Debi Pendell explores abstract elements of recognizable shapes and symbols, combining materials and processes to examine how visual art and language are interpreted and understood. Her work investigates semiotics, language, and the creation of meaning through the format of landscape painting.

Letters, numbers, mathematical equations, and other forms of notation are used abstractly as elements of value, texture, pattern, and spatial structure rather than as literal information. Trees, birds, circles, and other imagery function similarly as symbolic forms. Through these visual languages, Pendell explores how people “read” images, construct meaning, and connect personal experiences with shared systems of communication.