Debra Bailey will be our next Libi Eir Mikveh artist-in-residence. Join us in celebrating Debra's installation with an open house just after Shabbat services. 

Biography and Statement:
One could say I am a different sort of creative animal. By profession I am a Medical Laboratory Technologist. For thirty-four years I worked in hospital labs; worked with cancer and dialysis patients; worked in AIDS research in labs and pharmaceutical companies; and protected people in research studies, as a medical ethicist. It has been my honor to serve in those roles.

But my ultimate joy for the last fifteen years has been as a science educator at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. It has been my "Tikkun-olam" opportunity, to engage with a new and refreshing generation and empower so many kids to reach for their dreams, whatever they are.

I am also a freelance writer: science articles, dictionaries, CliffsNotes, memoirs. But I am a writer who often deeply needs the medium of image -- specifically oil painting -- to access the most elusive and unavailable words tangled in the knot of my feelings. These are usually at times when I am wresting for meaning and clarity with the most important, difficult, and emotional moments of my life. While the words hide in my psyche, the roiling emotions choke me. So, in those moments, I take up the brush and paints and let them speak on canvas. Then, with emotion freed, understanding arrives and words form. So, I write with both keyboard and paint.

Like so many, my life has had many challenges as well as blessings. The journey has taken me places I never expected. That it brought me home to a Jewish path has been the gift of my life. The level of gratitude I feel defies easy expression and I thank so many including all at my spiritual home, Temple Beth Or. Thus, my soul can only speak through both paintbrush and keyboard. Add to this my "writer's absolute fascination" with so many Hebrew words, their roots, and deep meaning, well, it is an irresistible combination and so all of that has become the basis for this body of work. I wish you all well.

Originals/Commissions: Contact deb@e-bailey.org
Prints available through: debra-bailey.pixels.com