Meet the artist
Hi, my name is Debra Brewer. I am a mixed media artist, graphic designer, and a Certified Creative Branding Coach.
I have been doing art for a few years now. I love to express myself in art. Art for me has a therapeutic effect. Art allows me to express how I see the world in another way full of color.
I hope that my art speaks to someone in a special way. Art is a journey sometimes it isn't an easy journey but with art, I love how you can take something that doesn't seem beautiful and turn it into a beautiful masterpiece.
I have learned that art allows you to test your faith. You may want to give up but you have to keep going. You have to go through the process. Sometimes the process is hard and tedious, sometimes it's downright ugly but you have to stick with it and before you know it that is when a beautiful masterpiece comes out.
I am a mixed media artist because it allows me to play with different mediums in my artwork. I use pastels, watercolor, acrylic, oil, Indian ink, resin, sculpting, leather, and digital painting.
"Push Your Way Through It"
The artwork above is the first artwork I released to the world as an artist. My journey began in 2014 when I was going through one of the darkest times in my life. I would be among a crowd of people but was not present I found myself doodling or doing zentangle art. I started drawing shoes with different patterns some of them were pretty nice. My sister would say "you could design shoes" I brushed that comment off. Looking back at my childhood days I remember doodling in school and for some reason, it brought a sense of calm and comfort. Now you see pattern coloring books everywhere for adults to color who would know that this would become a popular form of art. I found that whenever I would do Zentangle I found myself feeling calm, and my mind seemed to be clearer. It got to the point that if I didn't do some type of tangle or doodle I felt like something wasn't balanced, it seemed to make me feel centered and focused.
I still wasn't looking at myself as an artist at this point. I started drawing doll faces and people seem to really like it. I was asked to do a children's book but my fear got in the way because I felt I wasn't good enough let alone a real artist. I made things complicated. The lady that asked me to do her book was looking for something simple, I drew every day but I didn't release them for her to see because I was afraid. Well, she was ready for her dream to launch so she went another way. I was crushed, it was my fault that I let fear get in the way. I decided who was I kidding I am not an artist so I stop doing my art completely.
A few of my friends and sister would often tell me I needed to stop putting my art on social media without protecting it , and I should be selling my work. Again I was in denial about my gift. This reminds me of the bible text Matthew 25:25 about the man who hid his talent in the ground. One of my friends asked me when was the last time I did art. I was taken aback because I was not claiming to be an artist I am a graphic designer, her questioning my gift that I had buried in the ground left me feeling upset that she felt I needed to do art when I am not an artist.
In 2016 I got shingles in my eyes. It was a painful and long healing process. I started to get discouraged because my eyes were not healing as fast as I would have liked. During this time I was in a women's mentoring group called "The Ruth Mentoring Project". We were scheduled to have our session on the second Saturday at 9 am. I was struggling with my eyes because they had been compromised again I could barely see. I wore a patch to drive which help me block the sun out because it felt like my eyes were going to pop out of the socket. I made it to class and it was a powerful session "Detox your life" we were asked to write down three things that were ailing our bodies. Well, you guessed it my number one ailment was my eyes.
Dr. Nicky Collins, my mentor told us about a book by Louis Hays call "You Can Heal Your Life" when we looked up what was ailing our bodies it was no surprise that FEAR was what was coming out in certain parts of my body. I made it home but my eyes were still very uncomfortable so I fell asleep which relieved the pressure. My friend that is an eye doctor called to check on me and she began to fuss at me about going to the doctor immediately because I could have lost my eyesight besides she said: "you need eyes to do your artwork". Here we go again! Why is everyone pushing me to do art? I'm not good enough I told myself. There are artists out there who are far better than me. I would be a joke to artists in the art world. I fell into a deep sleep and that is when God spoke to me. The message from God was for me not to compare myself to others. I gave you a special gift that is uniquely yours, use it to glorify me to encourage others...PUSH YOUR WAY THROUGH IT. I surrendered to the call if it is your will I will use my art to encourage others. My first art piece was "Push Your Way Through It". I had to come out of some things it was a fight to come out. Within a month I was selling my artwork on bags, cards, keychains, and more. Debra Brewer Art was birthed! I am free now to express myself through a variety of art mediums and encourage others to express themselves through art. Art is therapeutic it can heal your soul.
