Artist's Statement

Barbara Hall Blumer 

Artist’s Statement

 

I am interested in providing the viewer with an experience, a work or subject which allows the viewer to visit their own experience or create their own narrative; i.e., storytelling without all of the blanks filled in.

For example, I like to use black and white photography because the viewer has to start to decide what colors things are--- what color is her hair, what color is that shirt, etc.    You have to begin to interact with the image right away. Then I hope you will ontinue to make up your own narrative. 

My work is done when I present the photograph or the painitng.  I leave an artifact for the viewer to choose how to perceive it and what it means to them. 

Overall, I am interested in exploring relationships – to objects, to our collective memory, time, space, to our pasts, our futures, our present, to our physical environment, among each other, with nature.

I use my art and artmaking to connect with the world and people around me, to enrich my life and, I hope, others.

Mostly, I paint in oils and make black and white photographs.  However, I will also write, try something new, and use other media.  For example, I explored painting on my iPad.  And now I am creating paintings with eye make-up and water. 

My work often has people in it.  But it also has a strong sense of light, and rich color, if I am painting.

I like to work on projects, in series, over a period of time, often two or more years, until I have a body of work completed around that issue, need, theme or media.

I tend to think like a book, sequencing the images. Or an album of songs. 

Overall, I am interested in keeping my work grounded by truthfulness, yet loose and fresh, unexpected and memorable. 

     ---Barbara Hall Blumer, April, 2013