We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Debra Fernandez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Debra , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?

My professional life was as a dancer/choreographer/educator. I retired from the Skidmore College dance faculty in 2021 and with that exit I lost my access to dancers, rehearsal space, and my opportunities to choreograph. I was really feeling the emptiness of not having a creative outlet, especially one that had to do with movement. As someone who was never involved in visual arts such as painting or drawing I did not realize that I might be able to transfer my choreographic experience into that medium. I had purchased a book by Leah Koransky entitled Tracing Trees and one day I picked it up and began the meditative process of tracing. The tactile sensation of hand and pen to paper felt a bit like moving and dancing through space on a much smaller scale. Soon I began coloring and water coloring the shapes which also felt satisfying, but, it wasn’t until I began to cut them up and move them around that it began to actually feel like choreography. Before long I was making full blown collages that were, to my eye, quite beautiful in the way they represented the body and the negative and positive space that is such a part of composition. I began posting them on Facebook and people responded enthusiastically and much to my delight I began receiving inquiries on how to purchase them. At the present moment I am only selling to friends, friends of friends, or people who see them on Facebook or Instagram. I am slowly learning about this new field and getting used to the perception of myself as a visual artist. It has been a huge surprise to me and has taken me an entire year to move through various stages of reckoning with this new relationship. In the beginning I didn’t even want to part with them because they felt so personal, but as I began to make more and more of them I grew increasingly comfortable with letting some of them go. It’s only been in the past few months that I feel ready to approach the world of exhibitions and shows. I wouldn’t say that I’m ready to call it a business but rather I am ready to begin expanding my audience and bringing the work to more people. I am currently working on a website and sending the work out to Open Calls for galleries. I did not begin this endeavor with any thoughts of building a new career and I have not followed any logical or strategic plan. Because I am retired and have some financial security, I am blessed to be able to follow my creative muse and let the process unfold in its own time and in its own way. I believe this is not too different from how I lived my life. I have been led by a need to follow my talent and my gifts and somehow I was always guided toward the right path. I know that people are constructed very differently in the way they go about crafting a life and, at times, I wish I could have been more of a strategic planner. That said, it all worked out very well for me for which I am quite grateful. I really don’t know how or if my work will find a place in the art world, but I do know that I will continue to make it because it gives me joy! As Marion Woodman, the author, poet, and analytical psychologist said regarding creative processes that act to bring us closer to ourselves, “you’re not trying to be artistic, you’re expressing energy.” This is what feels the most important to me right now.

Debra , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

One of the things that has delighted me the most about selling my work in this initial launching stage is meeting with my buyers. I am truly enjoying this phase of the process because it happens on a very personal level. I love sitting with the buyer and going through my portfolio and discovering which images speak to them and then helping them decide which ones they want to choose. What I have learned is that I should not prejudge the works because oftentimes the pieces that I feel the strongest about are not the ones they respond to; and, vice versa, pieces that I think of as less successful speak to them. I love hearing what each person sees in each work and what kind of associations they make. Oftentimes, they will contact me after the work is framed and hanging in their house and talk to me about how it makes them feel. It is so different from the experience of live performance which is ephemeral and gone once the show is over. Knowing that there is a piece of my creative soul abiding in someone’s home is gratifying to me.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I do not consider myself a business person and I was fortunate to earn a good living in academia which supported my work as an artist. In the previous question I talked about how throughout my life I followed my instincts and my curiosities which always seemed to lead me to the next place I needed to be. Perhaps that is associated with the arts, but to those who consider themselves “non-creatives” as this prompt has suggested, I would say the same advice I always gave my students: listen to who you truly are and work with that. Establish your goals based on what you are authentically interested in, define your intentions, and put that out into the world. I actually think everyone is a “creative” because we are creating our lives, and therefore our livelihoods, every time we make a choice. If we aren’t true to ourselves, how can we believe in what we do?

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist and creative maker is that it is endlessly interesting. I also am not one of those people who believe “those who can do, those who can’t teach”. For me, teaching was always inextricably linked to my creative output. As an educator I was allowed to teach the things that I wanted to learn about, such as the training of the body, musical composition, and choreography. Teaching allowed me to have a continuous opportunity to hone my own skills and then pass my knowledge onto my students. I learned a great deal from their questions, their struggles, and their creative journeys and I continue to be a mentor to many of them.

The creative act of bringing something that is within you into the material world is life affirming, and in fact mirrors the process of actual birth. To do this on a daily basis connects you to your body, mind and spirit. Some days it is frustrating and brings up feelings of failure, inadequacy and imposter syndrome. Some days you hit the flow and away you go! I’ve learned from these ups and downs and have come to understand that this kind of ebb and tide is simply part of existence and accepting all of it is something I strive to do on a daily basis.

Contact Info:

• Facebook: Debra Fernandez
• Instagram: debrajfernandez