Deborah Matijow Borho

Biography

 

Deborah Matijow Borho was born in Detroit, MI in 1955. Throughout her childhood, she always had a wild imagination and a love of color. By age five, she had progressed from scribbling in her mother’s cookbooks to drawing from photos. As a student, Deborah would often be seen sketching, in a world of her own. Art supplies can be expensive, so when she reached junior high, Deborah began experimenting with any make-up that she could scrounge as an art medium. She created works by blending eye shadows, lipsticks, and foundations. To Deborah’s surprise, her art garnered compliments and encouragement from her art instructor, who was genuinely impressed by her creativity.

 

Deborah strongly believed that art should be functional in nature, so in 1990, she began working with airbrush on clothing, but felt something lacking in the quality of her work. During this time, Deborah encountered many challenges in her personal life. After struggling with alcoholism and enduring abuse for years, Deborah moved to South Carolina to live with her sister. Continuing to create art became a means to overcome her past, to maintain sobriety, and bring balance mentally and spiritually back into her life. Deborah dabbled in various media from airbrushing to cosmetics for some time until her sister offered her a vast collection of nail polishes to experiment with. With this new media, Deborah began painting vases and assorted items. Her first vase was sold purely by accident, when a woman saw the vase at a moving sale.

 

Deborah was elated that someone would enjoy something that she created.

Currently, Deborah continues to create functional works using nail polish as her primary medium. She has painted vases, lamps, clocks, shoes, bags, purses, canvas,  food trays, anything she can get her hands on. Her art is abstract, colorful, emotive, and intended for adults and children alike.  Deborah hopes her works will foster creativity in people of all ages.

 

Quotes from the artist:

 

“Painted art need not be just on canvas – it should be worn, carried, used and seen often. If something beautiful pleases you, why leave it at home on a wall?”

 

“Someday I’d love to paint an entire dead tree; just cover its form with my colors and my style. Until (then), I’ll keep painting on anything that doesn’t move fast enough to outdistance me – anything that calls to my soul.”

 

“To me, that’s what it means to be an artist – to feel something inside when I see or touch something, ‘Ahh, THIS needs to be painted,’ and then allow my inner self to speak and … the creation to begin.”