Tigard artist is inspired by books and nature

Deborah DeWit Marchant has combined words and books with nature in several of her paintings

By Barbara Sherman

The Times, Jan 18, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Jonathan House / The Times

CAPTURING LIBRARY’S ESSENCE — Tigard artist Deborah DeWit Marchant was painting books and nature long before she was commissioned to create a painting for the Tigard Public Library.

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TIGARD – Deborah DeWit Marchant’s historic home is filled with not only her own paintings but also those done by family members going back several generations.

The author, photographer and painter has only to look around her environment for inspiration, and it is especially fitting that a Tigard Public Library committee chose her to do one of two commissioned works being dedicated later this week – for years Marchant has incorporated words and books along with nature in her paintings.

“I was (painting) books before, so this is a wonderful opportunity for me,” Marchant said. “I submitted four different proposals, and the committee ended up choosing the one I was most excited about.”

Soon the public will be able to view Marchant’s vision, called “The Exchange,” which is actually comprised of three panels that are a total of 5 feet tall and 8 feet wide.

The left panel features a quote by Frank Lloyd Wright, “An Idea Is Salvation by Imagination,” and it shows an open book with blank pages floating over a stream with letters forming words coming down from the sky.

The middle panel uses a quote from Aristotle, “All Human Beings, by Nature Desire to Know,” and features a woman and child reading under a tree.

“The tree is one of the linden trees in front of the library,” Marchant said. “And that’s Fanno Creek behind the tree.”

The third panel features the quote, “Books Are the Carriers of Civilization,” by Barbara Tuchman and shows words such as art, knowledge, thought and history spilling out of an upside-down book.

“It shows the pond and area beyond the library,” Marchant said. “All the plants in the paintings are native plants, and the panels sort of incorporate the seasons. One word in both the outside panels is truth.

“This is more colorful than I usually do. I’m trying to show universality and reality and what we experience in the natural world. These show what humankind has done with the experience of the natural world, and books are a depository of all this.”

Marchant dealt with several issues in making the three panels, including the fact that they were created with layers of paint.

“Some had to dry for several days, and I had never done lettering like that before,” she said.

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