Born in 1954; homes on the east coast from DC to Maine; moved to San Francisco in 1997; 2 daughters born August 7th (1980 and 2000), one living with me, the other in Rome. 1963 gift: an instamatic. 1965 first poem: JFK's death. 1967-71: high school in DC: continuing education: Malcolm X, MLK, RFK... continuing USA-Vietnam involvement... needing more truth... music with friends.
By 1971 colleges had no requirements so studied literature: Old English for Seafarer and the Riddles, Middle English for Chaucer and so on, English poetry century by century up to modern epic: Leaves of Grass, The Waste Land, The Bridge, Paterson, The Cantos. From a Separate Reality On the Road to Gravity's Rainbow (thesis, after tomes on 19th century Russian lit and The Bell Jar, etc.) found Tao of Pooh, time for the Bible, Tao Te Ching and, continent by continent: Things Fall Apart, Monkey, Demian, One Hundred Years of Solitude and American Indian chants on Mt. Liberty.
In the 1980s, dancing with Inanna in and out of CT photo studio, practicing zen, writing poetry... art changing from b+w to color, adding words in the darkroom. Moved to NYC in 1989 to work with Warhol Studios and earned MFA at SVA where computers had Photoshop and before long I was making the text-images without photos.
"Written images" picked up in 1997. By the time U-Haul trailer reserved for SF in August the NYPL, Fogg, BMA, Wadsworth Atheneum and Pace Prints had prints, priming a career to involve many museums, galleries and international publications. But too soon for digital art sales. Then 9-11. Still finding ways to more truth...
"When power corrupts, poetry cleanses." (JFK).
Back to basics: finish HOME - American Zen Journey winter 2007...
grass, from KALDANWARN
© 1986 Clay Debevoise
spark, from FIRING
© 1987 Clay Debevoise
LEE - we st
© 1990 Clay Debevoise
SAID
© 1999 Clay Debevoise