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Published: 11 March 2015

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Published: 03 February 2015

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Q: What experiences with art led you to pursue your studio practice?

That is such a long and complicated story! I grew up in a blue collar family in suburban New Jersey. My father was a television repairman for RCA. My mother worked in a factory for a while, but mostly she stayed home to raise my sisters and me. My parents were both first-generation Americans and in those days I don’t believe anyone in my extended family had ever gone to college. I was a pretty smart kid. I must have shown some artistic talent in kindergarten or first grade. I was able to draw anything, as long as I could see it, and I was unusually sensitive to minute variations in color and light. At the age of 6 my mother enrolled me in Saturday morning painting classes at the studio of an artist in a neighboring town. I continued the classes for about 8 years and became a fairly adept oil painter.

Living in Clifton, just 12 miles from New York City, my mother took my sister and me to museums, particularly the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Museum of Natural History. As a kid I remember falling in love with Rousseau’s "The Sleeping Gypsy" and being astonished by the scale and violence of Picasso’s "Guernica" when it was on long-term loan at MoMA. I have fond memories of seeing the dioramas at the Museum of Natural History. Indeed, they are still my favorite part of the museum. I suppose it goes without saying that there were not any artists in my family. At the age of 15 my father decided that art was not a serious pursuit – he said it was a hobby, not a profession – so he abruptly stopped paying for my lessons. With no financial and no moral support, I turned my attention to other pursuits and let my artistic abilities lie dormant.

I suppose things would have remained that way – an artist neglecting her talent – but fast forward ahead to when I was 33-years-old, a lieutenant on active duty in the Navy, working at a soul-crushing job as a computer analyst on the midnight shift in a sub-basement of the Pentagon. Literally, one could not go any lower! Indeed I was miserable, but you do not give the Navy two weeks notice and leave. Remembering the joyful Saturdays of my youth, I enrolled in a drawing class in a suburban Virginia art school. It was hard work and at first I wasn’t very good, but wow, I was having so much fun!

Soon I was signed up for 5 classes each semester, basically turning myself into a full-time art student while working at the Pentagon full-time. As I studied and got better, I discovered my preferred medium – soft pastel on sandpaper – and began inventing new ways to use it. In 1989 I said goodbye to the active duty Navy, although I decided to remain in the Navy Reserve in order to have a part-time income. For the next 14 years I worked two days each month and two weeks a year for the Navy and finally on November 1, 2003, I retired as a Commander.

From the beginning in the mid-1980’s I had a studio. My first one was in the spare bedroom of the Alexandria, Virginia, house that I shared with Bryan. In 1997 an opportunity to move to New York arose and I didn’t look back. By then I was showing in a good 57th Street gallery, Brewster Arts (as they focused exclusively on Latin American artists, I was flattered that Leonora Carrington and I were their only non-Latin artists), and I had managed to find a New York agent with whom to do business. I looked at one other space before finding my West 29th Street studio, where I still work. It was and continues to be my oasis in a chaotic city, a place to read, to think, and to make art.

Q: Please speak about your background as an aviator and how that informed your sensibility as an artist.

At the age of 25 I got my private pilot’s license before spending the next two years amassing thousands of hours of flight time as I earned every license and rating I could, ending with a Boeing-727 flight engineer certificate. I joined the Navy when I was 29. I used to think that the 7 years I spent on active duty were wasted – during those 7 years I should have been working on my art – but I see things differently now. The Navy taught me to be disciplined, to be 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’m creating paintings, shooting and printing photographs, or trying to understand the art business. I generally enjoy spending long solitary hours working to become a better artist. I am meticulous about craft and will not let a work out of my studio or out of the darkroom until it is as good as I can make it.

Q: You shared a passion with photography with your husband who died in the September 11 attacks. How did your husband and the tragedy of September 11 influence your creative direction?

When Bryan was alive I barely picked up a camera, except to photograph things encountered during our travels. Through the 1990’s I worked on my first series of pastel-on-sandpaper paintings, called "Domestic Threats." These were realistic depictions of elaborate scenes that I staged in my house, and later, in my New York apartment, using the Mexican masks, carved wooden animals, and other folk art figures that I found on our trips to Mexico. I staged and lit these setups, while Bryan photographed them for me using his 4 x 5 view camera. Having been introduced to photography by his father at the age of 6 or 7, Bryan was a terrific amateur photographer. He would shoot two pieces of 4 x 5 film and I would select one to make into a 20 x 24 photograph. The photograph would be my starting point for making the pastel painting. I work from life, too, but I could not make a painting without mostly looking at a reference photo.

