Debra Savell Stewart, Unicoi, TN
DEBRA SAVELL STEWART, a native Floridian, inherited her natural, artistic talent from the nationally known artist and art teacher of Panama City, Hazel Byrd, her grandmother. At a very young age, she began formal art training in traditional mediums: oils on canvas, watercolor, pencil, and pen & ink. Savell won her first blue ribbon at age nine, and sold her first piece at ten. Her career began as a graphic designer and art director in the silk screen printing industry. She was the designer & director of wholesale operations for The Surf Hut, which produced & distributed imprinted sportswear to thousands of wholesale accounts across Florida, the Caribbean and worldwide. ‘Debbie Stewart’ is accredited with designing the Surf Hut’s exclusive “look” thru her designs, which exploded with color and trendsetting graphics for Florida resort & souvenir lines, including the world’s first complete lines of SCUBA diving sportswear, water ski sportswear, and the SunFun line for New York Merchantile’s group of upscale department stores, including Gayfer’s, Burdines, Belk’s, McRae’s, Peoples, Whites, Profitts.
Referred to as “an art machine’, she’s designed hundreds of business logos, countless artworks and worked with over 3,000 accounts. Included are CBS, Sarah Palin & the Palin family, Florida Endowment for the Arts, Jimmy Buffett, Mel Tillis, David Allen Coe, Little Feat, Joey McIntire of NKOTB, Ivan Lendle, Jacques Cousteau’s US Diver Company, Native Tan, Panama Jack, Burn-Off/Aloe-Up Corp., Ski Nautique Boats, General Electric, Latitude 29, LaVela, Island WaterSports, Boating Week USA-Miami, Gayfer’s Department Stores. Her art/designs have resulted in corporate identities, brochures, catalogs, posters, magazine ads, signage, billboards, TV & radio. In 1978, cable TV’s WTBS-Atlanta, SPRAY Magazine and the Surf Hut promoted her as “The world’s premier silk-screen artist”. Her work has been in many magazines, including; SportDiver, Skin Diver, Spray, See Magazine, Southern Living, Chevrolet’s Friends, and Playboy. Meaning…millions of people have, either seen, worn or own Debbie Stewart’s artwork!
During the 80’s & 90’s, Savell, also, airbrushed trendy, custom designs on clothing, etc. during the poplar spring break & tourist seasons, in Panama City Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Provincetown-Cape Cod, as well as numerous national art festivals. She has taught airbrush classes at the Fort Lauderdale Cultural Arts Center, and was asked to teach at The Fort Lauderdale Institute of Art. She was commissioned, pro bono, to airbrush the artwork for the centerpiece of the original Provincetown AIDS quilt, part of the National “Quilt Project”, which is in the Smithsonian Museum. Savell’s many works of art are held in private and corporate collections, on all seven continents!
In 1990, Savell was juried into the GSACC (Great Smoky Arts & Crafts Community), in Gatlinburg, TN & opened a studio/gallery. She served on the Advertising/Budget Committee. There, she became a self-taught glass artist, creating original designs in stained & fused glass panels, lamps & jewelry. Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts awarded Savell with several scholarships in metalsmithing. Combinations of sterling, gold, copper and gemstones were added to her fused glass to make intriguing, contemporary jewelry, of which she sold at fine art festivals, as well as in her gallery. She opened a second, small gallery in Charleston, SC & was juried into the Charleston Crafts Co-op with- precious metals jewelry, and recycled metal yard & garden ornaments. She served on the Jury Committee and, on the “Piccolo Spoleto” craft show committee. She designed the award-winning children’s toy “Awesome Arrows”, and the line of whimsical clocks, called “Art Klocks”.
Savell lives in the beautiful Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee, just north of Asheville, NC, the art & craft hub of the south. Complications of breast cancer have kept her from doing what she loves…creating and showing at fine art shows. Her schedule is limited but looks forward to seeing you at her next art show, so stop in and say, “hello”!