Deborah Thompson is a visual artist of Scottish,Dutch and French settler ancestry. It is with gratitude that she makes her home in the Tum xula7xw of the sn ayc’ kstyx territory, otherwise known as Nelson, British Columbia. She attended the Ontario College of Art and Design from 1980-84. She received her B.A. in Southwest Cultural Studies from Prescott College, AZ in 1989 and her MFA in painting from the University of Montana in 1997. Her focus has been on the development of a visual arts language based on the drawn image. She has studied Anatomical Illustration. A variety of experiences have informed her practice including; studying anatomical illustration, working for archaeolgists to illustrate prehistoric lithic collections, field studies in archaeoastronomy, teaching environmental education in remote regions across northern landscapes of Turtle Island /North America and Kenya.
She moved to Nelson, BC in 1999 where she began a studio practice, taught for the Kootenay School of Art and co-founded the Oxygen Art Centre. Her practice includes; painting, drawing, sculpture and most recently, Stop Motion Animation. She has exhibited throughout southern British Columbia and in the United States. She has received many awards for both her studio and curatorial work including, two major project grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, British Columbia Arts Council, the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance, the Osprey Foundation and a Canadian Museum Association.
She has taught for the University of Montana, the Kootenay School of Arts and the Oxygen Art Centre. She has had solo exhibitions at the University of Reno, Navada (2002), Gallery Gachet, Vancouver (2010), Oxygen Art Centre, Nelson (2008), Nelson Museum, Archives and Art Gallery (formerly Touchstones Nelson) (2010), Kootenay Gallery of Art, Castlegar (2002, 2018), Gallery 2, Grand Forks (2019) and the Langham Cultural Centre, Kaslo (2020) among others.
Her bibliography includes Border Crossings issue No. 124. and Galleries West. Public lectures include, “Medieval Mysticism and Contemporary Art”, Oxygen Art Centre, Nelson, BC. She has done residencies at the Vermont Studio Centre, the Banff Centre, the Sitka Centre for Art and Ecology, OR, the Art Shed in Sointula, BC and BOXPROJECTS, Joshua Tree, CA.
Her work is in the print collection at the Portland Museum of Art and Grand Forks Art Gallery in Grand Forks.