Artist's Statement

Visual art is a special language. Everything in an object created by an artist that sits on a wall or stands on the floor is there to be grasped or seen by the beholder all at once. Words cannot substitute for what is seen and felt at that moment of encounter. Our experience draws upon our memories of form, color, texture, and shape as well as our unique sense of beauty, our personal history, our prior experience, our historical time and our cultural language. A particular mixture is triggered by the artist in each separate piece. The aim is to help someone to see some fragment of the world in a new way, or to stimulate a fresh or renewed sense of beauty, or to share some slice of experience through the work.
Becoming an artist, being able to speak in this language, has been a long-standing goal for me, even though it has taken me some time to come up to it. My mother was an artist, so I lived early on with the materials along with a guide to what was created with them. The necessities of making a living and raising a child took priority over this interest for many years, even though I experimented with making art on and off in different ways at the same time. When I finally retired from the practice of law over ten years ago, I turned to this passion and ran with it. I made my way into printmaking quickly.
Printmaking was a natural fit for me: I love working with my hands and with materials like wood and copper. I like carving into them and using their textures to create my compositions. I enjoy making mixtures of different media and experimenting with new techniques. I like the layering process of printmaking, where the final print is built up from several images one on top of the other, so that there is a sense of density, of complexity and even memory in the simplest print. I draw upon my love of the New Mexican landscape, of plants, stones, weathered bark and trees in my works. I also like to incorporate the textures of fabrics, rope, weathered objects and other items common to my daily life.
I hope to convey my engagement with these materials in each piece, so that anyone looking at a print recognizes the textures, shapes or colors combined with patterns that seem familiar, but transformed. I do not try to reproduce the world in a realistic way, but to suggest, through reduced or essential forms, patterns and elements that are recognizable, a mood, an insight, a glimpse of something beautiful and sometimes, elements of a personal memory or of dreams.
The beauty I search for in making prints is not always pretty, ordered, precise and harmonious, but often savors odd shapes, rough textures, aged surfaces, irregular patterns, and even hardness and decay. It emphasizes the imperfect and welcomes change, taking pleasure in them.
I do all of the work in making my prints. I design and prepare the matrices I use to make images, prepare the paper, do the inking and wiping, and hand-pull the prints on my own press. I try to convey the personal nature of this process into my prints.

---Barbara Shapiro, 2011

Bio and Resume

Barbara Shapiro
Studio C: SCA Contemporary Art
524 Haines N.W.
Albuquerque, N.M. 87102
(505) 821-3692
blshapiro@blshapiro.com

 

Biography:
Born in New York and raised on Long Island, New York . Resident of Albuquerque New Mexico for over 35 years. Former teacher of English literature and former New Mexico lawyer (in private practice-retired).

Education:
William Smith College. B.A. (English)
Harvard University, M.A., Ph.D. (English)
University of New Mexico, J.D. (Law)
University of New Mexico B. F. A. (Printmaking)

Art Education:
Waterless Lithography Workshop, Jeff Sipple, Making Art Safely,Santa Fe, 2011
University of New Mexico, B.F.A. (Studio Art- Printmaking), 2009
Water-based silkscreen workshop, Making Art Safely, Roni Henning, Santa Fe, 2008
Master etching class, New Grounds Print Workshop with Arie Furumoto, 2007
Master etching class, New Grounds Print Workshop with Takahiko Hayashi, 2006
Non-Toxic etching, New Grounds Print Workshop, Regina Held, 2005
Mezzotint workshop, New Grounds Print Workshop, Laurent Scholnyk, 2005
Collage and painting workshop, The Harwood, Holly Roberts, 2005
Photogravure workshop, New Grounds Print Workshop, Regina Held, 2004
Encaustic workshop, The Harwood, Ellen Koment, 2004
Monotype workshop, New Grounds Print Workshop, 2003
Collagraph workshop, New Grounds Print Workshop, 2003  
University of New Mexico School of Architecture, garden and landscape design, 2000-2002

Awards:

