Debbee Lotito

Bio

Debbee Lotito is a self-taught painter based in Detroit, Michigan, whose work blends expressive abstraction with evocative figuration. Her paintings explore the relationship between the human form, nature, and emotion, often incorporating birds and organic elements as symbolic extensions of internal experience.

 

Working intuitively, Lotito begins with layered, gestural marks, building fields of color, texture, and movement before gradually refining form. Figures and natural elements emerge from this process, existing between abstraction and recognition. This balance allows her work to convey both structure and spontaneity, reflecting the tension between control and release.

 

Color plays a central role in her practice, functioning not as decoration but as a visual language of emotion. Through saturated hues, translucency, and contrast, she creates compositions that feel both immediate and deeply personal.

 

Lotito holds a degree in graphic and web design from Schoolcraft College. Her work has been exhibited across the United States in multiple solo and group exhibitions and has been featured in international publications and curated collections. She continues to develop a body of work centered on transformation, vulnerability, and becoming.

 

 

Artist Statement

My work explores the tension between chaos and calm, containment and release. Each painting begins intuitively—through layered marks, color, and gesture—guided by emotion rather than a fixed outcome. From this initial abstraction, I gradually draw out form, allowing figures, birds, and organic elements to emerge from within the surface.

 

I am drawn to these subjects for their symbolic weight. The human form becomes a vessel for internal experience; birds suggest fragility, resilience, and the possibility of escape; organic elements reflect cycles of growth and transformation. Together, they exist in a space between the seen and the felt.

 

Color is central to my process. It functions as a language, like something that expresses what cannot always be spoken. At times it remains embedded within the figure, restrained and quiet. In other moments, it pushes outward, disrupting form and spilling beyond control. These shifts mirror emotional states that move between suppression, rupture, and expansion.

 

My materials—primarily acrylic, watercolor, and mixed media—allow for both immediacy and layering. I embrace unpredictability, building surfaces that hold evidence of their own evolution. Through this process, I seek not to resolve emotion, but to give it form.

 

Ultimately, my work invites viewers to pause and look closer—to engage with the layered space between control and surrender, where something internal begins to surface and transform.

 

Artistic Approach

Lotito’s process begins instinctively: bold, chaotic layers of color laid down swiftly, allowing emotion to guide her palette. Only then does she refine a central subject—birds, botanical, or human forms—through a meditative, detail-driven layering of realism atop abstraction. This rhythmic transition from chaos to calm exemplifies her unique method. Her work often features translucent washes, organic shapes, and intensity of texture, engaging viewers in a vivid, imaginative conversation.

 

Media & Materials

Employing acrylics, watercolors, pencils, ink, and pastels, Lotito prefers acrylics and watercolor for their fast-drying, intuitive adaptability. These allow her to work with immediacy and spontaneity, enriching both the texture and emotional energy of her pieces.

 

Inspiration & Influences

She draws creative impulses from celebrated artists such as Salvador Dalí, Frida Kahlo, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, and Jackson Pollock. However, she is equally inspired by emerging and unknown artists—whose raw energy and creative spirit invigorate her own work.

 

Education & Exhibitions

Lotito holds a degree in graphic and web design from Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Michigan. Her artwork has been exhibited widely across the United States and featured internationally. Between 2010 and 2021, she presented five solo exhibitions and participated in 45 group shows, predominantly in Detroit but also reaching audiences in New York and California.

 

Notable Solo Exhibitions 

Include:

  • 2015 – Paintings, Artifact Gallery, New York, NY

  • 2017 – The Fantastical Realm of (My) Imagination, Studio 8700, Oak Park, MI

  • 2018 – Unfinished: Existing On Its Own, Studio 8700, Oak Park, MI

  • 2019 – Flora and Fauna, Hortulus Gardens, Lathrup Village, MI

  • 2019 – Avant Garden, Studio 8700, Oak Park, MI

 
Publications & Media Recognition
Lotito’s work has been featured in numerous publications, including:

 

  • This Is A Test, The Sketchbook Project (Brooklyn Art Library, 2021)

  • Curatorial Volume 2: Leaders in Contemporary Art, Capsules Book (Melbourne, Australia)

  • House & Garden Magazine – The Art Edit (Jan 2019)

  • Women In Art278 Magazine (Jan 2018)

  • Contemporary Art Curator (Jan 2018)

  • Hidden Treasures Art Magazine Yearbook, Vol. II (Aug 2014)

  • International Contemporary Artist Book, Vol. VII (May 2014)

 
 

 

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