Art comes in all shapes and forms. Sometimes it’s already artful, like a sunset splashed with orange, pinks, and gold. Other times it’s art waiting to become realized, like a blank canvas, a gourd sitting in a vegetable garden, or an artificial tree destined for the middle of a Disney theme park.
Deborah Hildinger has experience with all these types of art, and she thinks that’s what makes her the artist she is now.
To be clear, Hildinger said she’s always been an artist. Her mother, who had an art degree, supplied Hildinger with the artistic tools to create, feed her inspiration, and draw—sometimes on herself.
“I always knew I’d go to college and get my art degree,” Hildinger told the Sun. “There was no doubt. There was never anything else.”
Hildinger, who grew up in Florida, moved to Texas and got a master of fine arts degree with a double major in printmaking and painting in 1979. Shortly after, a friend told her Disney was building Epcot Center and looking to hire artists. Hildinger applied, as did her husband, and both were hired and moved back to Florida. The event would be a pivotal one in Hildinger’s life, and she knew it even then.
“Oh, we always knew what we were doing was something really special,” she said. “No one else was doing anything like it.”
She was working in what was called tree fabrication, responsible for painting all of the artificial trees—and other flora and fauna—Disney was putting in its parks. She was even included in a book written about Disney at the time. Hildinger said that back then, no one else was painting fabricated trees and using them in public.
The process meant Hildinger got to use paints and spray guns she would never have had access to otherwise “because Disney uses the very best.” She called the experience one of the greatest learning experiences of her life—not only because of the artistic skills she gained, but also because of the work ethic Disney teaches its employees. That, Hildinger said, is something she’s taken with her throughout her life.
“It was hard work and lots of 60-hour work weeks, but when I look back, I think, ‘That’s what made me the person I am today,’” she said.
While in Florida, Hildinger was administrator of the permanent art collection at Orlando International Airport and responsible for the works produced by such internationally acclaimed artists as Miriam Schapiro, Jacob Lawrence, Duane Hanson, and Dale Chihuly.
After 20 years of living in Florida, Hildinger moved to Santa Maria in 2004 and turned her attention to the California landscape, creating colorful, impressionistic acrylic paintings and digital imagery that focused on personal impressions of friends, family, and places.
Most recently, Hildinger has been delving into three-dimensional art, creating interesting pieces with gourds. She said she gets to use a lot of the same techniques she uses with printmaking, though it’s actually the gourd that “tells” her what it will become.
“I kind of let it talk to me,” she said. “The shape is going to dictate how you’re going to go with it. Gourds are kind of fragile objects, and sometimes they crack, and you have to work with it to do what the gourd needs to have done with it, so you have to be flexible in that way.”
She said she’d long wanted to work with three-dimensional art but tried ceramics and “couldn’t throw.” Eventually, she gave up on the idea of working with a three-dimensional medium—until she saw an article that inspired her.
“When I saw the gourds, I thought, ‘Here is a way to work with ceramic shapes and things that are ready-made—or ready grown—and use that to my advantage,’” Hildinger said.
Her husband, Dean Young, whom she said is an indispensable assistant, helps her.
“He cleans the gourds, cuts them, and does the clear coating,” she explained. “It’s a partnership. It would be so much harder to do this without him.”
Hildinger is currently a library technician in the children’s area of the Santa Maria Public Library and is on the advisory board that selects the library’s monthly exhibits. She’s also involved with the Santa Maria Arts Council and coordinates the National Arts Competition for the city. Hildinger has won awards for her art in printmaking, painting, pastel, digital imagery, and craft mediums. Her work has been exhibited in galleries, museums, and sidewalk art festivals throughout the southeastern United States and California.
Her collection of work from 1988 to the present will hang in her show “Past and Present” at the Town Center Gallery through June 9.
This article appears in May 17-24, 2012.