About Our Art
At the age of twelve, Deby Gilley made the decision to seek art as a profession. Her high school art teacher advised her to become an art teacher, first, and then follow her dreams of being an artist.
After earning a BA degree from McPherson College in 1978, she gained her Missouri Art Teacher’s Certification from Missouri State University in 1980. In 1996, she obtained an MS degree from Southwest Baptist University.
Deby taught art as a K-12 and middle school art teacher for 25 years, in three different Missouri public schools, and retired in 2006. She continued to teach as an adjunct art instructor at the college level for another thirteen years.
While in graduate school, Deby took a relief printmaking class, and the love for producing linocut and woodcut prints grew into a passion. It’s been nearly three decades of creating this art form, and she’s still going strong!
Juried Artist/Studio:
Deby Gilley Relief Printmaker
Short Description:
Relief-printmaking is the generic term for the kind of art that Deby Gilley creates. A matrix of either linoleum or wood is preparer as a printing plate. The negative area of the image is gouged out of the linoleum or wood, and then ink is rolled over the areas left in relief. In this type of printmaking, it’s the areas that are NOT gouged out that makes the print. Paper is then pressed to the inked matrix and a print is pulled. This inking process is repeated for each print.
Awards and Honors
Deby has won numerous awards with her relief prints throughout Southwest Missouri. Her prints are among two distinguished art collections, which include Bruce and Barbara Feldacker Labor Art Collection in St. Louis and John Mallery Print Collection in Kansas City. Friends who collect her prints and display them in their home refer to it as their “Gilley Gallery.”
