About Me
I am an artist, photographer and writer and I have been creating art and telling stories for as long as I can remember.
My work is heavily influenced by a long-held interest in both history and architecture. These two interests intertwine and drive a desire to travel and explore. I want to understand the history of the places I visit. I returned to university after my art studies and took a degree in history. The past tells us something about the present and knowledge of it makes my experience of a place richer and deeper. I’m acutely aware that through my lens I’m capturing a brief moment in an ongoing history, a history replete with stories of people whose lives played out in that building, on those streets, amidst that landscape, who may indeed have had a hand in creating the very place where I stand.
As strongly as I am drawn to cities, I am equally drawn to the countryside, and I generally avoid the in-between. Nature is my refuge, my solace, and has always been a primary source of inspiration. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t intrinsically attached to nature, it is where I come back to myself. My parents loved the natural world and our family vacations were spent camping, either nestled in the woods beside a lake, or in the shadow of a dune beside the sea. I spent countless, wonderful hours wandering the woods with my sketchpad in hand, listening to the sounds and watching the light streaming through to warm the forest floor. It was on those trips that I would first borrow my father’s old Leica camera. It weighed as much as I did, and I loved it.
Later, I studied art and illustration at the Art Students League of New York, Parsons School of Design in New York, and Otis Parsons in Los Angeles. I worked as a graphic designer and then as a creative director, winning a number of awards along the way. The work taught me a lot about taking an idea and looking for ways to simplify and distill it, to create order out of chaos and find ways to synthesize information and communicate it clearly. This experience continues to inform my approach to composition, use of negative space, and understanding of color and form. I am often drawn to subjects with strong graphic aspects, and I tend to look for ways to accentuate line, form and pattern.
Thank you for visiting, I hope you enjoy the work.
Deborah Mott
For commissions, licensing or international print orders please call the studio at (646) 598-1901 or use the contact form below to send an email directly to the studio.