If you have driven the streets of Goodyear, Arizona, you've probably seen some of Debra Goley's artwork.
Goley is a local artist who is passionate about everyone having the opportunity to create.
Speaking to Goley in her home, she was surrounded by neatly organized cabinets full of art supplies.
The walls were covered with artwork of many mediums, primarily paintings produced by her and her students.
Even walking up to her front door, you can see some of her students' work sitting on the windowsill.
Goley is a freelance artist and private art teacher to students of all ages.
With a degree in architecture, Goley has always loved her creative side.
But when Goley and her husband decided to start a family, she found herself in a difficult position.
At the time, she was working as an architect in Washington DC, but she and her husband didn't want to have children and leave them in someone else's care.
Goley saw this as an opportunity to reinvent herself and decided to become a freelance artist and giving her the freedom to create her own schedule and be home to look after her children.
The artist is well known around the community for her murals.
She has done multiple pieces at the local high school and one at a local elementary school.
Marlin Diller, a retired teacher who had a mural painted by Goley dedicated to him, expressed how meaningful the mural was to him, saying a couple of years beforehand Goley had painted a beautiful Arizona desert scene on the wall, above his classroom door.
"Someday I am going to buy one to put on my wall in my home," Diller said.
Becoming a full-time art teacher has crossed Goley's mind many times, but she has never made the leap because of her love of working with an array of learners of different walks of life.
"I've been teaching the senior citizens, so 60 and over, and that's where the nonprofit comes in, so there's been grants that have been given to our city here in Goodyear and they pay an artist to come give seniors quality of life," Goley said.
She went on to share that one of her current senior students is a World War II veteran and brought in a picture of the White Cliffs of Dover to sketch.
The student shared with Goley how he had been at the cliffs with Winston Churchill.
"I love my seniors because they have stories, they've lived, they're wise," she said.
Older students aren't the only pupils who teach Goley new things.
She also teaches multiple students with Rett Syndrome, a neurological disorder that leads to severe impairments involving speech and motor skills.
Goley said some of the grant money comes from the state and is used to fund the arts for
individuals with special needs.
"The only way I can communicate an art project that I would do with you, that I would do with anyone, is to ask them to choose a color."
Goley explained that the students look at a screen that tracks their eye movements to spell out words or choose colors.
Therapists accompany these students to help Goley better adjust the lessons.
Goley said the most challenging job she ever took on was at a middle school in Avondale that was underperforming and called upon some local artists to help junior high students learn math through art.
Goley took on a class of 50 sixth graders, many of which spoke Spanish as a first language, who didn't know fundamental art skills.
She worked with them on painting a mural.
One of her students had painted a profanity on his block of the mural, she decided to not act immediately and to just address the problem the next day.
When she returned the next day she gave him a piece of paper and simply asked him to redesign the block.
The student drew a beautiful picture on the block, and the school day ended.
But he never returned to the school.
"That was the most challenging project I've ever done, and the most rewarding," Goley said.
The mural is still up at the school.
Goley currently is working on illustrating a children's book for the Honey Foundation- a Goodyear-based nonprofit focused on spreading kindness and encouraging random acts of kindness.
Jaime Clarke, president of the foundation, said of Goley, "She illustrated our children's book for the Honey Foundation, which we keep getting lots of compliments on her work."
