Artist as Naturalist
Barbara Barrett’s subjects have included cattle, rocks, bones, koi fish, swans, water plants, pigeons, pears, camellias. Straightforward and direct; akin to nature itself; her work portrays the natural world caught elegantly poised, if only for a fleeting instant. Dignified and grand or dark and foreboding, Barrett’s reveals the natural world as if it almost appears to have posed for a formal portrait. Yet within this captured moment, glints life’s steadfast progress and time ever fleeting.
Yet it is not so much the subject of Barrett’s work that is worth noting, but more the labor of disciplined practice and mastery in the making of art that each piece represents. Working with a subject for perhaps years, Barrett’s has refined her technique in drawing, painting and printmaking. Her cattle series spanned five years. Koi Fish series, spanned two years, and a feather series spanned 6 years thereafter. An exquisite mastery of both subject and technique is evident in Mrs. Barrett’s work. Unburned from the search for subject, an instead focused on process and technique; Barrett grasped an opportunity to concentrate on process. Deliberate and thus so developed, her success is evident both in technique mastery and also a deep understanding of her subject.
Drawing in Prismacolor on colored French pastel paper is the most common media Barrett explores. Over much of her career, Barrett produced a remark 52 full-sheet drawings a year, not to mention paintings and other works. Drawing is central to her expression. More expedient than painting, a series of drawings may represent well over several hundred works, and yet may culminate in only one or two paintings. Works in oil, provide a rare yet magnificent glimpse of her well studied subject.
Prismacolor is also a convenient media for Barrett while juggling a family, a career as a teacher, community volunteer and contemporary life’s myriad of distractions. Barrett found drawing to be a medium she could pick up and put down whenever time permitted. Her drawings are finished works.
The relished labor of art making and her ever-increasing clarity in purpose, continue to draw Barrett to the studio. Through years of coordinating hand, eye, material, and passion, her work excels in mastery, elegance of expression, reflects a message atypical of much of the art world today.
Recently a new series began; the subject is now the goddess.
Art as a Life's Journey
Visual artist, Barbara Barrett was born in Fresno, the Agra-business capital of California to John and Oleta Little-Heart Pilakowski. As a tottler growing up in Caliola, California, a residential settlement the employees of Shell Oil; Barrett’s world was alive with the Wild West’s critters. Snakes, scorpions, tarantulas and tumble occupied her interests and were no strangers to anyone’s life in the western San Joaquin valley of California.
As train tracks were laid, and a train station established in Coalinga California, the residence of Caliola all moved; the tiny settlement ceased to exist. In Coalinga, Barrett attended elementary and high school and her parents lived much of their life. Life in Coalinga was very much the pinnacle of small town America. Yet Barrett interests were more keen on exploring the scrub-brush and rolling hills around Coalinga.
Eager to explore beyond her horizons, Barrett headed east to New Jersey to attend St. Elizabeth Covent College. Her interest in art grew during a freshman figure drawing class. But it became clear, a catholic college was not academically appropriate, when her instructor tore out the sketches of masterworks depicting nude figures from her sketchbook.
Returning West, Barrett enrolled in California College of Arts and Crafts (CCAC) in Oakland, California. Here she studied under some of California’s finest artists including, Robert Becktle and Arthur Okamura. Barrett developed a deep passionate for the process of art making. She learned that great art is born through a great understanding of process and discipline. Thus, when Okamura suggested that the subject of her art be what she knew, Barrett found her subject. Drawing on her youth’s passion, the natural world around her, Barrett embarked on a life of disciplined practice and mastery in drawing, painting and print making.
As a professional artist Barrett has enjoyed the patronage of collectors and museums worldwide. Extensive holdings of her work can be found in private enterprises such as the Harris Beef and Harris Ranch Resort collections, California State University, Fresno, the Fresno Art Museum and many private collections. Barrett has undertaken numerous commissions from companies as diverse as Regency Bank, Kaiser Permanente and the Fujico Company in Nagoya, Japan. She has enjoyed solo exhibitions at the Monterey Museum of Art and the Fresno Art Museum and over 40 gallery exhibitions in the major cities of the West. Her exhibitions have been favorably reviewed in California publications including The Fresno Bee and The Monterey Peninsula Herald. She has contributed artwork to social service agencies such as the Ronald McDonald House in Fresno California and to many cultural and social service organization’s fund-raising events. Barrett maintains an active studio commitment and continues to enjoy the interest and support of collectors.
