Photo Credit Anne Staveley

Debbie Long Willa (2015-2020) Light, Glass, Recreational Vehicle, 26 x 8.5 x 12 feet



About


Debbie Long is an artist who works with light. Long builds sculptures and immersive environments that unfold over time in rhythm with natural light from the sky, its' cycles of day and night, weather, and seasons.


For the last decade her work has focused on building Light Ships, large-scale outdoor light sculptures that are immersive environments for experiencing light and time. These works are chambers of light, color, and glass that shift as light changes in rhythm with light from the sky.


The first of these experiential sculptures, Naima Trailer, was built between 2012-2015. The second, Willa, built between 2015-2020, was recently completed in Long's studio in Taos, New Mexico.



About Willa


Willa (2015-2020) is a large-scale outdoor light sculpture that will be permanently installed in a remote area of the high desert in Northern New Mexico. Consisting of a chamber of yellow light and glass hidden inside a 1970s Recreational Vehicle and large enough for 4 people to sit inside, Willa is an immersive environment for experiencing light and time.


Inside Willa, hundreds of handmade cast glass objects collect light from the sky. The interior changes as light shifts throughout the day, sunrise to sunset, or as clouds pass overhead. There is no electric light in Willa. Light enters Willa through a transparent roof, directly connecting the piece to the sky and its' cycles of day and night, weather, and seasons.


Willa is built for the slow read, for watching as light slowly shifts in rhythm with the time signature of the natural world. Willa is constantly changing hour by hour and throughout the seasons as the sun and moon track across the sky,  and may be experienced in many different ways over time. Viewers are encouraged to spend time inside the piece, especially to watch sunset, sunrise or moon rise on a full moon night.


A search is underway for a permanent site to install Willa in a remote area of the New Mexico desert where viewers may stay overnight in an onsite cabin, allowing access to the piece at sunrise, sunset, or midnight on a full moon night. The journey to reach Willa at this remote site will be an important part of the experience of the work.


About the Naima Trailer


Naima Trailer (2012-2015) is a large-scale outdoor light sculpture that was first installed in a remote area of the Mojave Desert in 2013. Consisting of a chamber of purple light and glass hidden inside a 1960s travel trailer and large enough for 4 people to sit inside, Naima is an immersive environment for experiencing light and time.


Inside Naima, hundreds of handmade cast glass objects collect light from the sky. The interior changes as light shifts throughout the day, sunrise to sunset, or as clouds pass overhead. There is no electric light in Naima. Light enters Naima through a transparent roof, directly connecting the piece to the sky and its' cycles of day and night, weather, and seasons.


Naima is built for the slow read, for watching as light shifts in rhythm with the time signature of the natural world. Naima is constantly changing hour by hour and season by season as the sun and moon track across the sky, and may be experienced in many different ways over time. Viewers are encouraged to spend an extended period of time inside the piece, especially to watch sunset, sunrise, clouds passing, or moon rise on a full moon night.


Naima was first installed in the center of a dry lake bed in a remote area of the Mojave Desert as part of High Desert Test Sites 2013, an exhibition curated by Andrea Zittel, Dave Hickey, Libby Lumpkin, and Aurora Tang. The journey to reach Naima at this remote site is an important part of the experience of the work.


Lynne Robinson Article December 2014


      Debbie Long is an artist who works with Light. You might be mistaken in thinking her medium is glass through no fault of your own; the cast glass objects she creates are in and of themselves exquisitely crafted sculptural pieces, but in actuality they are merely conduits for the light that Debbie manipulates into these otherworldly experiences that are the sum total of her work.


      Debbie was Ken Price’s studio assistant for many years and that long apprenticeship has paid off in spades. Although Debbie is certainly linked to Price’s creative lineage which includes artists Larry Bell and Ron Cooper among a few others, her work defies simplistic definition, nor can it really be compared to the aforementioned artists except in terms of their exploration of light.


      This is art made from dreams. Dreams, but also dedication, discipline and hard work. A poetic inner vision made crystalline and manifest. Deep water and deep space converge here in these installations with their alien yet inexplicably familiar forms that capture, refract and reflect the light Debbie bends and shapes.


      Light as we know, travels in the form of a wave – white light contains every color in the visible spectrum – and with these pieces Debbie has somehow conjured a way to capture these waves as they travel faster than our eyes can see, to confine them in these fragile vessels that will contain them for as long as they remain unbroken.


