Artist Interview: Deborah Barlow—Boston

Artist Deborah Barlow

Lynette Haggard (LH): Can you share with my readers a little about yourself?
Deborah: I am a painter, culturally curious and a bit of a hermit in my work habits.

LH: Where did you grow up and what (if any) were there any early influences on your work?
Deborah: I spent my childhood in the western half of the U.S., born in Utah and then raised near San Francisco. Now I reside in Brookline, near Boston, with a studio in South Boston.

My cultural heritage did not encourage the visual arts, but it did place high value on hard work. That isn't trivial. I have spent my life grateful for that aspect of my inheritance.

Cartoga
20 x 50”
Mixed media on Stonehenge

detail from Cartoga (above)

LH: Did you receive any formal art training? If yes where and what did you major in?
Deborah: I studied art at a number of different colleges in Utah, France and California. I graduated from University of California at Santa Cruz with a double major in art and literature. Right after college I moved to Manhattan and ended up living there for 10 years.




LH: At what point in your life did you become interested in making art?
Deborah: I loved to make and to draw when I was a child. With 7 children, my mother kept us plied with unlimited paper and pencils. My favorite gift every Christmas was the big deluxe 64 color set of Crayola crayons. The names of the colors still delight me--maize, copper, goldenrod.

As is commonly the case, that form of expression went underground for me during adolescence, a time when illustrative skill becomes more valued. Representation was never my interest, so I shifted my focus during those years onto academic interests, like math and physics.

Kempie 5
10 x 10” (part of a 6 piece matrix)
Mixed media on wood panel

LH: Was there a certain point when you decided you were primarily an artist?
Deborah: As fate would have it, I took my first official art class as a freshman in college. It happened almost on a whim. But in the very first session, everything in my life realigned in an instant. I've never looked back.

Antiblaye
16 x 16 inches
Mixed media on wood panel

LH: Can you describe bit about your work in general?
Deborah: Non-representational, non-political and non tethered to any particular tradition. But the final artifacts are definitely that age old form called paintings.


One young Irish lad who visited a show I had in Beara said to me, "I get what you are up to. You are painting the backside of everything." Good description! There is all that stuff you can't see but you know is there. That's what interests me most and why I find abstraction profoundly evocative.


My materials are constantly changing and range from acrylics, inks, powdered pigments, oils, cold wax, alkyds, metallics and paper to shaving cream and sand. I'll try incorporating just about anything.

LH: What is your current work about? 
Deborah: I'm not so good at analyzing what my work is embodying when I'm in the midst of it. I have better luck looking back on a body of work years later. I've always liked the advice from Louise Bourgeois--do your work, then put it in a warehouse in Long Island City for 20 years. Seems about right.

Barlow's studio at dawn

LH: What is your workspace like? 
Deborah: I've had the same studio for 12 years. It is an isolated spot that is wonderfully messy and where I feel completely at home. One half of my studio is a work space, the other is a gallery. My studio is in South Boston.

LH: Are you involved with any arts groups or communities? 


Deborah: I would have to say no to that question. I'm not a joiner, by nature. In fact I dodge anything that remotely resembles a gaggle of artists or a club.


LH: How do you develop a sense of community with other artists, and how do you support your art colleagues? 
Deborah: As a quasi-hermit, I maintain contact with a select passel of individuals, both in real life and online. I think we mutually inspire, support, provoke and accompany. But it happens mostly one on one and in an informal manner.

In/Out 48 x 54”
Mixed media on canvas

LH: Describe how you work in your studio. How do you get "in a groove" and what inspires you?


Deborah: I hope to be in the studio every day. When I arrive I usually spend some quiet time getting centered. One wise friend advised me to just think about getting comfortable in my skin. I like the simplicity of that thought.


Do you have any web links/site/blog etc. you'd like to share that show your work?

My website is www.deborahbarlow.com

Other work can be seen at:

Zane Bennett Gallery

Lyman-Eyer Gallery

Snap 1, 2 (diptych)
36 x 72"
Mixed media on wood panel

LH: Do you ever get stuck with your work and how do you remedy this?
Deborah: Of course I get stuck. It's an occupational hazard, and I expect it to happen periodically. I have gotten better at taking it in stride, however. It happens. It ends. It happens again. I go to the Stoic on that particular topic.
I wish I had a magic remedy to share, but I don't. Time. That's the only thing that seems to works for me.


LH: Do you have particular habits that you think support your art practice?
Deborah: I'm disciplined about putting the time in, whether things are going well or not. There is a steadiness to my practice, which I have come to believe is important for me.




LH: What are you reading right now?
Deborah: I read a lot, and I write about books and poetry on my blog, Slow Muse (slowmuse.wordpress.com). I usually read about 20 books at the same time. It's an extreme personal passion.


Recent favorites are: Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen; Night Train to Lisbon, by Pascal Mercier; Portraits of the Mind: Visualizing the Brain from Antiquity to the 21st Century, by Carl Schoonover; The Black Swan, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

Seo 3
24 x 48 inches
Mixed media on canvas

Do you have other jobs other than making art?
From time to time I do marketing consulting, primarily for start-ups.


LH: Where would you like to be in 5 years as far as your art making?
Deborah: My goals are simple: Make great art, and find those people who connect with what you do. I am deeply honored and grateful for every show and every sale that comes my way.




LH: Do you have any upcoming shows that you'd like to mention?
I am having two solo shows in 2011—at Zane Bennett Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico opening February 25, and at Lyman-Eyer Gallery in Provincetown Massachusetts opening June 24.


Thank-you, Deborah!