Deborah Kruger

Process

The Making of Broken

Using Ceramics to Tell the Story of Endangered Birds Drawing and research about endangered birds is the cornerstone of my environmental art practice. I created my first portfolio at an artist residency in 2016 at La Porte Peinte Centre Pour

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Horsehair and the process of waiting

Box of horsehair! Lucky Me! Many years ago, I had a studio at the Arts & Industry Building in Florence, Mass. There were over 70 artist studios and small businesses tucked into this old brush factory. One of my neighbors

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Residency at Hypatia-in-the-Woods

Like many artists, I enjoy getting away from my daily life and periodically indulging myself in an artist residency. In August 2021, I spent a heavenly two weeks at Hypatia-in-the-Woods located in South Puget Sound, south of Seattle, WA. Drawing

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Why White? My ongoing white series

“…sometimes, like meditating, I need to visually take a breath. After every two or three richly colored pieces, I need to make a piece in white.” I love color.  Deep, saturated color that elevates your heart rate.  Most of my

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My Floor as Evidence of Productivity

You’re probably thinking, isn’t your work the evidence of productivity? Well, yes and no. Work ebbs and flows. Like most abstract painting, I build up the surface of my work and sometimes tear it down until I get it right.

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The Making of Ropa Blanca

I have just finished my first huipil-inspired piece titled Ropa Blanca. Many of my pieces gestate for a long time and Ropa Blanca was no exception. Like in my piece Kimono, I used the huipil, a traditional women’s blouse, as

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Accidentals: The Story of Randomness in Art-making

In a recent artist interview in the Textile Curator blog, the curator asked how long a piece took to complete. There was really no way to answer but the story behind Accidentals is a good case in point.

Two years ago I pinned up about 90 sheets of my silk screened plastic sheets onto a wall in my studio. It looked like a crazy quilt. I had an idea about making an oversize artist book. It was interesting but not extraordinary.

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Drawings of Endangered Birds from Artist Residency In France

In October 2016, I spent a month at La Porte Peinte artist residency in a small medieval village in central France. I did hours of research about endangered birds, which led to a series of 18 drawings of birds around the world whose existence is threatened by habitat destruction and other thoughtless human practices.

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Community of Women

My Mexican Studio Assistants-
Although I have studios in Durham, NC and Chapala, Mexico, most of my production work takes place in Mexico. Due to the vast difference in pay scale, I can afford to employ a team of Mexican women to fabricate my feathers.

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Texture

The favorite spice of fiber artists
Even when I worked with fiber and encaustic, I bounced back and forth between letting the wax glow unimpeded versus adding waxed linen and wire to create surface texture. Now that I am creating feathers by screen-printing on fused plastic bags I have started to feel the tidal pull towards adding texture again.

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Wandering in the Desert

Every summer I jury a couple hundred applications for the 360 Xochi Quetzal Artist Residency Program. One note I frequently write on applications: work and statement both strong but not integrated. One day I snapped to attention because I realized that my pieces were guilty of this too.

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