Born in 1949 and raised in the Bay Area, Deborah K. Tash brings together poetry and visual art in ways that blur boundaries between the seen and unseen. Her work is shaped by her roots—Mexican on her mother’s side, Celtic on her father’s—and by a lifelong love for texture, symbolism, and layered meaning. Tash doesn’t just make art; she builds bridges. Between cultures, between the human and the natural, and between reality and the otherworldly. The term “Mestiza” is central to how she moves through the world and her work, not just as a cultural identity but as a lens. In both her poems and paintings, she draws from myth, ritual, and dream logic. What results are pieces that invite contemplation, asking us to slow down and sit with beauty, history, and mystery.
Let’s take a closer look at three works that span across her series-based practice.
Totem Series / Water Spirit Voices
Acrylic on paper, this piece is bordered in black, giving the image a sense of containment—like a dream held still for a moment. At first glance, it’s the color that draws you in: the deep blue water, the bright pink waterlilies placed diagonally across the canvas, and the delicate shimmer of air bubbles. But linger a moment, and the spirits emerge.
There are two of them—water spirits with goldfish tails. One swims boldly across the canvas in a golden shimmer, its tail complex and radiant. The other is more reserved: copper-toned, back turned, long black hair flowing behind her. Their presence is not theatrical. They’re quiet, part of the water itself. Two real goldfish move among them, suggesting a kind of kinship.
There’s an unspoken relationship here between myth and biology, playfulness and reverence. It feels like a celebration of feminine energy—fluid, bright, and knowing—without needing to say a word.
Soft Power Series / Dreaming of Roses
This piece doesn’t whisper. It confronts. But it does so gently.
Built from mixed media and collage, Dreaming of Roses centers on a bold vaginal image placed inside a circle—unapologetic, luminous, and framed in softness. Around it swirl roses, pearls, and crystal-like elements. These are not added for prettiness. They act like talismans. Symbols of beauty, fertility, protection, and lineage.
The circle sits on top of a cross-like shape that nods to Native American patterning, glowing against a pink background. The layering is dense: white swirls, metallic orbs, more roses, more pearls. It’s an altar. It’s a dream. It’s a kind of sacred protest.
The piece is part of Tash’s Soft Power series—an exploration of feminine strength that doesn’t rely on dominance or violence. This is strength born from tenderness, from giving life, from holding grief and pleasure in the same hand. The work challenges shame. It asks you to see and not look away.
Discourses With The Moon Series / Raven Feather New Moon
This mixed media collage combines watercolor, copper disks, painted feathers, and symbols that feel half-remembered and half-invented. It centers on an abstract moon—dark, quiet, full of potential. A hand, painted with soft cloud forms, reaches forward. It holds a copper circle, inside of which is a crystal. It looks ceremonial, like a gesture from a ritual you can almost recognize.
Surrounding the moon are metallic disks, rhinestones, and feathers painted in black and copper. The outer edges are bordered with four pairs of pyramids—some in circles, some in squares. There’s a balance between soft elements (the clouds, the watercolor textures) and the hard glint of metal and stone.
This is a work about listening. About what happens when you stop speaking and wait for the moon to speak instead. It’s also about memory—personal, ancestral, cosmic. The feathers might be from ravens, or they might be invented. Either way, they carry weight.
Deborah K. Tash’s art isn’t easy to classify. It’s part ceremony, part dream, part meditation. Her work lives in series because one image isn’t enough. Like a poem that arrives in stanzas over time, her paintings invite return. One viewing isn’t enough. You’ll notice something different the second or third time—an orb, a line of paint, a detail that suddenly clicks.
You can view more of her work on Fine Art America:
👉 fineartamerica.com/profiles/deborah-tash
Tash is still creating, still writing, still exploring what it means to belong to more than one world at once. Her work reminds us that identity isn’t fixed. It moves, like water spirits. It blooms, like roses. And sometimes, when the moon is right, it speaks back.
