ARTIST INTERVIEW -- Rose Barron

Continuing our series of interviews with artists who have or are showing at Jack Art Gallery, Chelsea Rhinehart sat down with Rose Barron. To see a selection of Rose's work visit Jack Art Gallery.

When did you first realize you are an artist?

As a child but then again about the age of 30 when I tried other types of work and felt empty. I did try other forms of art though including acting.

Why are you an artist and when did you first become one?

Because I have to be. When I was a small child and had to draw to express everything. My first drawing I remember was done when I was angry and sad that I had crashed out on my swing set.

What is it that inspires you to create your art?

Different things at different times. I am inspired by beauty as well as decay

What famous artists have influenced you, and how?

Dali for his imagination, many Renaissance artists for their richness of colors and sensuality in their paintings, and many conceptual contemporary artists such as Adrain Piper.

What do you do for fun (besides painting and photography)?

I exercise (I bike, I do yoga, I walk and play with my dogs), get together with friends and family. Watch films.

What are you currently working on at this moment?

A film and portrait series about Cabbagetown and its people, a book of my Garden of Delights images, a short screen play.

What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?

Work at your craft in some way everyday. Network.

How did you pick your creative medium?

Painting to be is a Zen form-it relaxes me. Photography I do because I love making images and working with conceptual themes. Film because I’m making moving imagery.

Could you talk about your latest series of paintings and what you are trying to achieve with them?

My last series of paintings are my landscapes. I was trying to achieve a claming Zen like peacefulness while representing locations that had helped me to feel this way without looking pictorial. I also wanted to work in layers as much of my art is.

What are your favorite snacks when you are creating?

Wine and cheese-fancy huh?

What was your first job?

I tried detassling corn in Indiana when I was 16-I lasted one day. My fist job out of college was at a Typographic studio. As an artist.

You mention many of the colors and patterns of your different works are similar. Do your photographs usually inspire your paintings or vice versa?

I don’t think it is the work that inspires the other so much as the textures, the colors and the sensuality of the two. This is coming out through my filming as well.