Printmaker Debra Riffe of Birmingham wins top award at 2019 Bluff Park Art Show

Printmaker Debra Riffe of Birmingham, Alabama, at left, chats with Becky and Marley Suttle of the Bluff Park community in Hoover, Alabama, at the 2019 Bluff Park Art Show on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2019. Riffe won the top award at the show. (Photo by Jon Anderson)

Reposted from the Hoover Sun
written by Jon Anderson.

Debra Riffe, a printmaker from Birmingham, won the top award at the 2019 Bluff Park Art Show on Saturday, out of the 140 artists who participated this year.

Riffe’s winning piece, which now goes into the Bluff Park Art Association’s permanent collection, shows a person with the bottom half of their face obscured by a design.

She said she created the black-and-white image, which she calls “st. clair,” in May after teaching an 18-week printmaking class at the state’s St. Clair Correctional Facility in Springville.

It demonstrates her feeling of what life was like for the men in the prison, she said.

“It’s like nobody is listening, nobody hears anyone talking,” Riffe said. “In that facility, you don’t have a voice. … It just affected me emotionally.”

This was Riffe’s second time to win the top award at the Bluff Park Art Show. She also won in 2012.

Riffe is a native of Tupelo, Mississippi and earned her bachelor’s degree from Howard University’s College of Fine Arts in Washington, D.C. She has been a professional graphic designer and illustrator for more than 30 years.

She previously won a grant from The Cultural Alliance of Birmingham and in August of 2018 partnered with Starbucks Corp. to create a 22-foot-wide mural for one of the company’s coffee shops. Her block prints are on display at numerous places, including the Freedom Rides Museum at the historic Greyhound bus station in Montgomery, Dillard University in New Orleans, Athens State University in Athens, Indian Springs School and Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.

This year, Riffe was one of 10 artists to win awards at the Bluff Park Art show. The artists came from 11 states and used all kinds of mediums, including painting, glass, clay, digital imaging, jewelry, metalwork, photography, woodworking, fiber, sculptures, printmaking and mixed media.

Angie Dodson, who moved to Alabama from Washington, D.C., about a year ago to become the director of the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, served as the judge for this year’s show and said it was the most fun.

“It was my opportunity to get a handle on what’s happening artwise in Alabama and the Southeast, and this show absolutely delivered on that promise,” Dodson said. “I’ve walked away with a better understanding of who’s doing what and who I need to be paying attention to going forward.”

Greg Waters, president of the Bluff Park Art Association, said everything went really well for the show’s 56th year.

“We had a great turnout. The weather was great, aside from it being scorching hot,” Waters said. “We got a lot of positive feedback from attendees and artists.”

Frank and Barbara Roberta, who live in the Huffman community in Birmingham, said their daughter, who lives in Bluff Park, and others have been telling them about the Bluff Park Art Show for a long time, and they finally decided to come this year.

“We’re glad we did,” Frank Roberta said. “The music is really good, and the food was excellent. Just the whole atmosphere out here is laid back and fun.”

Barbara Roberta said she just likes to look at the art and get ideas. “I may not be able to afford a lot of it, but I like to look and dream,” she said.

Most of the artists had participated in the show before, but for more than 50 of them, it was their first time, Waters said.

The crowd was heavier in the morning and thinned out some in the afternoon, organizers said. In addition to having a chance to browse through and purchase artwork, attendees also listened to music by Ashley Vourlotis in the morning and John Canada in the afternoon.

Children had a chance to do hands-on art activities for $10 per hour, with money going to the Shades Mountain Woman’s Club. Food was available for purchase from City Bowls, Eugene’s Hot Chicken, G.R.’s Smokehouse, Pazzo Pizza, Repicci’s Italian Ice & Gelato, Rooski’s, Bruster’s Ice Cream, Urban Pops and a bake sale by women from Bluff Park United Methodist Church.

Here is the complete list of the awards given out this year, the winners and the type of art for which they won:

$3,500 Bluff Park Art Association Permanent Collection Purchase Award — Debra Riffe of Birmingham, printmaking

$1,750 President’s Award — Charles Pinckney of Athens, Georgia, jewelry

$1,750 Award Honoring Show Judge Angie Dodson — Laurens Cotton of Birmingham, woodworking

$1,500 August A. Moore Memorial Purchase Award — Yuri Ozaki of Huntsville, painting

$1,250 Bluff Park Art Association Board of Directors Award — Paveen Beer Chunhaswasdikul of Gadsden, clay

$500 Hoover Arts Alliance Award — Joseph Frye of Bessemer, sculpture

$500 Hugh and Jackie Dye Award (honoring a new artist) — Joe Frank McKee of Dillsboro, North Carolina, clay

$500 Ronald M. O’Neal Award — Jessica Tuggle of Northport, fiber

$500 Synovus Award — Danielle Tickell of Calera, mixed media

$300 Popular Vote Award — Ahmad Austin of Alabaster, painting