by Barbara Downs | Sep 21, 2019
In a moment of surprising forethought and planning when I was in high school, I took some drafting classes because I knew I wanted to study art in college, but I also knew that I needed to earn a living. Why not do drafting as my day job? I liked drawing and the...
by Barbara Downs | May 25, 2019
I finished this piece, Nothing But Blue Skies, some time ago, but I was so busy getting it finished and shipped to Venice for the European Cultural Centre’s Biennale show that I neglected to cover it in my blog at all. I’ll make amends now. Like a...
by Barbara Downs | Feb 8, 2018
I have some work in the Take Aways show at Pajaro Valley Arts Gallery right now—I’ve been participating in this show for a few years, and I do a special series for it each year. Because all the pieces for this show are under $300, and the artists are expected to...
by Barbara Downs | Jan 26, 2018
There are plenty of barns in Iceland. And there is plenty of appeal for me in a barn: a long, low, simple building, a blocky shape dropped onto the landscape with little innate beauty. Its utility is not obvious from the outside, and any windows are placed too high...
by Barbara Downs | May 8, 2017
I finished this piece, Making My Own Paradise, a few months ago, but, although I’d taken a lot of in-progress photos, I didn’t post many of them. It was a complex creation and assembly process…it took over a year from start to...
