in that realm. Design exists for me like language or music. Although there may be a finite number of letters or notes, there are seemingly endless ways of combining each to create a new story or cadence, true as well of visual art when working with design elements, techniques and materials. Though I don\u2019t often have a set idea of what I want to create, I look to Nature and am inspired and taken by patterns found on rocks, water, trees, plants of all kinds. Architecture is also interesting to me, from a fence design to a magnificent building or worn and weathered shack, it is forever about pattern, light and color. Sometimes my work tells a story, other times it expresses a mood or emotion, a bit of whimsy. My hope is always that the observer will take time to slow down, pore over the details and find a bit of pleasure, comfort, or inspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Port Townsend, Washington When I was 6 years old, I was allowed to choose the d\u00e9cor for my bedroom. I chose pink ballerina wallpaper, a pink dotted chenille bedspread, pink and white striped caf\u00e9 curtains,[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itzadebdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itzadebdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itzadebdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itzadebdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itzadebdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.itzadebdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itzadebdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}