On September 11, 2001, Bryan, who was a high-ranking federal government employee, a brilliant economist and a budget analyst at the Pentagon, was en route to Monterey, CA to give his monthly guest lecture for a class at the Naval Postgraduate College. His plane was the one that was high jacked and crashed into the Pentagon. It was the biggest shock of my life, devastating in every possible way! I suppose I will forever think about how easily I could have been killed that day. First, I had declined to travel with Bryan to California, a place I absolutely love, because the planned visit was too short. Second, his plane crashed directly into my (Navy Reserve) office on the fifth floor, E-ring of the Pentagon. I still imagine the terrible irony of Bryan being killed on the plane and me perishing in the building.

The six months after 9/11 passed by in a blur, except that I vividly remember a ceremony at the DAR Hall in Washington, DC, in which I was picked up by a black Department of Defense limousine, sat with members of the president’s cabinet, accepted a posthumous award for Bryan, and was addressed face-to-face by George Bush, Jr. The following spring I was ready to – I HAD to – get back to work so my first challenge was to learn how to use Bryan’s 4 x 5 view camera. I enrolled in a one-week view camera workshop at the International Center of Photography in New York. Much to my surprise I already knew quite a lot from watching Bryan. I was soon on my way to working again.

After the initial workshop, which I had enjoyed tremendously, I decided to start over with the basics since I had never formally studied photography. I threw myself into learning this new medium. I enrolled in a series of classes at ICP, starting with Photography I. Along the way I learned to use Bryan’s extensive camera collection (old Leicas, Nikons, Mamiyas, and more) and to make my own large chromogenic prints. In October 2009 it was extremely gratifying to have my first solo photography exhibition with HP Garcia. I remember tearing up at the opening as I imagined Bryan looking down at me with his beautiful smile, beaming as he surely would have, so proud of me for having become a photographer.

Q: What first intrigued you about Mexico and its pantheon of Aztec gods and goddesses?

In the early 90’s Bryan and I made our first trip to Oaxaca and to Mexico City. At the time I had become fascinated with the Mexican "Day of the Dead" celebrations so our trip was timed to see these firsthand. Along with busloads of other tourists, we visited several cemeteries in small Oaxacan towns. The Mexicans tending their ancestor’s graves were so dignified and so gracious, even with so many mostly-American tourists tromping around on a sacred night, that I couldn’t help being taken with these beautiful people and their beliefs, or I should say, the little that I understood about their beliefs at the time. From Oaxaca we traveled to Mexico City, where again I was entranced, but this time by the rich and ancient history.

On that first trip we visited the Anthropology Museum, where I was introduced to the fascinating story of ancient Meso-American civilizations and it is still one of my favorite museums in the world; the ancient city of Teotihuacan, which the Aztecs discovered as an abandoned city and then occupied as their own; and the Templo Mayor, the historic center of the Aztec empire, infamous as a place of human sacrifice . I was astounded! Why had I never learned in school about Mexico, this highly-developed cradle of western civilization in our own hemisphere, when so much class time had been devoted to the cultures of Egypt, Greece, and elsewhere? When I returned home I began reading everything I could find about ancient Mexican civilizations, including the Olmec, Zapotec, Mixtec, Aztec, and Maya. This first trip to Mexico opened up a whole new world and was to profoundly influence my future work. I would return many more times.

Q: Your "Gods and Monsters" exhibition at HP Garcia Gallery consisted of tableaux of Mexican figures that were photographed in a way that blurred certain elements to abstraction while privileging others in clear focus. Please speak about your process and goals for this work.

When I depict the Mexican (and more recently, Guatemalan) figures in my pastel paintings they are hard-edged, vibrant, and in-your-face. That’s a result of the way I work in pastel. I slowly and meticulously build up layers of pigment, blend it with my fingers, continually refine and try to find the best, most eye-popping colors. It’s a process that takes months of work. When I began photographing these figures, I wanted to take the same subject matter and give it an entirely different treatment. So these images are deliberately soft-focus, dreamy, and mysterious. I use a medium-format camera and shoot film. I choose a narrow depth of focus.

