DeAnn Prosia was born in Chicago at the now closed, historic Edgewater Hospital where white-gloved service attracted celebrities in its golden days and urban artists in its last.  She viewed the city as a large maze with businesses scattered throughout with their own personalized environments.  The shoe shop had massive windows she could easily see into - a cut out of Buster Brown stood with his dog Tige among an array of kid’s shoes.  How odd she thought.  The butcher shop, with its saw-dusted floors that were fun to shuffle through with her new shoes, had cases that could only be seen into on tippy toe. What are they hiding?

The family moved to the Northwest suburbs when DeAnn was four and there she was allowed to wander beyond the boundaries of the backyard. She remembers going to the end of her driveway, looking at the street and thinking, “If I took one more step I could go anywhere in the world.”

Her dedication to learning art came when she was eight years old.  Along with swimming lessons DeAnn was allowed to take one other class offered by the park district that summer.  She chose drawing which happened in the park outside of the pool directly after swim class.  Unprepared, as a child usually is, she showed up at every class in her bathing suit - dripping wet and hair sticking up all over.  She did not mind the stares from the others as she was learning the importance of drawing trees.

Her interest in printmaking came after university when she met a Chicago printmaker, Phillip C. Thompson.  She instantly knew this was the medium she wanted to pursue.  Over the course of three days, he taught her the basics of printmaking and on the fourth day she ordered her first printing press and set it up in her studio apartment.  She’s been creating and selling her etchings since 1990 using her signature style to produce tone with finely drawn cross-hatched lines to create intricate images rich in detail.

DeAnn is active of a number of professional organizations, including the Society of American Graphic Artists (SAGA) where she served as Vice President (2019 – 2021) and then President (2021 – 2023).  Others include the American Women Artists (Master-Signature Member); Allied Artists of America (Elected Member); Audubon Artists (Elected Member); Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Arts Club; Boston Printmakers and the Print Club of Albany (where she was commissioned to produce the 2024 Presentation Print).