We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Deborah Walters. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Deborah below.
Hi Deborah, thanks for joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?
I have always wanted to be an artist. In 4th grade I had an art teacher that could draw anything. I was completely hooked. I didn’t know that there was such magic in the world. I certainly couldn’t do it. I wanted to learn to do that more than anything. It started there and for the next 60 years I pursued art.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Growing up I lived near a very prestigious art school and I would walk past it going to the museum and I told myself that one day I would attend that art school. Fast forward 30 years and I was accepted into The College for Creative Studies.
By then, I had pretty much given up on learning to draw. I was just no good at it, so I majored in Photography. If I couldn’t draw it, I would take pictures of it. But in the back of my mind I still wanted to draw.
I later took other classes in various mediums. I watched thousands of YouTube videos. I learned some pretty cool art forms and produced a lot of nice pieces of art and sort of backed into having an art career.
I took many drawing classes with a lot of different instructors. I have an instructor now that has a teaching style that has put me on the path that I have been seeking. I can actually draw some things that are not all abstract. I am currently learning face and hand construction. I am making progress and I am feeling for filled.
I still enjoy making abstract paintings and other craft work.
I think I am most proud of the fact that I didn’t give up on a dream. I believe that it is never too late to start a new path.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding part of my journey is that people actually LIKE my art work. I will look at a piece and put it in my reject pile, and someone will come along and pull it out of the corner and fall in love with it and want to buy it. That is the most rewarding part for me. It’s not about the money, which is nice, but that this person likes my work enough to want to spend their hard earned money to have it.
Also, seeing my work in an art show, having people admire it, study it, ask me questions about it. That is a very big thing for me. I want people to like it
Have you ever had to pivot?
I started my art journey seriously about 4 years ago in a paint poring class. It wasn’t going all that well but I continued to try to get it right. The instructor introduced alcohol ink to the class and WOW I finally got a piece that I loved. I later entered it in an art fair and it sold! I thought “Now, you are a fine art artist.” Eventually I was introduced to The Detroit Fine Arts Breakfast Club. A meeting of artists and collectors. A person there told me that my art was not FINE ART. He said that my art was “Commercial.” He went on to explain to me that what I was doing was like art you buy at the furniture store to match your carpet and drapes.
I was not offended by what he said (some of my friends were) I understood what he meant. Because I trusted and respected his opinion I took his suggestions and I changed what I had been doing. More of my work began to become sought after. What I didn’t tell him was that he had confirmed for me what I always wanted to do. As a 5th-6th grader, since I couldn’t draw people, I started drawing beautiful rooms with beautiful furniture and I said that I wanted to be a commercial artist and in high school I took commercial art classes (It’s what it was called back then before Designer)
So joining the DFABC really changed my life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://NAIS.store/FLUIDITY
- Instagram: Goolsbywalters
- Facebook: Deborah Goolsby-Walters
Image Credits
Deborah Walters