Five Questions for Artist Barbara Parker

While artist Barbara Parker was raised in the Seattle area, she and her husband have called the Eastern Shore home for the last thirty years. And during most of that time, she has recorded with her art the unique landscape, light and colors of the Chesapeake Bay region.

Barbara has also hit the exhibition trail over the last several years, with shows at the Kent County Public Library, Chesapeake College Art Show, and more unique places like Easton’s Out of the Fire restaurant.

On The Strand-Triptych by Barbara Parker

The Spy caught up with Barbara last week.

It must have been a major decision to move outside the studio for your art? How can you describe the transition you’ve made?

Painting outside or moving the studio paintings into the landscape isn’t really different, in a way – the abstracts I favor are basically organic responses to my environment, so hanging them in the open really only serves to emphasize that connection.

What is it about the natural world that draws your attention?

I am drawn to three things; depth, movement, and color. Color is relatively easy to capture on canvas – movement is more complicated. Placing both of these elements onto a surface that draws the viewer in – that is the tricky thing. I want to be able (and I want other viewers to be able also) to look beyond the surface of the work and “go in” to the painting. Building that extra dimension into an abstract is often a challenge – but is the heart of the work.

Fall by Barbara Parker

Does your work remain in nature after the exhibition?

I favor painting banners – un-stretched and suspended. I like the kinetics of this format – the way they can be in constant motion. They are not necessarily meant to hang out of doors – but they are designed in such a way that it is not totally out of the question either. They will, however, display out of doors readily.

There seems to be a movement towards environmental art. Do you think your work is part of that movement?

I think it unlikely that my art would be considered “environmental art” on any level. It lacks a couple of critical elements to meet even the most basic definition of that work – although it could be argued that the definition changes almost hourly. These paintings cannot be considered ephemeral – I do a lot of that kind of work with the 365 Project – and they are they not immoveable. Nor do they make a particular political statement about the planet, or the environment. What they are is my response to the multitude of stimuli that surround me. I interpret into the work the movement of the wind, the smell of the locust in bloom, the sound of the geese flying overhead, the play of light on water – and a million other small things that enter my brain through all of my senses.

What would you like your audience to take away from your work?

I want the viewer to find something within the paintings that speaks to their own connection to the natural world. The color of a sunset they once saw, maybe, or the way heat swirls smoke. It is why I paint abstracts – a response to these things is never the same for any two people. But to reach someone on the level of memory or experience is to me the ultimate connection between my hand and their eye.