Deb Coyle teaches art at Burlington High School, and her new exhibit of collages and pottery at the Art Center of Burlington shows this instructor has learned well.
Her ceramics — she won the ACB’s Great River Pottery Throwdown competition last July, and sold dozens of pieces at the 2024 Snake Alley Art Fair — started to sell early Friday night during her opening reception.
The event marked her first solo art exhibit, Artifacts of Inspiration: The Functional and the Aesthetic, with live music and refreshments, guests conversing at tables, and, through the large windows, a view of vintage cars in the monthly summer Jefferson Street Cruise night.
Red “sold” dots regularly appeared below double bubble vases, bowls and bubble plates with blended colors — white, with shiny green, lavender or reddish-pink glaze.
“I’ve got to have lots of glazes because I like to layer. I don’t like to use just one color. I have to layer different colors and different combinations,” Coyle said.
Her collage work, she explained, is inspired by assemblage artist Joseph Cornell, and her admiration is apparent.
“I even have his name tattooed on my shoulder,” said Coyle.
She explained Cornell, who began creating in the 1930s, put together “shadow boxes” with 3-D elements “like found objects and things kind of collaged and arranged in a way that’s sort of beautiful. They’re like little bits of memories.”
In one of Coyle’s colorful collages, a striped cat, “Marley,” walks out of its frame. Another has hexagon-shaped, textured fabrics, interspersed with Elizabeth Taylor’s famous violet eyes.
In another, a nattily dressed 1960s model in business attire gazes unseeing toward an approaching snake.
“I love using vintage pieces, like vintage magazines, something that has kind of a nostalgic feel to it,” said Coyle.
So, how does she come to combine certain, unrelated found objects and non-traditional materials?
“I find an image of something and I become inspired to do something with it. Like that piece, ‘Shedding,’ for example, with the mannequin that’s coming out of the suit jacket. I had this image of this guy with his head tucked under his coat. I ended up bringing these two images together. Alone, they are very separate things, but together they created something new that has a new meaning,” she said.
As for her art students, one of her biggest goals as a teacher is to boost their confidence.
As she told Friday’s attendees, her first pottery class saw her creating some very disappointing lumps of clay. She lets her students know it’s OK to not make “good” art right away.
The point is for students to eliminate self-doubt, so they can feel confident in their creativity and take risks.
“I see my students who are incredibly talented and their biggest downfall is their doubt in themselves. It has nothing to do with them being incapable of doing anything. It’s them telling themselves they can’t do it and thinking they can’t,” she said. “I’m like, if you just put all the self-doubt aside you could be doing some amazing, incredible things.”
Coyle said as a vendor at the June 15 Snake Alley Art Fair, she will “focus pretty heavily” on ceramics, “but probably a lot of these collage pieces that you see on the walls, I’ll probably have those there as well.”
She also plans to sign up again for the 2025 Great River Pottery Throwdown in August.
This art center exhibit, through May 30, will next year be a combined exhibit of works by local educators, and then the following year will display works by one instructor.
Coyle has a bachelor’s degree in art with a K-12 teaching certification, and a master’s degree in education.
She hopes her current show might inspire viewers “not to take life too seriously. It’s OK to just be a little silly and push the boundaries a little bit and take things outside of your canvas. You don’t need to conform your style to what anyone else is doing, or what you think anyone else wants from you because you’re not going to be happy with your work.”
“I really, truly loved the process of putting all this together because it was purely by my own rules,” she added.
Also in June, the ACB will offer a special Artscape series for students with disabilities who benefit from one-on-one or small group support, and also is hosting additional summer art camp classes for youngsters.
On Thursday, ACB visitors will be able to make their own Snake Alley Art Fair shirts for $25 apiece with all supplies included during the farmers market, 4:30-7 p.m. downtown.
The art center, 301 Jefferson St., hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday. To learn more, call the ACB at 319-754-8069 or visit btownart.com.