Will the Real Debbie Moser Please Stand Up?

Will the Real Debbie Moser Please Stand Up

https://www.facebook.com/dlbradley

My jewelry instructor and mentor is an onion, a sweet one, but an onion, nonetheless.  You’ll see.

Debbie is quite petite, She has a soft voice and a timid air about her.  Her long salt & pepper hair is pinned up under the ever-present visor.  Her glasses have a slight tint of color. 

But Debbie’s work is exquisite.  In many of her pieces of art, she uses numerous natural elements, frequently has multiple metals, does symmetrical and asymmetrical equally well, planning and re-planning designs until they are “right”, and uses her nimble fingers to caress her creation to her satisfaction. Now peel away layer one.  

After two life-threatening, debilitating accidents.  Debbie has limited vision.  Her visor and tinted glasses protect her eyes from the light.  Threading tiny pearls with thin wire is a task that most of us, particularly “of a certain age”, find challenging.  Because she has lost depth perception, it is even more difficult for this lady, but she manages to accomplish it, often more quickly than those without her disability.

Peeling away another layer,  I discovered that Debbie is an animal lover extraordinaire.  She has had her  yellow-nape parrot, Jo-Jo for 44 years.  This bird is its own story.  Because she got her at Christmas time, the bird knows Christmas carols, and when she covers her cage for the night, Jo-Jo hums “Silent Night” to herself.  And cats…this lady has such a passion and compassion for felines.  One of her kitties lived happily for  27 years with her care and the help of a holistic veterinarian.

In an earlier life, Debbie worked with developmentally disabled students.  I’m sure she was fabulous.  In her jewelry classes, she works patiently with every skill level; many times everyone will be working on a different project, and each gets her individual help. Almost diffidently, she apologizes for not getting to every student first, certainly an impossible undertaking.  I can picture her doing this in an academic setting, with each special needs child needing her “right now.”  

Off with layer three.  While discussing LGBQT issues, Debbie revealed that she had worked for the rights of LGBQT developmentally disabled people in Pennsylvania.  Further peeling of the layers uncovered extensive work for the marginalized and/or underrepresented, long before it was recognized as a critical need. She has worked on many committees in Pennsylvania and Canada concerning issues that dealt with mental health and sexuality issues.  She did staff training in Pennsylvania, New York and Canada concerning sexuality issues and persons with disabilities. She also did group and individual counseling.

Another layer off.  She is imminently qualified to fight for and with a wide range of individuals.  She has master’s degrees in special education, habilitative services, blindness and visual services, orientation and mobility services and a M.Ed in sexuality education and counseling services.  She is a certified rape crisis counselor and is certified to work with sexual predators.  She has worked in all of the above areas.  One of the above-mentioned accidents halted her Ph.D dissertation, or I would be calling her Dr. Moser!

After retirement, Debbie received certification in jewelry repair, jewelry design, and metal-smithing.  She currently has a studio at The Hub on Canal in New Smyrna Beach, FL and teaches jewelry classes there (where I was lucky enough to meet her!). She has received awards in pottery, watercolor, sculpture, and jewelry.  

Still one more layer:  I didn’t know this until two days ago.  My sweet teacher and friend is working on a book entitled The Loves of My Life which will tell the stories of all the cats she has loved, starting with her first love, at age one.

Of course, every individual has layers that don’t appear on the surface.  It takes time and interest, and sometimes a bit of probing, to uncover people’s passions and their history.  I plan to spend a little more effort getting past the top layers of people I associate with, but don’t really know.  I’m just glad I have had the opportunity to spend many hours with, and to get to know, at least partially, Debbie Moser.

Still one more layer:  I didn’t know this until two days ago.  My sweet teacher and friend is working on a book entitled The Loves of My Life which will tell the stories of all the cats she has loved, starting with her first love, at age one.

Of course, every individual has layers that don’t appear on the surface.  It takes time and interest, and sometimes a bit of probing, to uncover people’s passions and their history.  I plan to spend a little more effort getting past the top layers of people I associate with, but don’t really know.  I’m just glad I have had the opportunity to spend many hours with, and to get to know, at least partially, Debbie Moser.

The Truth about My "Collections"

The Truth about My “Collections”

I am a hoarder.

My watercolor teacher and mentor, the fabulous Gail Bokor, told me (when she saw my piles of driftwood and shells and fishing line and scrap lumber and countless found objects)  that you can’t be an artist without being a hoarder.    Yay!!!!  Finally, an excuse.!  I must be an artist!  And truly, to me, almost everything has  potential as some  piece of art…perhaps mixed media, or a wall hanging, or a piece of jewelry. In particular, I find beauty in everything natural I find on the beach.   A shell doesn’t have to be perfect to be spectacular.  Shells that are broken and with barnacles are to be treasured because their imperfections tell the story of their journey in the sea.  One with holes has evidence of its interaction with mollusks that bored into it or with the salt water and  waves crashing into the sandy ocean floor.  Fragments have stories to tell of encounters with harsh elements or tougher opponents.   

The problem is, I will never be able to use all that I have hoarded.  The good news is, I have so much to choose from.  

Now, my husband is a hoarder, too.  Actually, that could be a good thing, because he shouldn’t  complain about my “collections.”    However, I must tell you that his choices of things to keep are not in the same league as mine.  Once I watched him spend two entire days taking  rusty nails out of boards (good) and then sorting and saving  them (what?). He has multiple copies of the same science textbook, moldy from being in the garage, that say, “Someday, man will land on the moon.”  I have no idea how many bicycles we have which “can be fixed.”  

True story.  One Christmas, one of my gifts was to be able to park  my car in our garage.  Finally, the day came!  He pulled my car into the garage.  Then came the words, “ I didn’t tell you that you could get out of the car,” and I couldn’t!   

The rest of the story:  I have to admit that some of his dumpster diving and insane hoarding has had incredible results.  His pumpkin plywood has become a wonderful Cinderella craft cabinet.  He “bits and pieces”d a bicycle storage lean-to.  He delights in finding creative and inexpensive ways to use his hoarded lumber.  He even built bookcases for the  crusty books and the albums he rescued from the trash while at FTU  (which became UCF in 1978).  

In reality, we are quite the pair of “hunters and gatherers.”  Or artists?  

I am SO very glad he’s not blogging about my hoarding habit, because I may have sugar-coated it a bit.  A lot. 

As I think about what I just wrote, I realize how lucky I am.  Another day of counting my blessings, being grateful to and for my husband.  Loving the fact that we have the time and the health to plan and execute those plans for our “objets d’art.”   And rejoicing that we haven’t gotten to the point of being featured on A & E’s “Hoarders.”  Yet.

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