TRIBUTE

“Deborah Thomas was a brilliant woman on so many levels. She will be deeply missed by countless people. I personally feel that Deborah fulfilled her potential and made an important contribution as a mother, friend, colleague, artist, curator, art history instructor, environmentalist and activist. Her role in making the “Wilderness Mind: Dissolving Duality” exhibition a success was crucial. We lost her too soon, but there is some consolation in knowing she will not have to suffer through a long illness. God bless her and grant her peace as her soul continues to evolve.”   

by Ann Isoldd
Southern California Women’s Caucus for Art Past President and Eco-art Collective Founding Member

Deborah Thomas lived and worked as an artist in New York and Geneva, Switzerland before moving to Los Angeles. In addition to working as a fine art artist, she also studied and taught art history and theory, literature and cultural studies. Her recent work has included a series of conceptual installations and mixed media pieces using photographic images and found text. The art focusing on environmental themes typically explores place and the environment metaphorically and builds from a personal point of view using domestic objects. Before she passed away December 2012, she was working on a series of eco-art Installations about water—descriptions of a local watershed and pollution of the ocean by oil spills and acid rain. She combined small multiples of her own snapshots with familiar objects like shower curtains and umbrellas in these pieces. In addition to showing her own work, Thomas curated several recent exhibitions: Wilderness Mind:  Dissolving Duality, Day of the Dead Planet, Bringing the Past to Light: New Art from Old Images, Intimate Geography: Getting To Know a Place and Estate of Mind, with related conceptual premises.