Season One · Deborah Kehoe
The Story Her Canvas Couldn’t Tell
Deb’s Journey
The life behind the brushstrokes
Deborah Kehoe is an artist, designer, and educator whose life changed when her husband, David, survived a motorcycle accident. His chronic pain brought caregiving into the center of their life together.
Her episode follows the search for support, the strain of long-term care, and the place art held through it all.
Before · The change · What came next
Before
Deb had built a life around family, design, teaching, and painting. Creativity was already an important part of who she was before David’s accident changed their everyday life.
The change
David developed Complex Regional Pain Syndrome after the accident, and Deb became his caregiver. She describes years of pain, difficult medication experiences, and a persistent search for a treatment plan that would help him be more present in his own life.
What came next
Deb and David found a different rhythm after further care and changes to his treatment. In the episode, she reflects on the quieter life they rebuilt and on returning to painting as a way to express what words could not hold.
Guest Biography and Resources
Biography shared for Season One.
Deborah is a 7th generation Vermonter, strongly rooted with ancestors dating back to the 1700s.
She has had a life-long interest in the arts since grade school. Deborah graduated with a BFA in Graphic Design and Painting from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
Deborah lives with her husband David and her two dogs Milo and Millie. She has recently retired and has relocated to South Carolina. Her son Nick lives in northern Vermont and her daughter Livia lives in Maine. She spends her time painting, gardening and practicing yoga.
She began her career in 1981, working for some of the most reputable design firms in Boston. Her time was focused on Identity, Branding, Branded Environments, Publication Design and Annual Reports. Her work has won many awards, and has been published in Print, HOW and the AIGA Annual.
Concurrent with her design career, Deborah taught graphic design at many design schools including The Art Institute of Boston, Rhode Island School of Design, and for the past 17 years at Champlain College.
Deborah as an entrepreneur, built a team and led a successful design firm in Vermont for over 30 years. Her client groups were in Education, Healthcare, Software, Retail, Publishing, Banking, Architecture, Engineering, Energy, Product Design and Non-Profit Organizations.
Deborah has a life-long passion of design, painting and teaching. She is an accomplished professional graphic designer and educator with over 40 years of experience. She brings design expertise, design process and design thinking to her students.