"Hi there... I'm so glad you stopped by!" I'd like to take just a 'wee bit' of your time to tell you a 'wee bit' about me...

     I'm more of an Irish lass with a lesser amount of somewhat different nationalities of 'me very own'. For example, there's English, German, Dutch and Swedish. I do suspect that even a smaller portion of Scottish blood may also be running somewhere within these veins of mine.

     My Irish family heritage was originally rooted in Dublin and Donegal. They were of the ancient as Protectors of the Fields. It's really funny, and more exagerated to be mentioned, that my mother's maiden name was Fields. Also of English-Irish decent.

     Moving right along, I'd like to begin by saying that as a wee lass, of around the age of 4, was when I first began to draw creatively. My Nana got me started first with dot-to-dot and nicely illustrated coloring books and my very own box of 48 Crayola Coloring Crayons, complete with a sharpener in the back. She would color closely alongside of me on the page directly next to mine, while we swayed back and forth on her front porch glider, drinking homemade iced tea ...with lemon. 

    I was nearly 9 years old when my father recognized that my ability to draw had developed quite well. I was using an ordinary No. 2 writing pencil as he watched me sketch whatever it was that I was drawing from, then color in with my handy dandy new box of 64 Crayola Crayons he had bought me, with it's built in sharpener. They usually sat right smack in front of me at the kitchen table. Let me tell you. I considered myself to be all set as a young artist with my sketch pad, pencils, sharpener, eraser, and multiple colored crayons. What could be better! One night, I happened to be sitting at the kitchen table, drawing and coloring my mom's famous Santa faced cookie jar. It wasn't a favorite simply because of it being Santa, it was a 'flavor-it' because during this time of the Christmas season, it held the most scrumptiously tasting home baked Toll House Chocolate Chip cookies you could ever have sunk your teeth into! And man, oh man, did they forever fill the whole house with their amazing aroma while they were baking. I'd walk over along with my mom holding a spatchula up in my hand, ready to grab up one or two of those soft delicious delights, just as they came right out of the oven. I had not a care as to how hot they were, either. I knew how they would come apart easily at that temperature, so, I'd wait for a minute ir two, then toss them from hand to hand, blowing on them at the same time to have them cool down enough to eat. My mom would just shake her head at me, every time. I loved eating them while they were still somewhat soft and warm with the melted morcels of semi-sweet chocolate, deliciously drizzling right into my mouth and onto my tongue when I would purposely bite into the delectable soft chocolate chip! 🎶 N.E.S.T.L.E.'S 🎵...Nestle's made the very best...CHHHOOOOOCLATE!🎶 Hershey's cocoa and chocolate bars were another favorite of mine. As a child, I loved going to Hershey, PA. That in itself is a whole other story

     ...Well, back to the 'drawing board. I don't want to bore you with any more yummy cookie 'details'.

    So, dad made a quick decision to enter my drawing of our Santa faced cookie jar into a drawing contest they held every so often for the children of whose parents were employed with Hercules Incorporated. It really made me feel quite special and honored at the time. Being a natural born artist is an amazing gifted ability that I consider to be a most awesome blessing spiritually given and driven by mone other than our Divine Universal Creator, Source. Too, as I got to be a little older, I couldn't help but wonder if there was anyone else within our family that may have also possibly dabbled in the arts. Low and behold, I came to find out more surprisingly, that my father was indeed a gifted artist, as well. I curiously happened to locate a manila envelope on the upper further side of a his bedroom closet shelf one day, and I had a strong urge to open it. The envelope wasn't sealed, but, the perfectly well wound string that was wrapped around the red disked cardboard button, just down from the flap that kept it closed, displayed itself as to say, "Keep out!" This gave me a very distinct and clear understanding that I had no business unwinding it. However, my curiosity got the best of me, and irregardless of what that tight wrapped string was telling me, I had to take a peek inside. Working up the nerve, I quickly began to unwind the string and open the flap. After looking in, to find what was there, I slid my hand carefully down inside to pull out a thin stack of a thicker smooth to the touch paper, similar to Bristol Board, that to my amazement, displayed two of the most incredibly beautiful pen & ink illustrations of trains I had ever seen! I got chills and goose bumps when my eyes took me to the lower right hand corner of both illustrated pieces. It was astonishing to see these stunning masterpieces signed by my very own father, James Louis Friel. I could just picture him as a teen, sitting somewhere at the Pennsylvania Railway Station for hours at a time, to pen sketch the trains that were stopped there along the track.

