Manager Emeritus Beginners Workshop
Previous Owner of PhotoImpact International
Honourary Member of PhotoImpact International
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Jersey - Channel Islands. Photo: ©Debisty Designs.
t could be said that DEBBIE HARDISTY was doomed
to a creative lifestyle. Her father was a tatoo artist in London,
her mother paints in watercolors and oils, and her older brother
is a professional sand sculptor! She has not failed to live up
to those expectations. Always influenced by her beloved Jersey,
Channel Islands, UK,
she pursues art in several different forms.
ebbie got her start in PhotoImpact when she joined
the group PI Newbies and soon found herself one of the first moderators
-- and found herself a new best friend, an ocean apart, in Deb DeHaven, the founder of Newbies.
Later she joined Deb at the "next step" group, PING (PI Newbies
Graduates) as a moderator. She has been a member of the Ulead
PhotoImpact Beta team. When the PIRC board opened, she was there
and has been an active participant ever since as a member and
as moderator of various forums, and most recently as the Queen
Bee.
he original PIRC bulletin board was given a new
name and a facelift in 2005 when she took over the ownership and
management. PhotoImpact
International Bulletin Board, known to its friends and admirers
as PI-I, was born. The theme "Where friends connect by a common
thread" illustrates Debbie's emphasis that friends from all over
the world with different backgrounds and cultures, joining together
to learn from each other about computer graphics in PI, are really
learning that it truly is a small world and we are more alike
than different.
hen MaryLou White first had the idea for the Beginner's
Workshop, Debbie was the one she turned to to get the project
off the ground. She was also its first manager and now holds the
title Manager Emeritus. The two labored for months on the concept,
and in December of 2002 it was nearly ready. They recruited the
first set of mentors and by February of 2003 the BW was ready
for prime time. By November 2006, nearly 500 members had graduated
the free course.
he's won a number of awards for her digital art,
including this one at Ulead, where
her digital painting placed second of over 2,000 entries. A visit
to her website
(which, by the way, she completely hand-codes, will her talents
never end?), with its extensive PI tutorials, hosted tutorials,
and amazing variety of free downloads for the computer-graphic
artist will attest to her generosity and the joy she receives
from helping others. Recently Debbie's gone back to an old love,
painting with acrylics. On her website, she devotes a section
of her Gallery to those real-life paintings. She is also an accomplished
photographer, both film and digital. Her latest challenge is creating
a website for her brother, master sand-sculptor
Simon Smith.
ebbie lives on the island of Jersey with her son
Dylan, whom she home-schools, and her husband Dave.
*************
A personal note:
I've known Debbie since 2000, I think, when I
joined Newbies. Always ready with a friendly note, or to answer
to a PI question that surely she'd heard dozens of times before,
I soon counted her among my online friends. Going through Newbies
and PING, I wondered how I was ever going to give back all I'd
gotten from the PI community.
When MaryLou and Debbie were cooking up Beginner's
Workshop, Debbie invited me to be her Assistant Manager -- and
there was my answer. We worked closely together for two years
before Debbie left BW to pursue her acrylic painting and other
real-life endeavors. We had great times then, as some hilarious
saved e-mails show, puzzling out just how the BW would work, and
revamping the parts that we'd thought were brilliant but in practice
just didn't come off as planned. Not, of course, that there were
many of those :)
Debbie, I wish you well in whatever direction your artistic sense takes you next.
Virginia aka Bear
*************
A personal note:
Debbie is a Special Lady and a great Artist, not
only in digital graphic but real life painting as well. Back in
2005, I was really surprised to see her enrolled in my Fine Art
principles for all Media class at VAA . I said to myself, "what
could I be teaching her", she is such a great artist, thinking
that I could learn more from her myself.
Debbie has worked very hard to be the artist she
is today, getting the knowledge and the techniques to continue
to improve her painting skills, and it reflects in her painting.
She has developed her own style as an artist, there is always
a little something that keeps you in her painting and makes you
want to go back to look at it again. You can view one of her paintings
at the VAA
Student Gallery.
Thanks Debbie for being my friend and best of luck in your future projects.
Norma aka Acadie
*************
The beautiful card below was created for Debbie by Emily and Julie, our Ulead representatives:
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