|
The Artist with Liberty
#75: "Breaking Through"
Current and Upcoming Shows "Fresh StART"
SCVWS Spring Member Show
March 1-28, 2010
Sunnyvale Art Gallery
251 W. El Camino Real
(near Mathilda Avenue), Sunnyvale
Public Reception
Saturday, March 6, 6-9pm "Celebration of California Life: Water/Nature/People"
Art in the
Council Chambers
The 55+ Program, LGS Education and Recreation
March 4-May 6, 2010
Los Gatos Town Council Chambers
110 East Main Street, Los Gatos
Artist Reception Thursday, March 11
6-8pm in the Council Chambers
Laurie's work is also hanging at the
DMV and Wild
Bird Center, both in Los Gatos.
|
Laurie Barna is a native northern
Californian, who currently resides in the Almaden area of San Jose. As a child, she knew that she had a God-given gift for
drawing and later, took several Art classes in college while pursuing a professional nursing degree. Her first experience
with watercolor came in the fall of 1999, when she took a Los Gatos Recreation Department class. It was love at first brushstroke!
In her second student show in the spring of 2001, her painting of the Arc de Triomphe was selected by her peers
as “Best of Show.” Several of her paintings have garnered her “Artist of the Month” awards by
her Los Gatos Art Association peers and her work has been juried into both LGAA and Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society
member juried shows. “I love the challenge of painting with such a versatile yet exacting medium and creating
that certain ‘glow’ using color and value.” She has participated in numerous group art shows and has
also donated paintings to the Los Gatos Art Museum's annual Touch My HeArt fundraiser and to the Wild Bird Center to motivate
donors to give to the local wildlife education and rehabilitation center.
In 2006, she took the challenge of watercolor
painting "Beyond the Obvious" and began painting the Statue of Liberty as a still life and in series. She discovered
that she is a content painter, and this series has given her an artistic voice to communicate her strong feelings about
Lady Liberty and America. She engages the viewer in a uniquely American dialogue about the nature and experience of liberty,
asking him or her to think...to question...and to remember. There is a strong sense of both personal and national
journey in her series, from Liberty #1: "The Beginning" (2006) to Liberty #101: "Passing the Torch" (2009).
The Liberty Series is complete, even though she STILL has ideas that remain unpainted. Having painted 101 paintings
of the Statue of Liberty, she is now confident in her ability to take any idea and "run with it." "Popular
Art is a celebration of the Image. Great Art is the celebration of an Idea." (Preston Metcalf, Associate Curator
of the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara) This is her Idea--the Liberty Series. Her desire is to make this series
available for public viewing as much as possible. Should you have any suggestions or contact information for future
appropriate public/civic/government venues in which to exhibit this series, please contact her.
|
