Barbara is a Charlottesville-based self-taught artist whose medium is paper collage. In her work, Barbara draws from a paper collection she has been curating for twenty-five years, from antique bookshops, to estate collections, flea markets and artisan paper makers. Each collage contains carefully chosen papers that highlight various aspects of American history.
How those who have come before us have shaped our present is a common thread throughout Barbara's work. Combining subject matter, along with vintage and one-of-a-kind papers, her most recent pieces rework historic norms into a current narrative that advocates for a deeper understanding of, and a hopeful moving toward, equality. The goal of each collage is for past and present to exist in the same moment, and for the contemplation of these two very different realities.
This most recent work has been inspired by the work being done with incarcerated youth at the art 180 gallery in Richmond, the quilts and quilts of Gee's Bend, and current events.
Orbiting the Sun, 2018
40" x 40"
mixed media on canvas
(available)
How those who have come before us have shaped our present is a common thread throughout Barbara's work. Combining subject matter, along with vintage and one-of-a-kind papers, her most recent pieces rework historic norms into a current narrative that advocates for a deeper understanding of, and a hopeful moving toward, equality. The goal of each collage is for past and present to exist in the same moment, and for the contemplation of these two very different realities.
This most recent work has been inspired by the work being done with incarcerated youth at the art 180 gallery in Richmond, the quilts and quilts of Gee's Bend, and current events.
Orbiting the Sun, 2018
40" x 40"
mixed media on canvas
(available)
