Physical Shift I

Debra Smith was born in Kansas City in 1971 and raised in Hannibal, Missouri. 

Pursuing her interest in fashion and textiles, Debra Smith studied at the Italian Academy of Fashion & Design; Lorenzo de Medici in Florence Italy before receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute with a major in Fiber in 1993 and an Associate Degree in Applied Science from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2002. 

After living in Brooklyn, NY for over a decade, Smith returned to her native Midwestern roots in 2004. She now lives in Kansas City, where she continues to create art from vintage textiles.

ìI am not a poet or someone who draws, my use of vintage textiles as a medium brings a history, a weight, a poetry to the work before I even begin to cut, sew and piece the work back together. 

Allowing the work to intuitively flow through me, I am breaking all stereotypes associated with textiles, from ideas of craft to that of ìwomenís workî my pieced images have a strong language that is much more similar to that of painting, poetry & drawing.î