I hold gels in front of the scene to blur it and to provide unexpected areas of color. Even as a photographer I am a colorist. I want this work to surprise me and it does since I don’t usually know what images I will get when I press the shutter. I only know what I’ve shot after I see a contact sheet. My "Gods and Monsters" series began entirely as a reaction to my pastel work. The latter is so meticulous and labor-intensive. At a certain point in the process I know what the finished painting will look like, but there are still weeks of slow work ahead. My photographic work is spontaneous, serendipitous, and provides me with much-needed instant gratification. I love having two diametrically opposed ways of working with the same subject.

Q: Is there an overarching narrative in your photographs with Mexican and Guatemalan figures?

Maybe, but that’s something for the viewer to judge. I never specify what my work is about. My thinking about its meanings constantly changes and I wouldn’t want to cut off other people’s interpretations. I heard Annie Leibovitz interviewed a few days ago on the radio. She said that after 40 years as a photographer, everything just gets richer. It doesn’t get easier, it just gets richer. I’ve been a painter for 26 years, a photographer for 9, and I agree completely. Creating this work is an endlessly fascinating intellectual journey.

Q: Your new work explores relationships to figures through the medium of pastel. What prompted this departure from photography?

As I’ve discussed I was a maker of pastel paintings long before I became a photographer. However, the photos in the "Gods and Monsters" series were meant to be photographs in their own right, i.e., they were not made to be reference material for paintings. In an interesting turn of events a few years ago I started a new series, "Black Paintings," which uses these photos as source material. People tell me the work is my strongest yet. We’ll see where it leads.

Q: What are you working on currently in the studio?

I am putting finishing touches on a large pastel painting and am far along on a small one. I am printing new photographs in the darkroom. A few months ago I bought my first digital SLR camera and am experimenting with it. What a powerful and exciting new tool! The most recent work depicts figures that I found in Chichicastenango and Panajachel. I took my first trip to Guatemala in 2009 and returned to see other parts of the country in 2010. At the moment I am intrigued by the Maya. Many people don’t realize that there are present-day Maya living in the more remote villages of Guatemala. Unlike the Aztec, their ancestors brilliantly managed to resist conquest so they not only survived, they were never stripped of their belief systems. On my second trip to Guatemala I got to watch healers performing shamanistic rituals of ancient origin. In 2011 for an artist living in New York it is quite extraordinary to think that there are still places in the world where such practices are part of daily life.

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Category: Uncategorised

Published: 11 March 2015

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15 JAN - 19 FEB 12

"Art to the Point"
Katonah Museum of Art
Katonah, NY
"The Sovereign"
pastel 58" x 38"
"Blue Misterioso"
pastel 58" x 38"

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3 Dec 10 - 29 Jan 11

"Pulp Friction"
James Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
"Alpha" pastel 22" x 26"
"Paranoia" pastel 22" x 26"
"Stasis" pastel 26" x 22"
2 framed 24" x 24" c-prints

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27 Feb - 28 Mar 11

"Past Forward"
Target Gallery, Torpedo Factory Art Center, Alexandria, VA
"Alpha" pastel 22" x 26"
"Paranoia" pastel 22" x 26"
"Stasis" pastel 26" x 22"
"Stigmata" pastel 28" x 48"
"Heightened" pastel 22" x 26"

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4 Mar - 14 Mar 11

"Pandemonium: Inaugural Preview Exhibition"
New York Center of Photography and the Moving Image (NYCPMI),
580 Eighth Ave., 7th Floor, New York, NY

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22 Mar - 22 Jun 11

"Bazar"
Betty Dare Art Gallery, Chicago, IL
1 framed 24" x 24" c-print
1 framed 16" x 20" c-print

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3 Dec 2010 - 29 Jan 2011

"Pulp Friction"
James Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
"Alpha" pastel 22" x 26"
"Paranoia" pastel 22" x 26"
"Stasis" pastel 26" x 22"

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27 Feb - 28 Mar 11

"Past Forward"
Target Gallery, Torpedo Factory Art Center, Alexandria, VA
"Alpha" pastel 22" x 26"
"Paranoia" pastel 22" x 26"
"Stasis" pastel 26" x 22"
"Stigmata" pastel 28" x 48"
"Heightened" pastel 22" x 26"

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July 2010

Huffington Post
Article in the Huffington Post
"Should Artists Publish Their Own Catalogues?"

