Debbi Commodore explores the values we hold individually, as well as the values society gives to places, objects, and materials. She searches for the story in ordinary, unexpected, and sometimes disposable materials. Her work can be grouped into three themes, urban community, the human experience of transformation, and flora & fauna. The themes found in her work are fluid and often intersect with one another.
Her work explores these themes through printmaking and interactive sculpture in the form of artist books. Her curiosity of the book form engages the tension between the traditional book format and using unexpected materials and recycled materials. Her printing moves between simple outlined forms and building movement and depth through layered printing.
Multiple layers of engagement are achieved in her work through use of the utilitarian beauty of the book as sculpture, recycled and repurposed materials, and the simplicity of modest shapes and bright colors.
Education
2015 Artist Trust EDGE
Pacific Lutheran University, BBA and Minor in Publishing and Printing Arts
Exhibitions
2016 Puget Sound Book Artist Annual Exhibition, WA
2016 Bridging the Waters; University of West England (UWE), Bristol, United Kingdom
2015 DIRT; University of Puget Sound, WA
2015 Puget Sound Book Artist Annual Exhibition, WA
2014 Flo-ra-bun-da; New ERA Ida Culver House Broadview, WA
2014 Puget Sound Book Artists Annual Exhibition 2014
2014 Undercover Stories: The Secret Lives of Books; ArtEAST Art Center, WA
2013 Puget Sound Book Artists Annual Exhibition, WA
2012 Puget Sound Book Artists Annual Exhibition, WA
2011 Puget Sound Book Artists Annual Exhibition, WA
Public Art
Traffic Box Wrap Project-Tacoma—selected as one of 20 artists to design artworks that can be reproduced as a vinyl wrap and applied to traffic signal boxes throughout Tacoma (2015)
Bibliography
Julie Chen (juror), 500 Handmade Books Volume 2, Lark (An Imprint of Sterling Publishing) 2013, p. 220
Collections
Works held in private collections in Canada and the United States.
Curatorial projects
2012 and 2013 Puget Sound Book Artists Annual Exhibition, WA
Copyright
© content 2008-2025 Debbi Commodore. All rights reserved. Please do not use my images or text without permission.