Debi West

Debi West, M.A.Ed and Ed.S, NBCT  has been teaching art in Gwinnett County since 1993.  She has been named the Georgia Elementary Art Educator of the year 1999, Southeastern Elementary Art Educator 2000,  Gwinnett County teacher of the Year 2005, and 2005 National Elementary Art Educator of the Year.  She is passionate about teaching art to kids!  She is an advocate for art education and served as Past President-Elect for the Georgia Art Education Association and Southeastern Elementary Division Director for the National Art Education Association.

“Quite simply, I believe that every child can learn and be successful when properly guided. The visual arts are a vehicle in which every child can certainly learn and succeed because there are no mistakes;  the arts are an expression of one's self, a mirror to their soul! I know that art is the mediator that extends across the boundaries of age, ability and culture.  Experts agree that a comprehensive arts education builds cognitive abilities, self-esteem and problem solving skills; kids agree that making and creating art is fun!” Debi West

She herself is an accomplished artist and will be showing her works at Sabra in October 2006.

On Adventures in Creativity:

“This piece was truly an adventure in creativity!  I often spend evenings reading through art magazines and get inspired to go and make art of my own, but there is rarely time.  So one late afternoon I was completely inspired to collage some images from a catalogue and began doing it right there in my kitchen!  Once finished, I realized that I needed to make my art making become a deeper process, taking my time, and working through each piece.  I then brought my “kitchen collage” to my studio and began to add oil pastel, pencil drawings, acrylic paint and mixed media.  I had so much fun with this piece that it ended up taking me 5 months to complete and I can’t tell you how many different colors it has been!  I loved watching this piece morph into the art it is today, a true celebration of texture and color! I have been inspired to now complete a series of “Adventure in Creativity” pieces…because really, every day should be an adventure in creativity!  I hope you enjoy it as much I enjoyed the process of creating it!”