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27 Feb - 28 Mar 2010

"Target Gallery" Torpedo Factory Art Center, Alexandria, VA
"Alpha"
"Paranoia"
"Stasis"
"Stigmata"
"Stasis"
"Heightened"

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26 Feb 09 - 2 Mar 09

Exhibiting photographs at ArtExpo, Booth # 2415,
Artisan Direct, Pittsford, NY
Jacob Javits Convention Center, New York, NY.

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7 Jun 09

Award Winner, Lenore Sagan Visual Arts Awards,
Joyce Dutka Arts Foundation, New York, NY
Hollis Taggart Galleries, 958 Madison Avenue, New York, NY.
"Honorable Mention Artist" by the Joyce Dutka Foundation
for the 2008 -2009 competition. A reception and awards presentation
will take place on June 7, 2009 from 5 - 8 p.m. at Hollis Taggart
Galleries, 958 Madison Avenue, New York, NY.

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29 Sep - 24 Oct 09

Barbara Rachko: Gods and Monsters
H.P. Garcia Gallery - 580 Eighth Avenue,
7th Fl., New York, NY
Photographs
There will be an artist's reception on 7 Oct 09, from 6 - 8 p.m.
A catalog is available:
Twelve framed 24" x 24" c-prints
Two framed 16" x 20" c-prints

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13 Nov 08 - 10 Jan 08

Red, group exhibition
Located on the third floor of Bergdorf Goodman, Fifth Avenue at West 57th Street, NYC
"Scene Eighteen: Living Room,"
pastel 26" x 20"

"Scene Twelve: Living Room,"
pastel, 26" x 20"

One framed 24" x 24" c-print

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3 Jun 08 - 28 Jun 08

A solo exhibition - "Out of the Black: Pastel Paintings
And Photographs by Barbara Rachko"
New Art Center, New York, NY
"The Sovereign"
pastel 58" x 38"

"Who Can Be Sure of Anything?"
pastel 38" x 58"

"Heightened"
pastel 22" x 26"

"Between"
pastel 22" x 26"

Three framed 24" x 24" c-prints

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1 Jun 08 - 18 Oct 08

Modes of Expression, group exhibition
Deloitte, New York, NY
"Scene Twenty: Living Room"
pastel 26" x 22"

"Scene Eighteen: Living Room"
pastel 26" x 22"

"Scene Seventeen: Living Room"
pastel 26" x 22"

"Scene Fifteen: Living Room"
pastel 26" x 22"

one framed 16" x 20" c-print

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30 Sep - 25 Nov 08

Solo Exhibition
1st Presbyterian Church, New York, NY
"Scene Twenty-One: Living Room," pastel 22" x 26"
2 framed 24" x 24" c-prints
1 framed 18" x 18" c-print
7 framed 16" x 20" c-prints

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30 Sep 08 - 21 Dec 08

Timeless: The Art of Drawing, group exhibition
Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ
"Between" pastel 22" x 26"

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7 Aug 07 - 31 Oct 07

Gods and Monsters
Capital One Headquarters McLean VA
12 framed 16" x 20" c-prints
4 framed 24" x 24" c-prints
Scene Twenty-One: Living Room

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4 Apr 06 - 30 Jun 06

About Face
A group exhibition at ArtHaus in San Francisco
Artwork on display:
"His Mortal Enemy Was Poised, Ready to Strike,"

"Scene Three: Living Room"

2 framed 16" x 20" c-prints.

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26 Feb 06 - 2 Apr 06

Azarian McCullough Art Gallery
Azarian McCullough Art Gallery, St. Thomas Aquinas College, Sparkill, NY
Artwork on display:
"He Still Tried to Protect Her"

"Scene Eighteen: Living Room"

"Scene Seventeen: Living Room"

"Scene Fifteen: Living Room"

"Truth Betrayed By Innocence"

"Scene Twelve: Living Room"

"Answering the Call"

"Practical Advice on waiting"

"No Cure for Insomnia"

4 framed 16" x 20" c-prints

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29 Jan 06 - 9 Mar 06

Anthony Giordano Gallery
Dowling College, Oakdale, NY
Artwork on display:
"At First He Vehemently Denied the Accusation"

