Deborah Sproule

medium: textiles

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Tea or Me 2001 Sculpture	Tea or Me (rear view) 2001 Sculpture	Tea or Me (detail of peyote weave seed beads) 2001 Sculpture
Cherry Pit 1996 Sculpture	Primary Passage 1995 Sculpture	Success 2000 Textiles
Climbing Down 2001 Textiles	Seeking Rest 2000 Textiles	Seeking Rest (detail of seed bead embroidery) 2000 Textiles

Contact information
1617 Tarragon Dr.
Madison , WI 53716
Email Address: deb4beads@sbcglobal.net

Artist statement
The small scale of beaded art is largely misunderstood due to gender-specific skill development. As little as twenty years ago, education in tool use was segregated by gender in public schools. Though I have trained in the highest level of art academics, which led me away from needle-formed art, I find that I am returning to my gender birthright of stitched forms. I am reinstating the art process of stitched and woven expressive art forms to reaffirm and find the forgotten stories of my foremothers.

The time-intensive method of stitched and woven bead forms allows my mind to follow and develop a multilayered narrative for each bead work. "Tea or Me" is a woven hollow teapot. I choose gender-specific forms as subjects to transform accepted ideas into another version of an old story. When I was a child, I sang "I'm a little teapot" choreographed to creative movements. In "Tea or Me," I am revisiting this childhood song and adding a grown woman's twist to it. Ms. Tea is no longer identified by the parts of the teapot, she now possesses the object as her pedestal.

My "Shoe Sampler" series consists of beaded pages from a dreamy story. Each beaded page from "Shoe Sampler" is a separate event in an ongoing story "told" from one shoe's point of view. "Success" and "Seeking Rest" are two of over twelve beaded pages from the "Shoe Sampler" series. "Success" depicts a determined female shoe stepping away from the ladder of success and standing firmly in her own light. "Seeking Rest" presents a beautiful yet confused blue shoe trying to decide whether to sit still or continue walking the path of the unknown.

Biography
Master of Fine Arts, 2001, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Awards:
Recipient CitiARTS project grant, Stitched Myth group exhibit of stitched and woven bead forms, King's Foot Gallery, 2002
Who's Who of American Women, 23rd edition
Recipient of Faculty Reading Seminar Grant, Spirit in Art, University of Wisconsin System Institute on Race and Ethnicity, Milwaukee, WI 1999
Recipient, Professional Opportunity Program Grant, Minnesota Center for Arts in Education, 1993

Exhibitions:
2002
Period Gallery, Omaha, Nebraksa
Rocky Mount Arts Center, Rocky Mount, North Carolina
Alder Gallery, Coburg, Oregon
Rahr-West Museum, Manitowoc, Wisconsin
Anderson Art Center, Kenosha, Wisconsin

2001
Mobilia Gallery at SOFA, Chicago
Zona Gale Gallery, Portage, Wisconsin
Skyway Gallery, Rochester, Minnesota
Rochester Art Center, Rochester, Minnesota
Seventh Floor Gallery, UW-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin

Professional Experience
Instructor, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Continuing Education. Art teacher for over twelve years.

Intern, Folk Art Restoration, Syd Boyum sculptures placed in Schenk Atwood neighborhood, Madison, WI
Outreach, Beads Body and Soul, Elvehjem Museum, Madison, WI