Debby Elkin is a collage artist based in Forest Hills. Some of the themes she explores most often include Victorian era, women’s issues, food, “I Love Lucy,” memories of home, Judaica, and African-American culture.
Elkin said “I like to use subjects that are playful, imaginative — things that you’d want to revisit again and again.” She also tries to “connect psychology with art” in her collages. Often her works touch upon complex and sensitive issues, but she infuses them with a playfulness and warmth that instantly draws the viewer in.
Elkin earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in textile and product design from the Fashion Institute of Technology, and worked as a textile designer until about 12 years ago, when she turned her attention to collage.
At first, she was using a lot of fabric paint in her collages, but over time Elkin began to focus more on other materials as well. She uses a wide variety of materials, including clippings from brochures, magazines, and catalogues, cut-paper, stickers, and items from children’s stores and discount stores. She also uses paint tubes to paint directly onto the collage.
In her collages, Elkin likes to communicate not only with pictures but also with words. She often uses sayings from magnets, so that people can identify with the piece, or “just to make people smile.” Elkin explains that there are some subjects which reappear frequently in magazines and catalogues, so she uses them repeatedly in her work, and it becomes a sort of continual theme among her collages.
When asked about the process of creating a collage, Elkin said the most difficult and time-consuming part is taking out all her clippings and going through them to determine what pieces she wants to use. Once she has selected the pieces and materials to include in the collage, the actual process of putting it together only takes a few hours. Sometimes she has to do some hunting for the pieces she wants, but often, Elkin said, they will find her when she’s not looking for them.
Elkin takes a unique approach to her work. She tends to let the pieces themselves determine how the collage will turn out. “I sometimes put myself in the picture and ask, ‘what [else] would this person like to have in the collage?’”
As an example, Elkin referred to one piece, “The Three Redheads,” in which she placed three doll pictures. As she continued with it, she tried to adapt the dolls’ perspective, and she worked on the collage from the point of view that these three girls were related or knew each other.
Elkin strives to create collage in which, upon revisiting it, the viewer might see the piece differently or notice things that weren’t noticed before. She wants her audience to enjoy looking at the collage, “to travel around it, and see it for its different parts which make a whole.”
Elkin has curated several shows in the past few years, primarily through the Alliance for Queens Artists. Currently she is curator of an AQA exhibition entitled Passionate Artists, which runs through Saturday. This exhibition includes an array of artistic media — sculpture, collage, painting, etc., and will also feature a few of Elkin’s works.
Recently she curated the exhibition “Food Fight” at AQA. For this show, members of the AQA staff worked with a group of students to create works based on the “food fight” theme. In addition to creating, students had the opportunity to experience every step in the exhibition process. Two students even sold their work through the exhibition.
Elkin said she enjoys working with AQA particularly because the group is not afraid of taking risks and exploring new ideas, which she considers extremely important, as reflected in her own work.
Debby Elkin’s collage “Soda Fountain Friends” was part of the Queens Council on the Arts Juried Members’ Exhibition at Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center in January.
Her work has been exhibited at the National Art League Gallery, Alliance of Queens Artists Gallery, the Lever House, the Times Square Lobby Gallery, the Chung Cheng Gallery at St. John’s University, and through Queens Council on the Arts, as well as other venues. She is also the recipient of two prizes from the National Art League.
Article reprinted courtesy of Queens Council on the Arts.
