Date: Fri 06-Feb-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Barbara-Allen-Brookfield-art

Full Text:

Barbara Allen Opens Her Private World To The Public Eye

(with cuts)

BY SHANNON HICKS

BROOKFIELD -- For the last six years, Newtown resident Barbara Allen has been

creating a very special series of art. Selections from this series are being

exhibited at Brookfield Craft Center through March 1 in a show entitled

"Dwellings of the Spirit."

The exhibition presents ten mixed media sculptures by Barbara, each of which

emphasizes the beauty of the natural materials used and the idea of a personal

dwelling, or safe place, for the artist. Some of the pieces are whimsical,

others are less so, but all invite contemplation.

All of the sculptures are made of materials Barbara has harvested from the

natural world, ranging from Aspen, gesso, graphite and handmade paper made

from the ashes of burnt journals and memorabilia, to bow hair, linen, clay,

hand-blown paper, barn wood, pine and other found objects.

For the artist, it is not important every person see the same thing in each

piece. Instead, she invites visitors to contemplate each piece on their own,

to come up with their own ideas of what each piece represents. In fact, on a

recent visit to the gallery, the artist did just that: she challenged a

visitor to explain what she saw in individual pieces, rather than explaining

what her titles meant.

"I think it's almost egocentric to think a title has to mean one particular

thing," Barbara said. Dwellings represent our inner resources, she feels.

"They are our strengths, our souls. And so because of the nature of the

materials used to make these works, these pieces are very natural, very

intimate."

While Barbara likes to let other decide what they see in her works, there is

one underlying theme to the show: dwellings. According to the artist, her

image of "Dwelling" is both narrative and metaphor, dream world and waking

world.

"Richard's Dream" is such a case. The piece depicts, at first look, a man

being crushed by a house, with an angel coming out of the front of the house.

Barbara explained the piece as "highly personal" and did not want to explain

much further, but she did say that what she created was exactly what Richard,

her brother, had a dream about one night. Barbara simply took what he

described in his dream and made it physical.

"Remember," she said, "dreams don't always have to make sense. They usually

don't. You can dream something, and while you're dreaming it, everything moves

along smoothly. It's only when you wake up and start recalling things that you

realize how nonsensical things in dreams can sometimes be."

"Dwellings," on the whole, also speaks of Barbara's life experiences in

particular, and more universally the experiences of women. "Abiuqiu Journal"

is a reaction piece to a trip the artist made to Georgia O'Keefe's home in

Abiuqiu, N.M., while "Woman's Tide" shares an experience of every woman.

Barbara Allen is a very natural, "earthy" kind of person. She respects nature

unquestionably, carefully selecting the material she uses for her sculptures

by hand. She prefers to choose pieces of Aspen (a type of poplar tree) that

have died but are still standing, rather than cut living wood just for the

sake of having a supply on hand.

Barbara passes these same values -- of respecting nature, of using natural

materials in order to become one with your art, of respecting art -- on to her

students. She is a teacher in Danbury High School's art department, as well as

in the city's alternative high school. It is important, she says, for her

students to know how important her art is to her, that it is not just

something she teaches. "They have a tremendous respect for that," she said.

"I have always had an instinctual urge to gather things," Barbara shared

recently. "Animals do that, in the fall, nesting, making their surroundings

safe. As we grow up, we lose touch with that."

For her gathering, Barbara visits New Mexico and Colorado, where her brother

Richard lives. These places, she says, are her spiritual homes. She spends

days seeking materials for her pieces, then ships everything back to Newtown,

where her home and studio space are located.

"Oh yeah, I get great reactions sometimes when I go into the UPS office and

want to ship out packets of dirt," she laughed.

Jack Russell, the director of Brookfield Craft Center, calls the show "a

master-level retrospective."

"I think people are surprised at the power of her works," he said. "They each

have a visceral message. They come from her heart, each talks about her

experiences from life. There is a strong subconscious response to Barbara's

work.

"It's really nice to be able to showcase her work. She's very creative. She is

not at all a `traditional' artist," Mr Russell said.

Barbara has participated in group shows at Brookfield before, and has had

shows of her own elsewhere in her career, but this is her first solo

appearance at the Craft Center. The show is special to Barbara not only

because she has the gallery space to herself, but because she considers the

craft center her "other spiritual home."

In her artist's statement for "Dwellings of the Spirit," Barbara wrote: "It is

here that I have found an artistic community dedicated to the sharing of

knowledge, ideas, and the techniques of fine craftsmanship.

"Being a part of the BCC family for the last two decades has afforded me the

opportunity to hone my skills as a craftswoman, and instructor in various

disciplines. Without this spiritual home, this work would not exist."

"Dwellings of the Spirit" continues at Brookfield Craft Center through March

1. The craft center is at 286 Whisconier Road/Route 7; telephone 775-4526.

There is no charge to see the exhibition.