A figurative oil painter based in Louisville, Kentucky, Debra Lott focuses on the female form with a desire to empower women and reflect upon the human experience. She sees her work as a way of recording the world through her own shared experience as a woman, addressing socially conscious themes and expressing deep human values and emotions. Her process of translating photography into painting is not a straightforward “photo-realist” approach but one that is tailored by subjective responses to the photograph and relationship with the model. Focusing on anatomy, lighting, and the textures of fabric and skin, she expresses feelings and sensations in the act of painting, that go beyond simply reproducing a photographic representation.