Barbara Grad

Lives and works in Wayland, MA, USA

Artist statement

My work explores the evolving realities in our natural world and the forces that threaten its future, reinventing landscape imagery to exist in the present tense. Utilizing photos and sketches of environments at risk, I distort and layer images to weave a human imprint directly into the landscape. While grayscale images often serve as the catalyst for my color visualization the resulting personal translation evolves into a space that feels simultaneously unknown and familiar. I recently expanded my practice to include unique woodblock prints that utilize similar layering methods. Within this process, elements are buried while others surface, mirroring a world shaped by human activity and climate instability. I work privately in my studio and in a printmaking studio, yet my process remains deeply connected to global experiences and cultural influences. I embrace "messy thinking," I use my hands and get dirty to engage with the physical nature of my materials. To me, painting and printmaking are methods of visualizing ideas- developing complex associations through color, shape and space, rather than traditional storytelling. Ultimately, I seek to present a metamorphosed reality from my imagination, which is further expanded through the viewer's shared experience.

Artwork