Library exhibits work of versatile Monroeville artist

While many artists tend to stick with a certain medium or two, Debbie Walker’s originals run the gamut.

Her work in fabric, acrylic, pencil, charcoal and various printing techniques is on display in the Gallery Space at Monroeville Public Library, demonstrating her versatility.

“I was born to be an artist, but I was much too shy,” she said about her formative years.

Then her daughter, Meg, arrived.

“She gave me courage and ambition,” Debbie said. “I didn’t even know what life was before she was born.”

The Monroeville resident’s transformation manifested itself in a multitude of art projects.

“I was doing so many, but I didn’t know what to do with them or where to put them,” she said. “I gave a lot of gifts away. But it just kept accumulating.”

Eventually, Walker started showing her work, with a previous exhibit at the library and others at sites such as the Latrobe Art Center. In May, her work will be on display at Brushes & Beans Café in Murrysville, and she has long-range plans for an exhibit with a theme that should resonate with anyone from the Pittsburgh area:

“I want to do how bridges connect us, how we get disconnected and the value of bridges as far as memories,” she said, referencing a particular structure in Squirrel Hills, where she once lived. “That bridge and that area connected to very significant parts of my life.”

The topic also can apply metaphorically, as is the case with her acrylic painting “The Therapist,” one of the works on display at the library.

“She’s talking to a patient,” she said about the subject, “but she’s also using her theories and her knowledge to understand the developmental aspects of that person while they’re talking. So she’s a ‘bridge’ person.”

Furthering the concept, “The Therapist” includes a baby sitting on the subject’s lap, and next to her is a boy, representing the connection to adulthood from childhood.

“They carry those memories with them all their lives, and they talk about things that happened when they were young,” Walker said. “That’s part of who they are.”

Another painting, “Emergence of Industry,” features sewing machines as bridging an early form of mass production with innovations continuing to this day. Although Walker used acrylics for that image, she works prolifically with fabric, selecting a dozen such pieces to be part of the library show.

She credits lessons with Patrick Daugherty of the Pittsburgh Center for Arts & Media for teaching her how to create with fabric, along with many of the finer points in cultivating her talents.

Visitors to Monroeville Public Library can view her work, with most of the pieces for sale, in the Gallery Space through Feb. 27. For more information about the library, visit www.monroevillelibrary.org.