December Artist of the Month – Carol Barber

Biography

Carol Barber has been working as a visual artist for twenty-five years, first as an illustrator and graphic designer and now as an educator and exhibiting artist. She received a B.F.A. from James Madison University in 1992 and a M.F.A. from Radford University in 2000. Winning awards throughout her career, she won an Award of Excellence from the Central Virginia Watercolor Guild Annual Exhibition in 2015. Currently, Carol teaches art classes at The Arts Center in Orange and is a member of BozArt Fine Art Collective in Charlottesville. Her studio is located in a quiet spot in Barboursville, VA  surrounded by land in a conservation easement.


Statement
My artwork develops from a process of manipulating materials in my studio. When I began painting on paper and cutting the paper for collage everything changed. I fell in love with the shapes, colors and compositions that emerged. All the inspiration I needed for my journey into abstraction was on my studio floor. Now my work expresses the balance of chaos and control in both my mind and materials. Compositions of shape and color emerge by reacting to initial gesture lines or swashes of paint on my substrate. I cut or find a scrap of paper or canvas that interacts with the line. Then I compose with other shapes by placing close attention to the negative space between shapes and how one edge of a shape leads to another through the space.  


Follow me on Instagram at carolbarberart

www.carolbarber.com

https://carolbarberart.blogspot.com/