Artist’s Statement
I have one window in my studio. It faces towards the east. It is a small window pushed to the far corner of my studio. It overlooks the alley and if I lean out far enough I can see some of Fourth Street. Directly across the alley is the brick wall of another warehouse building.
This series of paintings is about the light on the sill of this window.
The light changes very quickly in this space. It moves like a knife falling at about 10:30 in the morning. From direct bright sunlight it becomes a muted diffused light which, strangely, illuminates objects more strongly. Things glare less and radiate more.
My experience of painting in this space is also one of change. Quickly the work can move from strength to slackness. One minute being full of spirit and light and the next being wrong and stiff. These paintings will slip away from me and become foreign objects... images unconnected to me, deplorable in clumsiness.
I have learned then to return to the physical object and its occupying of space. This will call back the beauty. Those objects There in That space on That windowsill being stroked and filled by That light and then there is the dark wonder of the shadows and the glory of the air around about. The beauty of the light singing along the side of the jar and the hope of the kiss, the kiss of my sight translated into paint.
I want to let myself love this life, this time passing, this light falling, my heart beating. I want the world shown to me again in a new way.
This is why I paint the light on the windowsill of my studio in Lowertown; because it is scarce and because I am alive.
Barbara Lea
October 2001
Barbara Angelina Lea
| Education: |
|
1987-1991
1974-1979 |
MINNEAPOLIS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN
B.F.A., in Painting and Drawing ST. STEPHEN’S UNIVERISTY |
Minneapolis, MN
St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada |
| One-Person Exhibitions: |
|
February 2002
March 1999 |
Gage Art Gallery,
Augsberg College Groveland Gallery Annex, “If Light Had a Tongue” |
Minneapolis, MN
Minneapolis, MN |
| Two-Person Exhibitions: |
|
1995, 1993, 1991
|
Gallery Rebolloso
|
Minneapolis, MN
|
| Group Exhibitions: |
|
2000
2000 1998, 1999 1997 1997 1996 1996
1995
1995
1991
1990 & 1989 1989 |
The Soap Factory
“Necessary Differences II”
Normandale Communmity College “Surface Interpreted”
The International Design Center
“New at IDC”
Banfill Locke Center for the Arts
“The Garden Show”
Steensland Art Museum “Intentionally Irregular: Six Divergent Painters”
Acadia Cafe Gallery
“One to One: Paintings from MCAD”
Suzanne Kohn Gallery
“The New Generation”
MCAD Gallery at Calhoun Square
“Vital Signs/Visible Signs” Alumni Exhibition
Katherine Nash Gallery
“Necessary Differences”
Lacey, LaMaster, Larson & Farmer, Inc
Invitational Group Show
Target Corporate Headquarters
“Art in the Workplace”
WARM Gallery
Annual Member’s Show
|
Minneapolis, MN
Bloomington, MN Minneapolis, MN Fridley, MN St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN Minneapolis, MN The International Design Center Minneapolis, MN Minneapolis, MN University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN Minneapolis, MN Minneapolis, MN Minneapolis, MN |
| Awards: |
|
1988-1989
|
Merit Scholarship in Fine Arts
Minneapolis College of Art and Design |
Slide # Title Size (in inches) Medium Date
1 When I was small 30 x 30 Oil on canvas 1998
2 Cyclamen 45 x 48 Oil on canvas 1998
3 Fruit 14 x 19 Oil on canvas 1998
4 Angel Flame 30 x 40 Oil on canvas 1999
5 Pears 30x40 Oil on canvas 1999
6 Blue Hour 40x45 Oil on canvas 1999
7 Peace Lily 45 x 48 Oil on canvas 1999
8 Freesia 24x27 Oil on canvas 1998
9 Double Dog Dare 12 x 12 Oil on canvas 2000
10 108 degreees 14 x 17 Oil on canvas 2000
11 BluePandora 13x11 Oiloncanvas 2000
12 No title 18 x 24 Oil bar on paper 2001
13 No title 18 x 24 Oil bar on paper 2001
14 Self portrait 12 x 18 Charcoal/paper 1999
15 Self portrait 18 x 24 Charcoal/paper 1999
16 Self Portrrait 18 x 24 Charcoal/paper 2000
17 Figure study 24 x 30 Charcoal/paper 2000
18 Figure Stidy 24 x 30 Charcoal/paper 2000