Q: How would you describe your personal artistic style?
Barbara’a pastels
A: Regardless of what medium I am using, I am first and foremost a colorist. Everything I create is vibrant with color.
The Navy taught me to be organized, goal-oriented and focused, to love challenges, and in everything I do, to pay attention to the details. Trying to make it as an artist in New York is nothing BUT challenges, so these qualities serve me well, whether I am creating paintings, shooting and making photographs, or trying to understand the art business, keep up with social media, and manage all the tasks required of a busy artist with a New York studio, a business, and two residences to maintain. It’s a lot, but it forces me to continually learn and grow. As Helen Keller famously said, “Life is an adventure or it is nothing.”
These days I am rarely bored. I thoroughly enjoy spending long, solitary hours working to become a better artist. I am meticulous about craft and will not let work out of my studio until it is as good as I can make it. My creative process is more exciting than ever. It’s thrilling and energizing to continually push soft pastel to its limits and use it in ways that no other artist has done before!
Comments are welcome!
Posted on November 30, 2013, in An Artist's Life, Art in general, Creative Process, Guatemala, Inspiration, New York, NY, Pastel Painting, Photography, Quotes, Studio, Working methods and tagged adventure, artist, artistic, attention, before, bored, business, busy, challenges, color, colorist, continually, creating, creative, days, describe, details, energizing, everything, exciting, famously, figures, focused, goal-oriented, grow, Guatemalan, Helen Keller, learn, life, limits, love, maintain, making, manage, medium, Navy, New York, nothing, organized, paintings, pastel, personal, photographs, process, push, qualities, rarely, required, residences, said, shooting, social media, soft pastel, Studio, style, tasks, thoroughly, thrilling, trying, understand, use, vibrant, ways. Bookmark the permalink. 3 Comments.
barbararachkoscoloreddust.com 
Hi Barbara, OK, so color and soft pastels are your platform, but you’re not doing color fields, ala Rothko. Beyond the basics, what are you expressing? I see dolls, toys, references to death, narratives, in your work, but I don’t want to project onto these elements what they mean to me.
thanks and all the best,
Laurel
Laurel, for many reasons – it’s arrogant, there is no right or wrong answer, to give one interpretation shuts off all the others, my thinking about meanings constantly changes – I don’t answer that question about my work. I actively dislike being told what to think about a piece of art. Each viewer is free to see whatever he or she wants or to have no reaction at all. It’s my job to make the work and set up the experience. I cannot and will not dictate what happens in a viewers head.
Hi – Barbara what wonderful words of inspiration as for my style it’s to stay centered on a project on till it’s completed for more info on me check my website at http://www.peterherley.com till later stay creative no matter what – that my advice for all –