Deborah Gryka
Artist bio In 2005 I was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease the same week I had brain surgery for an aneurysm. In 2008 I had to stop my PD meds due to side effects. Inspired by my young dog’s exuberance, I chose a healing path by hiking into the nearby woods with him to set up a studio tent in the middle of a friend’s forest, adjacent to a 63-acre nature preserve. This is my fourth season in the outdoor studio. I find hope in the tenacity of the natural environment--this delicate, persistent community thriving with plants and wildlife. I use this outdoor site throughout the year, though winter visits are brief. Whatever layer of meaning it may hold for us in the end, the finished art is an intimate, personal language--a tender communication that is completed when it is taken in by you, the viewer, and colored by your interpretation and emotional response. I value the exchange of stories this work brings and that special meaning each viewer adds to my work.

Deborah Gryka

Artist bio

In 2005 I was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease the same week I had brain surgery for an aneurysm. In 2008 I had to stop my PD meds due to side effects. Inspired by my young dog’s exuberance, I chose a healing path by hiking into the nearby woods with him to set up a studio tent in the middle of a friend’s forest, adjacent to a 63-acre nature preserve.

This is my fourth season in the outdoor studio. I find hope in the tenacity of the natural environment--this delicate, persistent community thriving with plants and wildlife. I use this outdoor site throughout the year, though winter visits are brief.

Whatever layer of meaning it may hold for us in the end, the finished art is an intimate, personal language--a tender communication that is completed when it is taken in by you, the viewer, and colored by your interpretation and emotional response. I value the exchange of stories this work brings and that special meaning each viewer adds to my work.

About the work
Title: Turtle Woods: Fawn in Marsh Marigolds 2011
Art form: 2-D
Medium: Silverpoint and Gouache
Year created: 2011
Description of work: The finished painting is in a frame approximately 20" x 26". My medium is gouache, with silverpoint and goldpoint. This year I choose to paint a study of a newborn fawn we came upon near the marsh, it's edge lined each spring with marsh marigolds or yellow 'cowslips'. The nature preserve and surrounding area offers a wonder of subjects including great horned owls, pileated woodpeckers, eastern phoebes, fox, deer, coyote, ghostflowers, lady slippers, and so much more. Last year's ArtPrize piece was inspired by the young fox kits residing near my studio tent--a red fox family I've followed four seasons now as part of my Turtle Woods project. I'm grateful to have the privilege of learning firsthand from this woods community and environment, and look forward to sharing what we find, and the work that rises from it.
Height:	2 feet
Width:	2 feet

Deborah Gryka

Artist bio

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