About the Artist

Deborahmae Broad was born in Newport News, Virginia in 1954. After graduating from Southern Seminary Junior College in Buena Vista, Virginia in 1975 with an Equitaion studies certificate, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia in 1977 and then a Master of Fine arts in Printmaking from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennesee in 1980.

Her father Richard Broad was a strong influence throughout her life. He insisted that she take art lessons as a child instead of riding lessons until her art instructor told him to let her learn to rideand spend time around horses since they were all she seemed to draw. At twelve years of age her father gave her a horse, Joanie, who went to college with Deborahmae . Deborahmae has worked with horses throughout her life. She trained two year old thoroughbreds for Rosalie Plantation in Alexandria Louisiana, worked as an exercise girl at Evangeline Downs in Louisiana and Delaware Park,Delaware, exercised polo ponies in Virginia, reining horses in Pennsylvania and galloped race horses in Fargo North Dakota. 

Richard Broad was responsible for selecting the University of Tennessee for her graduate study, as he insisted that Byron McKeeby was the best printmaker for her to learn from. As a child, her father gave her The Visible Horse toy to satisfy her curiosity about how animals were put together so she would stop bringing home dead animals she found and taking them apart. This taught her to draw animals from the inside out, but it also upset her mother terribly. The Visible Horse was a great gift.

Deborahmae taught Printmaking, Drawing and Bronze casting at Minnesota State University Moorhead ( then Moorhead State University ) from 1982 until 2003 when she retired to be a full time artist. She now takes her work to a small number of juried art airs .

Deborahmae and her husband, Byron, moved  with all their animals to a 240 acre farm above the Wild Rice River near Twin Valley, Minnesota in 2018. The Granary/chicken house studio which was her studio for 23 years was also moved  to the property. They are now farmers! The studio is now a renovated 1895 dairy barn which was moved from the Rourke farm near Lake Park , Minnesota. The 1922 farmhouse they live in was also moved from near Lake Park and the 1897 horse barn came from north of Twin Valley.

Des Moines Storytellers Project

Below is a photo of my studio.