Debra Fritts | Stories In Clay

Debra Fritts

“The only way I know how to work is by telling my truth. That is part of being a storyteller,” says Atlanta sculptor Debra Fritts. “You let the intuitive process take over, and that’s where the magic happens.”

The magic of art is something that has long been a part of Fritts’ life. She was born in Nashville and grew up in Middle Tennessee. As the child of a Lutheran minister and a resourceful mother, symbolism and creativity were a natural part of her upbringing. Fritts credits her mother with introducing her to the magic of creativity. Raised in an orphanage with no opportunity to study fine arts, Fritts’ mom repainted furniture to save money and kept herself busy with household crafts. “I grew up with a very creative mother. She was always a maker and a doer.” It was through this maternal connection that Fritts developed an abiding relationship with the visual arts: “It is something that came into my life, and it has never left.”

Experiencing Fritts’ sculptures, one feels pulled into the powerful story that each individual work tells. The clay figures could easily represent moments stolen from the pages of a diary—they are personal, mysterious, and honest. Fritts uses each of these words when she talks about her work. She feels that some figures end up looking like self-portraits, however unintentionally, because they relate so strongly to her own experiences as a person.

Speaking of her work, she says, “You look at it, and you connect. You look at life, and it is full of mystery. The mystery gives you growth as a person, and it challenges your feelings. I don’t want to know all the answers.” Through that willingness to honor mystery Fritts has developed an intuitive process by which she executes her works. The same intuitive power allows her sculpture to communicate so directly with the viewer. From the surface to the soul of each piece, Fritts remains a painter, a sculptor, and a storyteller.

Fritts was not always such a bold communicator. She was a shy child. When oral reports were due in grade school, she hesitated to speak. Instead, she illustrated books or turned in drawings for her projects. Even at an early age, art unlocked two worlds for Fritts. It gave her a means of communication with other people around her and introduced her to a realm of imagination and wonder that has sustained her to this day.

This dichotomy is still alive in her work. When encountering Debra Fritts’ sculptures, one senses their communicative power. They seem to utter universal truths, to speak to the viewer in a clear and intimate voice. Her sculptures are also fundamentally introverted. They inhabit their own unique reality that seems to materialize in the quiet space between art and observer.

In Speaking to the Water, part of a series titled My Quietness, one cannot help but imagine a darkened river around the lonely brown boat in which a single woman rides. It is key to the work that the young, pensive woman floats, surrounded by empty waters. One does not see her as part of a larger boating party or remotely sense that her vessel in fact rests on the solid pedestal on which it actually stands. The work illustrates Fritts’ ability to shape a separate, imaginative space around each of her creations.

Looking at a Debra Fritts sculpture, one might imagine that she has always worked in clay, but the evolution of her life as a professional artist was slow yet determined. After high school, she followed her muse to the University of Tennessee where she excelled at 2-D work in painting and drawing. She became a schoolteacher because it seemed more sensible than trying to make it as a professional artist. Fritts considered herself a painter, and yet her work just did not feel right. An intuitive artist, she could tell something was not working when she approached a canvas.

When Fritts began studying sculpture, she did so only to fill out her resumé of experience as a teacher. She was not looking for a new mode of expression. After teaching for years, she went back to school to learn more about three-dimensional art. She had always felt uncomfortable teaching sculpture because she had concentrated so heavily on painting in college. When Fritts began working in clay, she felt something click. Clay changed her life in almost every way. It gave her new freedom to express herself and allowed her to devote her time to making art instead of teaching it.

Fritts’ approach to clay sculpture sets her apart from many others who work in the same medium. “I’m not symmetrical, and I’m not shiny,” she says. “I felt like I could offer something visually different with my surfaces.” Her sculpture is defined by surface treatment. She adds texture and layer after layer of color media in repeated firings. “I use slips (clay and water), oxides (minerals from the earth), underglazes, and glazes. I have to fire in between layers, or the colors get muddy just like in painting.”

Although Fritts’ art is characterized by surface treatment, it is anything but superficial. She presents a sculpture that is strikingly defined by its exterior texture and, at the same time, animated by an internal quality. Her surfaces draw the viewer into the narrative of each piece while they provide visual interest and expert modeling of forms.

Fritts is a woman who follows the power of intuition. Through her art, she captures the mystery that she finds so fascinating in the world around her. Her dynamic surface treatments have allowed her to galvanize her work as a painter in three-dimensional form. In clay, Fritts tells her truths in a way that is intuitive to artist and viewer. Her sculptures are indeed nothing short of magical.

Debra Fritts is represented by Gallery One

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by Deborah Walden | Anthony Scarlati