Deborahmae Broad: Recent Work

Artist Statement:

"My artistic life started with the horses on cartoons and the Visible Horse toy. The cartoon horses’ hooves, the noises they made, the colors of them, their purple soft noses, all inspired me to draw as soon as I could hold a crayon. I drew nothing but horses at first. Gradually I developed a curiosity about other animals and how they were made. If I could see how they were put together, I could draw them too, so it made sense to me to pick up dead animals and take them apart. This upset my mother, so my dad gave me the Visible Horse toy. It inspired me to have a lifelong interest in transparent images and anatomy and to think of an animal’s construction from the inside out.

I had only one pet cat as a child. I got my horse, Joanie when I was 13, but I did not yet know the depth of intelligence and feelings that horses have. I thought they were oblivious to affection. (Now I know better) I did not develop great empathy and strong compassion for all animals until living on my own later in life. I now have a deep love and respect for all animals as individuals, which is the driving force behind my work. Every animal is an important individual to me. I think about them being alone in the world, all wanting comfort and love. I want to tell their stories. I want people to see animals as I do, as valuable lives with rich emotions. 

Printmaking and animals are my life now. I am happy to have a way to care for my animals because of my work and to show the dramas small and large in day to day life with them. My life is solitary by choice, with my husband and our animals. I have a lot of time to think and to work, which is wonderful. My mule amuses me and impresses me every day. My horse Hog is magnificent, and our new little mare Blue Jay is gorgeous, funny, and bossy.

As I get older I notice myself wanting to express stronger feelings in my images. The midwestern carefulness has affected me for all these years. I have been so careful not to offend people by being too blunt with a message in the images. In graduate school one of my etchings was removed from the student show for being too confrontational. I got careful then. I see myself changing on that now. I can understand why older people state their opinions without filtering them down. Time gets short, so tell it like it is. Art can do that. I will be curious to see where this leads me."

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website