Deirdre Thompson (aka Debra) has been working in London for many years, having studied painting, drawing and architecture at Harrow School of art and printing and illustration at the London Regent Street Polytechnic and Chelsea College of Art. After a long-standing pre-occupation with dancers and performers and the depiction of architectural, landscape and figurative themes, her work has taken on a more personal language. Work has been exhibited at the Royal Academy, Rotunda Gallery, Ansdell Gallery, the Roundhouse, The London Contemporary Dance Centre, Studio Space, Sadlers Wells, Soho Poly Theatre, Candid Gallery, Pleasance Theatre, the Institute Francais, with the London Artists’ Books at the Barbican and the ICA, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Dean Clough, Holden Gallery at Manchester Metropolitan University, BookArt Bookshop, Arnolfini Gallery Bristol, Brookes University, Oxford, and annually with the Small Publishers Fair at Conway Hall.
Painting, life drawing and the History of Art has been taught for Camden Adult Education Institute and general Art in London schools and for Southwark College. Having published, written and illustrated two London guides, other work includes commissioned illustration. An artists’ book ‘Angel City’ was conceived, made and published after completion and exhibiting of one year’s series of etchings in SPACE studio in Clerkenwell. Currently further books of text and image are being made and hand-bound, having had four recent editions acquired by Tate Britain archival library.
The ILLUSTRATED DICTIONARY OF ENDANGERED WORDS. In our digital world, as techno words are fast replacing nature ones, this book is a rallying cry for eighty-five words, with corresponding illustrations, which may well be lost from our childrens’ vocabulary for good. Having been dropped from the Oxford Junior Dictionary in favour of, for example, Blackberry (the smartphone) in place of blackberry the fruit, such words as raven, monarch and blacksmith are all part of our rich heritage to protect. Not being able to recognise and name a thrush, horse-chestnut tree, crocus or porpoise is a disservice for generations to come, making life much poorer for them. It is hoped that in actual book form, these words can be safeguarded for good.