B.F.A., Departmental Honors in Studio Art (printmaking), magna cum laude (2009)
Second best art (red ribbon), Albuquerque Go Festival, 2009

Memberships:

Southern Graphics Conference ( 2007-present)
New Grounds Print Workshop ( 2005-2010)

Exhibitions :
Group show, Traveling International Exhibition, Park Fine Art, Albuquerque, Yu-Shin Museum of Art, Harbin, China and Chae-Um CC Gallery, Moo-Jun, Korea, August- October, 2011.
Group Show, Mining the Unconscious, Santa Fe Community Gallery, Santa Fe, June-August, 2011
Group Show, From Here to There, William Platz Gallery, University of Visual Arts, Albuquerque, June 2011
Group Show, the Sublime, the Beautiful and the Picturesque, SCA Contemporary Art, January, 2011.
Group Show, 12x12, The Harwood, December, 2010
Group Show, Pushing the Limits, 105 Art Gallery, November, 2010
Group Show, Impure Abstraction, Flux Contemporary Art, September, 2010
Group Show, International Show, Park Fine Art, New Mexico, Japan and Korea, May-July,2010
Group Show, Thermal Duration, Flux Contemporary Art, June, 2010
Group Show, Earth and Sky, Flux Contemporary Art, May, 2010
Group Show, Graphic Prints, ArtWorld, Chennai, India, April 2010
Group Show, Then and Now, SCA Contemporary Art, Albuquerque, New Mexico, April, 2010
Group Show, Parallel Universe, Flux Contemporary Art, April, 2010
Joint Show (with Janet Shagam), Weathering, The Harwood Art Center, Albuquerque, March 2010
Group Show, In Just Spring, Flux Contemporary, March, 2010
Group Show, B-R-E-A-K-O-U-T, Flux Contemporary, December, 2009
Albuquerque Go Festival, Albuquerque, New Mexico, September, 2009
 Group Show, G.A.R.P.S., Fisher Gallery. Albuquerque. June-July, 2009
 Group Show, Art Santa Fe (with Park Fine Art), Santa Fe, July, 2009
 Solo Show, Mapping Efforts, New Grounds Print Workshop, Albuquerque, April 2009
Solo Show, Journeys to the Interior, John Sommers Gallery, University of New Mexico, March, 2009
Group Show, Seeing the Invisible, Outpost Performance Space, March, 2009
Group Show, Made in New Mexico, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts, Japan and Open Studio, Toronto, Canada, 2009
Group Show, Made in New Mexico, Wolverhampton College, Wolverhampton, England, 2008
Group Show, The Golden Touch, Weyrich Gallery, 2008
Group Show, Made in New Mexico, Proyecto Ace, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2008
Group Show, You are Here, Weinberg Jewish Community Center, Albuquerque, NM, 2008
Group Show, Pressing Objectives, Fisher Gallery, Albuquerque, 2008
Group Show, Imprints, Natural History Museum Café, Albuquerque, April-September, 2008
Group Show, Metamorphosis, New Grounds Gallery, Albuquerque, 2007
Group Show, Imagination and Innovation, Weinberg Jewish Community Campus, Albuquerque, 2007
Group Show, The Feminine Touch, Fisher Gallery, Albuquerque, NM, 2007
Group Show, Exhibition of Prints, Xi’an School of Art, Xi’an, China, 2007 and
Print Exchange, Xi’an School of Art, Xi’an, China, 2007
Group Show, Self-Portraits, New Grounds Gallery, Albuquerque, 2006
Group Show, Two to Tango, New Grounds Gallery, Albuquerque, 2006
Group Show, Bowing to Intuition, Weyrich Gallery, Albuquerque, 2006
Group Show, Work by New Members, New Grounds Print Workshop, Albuquerque, 2006

Collections:

 Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM
Wolverhampton College, Wolverhampton, England
Proyecto Ace, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Representation:

Weyrich Gallery, 2935-D Louisiana NE, Albuquerque
Park Fine Art, First Plaza Galleria, Second Street, Albuquerque