debleavy@gmail.com

EDUCATION
Main Line Art Center, 1996 – 2001, 2006 - present
Wayne Art Center, 2003, 2009
Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, 2004, 2005
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2000-2003
Yale Law School, J.D., 1981

SELECTED SHOWS and AWARDS
Devotion (juried), Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2010
Small Worlds, Plastic Club, Philadelphia, PA, 2010
Royalty Printing Award, Annual Members’ Show, Main Line Art Center, 2010
Art for the Urban Collector, Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2009
Members’ Fall Juried Exhibition, Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA, 2009
Artisan Showcase (by invitation), Marketplace Design Center, Philadelphia, 2009
Collaborative 26, Third Street Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 2009
First Friday Main Line, Merion Art & Repro (solo), Ardmore, PA, 2009
land/SCAPES, two-person show, Tyme Gallery, Havertown, PA, 2009
Group show, Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2008
Collaborative 32, Viking Center, Bryn Mawr, PA, 2007
Annual photography show (juried), Tyme Gallery, Havertown, PA, 2007
Spirit Shrines/Crete, Welcome Gallery, Main Line Art Center, Haverford, 2006
Annual Continuing Education Student Show (juried), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2002
Interiors (juried), Main Line Art Center, Haverford, PA, 2000
Food for Thought (juried), Main Line Art Center, Haverford, PA, 1999

STATEMENT

Danny Kaye once said, “Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can.”

I have taken that to heart, leaving a career as a lawyer to paint.

As I have developed as an artist, I have moved from the strict literalism of classical painting to embrace abstract expressionism. Rather than try to recreate on canvas what I see, I am inspired by what I experience. It is not reality; it is what I see with my eyes closed.

Layer upon layer of paint becomes a textural tapestry. What is revealed, what is hidden, what used to be, and what remains are all pieces of a puzzle on canvas.

Photography has provided another creative possibility. Spirituality, religious devotion, and connection to another world exert a strange attraction for me. Unexpected patterns, detritus, and decay have a surprising beauty.

Whatever the medium, I want to draw you in, to have you discover what it is in my work that makes you pause, that moves you, that challenges you, that gives you pleasure.

Whatever it may be, that is what we share.