About Barbara

My artwork took off after our children left home for college.

Suddenly I had the time and space to paint big; something that I had always wanted to do. I unfurled large rolls of canvas in my garden studios in the south of France and Colorado and began to work more loosely, now free to move large quantities of paint using big brushes, rollers and squeegees. The technical drawing skills I had learned at Pratt and the NY School of Design served me wherever I needed to highlight a particular area on the canvas, but they no longer inhibited my expression.

At about that time, we discovered the extent and the secrets of our Jewish heritage. Secret because my parents had survived the Holocaust in Germany. Kept secret because they thought it may happen again and we would remain safe in Australia, better off not knowing our roots and growing up far from Europe.

Captivated by learning Torah and completely engrossed in Jewish education changed the focus of my art. Rather than trying to express the beauty of the external world, I became preoccupied with the wonder and the mystery of my newly discovered spiritual heritage.

My work is a never-ending spiritual quest; from the “Jerusalem the Golden” exhibition, I moved on to “Miracles, Signs and Wonders” and now the current multimedia exhibition at Dallas’ Museum of Biblical Art. “A Celebration of Survival” where I thank those righteous souls who risked their lives to save others and bring us to this day. The invitation to participate with other American artists in the Jerusalem Biennale, together with the recurrent rise of antisemitism and the ongoing political threat to Israel, captured my attention. What can I do? How can my art influence and inspire?

Rabbi Zash’s invitation to exhibit at Philadelphia’s Old City Center for Jewish Art gave me a podium for combining my paintings with performance art. “Spotlight on Joseph” examined Joseph’s story in the context of current news headlines.