50 Over 50: Make Weird, Not War - Debra Varvi's Restless Energy

At 69, Debra Varvi is working through her dead angels cathedral window series. She's more focused now, more disciplined. And she's still paying bills.

There's an insistent energy in creativity. A restless energy that pushes and prods. It collects light, color, shadow, form, lines, ideas, songs, bits of poetry, imagery, random nonsense. It hoards these things in the back of the mind and plays with them constantly. This energy is only satisfied by doing.

When her hands are manipulating pencils or brushes, or scratching about with a stylus, or pinching daubs of clay, then the energy feels purposeful. Almost restful. She loves the meditative rhythm of color pencils, the spontaneity of watercolors, the electric current of line work, the anticipation of pulling the print off an etched plate. This is where her heart lives.

Her work is more intense now. That's how it's different. There's that insistent energy, that restlessness that won't let up. She's been drawing since she first held a crayon—born in Texas but lived in various states and abroad because her father was an Air Force fighter pilot. She's pursued her arts education through private instruction, workshops, college courses, classes, and artist retreats.

The hardest part about being an artist at this point? Paying bills. But she keeps going anyway.

Her advice to someone who just turned 50 and wants to start making art? Work your process every day, even just a little. Take classes, go to galleries and show openings.

Does she try to keep up with what matters in the art world? Nope.

What does she think artists her age bring to the table that younger artists don't? Experience.

She's got multiple projects coming up—print classes start up again in 3 weeks, teaching opportunities. She's gotta just keep creating. That's what keeps her going when everything feels impossible. You just keep creating.

What does she wish she'd known when she was younger? To involve herself in the art community more.

Debra is curious about the flip side, what's underneath. The strange and unusual, the weird and bizarre delight her. Perhaps if we were all busier making our weird ideas manifest, we'd have less time for conflict and cruelty. Make weird, not war.

Her fascination with folk art led her to an abiding passion for the ancient art of henna adornment. She picked up a book in 1999 about the history and cultures that incorporate henna into their traditions and has been traversing the country, adorning people at festivals and events ever since. She's even traveled the world to teach her own particular style of this ancient art form.

Henna has been her greatest muse and mentor. Inspiring her creativity, introducing her to many different people, places and cultures, affording her an opportunity to use her skills as an artist to make her way in the world. It has informed her fine art endeavors and has thoroughly enriched her work—adding a richness of pattern and a hint of cultural histories to her explorations of visual weirdness that she finds so irresistible.

Debra Varvi is a mixed media artist who has been residing in Riverside, California since 1980. She loves the meditative rhythm of color pencils, the spontaneity of watercolors, the electric current of line work, the anticipation of pulling the print off an etched plate.

At 69, she's working through her dead angels cathedral window series. She's more focused, more disciplined. And that restless energy that pushes and prods? It's only satisfied by doing.

So she keeps doing.

Connect with Debra: Website: debivarvistudio.com Instagram: @debivarvistudio