Deborah Hirshfield

I use textiles to explore sexuality/sensuality, gender fluidity, procreation, and transformation in both a personal and a political context. My work is reflective of my identity as a woman in a sexist society and a response to current events and contemporary viewpoints. Much of my impetus derives from my formative years in the 1960s as well as having been brought up in a household of artists and poets.

My primary medium is dyed, molded, and sewn silk, which portrays weight beyond its ephemeral nature. This medium conveys multiple perspectives through its translucent properties and embodies inherent contrasts in subject matter when paired with metal, plastics, chains, motors, etc.

I matriculated from the American High School in Mexico City and then taught and practiced art in Mexico City and San Miguel de Allende. I studied dance theater in New York and attended Mundelein College in Chicago as a single parent, majoring in art and music with a minor in education. I subsequently taught art and music for twenty years in public schools and at the university level, educating Master of Education students on arts integration.

My early work in batik is in private collections as well as in the Illinois State Museum in Springfield.