Distant Correspondence
Deborah Griffing is a teaching and working artist living in Sunbury Ohio. She teaches throughout Ohio with a focus in working with artists with disabilities. Her work has been exhibited both locally and internationally. When she is not teaching art, she works in her studio at home.
My painting, “Distant Correspondence” weaves together elements of my life and dreams, reflecting much that I absorb throughout the day and night. My aim is to capture the density of life by creating a painting that is rich with images and texture. It is a process whereupon I build layers of oil paint, cold wax, drawing elements, and collage. I wanted this piece to have a complex history, like the strata of the earths crust. The images I depict have their roots in elements of my family life, past and present. Growing up with both parents being research scientists, ( my fathers field being plant genetics, my mothers child psychology) I became fascinated with the natural world and was encouraged to read, climb trees, draw pictures, collect rocks, and to build a rich imagination ( I had 13 imaginary friends including a dog named Rocky). I grew up watching Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, and of course Saturday morning cartoons. All this fostered a love of learning about the world. I consider painting a research method, a process that will happily keep me busy for a long time
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