Profile picture of Debi Pickler

Debi Pickler

About Us

About Our Art

Debi Pickler knows exactly who to thank for her successful career as an artist. “My Mom was a tremendously gifted artist,” Debi says, remembering her mother, Judy. “I remember watching her paint and draw when I was a little girl, wishing I could be that good at creating art.”

Inspired by her mom’s art, Debi began drawing and painting when she was in kindergarten. She became completely immersed in art, and before long had a collection of work. “I had so many drawings and paintings that I decided to have an art show in our backyard,” she remembers. “My dad worked with me to make a sign for our mailbox announcing the show, and I hung up all of my art on our back yard fence.” But before the show saw its first visitor, a sudden downpour from a rainstorm ruined all of her work. “Dad came to the rescue though, and bought the whole collection for 2 dollars. And that was the beginning of my artistic career.”

Debi continued to develop her skills, becoming adept in a variety of different media such as pencil, oil, acrylic, watercolor, pastel, clay, wool sculpting, airbrushing, digital art and woodworking and steadily becoming more proficient. After earning a BFA, emphasis in illustration from University of Kansas, she ventured into the world of commercial art. Now, after more than 20 years as a designer, she has worked for many different organizations such as universities, retail/manufacturing companies, law firms as well as a financial firm. “Sometimes I think I’d like to focus on just one media, but I just wouldn’t be happy,” she says. “It’s just how my mind works. It seems like I’m always thinking about art, about new ways to do things. I’ll have dreams about creating art and I’ll wake up at 3 a.m. with new ideas that I just have to try. My mind just never, ever stops. I call it BOF or Brain on Fire.”

I’ve been told by more than a few people that – even for an artist – I’m a little different. I’m not sure why, but I’ve always had a love of expression through art. I just don’t see boundaries between mediums. To me, they’re all colors on a spectrum, or maybe you could say each form of media is a different tool I can use to express myself or to help clients express themselves. I’m not really big on limiting myself when it comes to reaching for goals. I am though, really big on getting the right medium, the one that works best to accomplish my goals or those of my clients. I think that’s fun and a challenge. Highly experienced and extremely versatile artist, I can walk into any setting that needs creative, assess the communications, marketing or advertising needs of any situation, and produce high-quality, effective and “on-target” materials.

Regardless of the media, there are common threads that run through nearly all of her work. Debi is obsessive about extremely fine detail and loves incorporating it into her work. “I like for people to be able to really look at my art, to spend time with it and be rewarded by finding some new, tiny detail that maybe no one else had noticed,” she says. “That drives me.” She also loves to create places and creatures no one has ever seen before. “I like the thought of people escaping reality for a moment, being still and getting lost in my artwork.”

“I also like working with extremely creative people, such as authors of children’s books. At the same time, I love working with corporate clients, people who need print publications, corporate communications pieces or even patent illustrations. It’s all about flexing my creative muscles and stretching. I have two sides: the creative who knows how to convey a corporate client’s message in a concise, engaging and effective way, and the fun, “just a little crazy and goofy” artist who just might create a giraffeopoceros if she thinks it’s the right, fun and engaging character for your book needs. Giraffeopeceros … I like that word …”

That inspiration seems to be a constant for Debi, whose greatest attribute may well be that she sees the world as her canvas, a place full of art and the potential for new, more intriguing works of art. “I love to let my mind wander, taking my imagination wherever it wants to go.” she says. “Of course, it’s up to me to see what’s out there, dare to live outside the box, work extremely hard developing my talent and have the ability to share it with others.”

While Debi’s path has taken many twists and turns throughout her artistic life, she still looks back to where that path began, at a backyard art show in New Jersey, where a dad and his little girl turned a rain-out into a life.

Juried Artist/Studio:

Debi Pickler

Short Description:

Fine Art, Children's Illustrations for Books, General Illustration, Graphic Design, Licensing Character Art

Contact Number:

314-805-3374

Email Address:

debistudios@gmail.com

Awards and Honors

2001
– Won the SCBWI Mentorship for Illustrators Program and studied under illustrator Phyillis Harris for one year

2002
– Second place in the SCBWI Conference Illustrator Show with “Let it Snow” pen and ink stippling

2003
– Second place in the St. Peter’s, Missouri Cultural Art Show with pen and ink stipplings
– Air brush demonstration at the St. Peter’s, Missouri Cultural Art Center
– Taught a two-month watercolor class in St. Peter’s, Missouri

2004
– Second place in the SCBWI Conference Illustrator Show with “Linkee the Caterpillar from the Ifits®”
– Won the SCBWI Mentorship for Illustrators Program and studied under illustrator Richard Bernal for one year.
– Exhibited artwork at the High Plains Gallery, located in High Plains, Missouri.

