Photo by Kamp Fender
Artist Debra Riffe rolls ink to show the hand-pressed proofing process in her home studio.
Twenty-year Birmingham resident Debra Riffe keeps a 10-foot-long burlap bag at her home with her, as a reminder of who her great-grandfather was and how picking cotton affected his life and the lives of those around him.
“It’s a really strong story; I love telling it to audiences,” she said.
Riffe, originally from Washington, D.C., lived with her grandparents for some time in high school in Tupelo, Mississippi, before going back to get her bachelor’s degree in fine arts at Howard University.
As she developed her style of art, Riffe wanted to emphasize how much her African-American history and her great-grandfather’s time on a plantation would inform the story of her art.
“You can’t go through life hiding the details of Jim Crow laws,” she said.
Originally, Riffe said she started with needlepoint art.
However, she wanted to be a part of the juried art circuit and other art shows, which requires producing large amounts of work to sell at shows.
So she switched over to a different medium of art that quickly engrossed her: relief block printing.
“It was something I was drawn to immediately,” she said. “I have a strong illustration background that I was able to use my skills in.”
What she also loves, she said, is selling her art at shows and acting as a juried judge. Even though she didn’t sell a single piece at the Kentucky Art Festival that first year, she came back anyways and found people looking for her because of the “unique nature” of relief block printing.
Riffe decided she would only create imagery that spoke to her about her own and other African-American and Southern heritage stories. She spent time traveling and living abroad in places like Colombia, which she said influenced her art.
Photo by Kamp Fender
Riffe reveals a hand-pressed proof in her home studio.
“I was so offended by the buffoonery of people trying to show African-Americans. Most of my work is figurative. I knew the solution was trying to do it myself,” Riffe said.
Her work over the years has continued to be based on storytelling, her experience and the narratives and conversations surrounding race in the South. Every two years, Riffe keeps her focus fresh by taking a new relief block printing workshop somewhere in the U.S.
She said she moved to Birmingham for her children to have a great education, where she found relief block printing as an uncommon and not-well-known art form. Even though it would be easier for her to draw or paint, she enjoys the challenge, attention to detail and meticulous nature of relief block printing.
Riffe’s prints are exhibited in both private and institutional collections in locations across the nation and the state, including locally at Indian Springs School, 16th Street Baptist Church and Canary Gallery on Second Avenue North. Her piece “sassy gal” recently won Best of Show at the 16th Annual Roots and Wings Art Exhibit in Selma, as well as Judge’s Award at the Bluff Park Art Show.
In summer 2018, she was the first African-American female artist to partner with Starbucks as part of the Dannon Project for the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and the Alabama Tourism Department. She designed and painted a 22-foot-long mural at the new Starbucks Community Store in Ensley.
For decades, Riffe has worked in her in-home studio — one that is gradually taking over the extra rooms her children grew out of, she said — each day after her regular job for four to six hours.
At the end of 2018, she decided to retire from her job at the City of Birmingham so that she could challenge herself and see what art she could produce with the additional time and energy. Riffe called it “stepping out of the boat on faith,” where she is transitioning to being a full-time artist.
“If you have an opportunity from 7 p.m. to midnight to invest in yourself, that tired feeling from work goes away and literally disappears. I am so energized about it, … so I said, ‘What would it look like if I work all day?’” Riffe said.
It’s places like the Canary Gallery, she said, that make her thankful for Birmingham. Gallery owner, artist and longtime friend Libby Pantazis has displayed Riffe’s art since the gallery opened in 2015.
“She knows her artists, and she promotes her artists,” Riffe said, adding that she loves that it’s a professional art gallery with a family-supported atmosphere.
In the year to come, Riffe is excited to have time to make newer pieces for the Canary Gallery to display every couple of months.
“I’m already developing my 2019 calendar,” she said.
During her retirement, she also plans to revamp her website and continue showing her work at galleries, as well as continue teaching relief printing around the South.
