Barbara Earl Thomas

Barbara Earl Thomas (born 1948) is an American visual artist, writer, and arts administrator based in Seattle.[1]

Barbara Earl Thomas
Barbara Earl Thomas
Born1948
Seattle, United States
NationalityAmerican
EducationUniversity of Washington, University of Grenoble
WebsiteBarbara Earl Thomas

Early life

Thomas, a granddaughter of southern sharecroppers who migrated to the Pacific Northwest in the 1940s. Born in Seattle, WA in 1948, she is among the first generation in her family born outside of Texas and Louisiana.[1][2] The artist recalls being surrounded by family members who constantly made things during her childhood. From the age of eight, she was constantly drawing and painting. She also copied images from newspapers and books, giving the results to her mother.[3]

Education

Thomas received her B.A. from the University of Washington in 1973. After studying at University of Grenoble in France in 1976, she returned to her undergraduate alma mater, completing her Master of Fine Arts degree in 1977.[1] Thomas studied under Jacob Lawrence, Michael Spafford and Norman Lundin while at the University of Washington, noting that they "demonstrated that art was something that you do as your life's work." These two were not only mentors to her but considers them life-long friends.[3][4]

The first in her family to attend college, Thomas began with a vague goal to become a "physical therapist," eventually realizing that a major in art was a possibility.[5]

Career

In addition to working as an artist, Thomas is a writer and arts administrator.[6] Thomas was appointed deputy director of the Northwest African American Museum in 2005, before the museum opened to the public, and moved up to the position of executive director in 2008.[7] Wanting to spend more time on her art, she stepped down from her full-time executive director job in January 201.[8]

Artwork

Thomas works in many mediums, including egg tempera painting, glass, cut paper, linocut and woodblock prints, sculpture, and installation. Her work is intended to tell stories.[6] In addition to her personal history and experiences, has described her work as coming from observations of the things where she lives and from the politics that affect her life.[9] She also sees the process of making artwork as creating order in the universe, or as she noted in 1990, as attempts to exert some control over chaos.[3][9] Thomas's parents drowned in a boating accident in 1998.[1] Even before this tragedy, fishing, long an important family activity, was important in her work.[1] Art Critic Michael Upchuch has described Thomas' iconography as "besieged human figures in loving embrace, crows as trickster-companions-cum-predators, books as capacious homes for the mind to inhabit."[10] Since the late 1990s, her characters, still important in her work, have been increasingly subsumed by landscape, sea, and sky.[1][11][12]

Collections

Thomas' work is in the permanent collections of the Seattle Art Museum, the Tacoma Art Museum, the Whatcom Museum[1] and Washington's State Art Collection.[13] She also created "The Story House" (2009), a public art commission at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington that is part of Washington's State Art Collection.[14][15]

Books

Storm Watch: The Art of Barbara Earl Thomas (published 1998 by University Washington Press)[2]

Selected solo and group exhibits

Awards
  • 1998 & 2000: The Seattle Arts Commissions award for new non-fiction[6]
  • 2013: Mayor's Arts Award, Seattle[6]
  • 2016: Irving and Yvonne Twining Humber Award[15]
  • 2016: Washington State Governor's Arts & Heritage Award [18]

References
  1. "Testimonies: Barbara Earl Thomas", exhibit August 20, 1998 - January 24, 1999 at Seattle Arts Museum as part of Documents Northwest: The PONCHO Series. Includes an essay by Vicky Halper.
  2. "Storm Watch". University of Washington Press. Archived from the original on May 21, 2015. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  3. Rowell, Charles Henry (2004). "An Interview with Barbara Earl Thomas". Callaloo. 27: 735–754. JSTOR 3300841.
  4. Lieberman, Michael. "The Reading Room by Barbara Earl Thomas". Seattle Pi. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  5. "Thomas, Barbara Earl (b. 1948)". historylink.org. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  6. Manitach, Amanda. "Mayor's Arts Award: Barbara Earl Thomas". City Arts Online. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  7. "Northwest African American Museum | Art, History, Culture". naamnw.org. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
  8. Upchurch, Michael. "Barbara Earl Thomas' linocuts blend the surreal with the lyrical". Seattle Times. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  9. Mitchell Museum, Mount Vernon, Illinois: "Talking Back to the Storm: New Figurative Work by Barbara Thomas", 1990.
  10. "Barbara Earl Thomas retrospective looks back at 30 years of artist's inventive works". The Seattle Times. July 6, 2016. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  11. Graves, Jen. "Diet of Worms". The Stranger. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  12. Vozza, Valerie. "Art Zone segments". Seattle Channel. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  13. "Artworks by Barbara Earl Thomas in Washington's State Art Collection". ArtsWA, Washington's State Art Collection, www.arts.wa.gov/my-public-art-portal. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
  14. "The Story House (2009) by Barbara Earl Thomas, located at The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA". ArtsWA, Washington's State Art Collection, www.arts.wa.gov/my-public-art-portal. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
  15. Medium, Seattle (June 3, 2016). "Barbara Earl Thomas Receives 2016 Irving And Yvonne Twining Humber Award". The Seattle Medium. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  16. Michael Upchurch (July 6, 2016). "Barbara Earl Thomas retrospective looks back at 30 years of artist's inventive works". Seattle Times. Retrieved December 5, 2016.
  17. "The SCAD Museum of Art Celebrates the Legacy of Jacob Lawrence". Hyperallergic. September 29, 2017. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  18. "2016 Governor's Arts & Heritage Awards Honorees Announced : ArtsWA". arts.wa.gov. Archived from the original on February 24, 2019. Retrieved February 23, 2019.


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