Five questions for Debra Fabian

In the 80s, we shared studio space on the top floor of The Fortress Building in Brewer’s Hill. The years roll on and she marries and raises two girls in a grand old Walker’s Point home. Debra Fabian’s life has morphed considerably, but here she is, two decades down the road, the owner of Just Chairs Upholstery. She labors  in the basement of a brick building on S. 1st St.  In my living room is a 70s made-in-Sheboygan chair I found in a dumpster. On the underside was a big wad of gum. Fabian brought the chair back to life.

You’re single again. A mid-life start over.You were trained as an artist. Why are you doing this?

I would say that someone with art training can definitely use their knowledge and skills in many fields outside of their specific discipline. I earned a BFA from MIAD in Sculpture and an MFA from UW-Milwaukee, also in Sculpture, and discovered my background was very helpful when I was faced with re-upholstering, matching patterns, sewing complicated forms, estimating materials, refinishing woodwork and repairing furniture frames.

I recently made a custom guitar case for artist Francisco Mora, using nothing more than a foam core pattern in the shape of half of the guitar. Sculpture taught me to be a 3-dimensional problem solver. I even made costumes for the musical Beauty and the Beast at the Modjeska Youth Theater: Mrs. Potts, Lumiere, Cogsworth, the Dancing Dishes, etc., so a sculpture degree can take a person to many places outside of the traditions of carving and casting.

Art or craft? Do you get drawn into that tired old argument?

All the time. I see works of art that are very well “crafted” and woven baskets that are very sculptural. I interviewed an Oneida basket weaver at Indian Summer for the Oneida newspaper Kalihwisaks (“she looks for news”). Her baskets were so outside the ordinary — using antlers as spokes and reeds as the webbing, they went beyond her craft to become an art form.

Tell me about your Native American background. Have you kept connected to your heritage?

I am a member of the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin. My grandmother was a full-blood Oneida. I looked up to her and learned the Oneida-ways from her as a child because she only lived two houses away. She was “born with the gift” as the medicine clan people say, and taught me to honor plants and animals and my fellow man, and to have compassion and to use the gifts I’ve been given. My father and his brothers grew up being called half-breed, their mother ran away from boarding school three times before she made it to Milwaukee from Flandreau, South Dakota. She was proud of her heritage and loved to gather with her Oneida friends and relatives. I remember, as a small child, sitting under the table as she and her friends did crochet work and quilting and they laughed and laughed…always laughing.

And your current connection to the Oneida Tribe?

I’m a member of the Oneida Arts Board and serve on the Southeastern Oneida Tribal Services (SEOTS)Advisory Board in Milwaukee. It’s a social service program that assists urban Oneida tribal members. In April, I’ll teach a “ribbon shirt” class there.

If you’ve been to my shop lately, you’d see a chair on workhorses, one that is partially taken apart, a stack of 50s vinyl chair cushions on my band saw table, a compressor and spray booth in the corner, rolls of fabric leaning precariously against a horizontal fabric rack which is next to three industrial sewing machines and my first sewing machine (a high school graduation gift), along with rolls of batting, shelves of fabric and books and windows full of plants.

In here, I pull out tacks and staples. In here, I stretch webbing tight-as-a-drum, tie knots that would make a sailor blush, and sew and stretch fabric over all sorts of odd shapes. Studying upholstery for two years at MATC helped me venture out on my own and put me back in touch with the physical, creative part of my being. It started out as a stress reliever but then my spirits began to soar and I harkened back to my MIAD days when I was physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually involved in the process of making something. Sometimes it’s over-the-top challenging, like the woman who wanted her antique settee re-done, using a shower curtain…the craziest job I took on was making five, 12’ tall tents for the Milwaukee Public Theater’s presentation of Spectacolo.

I’ve been on a quest to learn more about tradition Iroquois ways of healing, both physical and spiritual. A Mohawk medicine man inspired me to learn more about both the Oneidas and the Iroquois Confederacy. He says dreams are a very important part of everyday life and that I need to honor the gift the Great Spirit gave me. As I journey to learn more about all this, I meet more and more like-minded thinkers and feel I’m somehow part of a larger picture to keep the culture alive and right the wrongs of the past through education and preservation.