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  barbaraBrandel - a multi-media artist  
 
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bio

Recent one person shows include Rancho Linda Vista (“The Caretakers”) and Tucson Jewish Community Center (“Caretakers and Art Makers”), focused on the health of the planet and the connection of the world’s population, and the human desire to create beauty in the world. Some of my artworks have recently been included in national and state-wide touring exhibitions.

Reviews and features of my work have been in: Fiberarts, American Craft, Ornament, Surface Design Journal, Fiberarts Design Book Five, and Fiberarts Design Book 7.  Local media includes KUAT-TV’s Arizona Illustrated, Phoenix Home & Garden in the “Masters of The Southwest” edition, 2005, reviews and features in The Tucson Weekly, The Desert Leaf, Tucson Lifestyle Home and Garden, and Sonoran Arts Network. I have won awards in Tucson Museum of Art’s AZ Biennial in 1993 and 1997; Juror’s Award, Arizona Designer Craftsmen 2005; and a Tucson/Pima Arts Council Fellowship grant in 1995.

Art works are in the collections of the Racine Art Museum, Tucson Country Club, Tohono Chul Park, Tucson Medical Center Foundation, as well as private collections throughout the U.S., and also England, Australia., South Korea, Norway, and The Netherlands.

- Barbara Brandel, Tucson, AZ

 

 

Artist’s Statement

I am a painter and a collage and assemblage artist. Previously, I was I was a fiber artist for 25 years. In each phase of my artworks, I have developed my own ways of working with my materials, and I strive to push boundaries within each genre, while creating beauty.

In my painted collages, I use recycled world postage stamps and maps to create an image. By using stamps and maps from everywhere/anywhere in the world in a figure, the seemingly tattooed bodies suggest that we are all connected.

I am currently working on a series of surreal paintings that are delightful, challenging and mysterious to me. I call the series Fever Dreams.  I plan to continue this series for quite some time. Past paintings pay homage to the anonymous artisans whose skill and care created beautiful objects to use in their lives. Many of those objects are now museum treasures.

When I was a fiber artist, my focus was on wearable pictorial tapestry, in which I used my early graphic arts and drawing skills. Making textiles and tapestry is slow work, and is under-appreciated in our culture. Working in that way opened my eyes and heart to the world’s history of the hand-made object. It only took several hundred years for many of those skills and art forms to disappear from the face of the earth. I considered making art with hand woven cloth to be a noble fight. Even though I love textiles, I plan to keep working as I am now.

 

 

 
         
  © 2023 Barbara Brandel - All rights reserved.