      Her Naima piece, a chamber of amethyst light inside a rusty old trailer, where hundreds of handmade cast glass objects collect light from the sun, transforming the interior as the fiery orb moves across the sky, was built for High Desert Test Sites 2013, an exhibition curated by David Hickey, Andrea Zittel, Libby Lumpkin and Aurora Tang, where the artist’s projects were sited in the desert along the I – 40 from Los Angeles to Albuquerque. The Naima Trailer was sited in the Mojave Desert near Joshua Tree.


      Debbie describes her work as a slow read, an apt analogy. Whilst visiting her huge new studio last week, where Naima is installed, I sat for a while inside another light chamber she has built into the underneath of her sleeping loft. Amber light shifted and became golden, then deeper shades of tortoiseshell as I relaxed, looked up, felt washed by waves of warmth flowing inward from without – or was it the other way around? In that tight space that could have just as easily felt utterly claustrophobic, I experienced a moment of transcendence beyond color, beyond verbal description. It was as if a deep thirst had been quenched.


      I came out of the little enclosed cubicle into the large, open room she works in. An assortment of amethyst glass objects were grouped on a table along one wall. They glowed with such intensity after the gentle golden light I’d just been bathed in, it was difficult to look at them for too long.


      I crossed the room and stared out of a high window watching a few birds gather on the bare branches of a tree. I glanced down at the big table that serves as her desk, covered with papers, sketches, books and other bits and pieces of a meaningful life in progress and noticed a torn scrap of lined paper peeking out of a pile. I had to walk around the table to read what was written on it.


      “What makes the desert beautiful,” says the little prince, “is that somewhere it hides a well.” (From The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery)


Lynne Robinson December 22, 2014



Bio

Debbie Long has recently exhibited her work at High Desert Test Sites in Joshua Tree, CA in an exhibition curated by Dave Hickey, Andrea Zittel, Aurora Tang, and Libby Lumpkin; Chimento Contemporary in Downtown Los Angeles, CA; The Harwood Museum in Taos, NM; Gallery 128 Lower East Side in New York City, NY; Vivian Horan Gallery in New York City, NY; Boston University's Sherman Gallery in Boston, MA; and The Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Fe, NM.

Reviews and Press include the BBC Culture London, UK; The LA Weekly, Los Angeles, CA; Artillery Magazine, Los Angeles, CA; ArtSlant, Santa Fe, NM; and Art Studio America, a new book about US Artists in their studios from Trans Globe Publishing London, UK.

Grants include a Pilchuck Glass School Residency in 2004 and a Creative Capital Foundation Workshop in 2006. Lectures include The Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, NM and SITE Santa Fe and the Santa Fe Center for Contemporary Arts' Dialogue 360 lecture series in Santa Fe, NM.

Long completed Apprenticeships at Adobe Bronze Casting Foundry in Albuquerque, NM in 1993,1994 and at Walentinowicz Glass Studio in Illinois in 2004, 2006, 2007.

Long worked as studio assistant to Ken Price in Taos, New Mexico from 2006-2012.

She lives and works in Taos, New Mexico.



CV

 
Press Links
 
 
 
Exhibition Links
 
 
 
Selected Exhibitions
 
2018

Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, NM Harnessing Light

Vivian Horan Gallery, New York, NY  Taos 1960s-Present
 
2016
Chimento Contemporary, Downtown Los Angeles, CA  Naima Trailer
 
2014
Harwood Museum of Art, Taos NM Art for a Silent Planet

The Paseo Project Taos, NM Naima Trailer
 
 
2013
High Desert Test Sites 2013, Los Angeles, CA Curated by Dave Hickey, Andrea Zittel, Libby Lumpkin, Aurora Tang. Naima Trailer
 
Mark Moore Gallery Project Space, Los Angeles, CA Tow Package (solo exhibition)
 
2011
Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, NM Curator Libby Lumpkin.
 
2009
LAND/ART New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM  Sculpture as Analogy to Landscape, Curated by Steve Barry.
 
222 Shelby Street Gallery, Santa Fe, NM   Landscape and Memory
 
2008
Gallery 128 Lower East Side, New York, NY  Migrate, Curator Sabra Moore

Boston University School of Visual Arts Sherman Gallery, Boston, MA Crossing Country, Curated by Hannah Cole

Site Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM Lucky #7 Biennial, Artist Volunteer for Scott Lyall Collaborative Project, Curated by Lance Fung.

