Debbie YATI Garrett is multifaceted artist, educator and community activist in the Tampa Bay area, known for her contributions to visual arts and community engagement.
Film & Media
Debbie is also an accomplished director, filmmaker, actress and media artist. Her original series, SIMI, has received numerous awards at international film festivals. Her work in independent films includes roles as a director, production designer, and makeup artist, reflecting her ability to move fluidly between creative vision, design, storytelling, and production.
She also created and hosted a DIY craft segment on Studio 10 at 10 Tampa Bay, sharing her creativity and knowledge of the arts with audiences throughout the Tampa Bay region.
Education, Film & Community
As an educator, filmmaker, and community arts leader, Debbie has more than a decade of experience teaching visual arts to youth and young adults. Her educational approach blends traditional fine-art techniques with urban culture, personal expression, and culturally relevant storytelling.
Her commitment to film and the creative community extends beyond her own productions. Debbie has been involved with platforms and events that celebrate, support, and create opportunities for artists and filmmakers, including the Sunshine City Film Festival – Ladies in Film and Entertainment, the Black Art and Film Festival, the Tampa Bay Chalk Art Festival, PDAP Future Festival, The Factory, and Studio@620 within Tampa Bay. In New York the National Black Theatre and Pratt Institute.
Through these experiences, Debbie has helped foster spaces where artists, filmmakers, performers, and creatives can connect, share their work, develop their voices, and reach new audiences. Her work as a curator, coordinator, educator, and creative collaborator reflects her commitment to building community through the arts while amplifying underrepresented voices.
Debbie believes creativity is a powerful tool for learning, self-discovery, communication, and community transformation. Whether she is teaching a traditional art technique, supporting a film production, working behind the scenes in theatre, curating an exhibition, or facilitating a creative healing experience, she creates opportunities for exploration, collaboration, and meaningful connection.
She currently serves as an instructor and is a founding member of the Pinellas Diaspora Arts Project, continuing her dedication to cultural preservation, artistic collaboration, education, film, and community engagement.
Art, Healing & Creative Wellness
Debbie’s multidisciplinary practice has evolved to include the intentional intersection of art and healing. As a Healing Touch Level 3 Practitioner, she incorporates energy-based practices into experiences designed to support grounding, presence, balance, and creative flow.
Her work draws upon Neurotrophic, a creative method developed by psychologist Pavel Piskarev in 2014, which uses intuitive lines, curves, shapes, and color as tools for creative exploration and personal reflection. Debbie combines neurographic drawing and painting with grounding and centering techniques inspired by hara alignment, a Healing Touch practice focused on harmonizing the body's core energy.
Through this unique fusion, Debbie creates experiences that invite participants to slow down, become present, quiet mental chatter, and explore creativity without the pressure of perfection. Her approach encourages participants to engage through intuitive mark-making, color, movement, and mindful awareness—creating space for focus, self-expression, and discovery.
For Debbie, art can be more than something we look at or create. It can become an experience—one that encourages presence, reflection, connection, and healing.
A Creative Life Without Limits
At the heart of Debbie’s work is the belief that creativity has no single language, medium, or path. Her identity as a multipotentiality allows her to move between art, film, education, entrepreneurship, cultural work, and healing while discovering the connections that exist between them.
Whether she is painting, sewing, creating jewelry, directing a film, teaching, curating an exhibition, facilitating a neurographic art experience, or practicing Healing Touch, Debbie approaches each discipline as an opportunity to create, connect, explore, and transform.
Debbie “Yati” Garrett is more than an artist. She is a storyteller, educator, entrepreneur, filmmaker, cultural connector, healer, and creative catalyst dedicated to using art and holistic creative practices to honor culture, encourage healing, inspire self-discovery, and build stronger communities.
Her work reflects a life lived creatively—with the freedom to explore many passions while bringing them together in service of something greater: connection, expression, healing, and transformation.
