Debbie Quick

View Debbie Quick’s works featured on Ceramics Now Magazine

It all began with a little lost girl who grew up on the fringe of contemporary society. She was the daughter of a blue-collar family living in a time bubble. It was eternally nineteen fifty-five in her childhood home, even though nineteen eighty-something was the date she signed to most of her girlhood school papers. Her family placed hard work above all things. In fact, you might say their entire self-worth was tied to just how hard working they were. Her jack-of-all-trades father trained her to fix all things with ingeniously unique engineering. Something could always work a little better with some tweaking, even if it was not broken, yet. She was taught by her mother to be sensitive to her responsibility to community by improving the quality of every place and situation she became connected to. And always, beyond all other considerations, her mother instilled in her the awareness to be empathetic to all the individuals she met and dealt with throughout every waking minute of her life.

“I am a storyteller. Or at least I’ve wanted to be one for as long as I can remember; yet, the verbal telling of situations is not how my mind works. Instead, I physically construct my stories which speak of emotional interactions and reactions experienced during intense social exchanges. Just as social interactions are layered, having a number of interpretations, visual information leads to a multitude of possible understandings as well. This is why the idiom “A picture is worth a thousand words” describes how I choose to create narratives. Having more than one interpretation of an experience is why I desire to pack multilayered thoughts into every thing I make. Through exploring these concerns I attempt to communicate the numerous nuances of emotion weathered during awkward social exchanges.

I watch. I love to watch. I draw inspiration from the watching. I collect awkward exchanges between people and then sculpt them into stories. My narratives visually speak of uncomfortable social interactions and the intensity of feeling born out of them. The pieces I build depict the slippery quality of emotional intelligence and how it seems to elude explanation. Since there is often more than one side to a story and no singular truth to a situation, my pieces are stuck at the point of experiencing and contemplating uncomfortable and irresolvable situations. I explore the pain and discomfort of social interactions through the visual narratives I make.” Debbie Quick

Debbie Quick’s C.V. (resume) – View her works

EDUCATION
2006 – MFA, Virginia Commonwealth University
1999 – BFA, Tyler School of Art, Temple University

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2006 – Unrest, AFA Gallery, Scranton, PA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2008 – Spacial Relationships, FFA Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
– Turned for Use II, Gallery 5, Richmond, VA
– From the Ground Up, FE Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
– VCU Clay Alumni Show, Slaughterhouse Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
2007 – Hush/Lush, Piedmont Art Center, Martinsville, VA
– Undone, Art6 Gallery, Richmond, VA
– Master Quirks 2007, Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA
2006 – No Face – No Show, One Night Stand Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
– Amazing Clay Three, Staunton Arts Center, Staunton, VA
– MFA Thesis Exhibition, Anderson Gallery, Richmond, VA
– Group Exhibition, Gallery Five, Richmond, VA
– Select Works VCU Graduates, Capitol One, Richmond, VA
– The W/E Exchange, Clarmount University, Los Angeles, CA
2005 – VCU MFA Candidacy Exhibition, Plant zero, Richmond, VA
– Surrealist Works, Gallery Five, Richmond, VA
– Sweet Invitations, VCU/UCLA Exchange, Los Angeles, CA
– VCU MFA Select Works, pearl gallery, Baltimore, MD
2004 – Anticipation, VCUfab gallery, Richmond, VA
2003 – Prints and Sculpture, EMCA Gallery, Tunkhannock, PA
2001 – Clay Girls, Tudor Gallery, Clark Summit, PA
1999 – BFA Thesis Exhibition, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA

JURIED EXHIBITIONS
2006 – Marge Brown Kalodrner Graduate Student Exhibition, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
2005 – Everhart Museum, Scranton, PA
2004 – AFA Gallery, Scranton, PA
– Deitric Gallery, Tunkhannock, PA
– EMCA Gallery, Tunkhannock, PA
2003 – AFA Gallery, Scranton, PA
1999 – Emerging Artist Exhibition, AFA Gallery, Scranton, PA
– Emerging Artist Exhibition, Grinning Byrde Gallery, Cleveland Hts., OH
1998 – Fiber Exhibition, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA
– Ceramic Exhibition, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA

TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2006 – Present – Assistant Professor/Administrative Director, Virginia Commonwealth University, Craft/Material Studies Department, Richmond, VA
2005 – 2006 – Ceramic Instructor, Virginia Commonwealth University, Summer Discovery Program, Richmond, VA
2004 – 2006 – Ceramic Instructor, Visual Arts Center of Richmond, Richmond, VA
2004 – 2005 – Ceramics Adjunct Instructor, Virginia Commonwealth University, Craft/Material Studies Department, Richmond, VA
2003 – 2004 – Ceramic Instructor – Keystone College, Art Minis Workshop, La Plume, PA
2003 – 2004 – Ceramic Instructor – EMCA, Tunkhannock, PA
2001 – 2000 – Ceramic Instructor – Cleveland Hts.. Clayworks Cooperative, Cleveland Hts., OH

VISITING ARTIST
2002 – 2004 – Keystone College, La Plume, PA

COLLECTIONS
– VCU Graduate School, Richmond, PA
– Sharon Bower, Scranton, PA
– Aaron Cormir, New York, NY
– Kelly Dougherty, Philadelphia, PA
– Earl W. Lehman, Montrose, PA
– Jane Pote, Philadelphia, PA
– Alyssa Salamon, Richmond, VA
– William and Dede Tersteeg, Dalton PA
– Jessica Vasi, Portland, OR
– Nikki Mosser, La Plume, PA
– Jay Paulonis, Montrose, PA
– Trinka, Raviolli, Abington, PA
– Gerri Hayes-Bradley, New York, NY