Artist Statement

I had to travel a long road before being able to do my art but it has been a journey worth taking. I graduated as a sociologist from the Catholic University in Santiago, Chile. Soon after, I began to work with poor urban and rural communities developing educational and art projects. I realized then that education and art were creative tools to help bring about long lasting social change. Later on, my husband, a native of Prague, and I received our doctoral degree in education from Harvard University. After graduation, we created a nonprofit research center in education, located in Massachusetts. While writing a bilingual multicultural children's books serie in the United States, I illustrated one of my books. This was followed by two publications for which I took hundred of photographs depicting children in pre-school settings. Education, creative writing, illustration and photography triggered my strong desire to do art. Since then, I cannot stop.

I am also an artist member at the Whistler House Museum of Art in Lowell, Massachusetts and I have also exhibited my art work at the Cambridge Art Association ("Pensive", pastel, 12" x 16") the Falmouth Art Center in Massachusetts (four large format oil paintings) and 20 paintings at the Casa Colombo of the Colombo Británico School, Cali, Colombia.

At the present time, we are living in Vienna, Austria, where my husband is directing an international school while I continue doing my art and writing.

I chose oil painting as my main medium but I like to experiment with other media such as pastel, watercolor and egg tempera. I am also beginning to do the human figure on clay and I hope to share some of these sculptures soon.

Painting, photography and sculpture allow me to express feelings and emotions that words sometimes cannot fully capture. I enjoy the silence and solitude of painting, as well as the sharing of emotions and opinions that people express when they view my paintings. My interest is to capture the relationship between people and nature. The main subject of my paintings has been people by the ocean. Cape Ann in Massachusetts has inspired me to portray the silent contemplation of people next to the ocean with their innocence, introspection, range of emotions and dreamy loneliness. I believe in the symbiotic relationship of people among themselves and with Mother Earth and the cosmos. I hope to continue portraying this universal source of unity that seems to be lost on our planet through greediness, violence and disrespect for nature and humanity. If people who view my art can feel an emotional connection to other people and nature, my brushes and pigments have succeeded. 

You can also visit my blog "Art-Moments", mix of my painting, photographs and my writing about themes that inspire me, in: https://nancybarra.blogspot.com.