Biography
Sometimes life is different than one expects.
Making art for me is a meditation that is constantly moving and evolving, swimming in the currents of life. The media I use depends on where I am.
My life involves three continents In those days artists were to have for the galleries "one voice". I had many voices. Large canvases with quasi abstract interiors became my interest in the 70's. The show in 1982 "Mixed Emotions" for the Women's Center in Cincinnati Ohio. The work moved into more expressive abstraction oil, acrylic, pastels depicting various core issues of women. The paintings were laced with figueration in different media. The show had an attendance of over 3000 individuals. Then there was a death in my life. I relocated to San Francisco I began experimenting with acrylics and air brush for surreal iconographic images for the show in 1984 in California. Large figuerative landscapes in oil moved into my focus. 1992-93 Painted and hand sewn objects, furniture, anything I could paint on became paintings. 1994-1999 The work again was figuerative with emphasis on color and form to create the image. The next ten years 2000-2006, figuerative images dealing with issues such as Mad Cow, Momento Mori, etc. in gouache 2008-2010 I produced paintings using acrylic/polymer resins on canvas or canvas board or masonite that were essentially meditations with fish. Again figueration and abstraction wove in and out in an image that was grounded in a matrix of the unseen and seen worlds. More recently 2011 - 2014 figeration and abstraction themes vary. I am still experimenting with the expressive qualities beyond aesthetics to create a more powerful bridge between viewer and image. I am working on a new body of work now.
Make Art and be well.
Sincerely,
Barbara Thomason
