Debra Sloan

Over her 42-year career, Debra has divided her energy between supporting the development of the ceramic arts of BC and her own practice.

Debra engaged in a self-directed apprenticeship 1973 - 1979, attended the Vancouver School of Art 1979- 1982, and later attained her BFA from ECUAD in 2005. Maker, teacher, adjudicator, presenter, parent, volunteer, and currently president of the North-West Ceramics Foundation. Her work is exhibited, regionally, nationally, and internationally. She has attended international residencies in Hungary, Rome, Japan, and the UK.

Debra is very interested in the inherent narrative capacity of clay and in 2005 she started to write (non-fiction) about BC ceramic history, the clay artists, and their social, aesthetic, and historic contributions. During her time at Wallace Stegner House, she worked on several biographies, and engaged with locally found materials - Eastend and region is famous for its clays. She is also interested in the Indigenous use of local clays in Saskatchewan, in contrast to BC, where only wood was mastered for function and as a means of expression.

Artist Website: www.debrasloan.com