Stockbridge — An exhibit celebrating the artwork of Deb Koffman will be on display at the Norman Rockwell Museum from Saturday, November 8, through June 7.

Koffman was born in Montreal and studied illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design. She settled in Berkshire County in 1988 and opened a gallery in Housatonic in 1993 at 137 Front Street.

“Notice this” by Deb Koffman, 1998. Courtesy of the Norman Rockwell Museum.

Throughout her career, Koffman created several books, including “The Blank Page,” “Drawing Out The Demons,” and “Soul Support.”

“Koffman espouses a central philosophy that makes her tick: emotions, people, experiences, projects; they all need processing,” Hannah Van Sickle wrote in a Berkshire Edge artist profile of Koffman in December 2016. “Koffman’s exposure to the Berkshires was a gateway to a world full of Buddhist teachings, neuro-linguistic programming, and therapeutic modalities, all of which helped her to confront the emotions and feelings that everyone has despite being expressed in different ways. She found these ideas ‘so incredibly interesting [when] nothing had ever interested [her] before.’ In a way, they transformed her entire life.”

From September 2016 to October 2020, Koffman had a recurring feature in The Berkshire Edge titled “SOUL SUPPORT” that included her artwork.

Koffman died in February 2021 at 64 of metastatic breast cancer.

Koffman wrote her own words about her life that were published in her obituary:

I do what I do because I got tired of doing what I was supposed to do – you know, supposed to cry at funerals, laugh at weddings, be hungry at mealtime, sleepy at bedtime. But sometimes I felt like Laughing at funerals and crying at weddings…And sometimes I wasn’t hungry for days…And sometimes I wanted to sleep forever…

I spent the first 31 years of my life living by someone else’s standard of what was “right;” my parents, my boyfriends, schools, professional environments – that didn’t work.

I needed some perspective, I needed to know what was right for me. So, I became an “artist” being dedicated to, and inspired by, discovering what is inherently true for me.

I describe to myself how I feel about the world… so when I forget what I’ve learned I can look at a table I’ve painted or an image I’ve drawn or words I’ve written and it reminds me of what I know, of what is true about the world for me.

When I see what I’ve created it touches my heart. It comes from my heart and miraculously it always touches me again. So, my truth is, I do this for me… Because it makes me feel good…It is my gift to myself, When you see what I’ve done done, and your heart is touched… Then we have exchanged presence…

And there is no greater gift to receive.

Thank you for your presence.

Koffman’s former art space in Housatonic became the Center for Peace Through Culture in 2022, and some of Koffman’s work is still on display throughout the building.

“It’s OK to Pause” is the message that local artist Deb Koffman hung outside her two-story space at 137 Front Street in Housatonic, which is now the location for the Center of Peace Through Culture. Photo by Sheela Clary.

“I think that Deb had a very unique vision that reflects the experiences of a lot of people,” Norman Rockwell Museum Director and CEO Laurie Norton Moffat told The Berkshire Edge. “She had to deal with her own struggles, and she made it quite public that she had some personal challenges, including experiencing depression. She really educated herself in a lot of yoga practices and the Eastern methods of thought. She wanted to remember the many things that she was taught in those methods, which she found to be extremely helpful. And so what she began to do was to use images and words to kind of capture those thoughts and feelings that she had experienced.”

Moffatt said that Koffman’s work crossed mediums, including children’s picture books, signs, posters, and other creative approaches. “I think that her creative approaches all call out to people in their basic humanity,” she said. “In their own way, I think that her artwork is timeless. The issues that she brings forward are just something that will always be relevant. The way she gets at those ideas are quite personal, but are also universal. She comes to all of them with these wonderful light-hearted drawings, and the integration of images and text that I think will remain relevant for a very long time, as long as there are people roaming this planet.”

“In her work, she addresses a lot of the challenges that we all face but may not share with other people, and she gives us the tools to address those challenges through her work,” Norman Rockwell Museum Chief of Curatorial Affairs Russell Lord said. “I think a lot of people have pointed to her work as being inspirational and motivational, and I think it certainly is. But I think that this is only made possible by somebody who is facing their own challenges and figuring out how to address them.”

“Vivation (writing),” no date, by Deb Koffman. Courtesy of the Norman Rockwell Museum.

Koffman said humor is an important aspect in her work because “she wanted other people to sort of absorb a sense of positivity because that would allow them to move forward, rather than get stuck in challenging situations.”

For more information about the exhibit, visit the Norman Rockwell Museum’s website.