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Barbara has been exploring nonobjective abstraction for
more than thirty years. She works in a variety of mediums and techniques, including oil fresco and encaustic painting, as
well as contemporary printmaking techniques of monotype and monoprint.
Her works are both experimental and deliberate
which include geometric ordering, architectural constructions, gestural mark making and seductive surfaces that make time
and place indeterminable. Her repertoire of shapes, symbols and colors give a quietly impulsive feel. During her early college years, while studying sociology and art at the University of South Florida
in Tampa, Florida, she encountered the powerful influence of the 60’s abstract artists. This experience greatly affected
her thinking and her art. Graduating in 1969 with a BA in Sociology, her graduate studies were in studio art and art education
and she earned a secondary art teaching credential. Leaving Tampa in 1973, she began a three-year travel odyssey, working
and studying in Iceland, England and Germany and West Africa. Traveling throughout sub-Saharan West Africa with her husband,
composer/musician Stephen Jay, inner drives and external influences resulted in cultural explorations and the challenges of
survival. An appreciation and excitement of living in exotic places gave her a unique perspective of life, which she considers
to be integral to her art. An emerging direction to her work began.
Upon returning to Florida in 1976, she became
a high school teacher and community college instructor in the arts. During that time, she taught a variety of subjects, including
drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, ceramics and art history. In 1983, she moved to Southern California with her
sons and husband. Continuing to teach and acting as department chair for two additional years, she balanced teaching and creating
art. In 1987, she made the decision to pursue the profession of artist on a full-time basis.
After many years
of working in her home studio, she purchased a Takach etching press with a 40”x72” bed and opened a printmaking/painting
studio in 1990. In late 2004, she and her husband moved to a ranch north of Los Angeles where his recording studio and her
art studio are now located. Because of the inspiration and beauty of the land, they named their ranch, MUSE Ranch. There she
continues to be dedicated to the process of creating works that support spontaneous creative expression, inventing and reinventing
methods of working that fulfill her needs as an artist. Barbara exhibits regularly across the United States in numerous juried
shows, nationally attended art fairs and festivals. Additionally, she has exhibited in museum, gallery, and college venues.
Her work is held in numerous private collections, corporate and permanent city collections and can be currently viewed at
Costello Childs Contemporary Art Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona. For a selected list of past exhibitions, see resume.
resume Barbara Bouman Jay's work is exhibited and collected nationwide.
All content © 2011 Barbara Bouman Jay
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