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DEBBIE BENT
Debbie Bent is a practising artist living in Hertfordshire, she is a
fellow of the Digswell Arts Trust. She shares the
Fenners building with sixteen other artists each with their own
studio space but sharing both a project and gallery space.
Debbie’s work centres on the connection between the human body
and the natural environment, exploring similarities in cell structure
between them or using the metaphors of nature to explore complex
issues relating to the process of being human. She exhibits
nationally. Debbie has also worked on several commissions for
public and private spaces.
As well as teaching ceramics and sculpture to adults and children,
Debbie also works as a community artist within Hertfordshire.
Ongoing classes are at Courtyard Arts in Hertford but she works
widely with groups from MIND to Vale House addiction centre. She
has recently started work with The Funky Pie Company which works
with music, theatre and visual arts within special needs schools and
plans to run workshops at Fenners building too. She is passionate
about making and nurturing individuals and their ideas.
Debbie continues to train in areas such as working with vulnerable
adults as well pushing the boundaries of her own work. Permanent
sculptures are at The Maynard Galleries in Welwyn Garden City and
Courtyard Arts Centre in Hertford.
dbent2@hotmail.com
www.debbiebent.com
‘Catherine Dreaming’
Porcelain, Celadon Glazed.
Photo: © Debbie Bent
Ebenezer Howard was the founder of Letchworth Garden City and
hewas a dreamer. His dream was to build a community that would
nourish and nurture each other. I find it amazing and heart warming
to think that a man who had great business acumen and hardworking
ideals would choose to use his skills in such an altruistic way in order
to create a better place for others.
I have captured my dreamer here, my daughter Catherine. She is
facing the garden which is in full flower and the sun coming through
the window lights her face. She was 17 when I started this work and
she had already become a junior advisor to Amnesty International.
She has the same community values as Ebenezer Howard and is off to
teach science in Guyana this year. I wait to see what Catherine, my
dreamer, becomes.
My work often explores issues of us within our environment, of our
shared beginnings and connecting history. The medium I use is often
ceramic as it gives me the chance to play, explore, experiment and
change as the journey progresses. There used to be a pottery in
Letchworth called the Iceni Pottery from 1905 to 1914 before war
broke out. There is now a new ceramic studio being constructed at
Fenners which means that there will once again be a space in
Letchworth dedicated to a love of clay.
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