Barbara Bose

BARBARA BOSE – ARTIST’S STATEMENT

I love observing the natural world. I discover it more deeply by painting it. I appreciate the ingenious beauty of nature’s intricate packaging and see it as a treasure chest of allegory that we humans are a part of. To me, the process of drawing and painting is a form of worship.

I am a devourer of the mystical and mythological. My oil paintings, which range from a few inches to several feet in dimension, are in the representational realism/surrealism realm. This is because I find it more enchanting and challenging to start with real life forms. My artwork seeks to delve into the depths of the human psyche, weaving together visual archetypes and dream symbolism that speak to our shared experiences through metaphor. Emotions and concepts that transcend cultural boundaries invite you to interpret these pieces with your own meaning as well, and to remember the profound interconnectedness of human experiences with the hidden threads that bind us all.

My work seeks to connect a deeper human experience by reminding the viewer that we are fused to more than just the here and now. We are linked with each other and actually to all that lives and breathes, including who and what came before and all that comes next. Most of my work includes the interplay between the natural world and the human footprint, whether a house in a field, a sleeping gator on a drainpipe, a tree with a face, etc.

Lately, my work has been a form of personal art therapy. Like thousands of other baby boomers in similar unfortunate circumstances, I am processing the incredibly painful throes of being estranged from my own adult children, expressing this hard story on canvas.

I had a rewarding career doing what I loved (creating and communicating), surrounded by people who inspired and appreciated my talent. While I would have loved to have a fine arts degree, I did excel at the school of Fake It Till You Make It, and my skills are almost entirely self-taught.

I started out working in the publishing industry, when the methods of producing art for printing was very much Old School. Nobody knew the digital revolution would swiftly take over, but when it did, I embraced it wholeheartedly. I feel fortunate to have been present right as it began. In the mid-80s I spent all of my money at the time ($4,000) on a Mac SE.

But before that…

I studied painting and printmaking at the Boston Museum School after graduating high school in Stamford, Connecticut in 1972. I had received an early acceptance and loved, loved, loved learning at the Museum School and considered myself as an artist. But the Powers That Were at the time (my parents) decided otherwise, so I spent the next chunk of years putting my artistic talent to work on behalf of a rock band. In so doing, I learned the basics of printing – enough to work at several ad agencies, typesetters and art departments as a freelance or staff designer and illustrator. My actual career break came in 1982 when I was tasked with starting an art department for the Quincy (Mass.) Patriot Ledger and served as the staff illustrator and layout artist.

I loved that job, but after a few years I needed more money, so I moved over to the Boston Herald to design their Sunday Magazine. I also learned how to art direct photography. My first art direction assignment was to direct a photoshoot of a wrestler named Killer Kowalski.

In 1986, after too many Boston winters, I moved to Florida where I was hired as an illustrator and designer for The Palm Beach Post. This was when I bought my little computer which allowed me to move to Miami and modem my work to the Post (the mid 1980s was still very early days for this). I also taught advertising and production at the International Fine Arts College during this era.

In 1988 I was recruited as the Art Director for South Florida Magazine, where I helped usher in their digital production from paste-up. In 1990 I was asked to start up Blockbuster Entertainment’s in-store magazine. I later started up Ocean Drive Magazine and worked as a freelance feature page designer and created special publications for the Miami Herald.

I launched my own design business, BoseArts, in 1991. Sort of a digital pioneer in online publishing, I launched an online travel magazine called Absolutely Florida in 1995, when I had to explain what the internet even was! Besides my own publication, I have designed many websites for clients, including the first website for the Florida State Parks System.

You know the saying “timing is everything?” It’s never a good idea to be too soon with a good idea. 2001 was too soon for my good idea, which was a video site called Florida.TV which I launched just as the trade center towers fell.

From that experience I learned that I enjoyed digital video editing and embarked on creating a documentary about the unintended consequences of industrial food production. Alas, ‘The Real Food Revolution’ also turned out to be too soon for the general public’s appetite.

In 2004, I moved to the DC area where I continued my design business, met my husband and wrote my thriller Tree of Lives, which traces my career path, among other much more compelling plot twists. My husband and I retired from full time work and moved back to Florida about ten years later.

Over the years I have designed thousands of web pages, logos, ads, photos, displays, print pieces, posters, videos, animations, catalogues and more. I have art directed, booked, edited, scouted, managed, (etc.) hundreds of shoots for fashion, food, architecture, locations, and portraits (including many folks more famous than Killer Kowalski. I have literally millions of digital files on CDs, backup drives, in clouds, usb drives and elsewhere. My work has ranged from a few pixels in size to more than a city block long, when I designed stages and electronic graphics for the DC convention stage. It was always interesting and fun. But what I like doing most is paint — like I meant to in the first place.

I have never stopped working, and am now very happily painting in my studio, promoting my book and donating my time creating graphics for charitable organizations. I hope my images and words point out things a viewer may not have noticed before, particularly our relationship with the world and with ourselves.

I think something special happens when feelings are crystalized onto a canvas or a piece of paper or a keyboard – a little spark is born when something is created. A relatable piece of ourselves is made that resonates through others, on and on into the future. But since I will only have your attention for a few seconds, my idea better have something important to say besides looking cool by a couch. My artwork is trying to do that.

I am available for conversation and my work is available for sale.