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Artist Spotlight
Name: Barry Sparkman
City: Miami
Birthplace: McMinnville, Tennessee
Artistic Medium: Painting and printmaking
How did you get started?
I have always made things. My earliest memories include drawing with a ballpoint pen on odd bits of paper, in church or in the back seat of a car. Often it was suggested as a means of keeping me still and quiet. Creating provided an escape to an introspective new world that was exclusively mine.
I continued drawing and painting throughout elementary and high school, enrolling in all of the art classes that were available to me. When I started college, it was only natural that I would study art. I went on to earn a B.F.A. and M.F.A in painting.
I have been in Miami for about 12 years. Originally I'm from Tennessee but I have moved around a bit. I also lived and worked in Pennsylvania, Texas, Montana, South Carolina and Louisiana.
I grew up in McMinnville, Warren County. It's 70 miles east of Nashville and quite rural, especially then. Its claim to fame is that it is the nursery capital of the world and not very exciting. I had a pretty typical Southern Baptist childhood—or at least as typical as that can be. Unfortunately the regional definition of art in McMinnville wasn't very comprehensive. There certainly weren't a lot of artists there or any serious art collections to see. In high school art classes we did macramé, slip cast ceramics and decoupage. I copied Grandma Moses paintings from magazines, made pinecone Christmas wreathes, and repainted the numbers on the reserved seats in the football stadium bleachers—for which I won the high school Art Award in my senior year. Needless to say, because of that background, I was quite a challenge to my art professors when I started college. I was determined to be a photo-realist painter during my first couple of years of school. The catalyst for my current work resulted from an assignment from one of my painting professors. He gave an assignment that was basically to make 50 nonobjective paintings in one month. They were supposed to be about energy. I was supposed to “eliminate as many variables as possible in order to free myself to explore.” I was initially baffled but eventually discovered that painting abstractly was much more challenging for me than painting realistically. Communicating or eliciting an emotional response from viewer without relying on narrative is difficult and remains fascinating to me.
Who or what are your influences?
Conceptually, my work is part of a long tradition of abstract painting that begins with Kandinsky, continues through Miro, Klee, and the New York abstract expressionist school of the 1950s. As a student, I looked at the artwork of Robert Motherwell and Elizabeth Murray a lot. Both influenced the development of my paintings. Terry Winters, Matthew Ritchie, and Julie Mehretu are contemporary artists that I am especially interested in.
What inspires your work?
The driving force behind my work is not the desire to produce objects, but rather, it is the physical act of making art and the solitude of the studio. As I mentioned before, creating art provides an escape. It seems as much a place as an activity to me. My work is a product of this involvement with the creative process. Like artist Paul Klee, I believe that the “process of making” is of integral importance in art.
How does Miami/South Florida influence your work?
The impact that my physical surroundings have on my work can be easily be seen. I try to spend a lot of time out in nature and have always been very interested in botany. These organic forms from nature are imprinted on my subconscious and later work their way into my paintings. The organic forms of the subtropics, the vibrant colors from both natural and architecture, and the dynamic chaos of the city all become part of my work.
How would you describe your work?
The entire process leading to a finished painting occurs on the canvas. Because my work is a record of a physical process, the energy and enthusiasm of that process remain evident. Therefore, the paintings often have an observable history recorded in the layers of paint. Although the results often resemble ethereal landscapes, the imagery created in these raw surfaces emerges solely from my subconscious and does not intentionally refer to real physical places or objects.
Drawing and painting are integrated. The depicted space may range from flat and decorative to compositions that possess landscape qualities. Color choices are also initially intuitive. As each painting evolves, shapes seem to become three-dimensional, and color and spatial relationships develop. I then begin to make conscious choices to deliberately enhance these qualities and to integrate all of the elements within the painting.
My imagery has evolved through the disciplined silencing of logic. I manipulate the formal elements of color, shape, line, and texture in an attempt to evoke an emotional response or set a mood. My intention is to impact the viewer's senses in such a way as to provide an escape from the literal and a path toward introspection.
What has been the most unusual reaction to your work from the public?
I enjoy eavesdropping on people who are looking at my work in galleries. Their candid responses are very interesting to me, and much more useful than feedback that I would receive if they were speaking guardedly to me. Most often people look for literal interpretations and relate the non-objective shapes to recognizable forms. For example, people often find figures, animals, or landscapes in my paintings. This intuitive response can be quite amusing.
Also, a recent caption that accompanied a reproduction of one of my paintings in Newburyport Massachusetts' local newspaper ( Merrimack River Current, Friday, May 6, 2005) read, “Hmm… so that's what hell looks like!” I certainly wasn't thinking about hell when I made the painting but am always very happy for any mention of my work in the press.
What would you like to achieve as an artist?
I continually set goals for myself. For the past couple of years, I have really concentrated on developing the business/professional aspects of being an artist. It has been very productive.
I have worked very hard on promotional materials, applied for a lot of grants and public art commissions, and also been included in many exhibitions. I hope to launch my new and improved website very soon.
I look forward to re-focusing my energy on my artwork during next year. I have a lot of ideas for new work that I have not had time to pursue.
In the bigger picture, I am working toward transitioning from my current full time day/ part-time artist scenario to the opposite. Currently, I am working as the gallery manager at the University of Miami's Lowe Art Museum. During the next couple of years, I hope to be able to become a full-time studio artist and to return to part-time teaching.
For more information on Barry Sparkman and his art, visit www.BarrySparkman.com
JIBE, 32 x 88, oil on paper, 2003 |
OMEN, 72 x 72, acrylic on canvas, 2004 |
SQUABBLE, 72 x 72, acrylic on canvas, 2004 |
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PASSAGE, 32 x 88, oil on paper, 2002 |
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