Debo Groover

The most frequent question I answer at a show is ‘what is this?’ Even when you look at this work in a digital file, it is very difficult to distinguish the different materials. Some people think the work is simple or folk art. I don’t think of it that way at all. I personally refer to the work as sophisticated naive because although I am formally trained with an MFA in ceramics; I am totally self taught in polymer clay. In both a fortuitous and naive exploration of this new material, I applied every technique I had learned in ceramics and subsequently broke every polymer clay rule. This resulted in a brand new technique of using colorful and patterned sheets of clay like fabric collage. When you look at each painting, the subject matter is clay. The background is textured acrylic paint. I try to use the paint in such a way that the viewer has to closely engage with the work in order to distinguish between the materials. It is very tactile. The other most common comment I hear is how happy the work makes people feel. This is my most accurate truth. It is made in a place of happiness.The inspiration is very simple. I use animals(mostly birds) to tell stories about everyday and special human events while creating visual word puzzles.