Biography
Debra Kuzyk lives and works in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia on the unceded, ancestral Mi’kmaq territory of Mi’gma’ki. She creates work about local wildlife and the impacts of disappearing wilderness.
She completed a BED from the University of Saskatchewan, a BFA from NSCAD University, and a one-year residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
Debra and partner Ray Mackie established Lucky Rabbit Pottery studio and gallery in Annapolis Royal in 1999. For 25 years they produced functional and exhibition pieces which featured her depictions of local flora and fauna. She sculpted animal finials, embellished the surfaces of Ray’s pots and ran the gallery. In 2017 she initiated and coordinated Lucky Rabbit & Co., an artists’ collective of studios and gallery which received an Industry Leadership/Supporter Award in 2022 from Atlantic Canada Craft Awards for Excellence.
Lucky Rabbit closed its doors at the end of 2022, and Debra is now working solo. A Creation Grant from Arts Nova Scotia in 2024 enabled her work as artist-in-residence in the Zoology Department at the Museum of Natural History in Halifax. Her involvement with the group “Save Our Old Forests” informs her work and deepens her commitment to wildlife conservation.
Artist’s Statement
I create work about the wildlife around me, and the interconnectedness of life itself. As the climate crisis accelerates, I think about the plants and animals that are cleared from the land as we extract resources, pollute and develop. We destroy forests, wetlands, and beaches causing immense suffering and death. This moment is a threshold for the future of coexistence, health and balance.
Clay comes from the Earth. It is the material of life, the universal matter associated with many creation stories. The tactile quality of wet clay echoes the touch of the earth, malleable and responsive. Vitrified ceramics possess a remarkable durability, with objects from ancient cultures often lasting millennia. However, clay in its fired state is also extremely fragile, and this mirrors the precarious existence of endangered species and ecosystems in our changing world.
Though the topic is important and difficult, at the root of my work is a passion for beauty and a celebration of nature and ceramics.