     Dad had grown up just across the railway on the German side of Philadelphia, PA, for most of his life as a boy, till the time he enlisted in the Navy. I can still see me holding out the illustrations a short distance away from me, and thinking of how they actually resembled the appearance of the finest taken black & white photographs. The tiniest detail was drawn beyond description on both of these pen and ink drawings. The way he illustrated the one train, as it faded back ever so slightly from the control car to the caboose, was as if you were standing right where he must've been, seeing it through his very own eyes, himself. He had certainly expressed his love for the railway transit, way beyond an imaginable fascination. His great appreciation for trains had for him to construct a huge train track table setting put together with this amazing miniature mountainous village display that included working side street lights, traffic lights, and cars. His locomotive set ran through the mountains, across the main town road to the nearby village, complete with skaters in a skating pond! Had he focused positively on his own gifted talent when he was younger, ignoring all discouragement, and had worked on gaining financial support in high recognition to attend school for architectural design. He may even have been able to achieve a true sense of his own higher consciousness of self to understand that he was a natural born creator himself. From his own past discouragement, he spoke these very words to me, "Deb, you'll never get anywhere as an artist. Get a secretarial job, and settle down." Wow! But you know, this actually gave me more determination to go forth and take my abilities to a whole new level. I longed and yearned to make my natural art ability a lifelong profession. and prove this success to myself, as well as to him. And I had the opportunity to do just that.

     A few years after the year of 1974, when I'd graduated from high school, where I majored in Art through my 9th-12th grade, I decided to apply to the Art Institute of Philadelphia for the study of Commercial Art. I'd organized and arranged each paged section to display my artwork by the specific medium I had used.. My hope was to pleasingly attract the eye of my interviewer, and really grab their attention to my art ability. The woman who did, literally seemed to be glancing over my portfolio, shaking her head with a smile all the while. She looked straight up at me from the last page she viewed and said, "You most definitely have what it takes. You're in!" Yes!!! It turned out to be one of the most incredible learning experiences I could ever have expected.

     From there I decided to take a course in the Graphic Art program at the Gloucester County Vocational School in Salem, NJ. Our Art Instructor came up with the brilliant idea of having for the class to participate in a 'Draw a Poster Contest' that would give a drawn description of the courses that GCVS had to offer to the public as a learning profession. She introduced the project to the school's administration for approval, and she, along with them, financially invested monetary funds for the awards. The student who came up with the most creative art piece to fully display the best in a graphics design expressing all of the courses the school had to offer, was given the opportunity of winning a 1st Place prize. There was a 2nd and 3rd Place prize, as well. Approximately one week after the contest had ended, we were assembled for the announcement of the winners in the cafeteria. One of my classmates pointed out the 1st Place Blue Ribbon on the poster displayed at the further side of our table. It was the poster I'd drawn! I received a scholarship to attend the Hussian School of Art for their Summer Workshop Program, which was also once located in Philadelphia, PA.

    Shortly after my studies I chose to look for a position as a Graphic Artist. There was a small advertisement in the local newspaper's Help Wanted section for such a position with St. John of God Community Services to work with their graphic screen printing shop establishment, known as World Ink. I called to inquire about the position and was given a date for an interview with a portfolio presentation. The interview with the manager went extremely well, and a week later I'd received a call for a second interview to look over my portfolio again. I tried patiently to wait in hearing something back. Two weeks went by without a call, so I finally took the initiative to contact them, and asked if they'd hired anyone for the position as of yet. "We haven't filled the position, yet." The woman spoke. There was a pause, and she asked, "Would you still be interested in filling the position?" And my response was a resounding, "You have no idea of how anxiously I have been in waiting all this time to hear something back. Yes! Of course I would!" She replied quite assuredly, "It's yours, then. When can you start?" Trying to refrain myself from getting overly excited on the other end of the phone, I calmly answered, "As soon as you need me!" This call took place on a Friday, and I was asked to come in to start that coming Monday. I was hired as THE Graphic Artist with the silk-screen printing department of World Ink that produced and shipped custom silk-screen printed design goods, world wide. In fact. My very first freelance project came through World Ink with a British Custom Art Design company who designed original art printed T-shirts and clothing. A silk-screen print company in the England area, to which they worked with on a regular basis, denied them the previous original design pieces for re-print. They were absolutely astonished at how I'd made the cuts in copy of those three particular original pieces. I was told ahead of time, "If you can remake these prints to be an almost exact replica, World Ink will have this and all of our printing business from this time on." I did so, and we had their business just as they'd stated...And me? Well, I made my first $300 over the course of a Christmas holiday break on my first assignment as a Freelance Artist from those three custom art designs. I had  a great appreciation for this open opportunity, and made a good amount of money within less than one week, which was excellent for a commercial job assignment in 1988.