One Man’s Trash Is Debbie Hamptons Work of Art

By Dee Corley.

“I have so many ideas in my head I don’t know where to start”, she said as we looked at the collection of used wood pieces of furniture, shelves, plaques and the like stacked in a corner of her garage. End tables, night stands and a dresser that needed a little TLC before the first coat of paint could be applied, and she does all of the wood repair herself. Nearly every piece was a cast off, found at a yard sale, by the side of the road or on Craigslist, just waiting for the new found personality she would give each one with her acrylic paints and imagination. Some items are new, like plaques and corner tables.

Then we began to look at pieces that she had transformed; a matching breadbox and recipe box with the big smiling flowers that she appropriately named The Happy Little Bread Box, a small hutch and buffet in a muted lavender blend sporting a blooming magnolia branch, and an adorable barn red breadbox with a slightly whimsical rooster on every side and a very whimsical egg running across the top leaving his tale-tell footprints behind. Sports tables! Your favorite sports emblem on a small round three legged table…and she takes orders for them! She has figured out a way to make it versatile by removing the legs and putting a wire on the back of the table top for wall décor. Then there’s the round tiger table, whose head takes up the entire tabletop. The table legs are his legs and his tail rests across the lower shelf and those life-like eyes lock on and just won’t let you look away. I don’t know, maybe that’s a sign of my cat addiction, but you feel a need to find a logical reason for the embarrassing experience of being held captive by a tiger without a heartbeat.

“I found out by accident that I could paint in the late 90’s when I gave a painting class to my daughter. She went to only one lesson and decided it wasn’t for her. So, I decided that rather than waste the money for the class I would go for the lessons myself. It was the beginning of a new passion for me.” Debbie Hampton started out painting on canvas and now paints wall murals and ceramic tiles as well as wood items. Children’s rocking chairs are personalized by order for under $60.

Debbie showed me pictures of her first wall murals she painted in her own home. A silhouette of her grandchildren as if standing in a group in her hallway, and a lovely basket of magnolia blooms that never made it off of the wall when she moved to Georgia. Since then she has contemplated hiring herself out to paint murals, and even though she is willing to do so she just has never pursued it. She stays occupied with her wood projects, many of which have been painted as gifts for family holidays, stirring up jealous competition over who wanted what. “She just thought we were fighting over the pieces because we love her,” her daughter told me, “she just didn’t think her work was that good in the beginning.” Every family member from her mother down to the youngest Grandchild has or will soon have a specially painted piece to cherish, each signed and dated.

Retiring her position at Kennedy Space Center in early 2007 to join family in Georgia, Debbie’s desire to focus on her passion has kept her from re-entering the workforce. She showed me the display of pieces that dance across the gallery on her Myspace page, which she sends interested parties to. Debbie showed me her earliest pieces, and although I can see how her skills have improved with experience it was still difficult to pick them out of the collection A perfect example of how her work has evolved is a wooden tray that she faux painted to appear as white tiles with a fruit medley in the center.

I asked Debbie where she would like to see herself five to ten years from now. “My desire is to make a living doing what I love, and that’s my art. I like to see others get as much enjoyment out of my work as I get creating it.” Debbie has worked with water color at times, my favorite, but she says her favorite medium is acrylic, an easier medium to “fix” if she doesn’t like the outcome.

Debbie has posted her work on art pages such as eon’s art and drawing group page, and has received strong reviews and encouragement to continue from accomplished artists on the site. She even took on a challenge one of the artists gave her and was praised for her results. Many of her pieces can be seen on her Facebook page, where she also can be contacted. The address is http://www.facebook.com/saphire916fl

Tags: arts, Atlanta, craft, Dee Corley, Painting

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This article was published on Saturday, January 9th, 2010 and is filed under Artists, Crafts, Painting. You can follow any comments to this article through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.