Statement

Deborah Hirshfield has been making art since she was five years old, or younger. One of her earliest remembered creations is a clay hippopotamus wearing a hat made at a ceramics studio on the South Side of Chicago. Deborah was fascinated by the diversity of faces, titling grammar school portraits, “Chicago boy,” Chicago Girl.” She drew her way through high school, bored with academics and frustrated by the gender restrictions of the era, motivating a drawing of a closetful of females on hangers, a continuing theme in her work. After a multiyear career in the medium of batik, she acquired dual teaching certificates in Music and Art, a Masters in Multicultural Education, and taught children for over twenty years. Deborah uses dyeing, sewing, and molding techniques to create sculptural installations that address inequities for women, people of color, and the LGBTQAI community. Her work is in private collections and the Illinois State Museum.