Featured Artists

William Stoehr- Stigma and Survival

William Stoehr's current work focuses on addiction and stigma with its victims, witnesses, and survivors. His art is exhibited internationally at a number of venues including universities, museums, and galleries. 

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William Stoehr wrote of his work: "Stigma suffocates discussion, blocks action, causes pain. I want to use my art to normalize the discussion and to help erase the stigma. My sister OD'd but, maybe to the millions affected, I can be a part of a solution. Stigma is the place to start."

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Dr. Nora Volkow, M.D., Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse for the National Institutes of Health, wrote of Stoehr's work: "The first step toward alleviating stigma is helping people understand that substance use disorders are a medical condition, and not a moral failing. We must encourage people to talk about the disease. We must learn to see people with substance use disorders as human beings just like us and understand that addiction is a disease like hypertension or cancer -something that needs treatment, and compassion."

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To learn more visit William's website: https://www.williamstoehrart.com/stigma

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Debra Keirce

Debra Keirce has a story that is her reason for creating each original oil painting in her Northern Virginia studios. She insists that her stories are just the jumping-off point though. Her hope is that every collector experiences her fine art in a way that allows them to finish or rewrite the stories she starts.

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Debra is an internationally acclaimed and collected master artist. She paints in a classical realism style. Her art ranges from miniature palm sized pieces created under lighted magnifiers, up to four foot tall mantle sized works. Debra's art is in permanent collections of museums in Montana and Tennessee, and corporate collections in Amazon Web Services. She is also represented by four reputable galleries, and three juried societies. She is an active signature member of several art societies.

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Debra's art relates to addiction because as far back as can be traced, five generations at least, both her maternal and paternal relatives have been impacted by severe alcoholism. The disease has shortened lives, broken families apart, and wreaked devastation on the people she holds most dear.

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Much of her art has a story thread about how there is great beauty and joy, even in dark places. Her pub scenes show the reflections and abstract color shapes that decorate walls and countertops that hear the achievements AND the losses of alcoholics daily. Her cocktail glasses hold candy bars or flowers because even though alcoholism is a tough hand to be dealt, people so often rise above the disease and put much beauty and good into the world.

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There is a stigma associated with addiction, and it hampers communication. Debra believes that recovery is hard enough, without the fact that our culture in North America has a deep misunderstanding of it. She has seen firsthand that you don't need childhood trauma to be an alcoholic. You don't choose to be an alcoholic. You can't just say no to drugs and alcohol if you are an alcoholic. There but for the grace of God, you are NOT an alcoholic if you don't understand this in every cell in your being.

Through her art, Keirce conveys experiences. She wants for people to enjoy the beauty with all of their senses. She wants for collectors to feel the emotions, but walk away smiling and hopeful.

To learn more, visit her website at www.DebKArt.com