Barbara Fisher

I went to visit Barbara Fisher's studio when I was in Asheville this July and found a huge shift going on in her work. Known for her colorful iconographic gridded imagery, the work has moved to a dark, mysterious, atmospheric space with merging marks and forms. It feels like a thinking space on a chalkboard. Have a look:

All are oil, oil stick, charcoal, pastel on birch panel

Tangled Thoughts - 30 x 30

Hubris - 16 x 16

Evidence - 40 x 40

Unwinding - 16 x 16

Barbara lists her Influences: early ones include Van Gogh, Gauguin, Klee.The German Expressionists,  Guston.  New Image painters of the early '80's (Jennifer Bartlett, Susan Rothenberg).
Non artist influences - Carl Jung and other psycho-philosophers. Contemporary physicists - Mario Livio, Brian Green.

She is currently in  Southern Abstraction: A New Look at the Mobile Musuem of Art. In 2013 a solo show is planned for the Hickory Museum of Art, Hickory NC.

For years my artistic language consisted of iconic shapes and symbols, reduced to their simplest forms. I gradually began to break them up into what felt like pieces of images.  Recently they have disintegrated further into fragments of thoughts, gestural marks, and scribbles – hovering in undefined, unrestrained atmospheric spaces.   Switching from canvas to birch panel resulted in a dramatic shift in the work’s physicality. Spontaneous marks provide a history of transformation and change.   The paintings are worked over a long period of time, giving the appearance of old walls that have been written and drawn on for years.

 The history of process and transformation evident in the finished paintings continually reminds the viewer of the inevitability of change and the impermanence inherent in all things.   The wood surfaces are sanded, scribbled on, painted over, wiped off and otherwise distressed.  The essence of my creative inquiry is to dissect and examine again and again my perceptions of truth, reality, and the Self that derive from external sources, turning that experience into a visual record.

The Etiquette of a Studio Visit

Laura Moriarty holding a chunk of wax

Laura Moriarty's new work

Last January (09) I had on my agenda to get myself out of my studio and into other artist's studios. So I slowly began to do some local studio visits. Now, a year later, I am working on a presentation for the Fourth Annual Encaustic Painting Conference in June at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, Mass.
It is called the:

Encaustic Studio
A digital look into artists' studios from around the country. We will be “visiting” artists in their studios and viewing their set up, ventilation, tools, storage, shipping, their creative process and, of course, their work. The next best thing to an actual studio visit!

I have done several studio visits so far with more to come.
In the process, I am learning the etiquette of a studio visit.
It is an interesting dance.


Marybeth Rothman at her thinking desk




MaryBeth Rothman's work on the wall: encaustic /mixed media




My "working" list of Do's and Don'ts:

Don't

Talk about yourself, your work,etc. (at least not too much)
If you don't know what to say, be honest and say you will think about the work and respond later.
If you are not in the mood, don't appreciate the person's work, or aren't interested. Don't go in!!
When you walk in to a person's space filled with their art and say nothing; that says everything and it's not pretty.
Do
plan to look and listen.
spend time.
drink tea (or something).
ask questions.
look at everything, the walls, the drawers, the floor, the work: all are clues to the artist's world.
leave yourself at the door and step into the artist's shoes.

Be sure to check out Joanne Mattera's blog for a great studio visit post.


Pam Farrell's studio wall and floor



Pam Farrell new work : oil on canvas