DEBRA PERKINS
Next Up 105, Acrylic on canvas in handmade custom frame, 25.5” x 19.5”
About the Artist
Debra Perkins’ paintings often are inspired by social justice issues, the complexities of relationships, nature, and current events. She uses geometric shapes to metaphorically create boundaries around issues. Lines can represent varied components of the issues and ways to traverse or inhabit those boundaries. Her lines vary from precise to gestural, pristine to jagged, thin to wide, and straight to misshapen, each intended to collaborate with other marks and colors in a composition to express a distinct feeling or message. At times, colors and their values emanate from the subject of the composition. Textures, layers, and excavation also are integral to her work, expressing visually the need for multi-dimensional, nuanced, and evolving approaches to experiencing and addressing challenges, conflicts, and change.
Whether or not Debra’s inspiration or intended message is apparent, it is viewers who decide how any work of art impacts them. An abstract painting can be experienced without preconceived notions about what it should be. If the art touches viewers’ hearts, moves them to smile, helps them see beauty in the world, conveys a meaningful message or otherwise affects them in a significant way, then they will have experienced it fully in their own unique way. “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” Henry David Thoreau
Debra’s work recently has been exhibited at the Mansion at Strathmore, Sandy Spring Museum, Washington College of Law, The Art League, and Glen Echo Park Partnership Galleries. Learn more about Debra and her work at www.debraperkinsart.com or @debraperkinsart on Instagram. Her first solo exhibition at Touchstone Gallery was Lines Matter: The Stories They Tell (October 2023)
Perspective 605, Acrylic and colored pencil on canvas, 18” x 24”
Emerging Force, Acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 48” x 36”
Common Ground, Acrylic and macassar ebony veneer on canvas, 48” x 36”
Transitions, Acrylic and mixed media on canvas in handmade custom frame, 42” x 31.75”
Windswept, Acrylic and mixed media on panel in handmade custom frame, 31” x 25”
Window Seat, Acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 30” x 30”
Social Fusion 104, Acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 12” x 12”
Transformation 101, Acrylic paint on canvas, 24” x 30”
Perspective 301, Acrylic and colored pencil on canvas, 16” x 20”
Alternate Strategies, Acrylic and macassar ebony veneer on canvas, 40” x 30”