Today we’d like to introduce you to Debbie Daise.
Hi Debbie, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I have always been a creative being and when that is the fundamental core of and purpose for breathing, it tugs at you…constantly. I had gone back and forth working for others, then stopping and pursuing my art/painting. One time, selling all I owned (fortunately I had become a minimalist by then) and packing up 3 suitcases, and moving to St Thomas, USVI. The beauty, how I miss her!
I returned after a year and went into sales. I had worked for an interior designer and loved that field of work, especially the showrooms with racks of glorious, breathtaking textiles!
I sold reclaimed wood for a Dallas company, (I have a thing for wood/trees) and of course marketed to interior designers and architects.
While doing this I started sending jpgs of my art along with my reclaimed wood newsletter. I developed and built a contact list of over 1200.
I am a mostly a self-taught artist which isn’t true because I didn’t teach myself anything. It just happens, the painting sometimes it’s like the images spill out before me and I fill it in like a paint by number. It’s difficult to express what takes place…there is no Debbie painting, it’s like a dance of color taking place on the canvas.
I started getting commissions for high-end designers and have works at the Ritz Carlton Residence, Turtle Creek, Highland Park, Park Cities, Southlake and many places. I also have sold and been contacted about works I place on Instagram.
I feel everyone should have original art in their home, there is such a different essence between original and a print. In order to help attain that I will use acrylics which brings down the cost some rather than my oils.
At one time I had giclees with another company and they were sold through the Horchow Home Catalogue.
I may have a period of 6 weeks and not have a commission but I know work will come, that’s when I truly have to step out of my marketing/sales mind and truly get out of the way. Life takes care of itself. I did that one time and in two days I got 3 commissions out of nowhere! Poof! It’s not pretending you’re stepping aside; you are laying yourself flat out, wide open, & vulnerable.
I have had great sales and commissions.
I am thankful for each and everyone, My heartfelt thank you & deep gratitude for the person/persons that mentioned my name to VoyageDallas.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Art! SMOOTH? hahahaha, ‘scuse me.
Space, presentations, transporting large works, public display, my own mind (that voice that frets so,) until I realize it’s a conditioned loop..
Currently… I paint out of an area where a kitchen table should be, it’s all set up as a studio, sometimes I get up in the middle of the night and go straight to the easel and work on something till I turn around and go back to bed. (sleep painting, lol) When I complain about space, I am reminded of Freida Kahlo painting from her bed in a full-body cast.
I have a small car and can only get a 42” wide canvas in the back otherwise I am renting, borrowing, or hiring transport.
Building rents are so expensive for gallery space and studio work.
Painting for me is an isolating endeavor, it’s intimate, it’s a transformational experience, it’s such a deep involvement that I disappear. So, no talking, no paint party here! lol
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am mostly an oil painter but will use other mediums for cost reasons. I will do whatever I can to help someone who’s interested in my art to be able to afford a piece.
My work is so varied in style and mark-making. I had a designer once come over to pick up a couple pieces of work on approval and she just looked around at all that I had here, spun around, and was gesturing, saying, “I just can’t believe it, look at these, each one of these are different like there’s a different artist for each and every one of these.”
I, just shrugged my shoulders and said, “yeah, well that’s what I do, this is what comes out of me.”
I’ve had so many people and of course, they teach in schools, you have got to find your style, you’ve got to find your mark, and it would depress me because, I thought there was something wrong with me or I am still so immature in painting, (20 yrs.+ painting) but I know I can do and be better (we all can) but we’re also perfect where we are but as far as the diversity, perhaps that diversity is me, and accept me for all of this diversity that comes out of me, none of it is intentional, it just flows., sometimes in a matter of hours, sometimes 3 in a matter of hours of an afternoon. With commissions of course they’re wanting a particular outcome, so Debbie’s head is in it more for those, to perfect it for my client.
I also listen. I get nudges… ideas… what will be getting painted next, if I don’t act on it then it goes, it might circle back around but there are so many going through my head that sometimes I write them down but then you’re losing that creative invitation if you don’t, if you don’t work on it right then, it’s like, “hey here I am, if you snooze you lose!
I am probably known for my diversity/various styles and that, it appears, is setting me apart.
I am most proud when I get exuberant joy from a client on a commission with exclamations of, “oh my gosh, it’s perfect, or You nailed it, he absolutely loves it, you’re the closest thing to Monet without being a Monet, Nothing makes me more proud and happy to bring such joy to another human than to create something they love and it makes them happy, very happy. Thank you all!! Lately, I seem to be taken to a very quiet place, a place of stillness, I am sure that will show up in my work.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
Oh lord, I am the wrong person to ask. I could only take a couple art classes because there’s just too many rules, I have this creative energy inside of me that wants to fly, to get out, it doesn’t stay in the lines or boxes.
Gosh, networking with Covid, what is networking??? lol
I used to be very outgoing but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more quiet, and large crowds’ kind of overwhelm me these days. I mean I’m happy to give a presentation one on one, offices or invite prospective clients to my place to see the work. I need a bigger place, I pray to the art gods for an art studio gallery space… ha ha, still waiting back on that one.
Contact Info:
- Email: debbiedaise@me.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debbiedaiseart/