A Career in the Arts
An educator, professional artist and community volunteer for over four decades: Barbara Barrett began a career as an educator in the Peace Corps, teaching in Liberia, Africa along with her husband Robert Barrett. Barrett’s career in teaching extended to the community college, university, high school and primary school levels. Throughout her 30-year career as an educator she has maintained an active studio career as an artist resulting in many gallery and museum exhibitions and the inclusion of her artwork in public and private collections. In addition, Barrett has managed the office of an advertising agency, organized festivals and reorganized the art division of a major California fair. Active in cultural philanthropy, Barrett has served on fund raising and special event committees for museums, art councils and philharmonic orchestras.
Barrett pursued her successful career as an arts educator by committing to the ideal that teaching is an aspirational undertaking. Dedicated to assisting young people to become better-educated people and not necessarily artists, Barrett has developed a cross discipline curriculum that inspires discourse and self-exploration by her students. She strives to inspire students to high levels of achievement by sharing her knowledge of art and history enhanced by her formal education and extensive travel experiences in Europe and Africa. Barrett is particularly dedicated to the standard student. Through a solid curriculum based on art history, hands-on involvement in the learning process and clearly stated standards of achievement for her students she has demonstrated that all young people can be inspired to achieve excellence.
Her colleagues have often recognized her planning abilities and her methods of motivating students. She has organized and taught in-service trainings for municipal governments, schools and museums. This work included the writing and publication of lesson plans and training manuals. She has served on numerous curriculum-planning committees including one co-sponsored by Fresno City College (FCC) and the Fresno Art Musuem that instituted a new approach to teaching art appreciation resulting in the creation of one of the college’s most popular electives. Barrett has also focused on students with special challenges such as foreign students learning English in order to attend college in the United States. Building on her Peace Corps experience and skill at teaching English as a second language Barrett taught art courses at the English Language Institute at California State University-Fresno that enabled students to grow in their language proficiency as well as their knowledge of American culture. She has taught at two California Community Colleges, first at Long Beach City College and later at Fresno City College. In addition she has taught at California State University-Fresno. She holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree and a California Lifetime Primary and Secondary Credential from California College of Arts and Crafts (CCAC), now California Collage of Art (CCA), Oakland, California and a Community College Credential from California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) and a Master’s of Fine Arts Degree from California State University, Fresno (CSUF). She also did undergraduate work at College of St. Elizabeth’s in New Jersey and at University of California, Berkeley ( Cal).
As a consultant, Barrett accepted the challenge of reorganizing the Fresno County Fair’s annual art exhibition from an exhibition of amateurs to a showcase of the best artwork produced in Central California. As the Superintendent of the Big Fresno Fair’s art exhibit she was responsible for the complete renovation of an eighty-year-old program and the training, scheduling and supervision of over 100 volunteers. The City of Lakewood hired Barrett to reconceived the design of the annual city festival, train and assign staff for the festival as well as supervise the cadre of staff and volunteers for the duration of the festival. She has been commissioned to train museum docents on the history of modern and contemporary art through lecture series as well as how to instruct hands-on art experiences for museum visitors from blind students to senior groups. She served as a tour guide and lecturer on trips for museum patrons to Italy, France and New York. Her tour lectures have been as diverse as presentations on ancient mosaic techniques (presented in Ravenna, Italy), fresco painting and Renaissance drawing transfer techniques (presented in Pisa, Italy), as well as a talk on the work and life of Claude Monet in Giverny, France.
For over a decade, on behalf of the Fresno Art Museum, Barrett organized intimate donor dinners and gala events that generated millions of dollars helping to establish the only accredited contemporary art museum in Central California. Experienced and proficient in hospitality she has entertained and observed complex protocols with a great number of personalities such as Torkum Manoogian the 96th Patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Jerusalem, Irving Stone, best selling author, actor Richard Dysart of LA Law; fame and renowned California painter Wayne Thiebaud. Through her friendship with California artists and museum patrons many works of art were contributed to the permanent collection of the Fresno Art Museum. For two years in a row she has assisted the chair of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s annual gala auction that in 2001 raised over $120,000. Additionally Barrett is an active patron of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Autry Museum of Western Heritage and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Her knowledge of and attendance at Los Angeles philanthropic events and her personal acquaintance with many leaders of the Los Angeles business and cultural community contributes to Barrett’s effectiveness as a fund-raiser. Barrett understands that a successful development program is as much about relationship building as it is about soliciting contributions.