Free Art Critiques: Deborah Tilby & Gaye Adams

I grew up in rural America really wanting to get away and have some adventures. The beginnings of my life were not so pleasant. We were poor and struggling. I came from a broken home with alcoholism, abuse, and a feeling of oppression.

I had some idea as a teen that I needed to flee my life to find myself. I even put myself in danger on many occasions, taking risks that I look back on and now shudder to think of them.

I joined the military service and served in exotic places, like Japan, and visited many countries. I lived everywhere in my adult life in America that I could manage following my dreams.

My military career took me into the field of technology and for many years, it was the bread and butter that fed my career choices.

I married a wonderful man and had a beautiful daughter. We struggled at times as a family, but we came out winners because we stuck together and relied on our faith to sustain and hold us together through the types of trials that come to most families.

In 2013, I left my corporate role in the technology industry and turned to the one thing that had been my ‘go to’ activity for most of my life when things would get difficult; making art.

I started with watercolors, then acrylics, then oil and cold wax. It has taken me years to develop a sense of abstract style that is my own. In the beginning I painted what I thought others would like, then I came to the point when I realized that I only need to paint what is meaningful to me, the things I enjoy.

There is something so satisfying for me to just paint expressionistically, of ideas and feelings of places, or even people.