We recently had the chance to connect with Deborah Kruger and have shared our conversation below.
Deborah, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
I am mentoring a young man in North Carolina who is very entrepreneurial. It feels great to pass along my art business, and marketing skills and be a source of inspiration. As the world gets more challenging for BIPOC folks, it’s essential that we all support each other. And it feels right and radical to encourage the younger generation to imagine a positive future.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am an international environmental fiber artist. My artwork is feathered because it is primarily about endangered birds and endangered languages and culture. My signature feathers are made with recycled plastic, although they appear to be textiles. Images of endangered birds and endangered languages dance through the feathers. I love making monumental scale work and I am currently preparing for a solo show at a museum in Italy that will open in June 2026.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: What relationship most shaped how you see yourself?
When I went to study Textile Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, I met Miriam Kellogg Fredenthal, who was my weaving professor. She recognized my talent and drive and she was my mentor for the next 40 years. My parents were from an immigrant family and didn’t really know how to deal with a young artist. Miriam helped me understand that spending a life devoted to art, especially textiles, was possible. Thanks to her, I now show my environmental fiber artwork around the world. And it feels right to be passing it forward now as a mentor myself.
What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
Like so many women, I am a survivor of sexual assault. While the dialogue about this kind of abuse is thankfully more public, the reality that women continue to suffer from rape as a war crime and rape as a gentleman’s pastime is a blight on our society. Creativity offers the opportunity to heal from all of life’s wounds. In the studio, we can be our most authentic selves. Here, in the silence, with our hands in our materials and our hearts feeling safe, we slowly find our way out of the pain through the magic of making. Creating artwork about endangered birds feels related to my healing because I am giving voice to the voiceless and trying to raise consciousness about and protect wildlife that we are inadvertently destroying.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
My close friends (and I am blessed to have many) know that making beautiful and meaningful art is the reason that I am on this planet. Like many women of my generation, I have fulfilled the obligations that were expected of me: I raised and supported a family, I was a devoted wife, and I took care of my aging parents. Maintaining close friendships and spending time with family, especially grandchildren, are extremely important to me. Now I am finally at a stage of life when I can focus almost entirely on my art and my art career. Although I have enjoyed and been enriched by social activities like book groups, I limit my social life in order to maximize time in the studio.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I would like people to remember that I utterly believed in the importance and power of art. I want to be remembered as someone who believed in her art, in her environmental message, and in supporting other women by inviting them to work on my studio team. When people talk about my artwork, I want them to celebrate that I found a way to make art which reflected my decorative training as well as my ecological awareness. And that I worked tirelessly to make and promote my art, especially in the last 30 years of my life, so that it had a life outside of my studio.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://deborahkruger.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deborahkrugerstudios/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborahkruger53
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deborahkrugerartist
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DeborahKruger
Image Credits
Carlos Diaz Corona