"He Didn't Take Seriously the Threat from Below"

"His Sudden Return was not Entirely Welcome"

"The Magical Other"

4 framed 24" x 24" c-prints

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14 Mar 05 - 30 Apr 05

Scenes: Pastels by Barbara Rachko
Crown Center Gallery presents drawings by
New York artist Barbara Rachko

Chicago, March 7, 2005: Loyola University Chicago's Crown Center Gallery and the Fine Arts Department are pleased to present a group of recent pastel drawings by New York artist Barbara Rachko. The exhibit, entitled "Scenes", will run March 14 through April 30. The exhibit will feature several large scale pastel paintings that describe a "scene" or set-up environment. Each painting represents a movie still, animating her doll and papier-mache figures with brilliant color, dramatic lighting and placement. The surface of the pastel paintings is rich and sumptuous, yet the overall effect of Rachko's is one of impending gloom or dread. The spaces are tight and confined, the angles of her compositions are tilted and off-setting. They are curious pieces that engage the viewer on many levels.

 

Ms. Rachko received her B.A. from the University of Vermont, Burlington, and has gone on to exhibit her work in numerous exhibitions and competition throughout the United States and abroad. She has won many awards for her multi-layered pastel paintings and has been invited to exhibit her work in two Whitney Biennials. New York critic Peter Dellolio has proclaimed her "the most original artist to emerge in the last decade", while ArtistsOwnRegistry.com.au has selected her as one of the "Top Ten World Artists."

An opening reception is scheduled for Friday, March 18, from 5 to 8pm.

Gallery Hours: Monday - Friday 10 am - 3 pm, and by appointment.

The gallery is located on the lakeshore campus at 1001 W. Loyola Ave., 2nd floor, of the Robert Crown Center for the Humanities Building.

Admission is Free.

and by appointment;
P: 773.508.3811
F: 773.508.2282

Artwork in the show:
"She Embraced It and Grew Stronger"
"Truth Betrayed By Innocence"
"Practical Advice on Waiting"
"No Cure for Insomnia"
"He Was So in Need of Botany"
"Scene Eighteen: Living Room"
"Scene Sixteen: Living Room"
"Scene Fifteen: Living Room"
"Scene Thirteen: Bathroom"

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Postponed

Definition of Moments, two-person exhibition
Yajnavalka, Houston, TX
"A Promise Meant to be Broken"
pastel 58" x 38"

"Sometimes He Still Tried to Restrain Her"
pastel 58" x 38"

"She Embraced It and Grew Stronger"
pastel 58" x 38"

"Truth Betrayed by Innocence"
58" x 38"

"Practical Advice on Waiting"
58" x 38"

5 framed 24" x 24" c-prints

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Category: Uncategorised

Published: 03 February 2015

Hits: 8687

Q: Why Mexican dolls and folk objects?

In 1991 as a Christmas present my future sister-in-law, Iris, sent two brightly painted wooden figures from Oaxaca. One was a large, winged, dark blue and white polka-dotted horse, the other a bear, painted with red, white, and black lines and dots and with a quizzical look on its face. At that time I was living in Alexandria, Virginia, studying at the Art league School, and finally working as a full-time professional artist, having recently resigned after seven years on active duty as a Naval officer (I was working part-time at the Pentagon as a Naval Reservist). I was looking for something new to paint, since I had decided that I was not cut out to be a portrait artist.

I had never seen anything like these painted Oaxacan objects and was enthralled. Oaxaca was new to me and except for a weekend road trip in 1975 from Berkeley, CA to Ensenada, Mexico, I had not been to Mexico. I started asking my artist-friends about Oaxaca and soon learned that the city has a unique style of painting, the self-titled Oaxacan school, and that Rufino Tamayo and Manuel and Lola Alvarez Bravo, the well known photographers, were from Oaxaca. (Indeed Manuel Alvarez Bravo had founded an important photography museum there). Of course I had long been a fan of Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Leonora Carrington, and other well-known artists associated with Mexico and I had long been interested in Pre-Columbian civilizations. Further, I had some limited knowledge of Spanish after studying it in high school. I began reading everything I could find about Oaxaca in particular and more generally about Mexico. I soon became fascinated with the Mexican Day of the Dead.