2005
– First place in the SCBWI Conference Illustrator Show with “Kokee® the Cheetah from the Ifits®”
– Guest speaker at the SCBWI Conference, discussing licensing procedures for artists.

2006
– Won the Portfolio competition at the SCBWI Fall Conference.
– Guest speaker at the SCBWI Fall Conference discussing Photoshop techniques and its application to the industry

2007
– Air brush demonstration at Lafayette High School Art Show in Wildwood, Missouri. Sponsored by
The Best of Missouri Hands (BOMH).

2008
– Won the SCBWI Mentorship for Illustrators Program and studied under illustrator Todd Smith for one year

2009
– Honorable mention for the Race Judicata t-shirt design contest, Thompson Coburn LLP

2010
– Airbrush demonstration at the Women’s Athletic Club which hosted Thompson Coburn’s Celebrating The Arts. This event was to acknowledge the leading business Women of Chicago. Once finished, the painting was auctioned off to one of the guests.
– Won third place in the Race Judicata t-shirt design contest, Thompson Coburn, LLP

2011
– Submitted a sketchbook in the The ArtHouse Co-op 2011 Sketchbook Project. This project had over 25,000
participants worldwide. The tour of the sketchbooks started in March and traveled to 11 different cities nationwide.

– Honorable mention for the Race Judicata t-shirt design contest, Thompson Coburn LLP

2012
– The print material I created for Thompson Coburn’s campaign called “Get To Know” won first place in the Legal
Marketing Association’s (LMA) Your Honor Wards in the Practice Development category.
Ann Metzger Memorial National All Media Exhibition, Viola Longmire Memorial Award, St. Louis Artist Guild

2013
– Guest Speaker at the University of Missouri’s lecture series titled, “Got this art degree, now what?”
Black and White Art Expo, Infinity Online artshow, finalist
– Spring Online Competition, American Women Artists, finalist
You Be the Judge online art competition, finalist
Portraits Online Art Exhibition, Linus Galleries, finalist
Art Kudos International Art show, finalist
Creative Quarterly 33 exhibiting artist
– My Best Artwork, Collaboration of Artists finalist
– 85th Grand National Exhibition online art show, Exhibiting Artist

2014
The Senses finalist, Linus Art Gallery
All Women Competition, Light, Space, Time Gallery, 7th place overall catagory
Art Comes Alive, Exhibiting artist
Creative Quarterly 36, exhibiting artist
3 x 3, The Magazine of Contemporary Illustration, Honorable Mention Exhibiting Illustrator
Art Kudos International Juried Art Competition and Exhibition, finalist
North Light Books 2014 drawing competition Strokes of Genius 7: Depth, Dimension + Space, winning artist
– St. Peters Cultural Art Center Anything Goes Artshow, third place over all category

2015
Master Volume 11 Juried Art Publication, winner
Color of Humanity Art Gallery, Human Nature, Best of Show Winner
Art Competiton.net Faces of Humanity artshow, Honorable Mention

2016
– Atlas Society Art Contest, Finalist
– Waterscapes International Online Artshow, Fusion Art, Honorable Mention
– Colors of Humanity Art Gallery, Black/White, Noteworthy
– Seasons/Space/Time Gallery, Special Recognition
– Humankind, Foundry Art Centre, St. Louis MO, Juror Eric Wieringa, Exhibiting Artist
– Art and the Senses, Linus Galleries, Finalist
– Creatures, Art St. Louis, Jurors Heather Woodson and Charles Houska, Exhibiting Artist
– Noticing Nature, Foundry Art Centre, Juror Wayne Trinklein, Exhibiting Artist
– Online Exhibition, Fusion Art Gallery, Second Place
– American Art Awards, Winning artist with 7 Awards, Winner of the 2016 Masterpiece Award
– Open Art Exhibition, Space & Time Gallery, Special Merit
– Annual Unthemed Exhibition, Still Point Gallery, Exhibiting Artist
– XXXlll The Exhibition, Art St. Louis, Juror Ann Coddington, Exhibiting Artist
– Online Exhibition, Light and Shadow, Fusion Art Gallery, Exhibiting Artist
– Black/White Exhibition, Urban Richie Gallery, Finalist
– 18th Annual Faces Juried Online International Art Exhibition, Upstream People Gallery, Juror Laurence Bradshaw, Special Recognition

2017
– Creatures ReImagined Art Show, Impasto Art Gallery, Denver, CO, Finalist

2019
– Art Fusion Women’s Second Annual Artists Art Competition, 4th place
– KS-MO SCBWI Illustrator Exhibition, Kansas City, MO Exhibiting Artist
– Child’s Play, Foundry Art Center, St. Charles, MO, Exhibiting Artist

2020 
– Global Impact, The Wake of Covid, Foundry Art Center, St. Charles, MO, Exhibiting Artist