Abstract Expressionism is the name given to the most innovative idiom in the visual arts of the mid-twentieth century. The name is itself a paradox, for the adjective implies some ab-straction from 'real' life, while the noun signifies that there is something human (sensations, feelings, even thoughts), to be ex-pressed.
My name is Deena Bernadette Habboo. My passion and soul, the best medicine in my life, is my art. As an artist, I feed off observation. And in observing the world, my feelings and thoughts are simultaneously translated into pictures: people, places, animals--anything and everything is taken in. I'm fascinated by what goes around, comes around, and all else in between. Even the smallest 'thing' provokes a response. My perceptions are filtered into a vision, which focuses on the creation of art through the accumulation of each individual detail. Oil and acrylic are applied onto a canvas using only my fingers, to create a thickly layered, sculpted effect. My ambition is to capture and to precisely recreate my perceptions and experiences in my art. In doing so, I am influenced both by my faith and by those people whom I admire, appreciate and respect.
I have been fortunate in that, since my early childhood I have been able to work productively and imaginatively in pursuit of my goals. My enthusiasm and dedication to the arts, and to honing my skills and craft, have not diminished in adulthood. Though I am largely a self-taught artist, I am lucky to have been surrounded by fine art institutions throughout my development as an artist: the College for Creative Studies (Detroit, Michigan) and the Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, California) afforded me the privilege to study with some of the finest teachers and mentors in the country.
Having pursued a course of study in California at the age of 21, I am now, at 31, currently living in Farmington Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, where I was born and raised. I continued my education in the field of Psychology, researching neurological and behavioral disorders. The mind and its working have a profound impact on all artists and how we relate to the society at large. I am deeply interested in the exploration of these issues.
My passion to create is unabated, as is my abiding desire to seek out the truth behind my private experience and emotions so that I might transform what I discover into public art. This is the breakthrough for me, the epiphany-- the realization that the next step in my continuing artistic development is to share my work with the world at large. And in doing so, it is my sincere hope that my art will provide some measure of joy and enlightenment, and will communicate the joy I have experienced in creating it!