In 1992 my future husband, Bryan, and I made our first trip to Mexico, spending a week in Oaxaca to watch the Day of the Dead observances in local cemeteries and to study Mixtec and Zapotec ruins (Monte Alban, Yagul, Mitla, etc.); followed by a week in Mexico City to see Diego Rivera's murals at the Ministry of Education, Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul, and ancient archeological sites (the Templo Mayor, Teotihuacan, etc.).

I began collecting Mexican folk art on that first trip. I still have fond memories of locating my first acquisition, a big wooden, cob-web-covered half dragon, half Conquistador mask that Bryan and I found high on a wall in a dusty Oaxacan mask shop and hand carried on the plane, putting rolled up socks on its feet to protect its toes from being accidentally broken! I have been back to Mexico many times, mainly visiting central and southern Mexico. I love the light, the colors, and the sights of the high desert plateau. When I say "Mexico" to most Americans their first thoughts are of "beautiful beaches," but I have never been to a Mexican beach. I travel there to study Pre-Columbian history, archeology, mythology, culture, and the arts. It is an endlessly fascinating place!

Q: How large is your current collection of Mexican folk objects?

I haven't counted them, but I would guess around 200 pieces of various sizes, if you also include the Guatemalan figures. I started going to Guatemala last year and just returned from my second trip. I divide my time between my house in Alexandria, VA, an apartment in the West Village in Manhattan, and my studio in Chelsea. The figures are everywhere I am.

Q: You liken your pieces to scenes in a movie. Is there an audition process? What qualities must a doll possess to be cast in one of your paintings?

There's not an audition process, but I do feel like they call out to me somehow when I'm searching the markets and bazaars of Mexico and Guatemala for objects to bring back to paint and photograph. Color is very important - the brighter and the more eye catching the patterns are the better - plus they must be unique and have lots of personality. I try not to buy anything mass-produced or obviously made for the tourist trade. The objects must have been used or otherwise look like they've had a life (i.e., been part of religious festivities) to draw my attention. How and where an object comes into my possession is an important part of my artistic process. Finding, buying, and getting them back to the U.S. is always circuitous, but it's also an adventure and often a good story.

Here is a recent example. Two weeks ago I was in a small town on the shores of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, called Panajachel, a place which isn't often visited by foreign tourists. After returning from a boat ride across the lake, my friends and I were walking back to our hotel when we discovered a wonderful mask store. I spent some time looking around, made my selections, and was ready to buy five exquisitely-made standing wooden figures, when I learned that Tomas, the store owner, did not accept credit cards. I was heart-broken and thought, "That's it. I'll just have to leave them behind." However, thanks to my good friend, Donna, whose Spanish is much more fluent than mine, the three of us brain-stormed until finally Tomas had an idea. I could pay for the figures at the hotel up the block and in a few days when the hotel was paid by the credit card company, the hotel would pay Tomas. Fabulous!

Tomas, Donna, and I walked to the hotel, where the transaction was made and the first hurdle was overcome. Working out the packing and shipping arrangements took another hour or two, but during that time Tomas and I became friends and exchanged telephone numbers (the store didn't have a telephone so he gave me the phone number of the post office next door, saying that when I called, he could easily run next door!). Surprisingly the package was waiting for me in New York when I returned home from Guatemala. All five figures from Panajachel are lined up on the floor in my living room awaiting their debut appearance in a painting.

When I set up a scene for a painting, I work very intuitively so how the objects were actually cast in a painting is difficult to say. Looks count a lot - I selected an object and put it in a particular place, looked at it, moved it or let it stay, and began developing a storyline. I spent time arranging lights and looking for interesting cast shadows. All of this was done so that Bryan, my late husband, could shoot a couple of negatives with his 4" x 5" view camera.

I would have a 20" x 24" photograph made to use for reference as I make the painting, plus I also worked from the "live" objects. The earliest Domestic Threats paintings were set in my Virginia house, but in 1997, I moved to a six floor walk up in New York. For the next few years my paintings were set there, until 2001 when I moved to my current apartment. In a sense the work is a visual autobiography that hints at where I've lived and what my day to day domestic surroundings have been like.

Q: Can you elaborate on the series title, Domestic Threats?

