Book Artist Deborah Phillips Chodoff
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The unusual & creative conceptual work of Deborah Phillips Chodoff
We quote from an interview in ‘The Lewisboro Ledger’ by Rose Fisk:
Born in post-war Japan, Deborah Phillips Chodoff finds echoes of Oriental art in her work, … Construction in the bookform is the center of her expression. … “Construction is what I love to do best as an artist.,” she said. …
Chodoff spent her early years in Tokyo surrounded by Japanese art. “I think a lot of it sank in. My work is very much influenced by Japanese art.” After living in Japan, where her father worked as an economist rebuilding the country after World War II, the family moved to Washington D.C., [where] her mother became [a] curator [at] the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
“I could take classes for free at the Corcoran,” she said. “I had a lot of art training before college.” … Afterwards she went to Paris to study printmaking at Atelier 17, the same studio that trained Picasso and Dali in the skill. … upon returning to New York in the early ‘70s she worked at The Printmaking Workshop. … She began to paint. During her painting heyday she lived near the north coast of Peru while her husband did graduate work in archaeology. …
“The landscape was extraordinary,” Chodoff said. “It really affected me, … it was a lonely and stimulating experience.” The desert she found was completely barren – it is one of the driest in the world. “It became a metaphor for that isolation you feel as an artist.” …
“It was a big adjustment to come back to the city,” Chodoff said. She found the city to be very complex. … She did a series of collages which she wanted to bring together as a unit. So she made a book.
“Only after I made my first one, I learned there was a community of artists who made books. I do it steadily now asmy major medium.”
Her works contain social commentary. …”What I’m doing is a reaction to the conditions of the times.” Her work is political to the extent that society affects her, she says. When something touches her deeply, like the war, it is only natural for her to expressit in art.
Other works look at her experiences as a working mother “not just a personal frustration but a societal frustration withthe role of women. … She finds she enjoys teaching children and providing them with an opportunity to express themselves. “They come up with extraordinary things. It gives me a lot of energy.”
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