Ashokan Dreams #4
Acrylic on Canvas, 10" x 10", 2020
Artist: Deborah Freedman

Deborah Freedman is a painter and printmaker whose work is deeply informed by nature. She makes suites of varying images of the Ashokan Reservoir and the Hudson River Valley. Her inner eye and skill in etching, monotype, and oil painting captures both the physical and emotional transformation of her subject.

After 9/11 the reservoir became almost inaccessible. What had once been an idyllic scene suddenly became threatened and "disturbed." Freedman's work, though historically abstract, became less homage to the natural world and more a protest about the potential dangers of environmental and political disaster. The titles of her work: Good Night Irene, Every Breaking Wave, With or Without You, and Disturbed Landscapes refer to these concerns. She made a series of paintings titled A BETTER WORLD following the death of her beloved husband, the 2016 election, the ravages gun violence and increased climate disasters.

"Within these dynamic, often tilted compositions, where water surges and froths and mountains shift in tectonic scale-the artist finds great solace and an immeasurable serenity, which pervade our sensibilities too, as visitors to her dramatic landscapes." Susan Eley, Susan Eley Fine Art, Hudson, NY.

Selected list of collections: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The New York Public Library, Rutgers University, The Department of State, the Library of Congress, IPCNY, The Hess Collection, CITI, Morgan Guarantee Trust, MSK Hospital, and Montefiore Hospital. For an extended resume, visit her website.

Deborah began her association with printmaking with Bob Blackburn at N.Y.U. and continued at his studio in 1987 as a guest artist. She is a co-founder with Marjorie VanDyke of VanDeb Editions, a printmaking studio dedicated to collaborating with artists to experiment with intaglio and monotype and provide art lovers with affordable, handmade works of art.

deborahfreedman.com
vandeb.com
Instagram: @debpaint