PAINTING
BARBARA FRIEDMAN
BIO
Barbara A. Friedman is a visual artist whose career has encompassed painting, collage, visual communications, and teaching on the university level. She received her BFA from Parsons School of Design, her MFA from William Paterson University with Honors, where her focus was digital image manipulation and painting. Currently she is a Part Time Associate Teaching Professor at Parsons where she was honored with the Henry Wolf Award for Teaching Excellence. She has also taught at Pratt Manhattan, William Paterson University, and Raritan Valley Community College.
Her work has been exhibited in several venues in the U.S. and in France; is represented by the William Ris Gallery in Jamesport, Long Island, and held in several private collections. Articles regarding her work have been included in Out in New Jersey, La Dépeche (France), Step-by-Step Magazine, and Adobe’s Quick Start Guides.
STATEMENT
The pandemic forced me into my car for diversion and entertainment; it provided a safe environment that allowed for closer observation of my surrounding environment, much of which I had seen but not looked at closely.
The resulting paintings of the farm and rural areas are reflective of these surroundings, an “out of the corner of my eye,” without exactitude; memory, color, and composition are used to create a transportive and memorable experience for the viewer. The current work is a direct response to the land grabs contractors make, destroying the landscape with structures that pay no respect to the natural geography or history of the area. What we lose is far greater than what we gain as the environment and thoughts of conservation are devalued.
