About DZM

Debra Zimmerman Murphey

I am a former print journalist, writer, poet, strategic communications expert and … now … an artist too.

By embracing new technology, I began creating art on my iPhone a few years ago, and expanded this interest. My art has evolved to build a body of nuanced, colorful and detailed artwork that tells stories.

I discovered this way of making art when I began battling chronic and autoimmune conditions that have impacted me neurologically and physically, and my quality of life, mobility and vision. This art is a way for me to express myself, remind myself that I am a survivor, and extend my experience to all women as being survivors. Women are a large focus of my work. I also find meaning in nature and colors, which are a central focus of my drawings and photography. They comfort me and also help carve paths that provide spiritual connections.

My work is about the things that move me:

— The way colors can be used both boldly and gently to create living and spirited images that bring people joy.

— Art that is not traditional in how it’s made, but is unique in voice, typifying both new and older themes that reflect the beauty of people, cultures, and the earth.

— Both the fragility and strength of nature and my love of trees, flowers, gardens, birds, butterflies, and waterways.

— Visions and concepts that I develop that are about mythical women (for example, a wood fairy, a New York poet, and a warrior), but are also about all women through time. They reveal the diversity and reasons women impact our world. This imagery is of creators, survivors, truth-tellers, advocates, volunteers and feminists, and about the power of love.

— My background as the child of a career Foreign Service Officer and my belief in a healthier planet. I lived with my family in many countries, and have spent recent decades as a homeowner near a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay in rural Maryland.

I am married and consider myself a mom to all the animals I and my husband have rescued or had, including horses, dogs, cats, a mouse, ducks and osprey. We now have three pets.

The inspiration for my art comes from my soul. The ways I build the infinite out of self-taught and exploratory skills — and through small-surface technology and hand drawing — bring the inanimate to life and speak to those who look forward to seeing new art thrive.