Deborah Harding

Deborah Harding

Woodbridge, United Kingdom

About Deborah Harding

*****My photography, 'Real/Unreal' series, 'Dynamic Earth' series, 'Opus Magnum' series, is about world beaches visited, their visual 'outer' landscapes and cultures, and their 'inner' microscopic awe-inspiring sand grains; it is about ways of perceiving; large to small, outer to inner, inner to outer. For me it is about a spiritual aesthetic found in the natural world; about stories to be told, some sort of alchemy. ******This work began during a 6 month Artist Residency in Australia at the Fremantle Arts Centre. I have English and Western Australian heritage. I was led to explore the deeply held early childhood sensory memories of sand on the river foreshore and ocean beaches. I collected different Western Australian beach sands, and worked with them under a microscope. ******For my 'Art and Life' series, I am revisiting earlier work and making new work. I question the personal meaning in each artwork then and now. ******I work with various materials and processes; paper, book arts and the written word, mixed media, built sculpture in natural materials, textiles, photography, contemporary stained glass and 'light'. ******I have been a visual artist for the last 18+ years, following working in nursing and health, psychology and research, as a specialist bookseller, and rural smallholder planting a forest garden. All has been and is part of my 'journey'. ******My art speaks of fundamental human experiences, emotions and ideas. The process of my artwork helps me discover who I am in my innermost self; to find a new, ever growing, conscious understanding. Through images and words that begin as unconscious responses, initially intangible, often ephemeral, it is their gradual realisation on paper, screen, or making in a solid medium that creates personal awareness. In turn, my work is for other people. As an artist, I hope that my work stirs questions for others and gently widens perspectives and sensibilities; that through my work I am doing something which is meaningful and purposeful for each person and the wider world. *******Please note: My artwork is available to buy here only as open edition prints on photo paper at small size. This creates the opportunity for the buyer of an individually chosen portfolio collection of my work. Please contact me via my website if queries.

Education:

2008 Foundation Degree in Fine Art. Hereford College of Arts, University of Wales
2005 Portfolio Course (foundation course for mature students), Hereford College of Arts, UK
2003 Glass Art 1 yr course, at The International Glass Centre, West Midlands, UK
1990 BSc Hons. Psychology, University of London, UK
1982 Registered Nurse, London, UK

Events:

Feb 2016 - Artist Residency at Artscape Gibraltar Point, Toronto Island, Toronto, Canada
Aug15 - Jan16 Artist Residency at Fremantle Arts Centre, Australia
2004 John Corkill Prize, the Worshipful Company of Glaziers National Stevens Competition, UK

Exhibitions:

2018 'Real / Unreal', Bath Photography Festival, at Fringe Arts Bath, UK
2016 'SPECTRUM', Ark Centre, Basingstoke, UK
2015 'Darkness and Light', Love and Death @ Walcot Chapel, Fringe Arts Bath, UK
2014 'Ocean Cathedral', International Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe 2014, Perth Australia
2013 'Ocean Cathedral', International Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2013, Sydney Australia
2013 'Resonance', Ark Centre, Basingstoke, UK