Debra Susan Gross
Biography
Debra Gross is an artist who lives in Plano, Texas.  She is passionate about painting and drawing and education.  Debra is currently a Graduate Student at Texas Woman's University, studying for a Master of Arts in Teaching with a certification in Early Childhood to Grade 12 Art Education.  She hopes to graduate in December 2009.
Debra grew up in Massachusetts and has been involved with the visual and performing arts all of her life.  Debra began drawing while in pre-school and her first art teacher was her Mother, herself an avid artist, singer, and actress, who taught her to draw and work with various media.  Debra started dance lessons at age five, studying ballet, tap, jazz, and baton.  She performed on television and on stage and was part of a Mother/Daughter dance team for a number of years.  She also competed and won medals in baton twirling. At age twelve, Debra took up guitar and voice, and has been playing guitar and studying vocal performance ever since.
Debra received a Bachelor of Science in Fashion Merchandising from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1979.  In 1990, Debra returned to university to study Painting and Drawing. She completed all coursework necessary for admission to the Master of Fine Arts Program at Texas Woman's University.  She attended TWU from 1993 to 1996 as a post-baccalaureate and Graduate Student.
Debra began selling her work professionally in 2002 and has sold her paintings primarily through gallery representation and juried art festivals. She derives much of her subject matter from her travels to Europe and has been visiting Florence, Italy almost annually since 1992.  She enjoys sketching both indoors and out, and her paintings express her love of the language, lifestyle, people, and architecture of this special place.