Debra Lynn Birchell was born in Carlsbad, New Mexico, the third of five kids. Her dad, a BIA teacher, packed the family up when she was five, and moved to a small log cabin in Venetie, a tiny Alaskan Indian village in the remote Brooks Range. Her early years in the wild bush proved to be foundational as she learned trapping, fishing, canoeing, self dependency and a love for the outdoors she would never forget. Here she discovered her artistic talent with pencil on paper, finding that she could draw anything from memory. The Birchells migrated southwest to a larger village,...more