Nadie es Perfecto, Oaxaca City, Oaxaca Mexico Amor Sin Palabras, Curated by Ron Cooper.

Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM Forest (solo exhibition)

2007
Cinemaland Chinatown, Los Angeles, CA NM10

Fenix Project Space, Taos, NM TreeStumpTreeForest. (solo exhibition)

516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM Artists from the Creative Capital Workshop, Curated by Diane Karp

Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, NM
 
2006 
Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM Morphosis, Curated by Cyndi Conn
Site Santa Fe, Parking Lot, Santa Fe, NM  Renters
Art Lobby Project Space, Taos, NM  TreeForestCity (solo exhibition)
Salon Mar Graff, Santa Fe, NM
Donkey Gallery, Albuquerque, NM  Comin' Down the Mountain

2005 
College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe NM  Bloc-busta
Taos Plaza Theatre Pop Up, Taos, NM    Bloc-busta

2003 
Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM    Collect
Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM  Window Project
 

Selected Awards/Honors
2013
Art Studio America: Contemporary Artist Spaces
Art Studio America is a new book by Hossein Amirsadeghi and Maryam Eisler capturing intimate portraits of 115 artists in their places of work.  Trans Globe Publishing.
 
2006 
Creative Capital Foundation Professional Development Workshop Grant, Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, NM.
 
2004 
Pilchuck Glass School Residency Grant, Seattle, WA.


Selected Collections


Harwood Museum of Art Taos, NM

Larry Bell, Taos, NM

Jeffrey Soros, Los Angeles, CA

Glen Schaeffer, Las Vegas, NV
Gus Foster, Taos, NM

Lectures
2014
Art for a Silent Planet Panel Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, NM
Naima Project Pecha Kucha, Taos Center for the Arts, Taos, NM
 
2007 
Site Santa Fe and the Center for Contemporary Arts Dialogue 360 Lecture Series, Santa Fe, NM.
 
Press Reviews Bibliography
Tresp, Lauren Art For a Silent Planet: Blaustein, Elder and Long ARTslant, Santa Fe, NM March 28, 2014
Cheng, Scarlet  High Desert Test Sites 2013 Artillery Magazine, Los Angeles, CA November 20, 2013
Gluck, Marissa  If You've Ever Wanted To Take a Road Trip Through the Desert  The LA Weekly, Los Angeles, CA  October 14, 2013
Weinstein, Leah  High Desert Test Sites, A Diary  Mutual Art,  October 23, 2013
Art Studio America  Trans Globe Publishing, London, UK  2013
LAND/ART New Mexico  Radius Books, Santa Fe, NM 2009
Fischer, Zane  Landscapism  The Santa Fe Reporter, Santa Fe, NM June, 2009
Hassett, Anthony  Debbie Long: TreeStumpTreeForest  THE Magazine, Santa Fe, NM August, 2007
Collins, Tom  Strange Shapes Indeed  The Albuquerque Journal, Albuquerque, NM January 27, 2006
Tobin, Richard  Bloc-busta Taos  THE Magazine Santa Fe, NM September, 2005
Bloc-busta Exhibition Catalog Santa Fe, NM July, 2005
Nott, Robert  Rec-reating Imagination  The Santa Fe New Mexican Santa Fe, NM October 12, 2001
Collins, Tom  Debbie Long at Fenix  Geromino Taos, NM June, 1999 
THE Magazine Debbie Long at Fenix  Santa Fe, NM July, 1999
New American Paintings The Open Studios Press Number 19 Pacific Coast Edition Los Angeles, CA October, 1998 
Pulkka, Wesley  Urbane Artists  The Albuquerque Journal Albuquerque, NM June 15, 1997
Paglia, Michael  New From New Mexico  The Denver Post Denver, CO August 23, 1997
Hemp, Christine Slingshot  THE Magazine Santa Fe, NM November, 1996

Education
University
1994 BFA Sculpture University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM

1993 BA French Literature University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM

 
Apprenticeships              
1993/1994   Adobe Forge and Sculpture Foundry Albuquerque, NM

2004, 2006, 2007  Walentynowicz Glass, Chicago, IL

 
Professional
2006-2012 Studio Assistant Ken Price Taos, NM