This sounds prosaic but all of the paintings in this series are set in my personal domestic environment, in places where I reside or have resided, either my Virginia house or my New York apartment(s). Each painting typically contains a conflict of some sort, at least one figure who is being menaced or threatened by a group of figures. So the title seemed an obvious choice. Depending on what is going on in the country at a particular moment in time, people have prescribed political associations to my work, and I suppose some of those are valid.

Artists are influenced by everything, whether we are conscious of it or not. Since my husband was killed on 9/11, many people thought the title Domestic Threats was prescient. They have ascribed all kinds of domestic terrorism associations to it, but that is not really what I had in mind. For a time some thought I was hinting at scenes of domestic violence, but that also is not what I had intended. The titleDomestic Threats means quite different things to everyone.

Q: There is a voyeuristic quality to your paintings. Perhaps it is because we are seeing objects most would consider inanimate acting out these complex scenes you’ve created for them. Where do the stories come from?

When I used to set up the figures for Bryan to photograph, I made up stories about what was happening. Being an artist has lots of negatives, but one of the fun parts is that sometimes we get to act like big kids! Some of the stories came from movies, mythology, folk tales, or dreams. I read a lot and I love stories of all kinds. I try to be open to all sorts of influences. You never know what will work its way in to enrich your art.

Q: Do the dolls go on to play different roles in different series or are their characters recurring?

The dolls and other objects play different roles in each painting and I paint them differently to reflect this. If you take one doll and follow it through the series, you'll notice that it evolves so that it never looks the same in any two paintings. I continue to think of each object as an actor in a repertory company.

Q: In your paintings, we occasionally catch a glimpse of blond haired female whom I assume is you. Are you also playing a character or do you appear as yourself?

I am playing myself. It's a bit self-conscious, but I like to include myself now and then. As I've said, I used to be a portrait artist so this is one way to keep up my technical skills. Beyond that when I'm in the painting it gives another level of reality to the scene depicted. I prefer not to analyze it too much.

Q: There is plenty of joyful and vibrant color in your work, but shadows are also ever-present. I would almost go as far as calling them the supporting players of your compositions. Can you elaborate on their importance and significance?

When I arranged the set ups, I spent a lot of time lighting the scenes in search of interesting cast shadows. At one point the shadows became so important that I thought of them as physical objects in their own right. I made them very prominent and gave them added emphasis. Often they had no relation to the object depicted as I gave them any shape that looked good in the painting. When I go to art galleries and museums, I always look at the shadows surrounding three dimensional objects. How less visually satisfying Calder's mobiles and stabiles would be without their shadows on the wall! I find shadows constantly intriguing.

Q: If your dolls could talk, what might they say about you as a director?

I hope they would say that I am very focused, that I know exactly what I am after, and that I use all the skills and knowledge I have acquired in 24 years as a painter (8 as a photographer) to make art that is worthwhile and meaningful.

Q: Your paintings are full-blown productions. You take great care to not only cast them, but to choose the right sets and lighting for them. Would you consider making films?

In the late 1990s I seriously considered it - I studied film at the New School and at New York University - but ultimately I decided to stay with painting. A well-made film will be seen by more people than a painting ever will, but the finances of making it are daunting. Historically visual artists have achieved mixed results when they have turned to filmmaking. Cindy Sherman was not very good at it, but Shirin Neshat's recent feature film is promising. Julian Schnabel is arguably a much better filmmaker than he ever was a painter. Most importantly for me, filmmaking is a collaboration. I love the time I spend alone in my studio and prefer having control over and being fully responsible for the results. It would be difficult to give this up.

Q: What are you currently working on?

In 2007 I began the Black Paintings series, which grew directly out of the Domestic Threats. It is a pared-down version of earlier iconography and evolved directly from my relatively recent photography studies. After I lost Bryan on 9/11 (as I alluded to, Bryan photographed most of the set ups for my Domestic Threats series), I needed to find a way to continue working. In 2002 I began studying photography at the International Center of Photography in New York.

Soon I began working seriously as a photographer and my new photographic work, the Gods and Monsters series, has been well received. I had my first solo photography exhibition in October 2009 with HP Garcia Gallery in New York (see http://www.nyartsmagazine.com/) and am getting ready for my next solo show there in May 2011. It will include recent photographs and new work from the Black Paintings series.