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<\/a>\u201cNotice this\u201d by Deb Koffman, 1998. Courtesy of the Norman Rockwell Museum.<\/p>\nThroughout her career, Koffman created several books, including \u201cThe Blank Page,\u201d \u201cDrawing Out The Demons,\u201d and \u201cSoul Support.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKoffman espouses a central philosophy that makes her tick: emotions, people, experiences, projects; they all need processing,\u201d Hannah Van Sickle wrote in a Berkshire Edge artist profile of Koffman<\/a> in December 2016. \u201cKoffman\u2019s 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 \u2018so incredibly interesting [when] nothing had ever interested [her] before.\u2019 In a way, they transformed her entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n From September 2016 to October 2020, Koffman had a recurring feature in The Berkshire Edge<\/a> titled \u201cSOUL SUPPORT\u201d that included her artwork.<\/p>\n Koffman died in February 2021 at 64 of metastatic breast cancer.<\/p>\n Koffman wrote her own words about her life that were published in her obituary:<\/p>\n I do what I do because I got tired of doing what I was supposed to do \u2013 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\u2026And sometimes I wasn\u2019t hungry for days\u2026And sometimes I wanted to sleep forever\u2026<\/p>\n I spent the first 31 years of my life living by someone else\u2019s standard of what was \u201cright;\u201d my parents, my boyfriends, schools, professional environments \u2013 that didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n I needed some perspective, I needed to know what was right for me. So, I became an \u201cartist\u201d being dedicated to, and inspired by, discovering what is inherently true for me.<\/p>\n I describe to myself how I feel about the world\u2026 so when I forget what I\u2019ve learned I can look at a table I\u2019ve painted or an image I\u2019ve drawn or words I\u2019ve written and it reminds me of what I know, of what is true about the world for me.<\/p>\n When I see what I\u2019ve 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\u2026 Because it makes me feel good\u2026It is my gift to myself, When you see what I\u2019ve done done, and your heart is touched\u2026 Then we have exchanged presence\u2026<\/p>\n And there is no greater gift to receive.<\/p>\n Thank you for your presence.<\/p>\n Koffman\u2019s former art space in Housatonic became the Center for Peace Through Culture<\/a> in 2022, and some of Koffman\u2019s work is still on display throughout the building.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that Deb had a very unique vision that reflects the experiences of a lot of people,\u201d Norman Rockwell Museum Director and CEO Laurie Norton Moffat told The Berkshire Edge. \u201cShe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Moffatt said that Koffman\u2019s work crossed mediums, including children\u2019s picture books, signs, posters, and other creative approaches. \u201cI think that her creative approaches all call out to people in their basic humanity,\u201d she said. \u201cIn 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn 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,\u201d Norman Rockwell Museum Chief of Curatorial Affairs Russell Lord said. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>\u201cIt\u2019s OK to Pause\u201d 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.<\/p>\n