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ABOUT ME

Dameta Skinner (D. Sabor), is a Pittsburgh native who chose to stay in Pittsburgh to pursue her educational and professional career. She received her Bachelors of Fine Arts from Carnegie-Mellon University in 2005 and then furthered her education by obtaining her teaching certification from Carlow University in 2008, her Masters of Educational Administration and Principal Certification in 2018. Currently, she is an Arts Integration Specialist with Pittsburgh Public Schools and the musical instructor of their All-City Arts Hip-Hop Academy program.  With more than 20 years of experience in the visual arts field, she continues to actively produce art and grow professionally.  She has exhibited, sold and donated artwork through-out the city of Pittsburgh. She has developed several art projects in partnership with organizations such as Pittsburgh Public Schools, Hosanna House, Providence Connections, The Hill House, and Youth Places. Her aspiration is to own a gallery and to create a non-profit, multi-discipline, youth arts program.

 

Dameta Skinner is a conceptual, abstract expressionist, and colorist. Her art expresses an open commentary on social, political, and cultural issues. Her work has been influenced greatly by the brushstroke/line use of French painter, Jean DuBuffet, the obsessive intuitive layering of the American painter, Jean-Michel Basquiat, the color/compositions of the American painter, Raymond Saunders and various Mexican muralists. Her visual commentary is drawn from many African-American masters like Allison Saar, Kara James Marshall, Glenn Ligon, Dawoud Bey, Elizabeth Catlett, Howardena Pindell, and Sam Gilliam.

In her visual works she uses a broad range of colors, and a system of layering and distinctive symbols that aesthetically creates an engaging “through line” allowing for multiple interpretations of each piece.  She also uses numbers and text to create her own and unique visual language. Her visual artworks act as a looking glass, providing introspection into social, political, cultural issues. She explores these areas by encapsulating the viewer and guiding them through a journey and transformative process.  By creating visualization that spirits a sense of compassion, empathy, connection, renewal and freedom. Many of these works capture this transcendence into a state of wellness by providing a throughway to the world. Each piece is a patchwork of the soul, and gives introspection similar to diary. It communicates the soul's constant struggle with one’s own perceived ideas regarding these issues, ideologies, and what is actually within. These works act as social commentary that clearly confronts these issues in a stylistic visual language, juxtaposing text, symbols, and forms.

 

The most recent works I have been preparing to create are similar to a visual paradox. They will consist of a system of complex layering that reveals an underlying visual story. My intention is to evoke a mysterious element, a surprise and tension that will for the viewer to step into this visual world. The works I intend to create will be ten mixed-media paintings which display a juxtaposition of text, symbols and figures.

Her most recent work entitled “Piece be steel, Peace be still,” visually explores gun violence and gang activity of inner-city youth.  It creates an analogous dialogue between gang initiation/violence and slave trafficking. This diptych uses symbols to exhibit the ill-effects of violence and the dire need for peace.

 

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In The classroom, Dameta Skinner tries to create a climate where her students feel that learning is fun and meaningful. To achieve this, she attempts to establish a rapport with her students, engage their individual interests, and create and overall culture of learning. Dameta wants her students to engage in the learning process, to understand how they learn and to try to gain a deeper understanding of the content that they are learning.  The lesson plans that she develops integrates art with all discipline areas.  This curriculum fosters innovation through exploration, practice, and application with the hope that students will in-turn develop a fervor for learning that will be an essential element for them to become life-long learners.

 

Instruction goals are as follows:

 

  • Contribute to students’ development as accountable leaders and

        responsible citizens in a global community

  • Develop students’ appreciation and understanding of the performing

       and visual arts

  • Provide a positive learning environment for students as they explore arts education

  • Offer curriculum that meets or exceeds state standards

  • Provide programs that give students opportunities to grow as artists, educators, scholars and arts leaders

  • Create events that enrich the student, school, and community

  • Empower and support the growth of our faculty  as  quality  educators, mentors, artists, scholars and administrators who engage student excellence as part of an artistic, academic, and collaborative process

  • Contribute to students’ development as accountable leaders and responsible citizens in a global community

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