Joys & mysteries: an interview with Debra W. Fritts - Cover Story - Interview

Arts & Activities, Feb, 2002 by Harriet Gamble

Georgia ceramic artist Debra W. Fritts creates one-of-a-kind, handbuilt terra-cotta sculptures with surfaces that are layered with found object marks and fired colorants. Her sculptures tell stories and ask questions, but they never provide endings or answers. According to Debra, they are inquisitive, honest and deep--they dwell on the mysteries and joys of daily living.

Debra began her art career after college as a high school art teacher. After 13 years, she left full-time teaching to become a studio artist and now teaches part time and directs the clay program at the Roswell Visual Arts Center in Roswell, Ga. Selected for many national juried exhibitions and featured in magazines and art books, her work has won numerous awards.

In this interview, Debra shares her growth and evolution as an artist, her experiences as a teacher, and the techniques and procedures used to create her pieces.

H.G. Tell us about your childhood and how you decided to study art education.

D.F. My parents never had a lot of money. My father was a Lutheran minister, and my mother the maker and doer. I was never around art as a child--but I was around a lot of creating. My mother could take any old piece of furniture and turn it into something interesting. She could decorate "on a shoestring" and would sew all her clothes and mine. As a child, I wrote stories and poetry, and would draw and paint constantly.

This was such an important part of my life. In school, I was shy and preferred to do my book reports as small visual books instead of as an oral report. When I chose to go to college to study art, my father encouraged me to get an art education degree instead of a B.F.A. I have a B.S. in art education from the University of Tennessee. I was raised in the church, and I know this has influenced my life and my figures. My pieces seem to be looking up--searching for strength.

H.G. You tried to develop your own art while teaching high-school art for 13 years. How did this work out?

D.F. While I was teaching, I would work on my personal art after school hours and on weekends. The summers were devoted to spending full time in the studio. I continued to take workshops so I could grow as an artist. I loved teaching high school art, but the real evolvement of my work didn't happen until I stopped teaching full time, and committed myself to my studio and developing my art. When I left teaching, I was mainly painting and working in clay. I spent a full year developing my work until I approached galleries.

H.G. When you taught high school, what did you teach?

D.F. I taught a lot of basic classes--design and a lot of drawing. Then I moved on to teach sculpture and painting. Regardless of the class or the medium, I always taught my students the same thing: I taught them the art of observation--of seeing the world around you. I also taught them to be honest in their work--to let what they create speak their own individual language.

Because communicating visually was (and is) so important to me, I never understood the students in my class who didn't want to be there. Why wouldn't everyone want the opportunity to create and to learn to speak visually?

My philosophy in the classroom--high school, children or adults--is to provide my students with the freedom to create their own ideas ... with guidelines. I don't want them to get stuck in that easy rut of doing the familiar--doing what requires no thinking. Even with my adults, I give projects to complete and guidelines to follow, but always stress the importance of being creative.

H.G. You still continue to teach, don't you?

D.F. After a number of years of total studio art, I went back to teaching in 1995. I am the director of a clay program at the Roswell Visual Art Center in Roswell, Ga. I teach two sculpture classes, two handbuilding classes and a studio procedures class. I also teach "surface or clay" workshops at different art centers and universities. Sometimes I offer a parent-child workshop in handbuilding here at the Roswell Visual Arts Center.

Last year, I received a grant to work with high school advanced placement students at Chattahoochee High School in Alpharetta, Ga. We built five sculptural columns (5 to 8 feet tall) as a permanent sculpture for the school. H.G. How is the teaching you're doing now different from when you taught high school?

D.F. I'm working with adults--housewives, mothers, professionals, retirees--a whole mixture. These are adults who want to do something for themselves and feel the need to create. Some are working on functional pieces; some are working on sculptural pieces. I try to challenge them with projects that make them think and force them to find their own voice or language in their work. I encourage them to visit galleries. I share my own magazines and books with them.

I also invite my students to a party at my house twice a year. I want them to see how wonderful the table looks with one-of-a-kind clay plates and drinking vessels, which I have collected for years. The parties are a celebration of the clay--combined with good food shared among friends. I want them to also see the importance of having art in the home. No matter what style or value of the home, if art is an important part, a warm and exciting feeling will exist.