Barbara Zaring
Taos, NM
Invention
Chine collé on paper
12” x 12”, 21” x 21” framed
2010
$1500
About
Barbara Zaring is a painter/printmaker who has lived and worked in Taos, New Mexico, for almost 50 years. Her art, which uses multiple layers of translucent paint, is both lyrical and edgy, and uses imagery from her interior world created through decades of meditation practice and dream work. She has been included in seventeen museum exhibits and is published in more than a dozen books. Honors include representing the United States in the Art in the Embassies Program in Zagreb, Croatia, and as Artist-in-Residence at Yosemite National Park, California. Zaring attended the Semester on Contemporary Art, Drew University, Madison, New Jersey, Pratt Printmaking Institute, New York City, the University of New Mexico, Taos, New Mexico, and graduated from DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana, with a degree in Art.
Artist Statement
This work is from the printmaking side of my art life. The other side is painting. Going back and forth in the studio between the two forms suits my Gemini personality and fullfils my need for experimentation. They often inform each other.
I print because I love the look of works on paper, the smell of the inks, and the wildness of layering that can occur when working.
For printing I begin with a plexiglas plate. Then I mix ink or assemble papers, usually printed by me, and begin the process of examining the colors, form, and textures presented to me. I move them around until something”gells”. It is a very loose experience, full of surprise. I work in multiples, usually around eight. Eventually after much over-printing and movement of papers, I then begin to glue them to pre-dampened paper. I put it all through the press so that it appears on one plane. Then I dry them. After they are dry I examine them closely to see if they hold up to my standard.
Printing and painting almost every day, there is time to experiment, make mistakes, take chances and develop my unique perspective. Although my husband and I live in northern New Mexico, we have sailed the seas. This combination of environments, desert/ocean deeply affects my work.
Art from Barbara Zaring in other TAAC exhibitions