It is our distinct pleasure to announce that Tallahassee, Florida’s Debo Groover of Debortina Studio has been selected as the Featured Artist of the 18th annual Moss Rock Festival (MRF), which will be exploring Art + Design, Nature, Smart Living and more November 4-5, 2023 at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex in Hoover, Alabama.
With this year’s Festival taking a nature programming lead from Alabama Tourism’s “Year of Alabama Birding”, the bird quickly became the obvious choice for the nature muse on MRF’s 2023 featured art and poster. Debo Groover’s mixed media works, many of which showcase birds, are absolutely wonderful, and soared to the top of our search. Their color, texture, and whimsy draw you in, often illustrating a common and joyous story.
Debo’s evolution as an artist has a similar narrative. She started her artistic career at the University of Georgia, getting an MFA in ceramics. After working for many years as a ceramicist, she used her expertise in that medium to fearlessly push boundaries experimenting with new, unfamiliar materials. At that moment of change and innovation in her artistic path, she forged ahead with a unique approach and process to her work, a painting created with polymer clay and acrylics. That kind of ingenuity is very Moss Rock Festival.
With her Debortina Studio partner, Tina Torrance, they have joined forces and synchronized their strengths into a symbiotic partnership that brings Debo’s work out to top shows and into patron art collections around the country. “Debo is the face of the studio, Tina is the voice of the studio.” Although Debo cannot join us in person at the Festival, we look forward to spotlighting her artful connection to nature on our 2023 Festival Poster and Campaign, plus at a special exhibition of her paintings at MRF this Fall.
Read more about Debo Groover and Debortina Studio, get additional insight into the unique artistic process she developed, plus see other pieces she’s created. Visit her MRF Featured Artist page on our website. Then, join us this Fall and see her artwork up close and in person.
Our next big reveal is the 2023 Poster design. Keep a lookout this weekend.