Meet Rebecca Barfoot – Artist Interview by Voyage Chicago (July 2018)

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6 years ago

Content Source/Credit: VoyageChicago.com

This article was originally published on July 31, 2018.

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rebecca Barfoot.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?

I was born making art!! It seems like my creative spark was lit from the moment I came into this world. Though my art wasn’t always nurtured as a kid, I took a non-conventional path through early life, have no art degrees and made my successes by continuing to work with passion and devotion over many, many years.

Please tell us about your art.

Clay was my first love during the initial years of my “grownup” art career. I worked exclusively as a ceramist and sculptor, but only until I had enough time and space to spread out with my paint brushes, canvases, dark room explorations, print making and the many different cross-pollinated iterations of mixed media!! I fell easily in step with working equally in 2d and 3d. It’s all pretty natural to me. These days I create with whatever I’m called to and feel fortunate that I might find myself working on an encaustic installation piece or a series of cyanotypes alongside an oil painting.

I’ve just taken a necessary sabbatical from several years of “serial artist’s residencies” in far-flung places and feel ready to resume traveling for art projects again. My biggest inspiration these days is connecting both myself and viewers with the living, breathing Earth through the vehicle of my art. I’m really concerned about our diminishing wild lands and our increasing disconnection from the aliveness of the natural world and its wisdom. I really question what’s happening to us and the planet as we’ve become so buried in technology and the quickening of our day to day lives.

I have traveled to Arctic Greenland and spent a lot of time in remote areas of the Canadian north, Yukon Territory etc., living off-grid among incredible wilderness and majesty; places where wolves and lynx, grizzlies and caribou still roam free and plentiful; places where indigenous languages are still spoken; places inaccessible by road where some folks still run trap lines and hunt, fish and gather food from the land. I have breath taking, heart stopping memories of kayaking for weeks among remote Arctic islands and sleeping under the midnight sun (summer), seeing the northern lights for the first time (winter) – all of which have moved me to tears. My greatest hope as I move forward with my artwork is for every one of us to feel this connection too – because if we began to reclaim the native knowing that resides within, we could no longer continue destroying the Earth that lives and breathes us.

[This is writing in response to a question that seems gone now from the interview, re: “given everything that is going on in the world today, do you think the role of artists has changed? How do local, national or international events and issues affect your art?”

I believe that part of the role of the artist is to provoke reflection and stir things up a little. We all need a nudge to move beyond the confines of limited, linear thinking so we can touch our own vastness and our own wisdom in the confusion. I think even quiet, subtle art can do this – and sometimes that’s the work that does it the best. No one needs to be shouted at, but the artist has a foot in the door to introduce new material, whatever their medium.

My own art journey has taken me to the Arctic and far northern realms of the Earth because my soul needs these last remaining wilderness areas, to feel them deeply and breath them through my being – and in some kind of etheric alchemy, to transmit this to art. But the much larger picture of climate change in our world and my concern as an engaged citizen is also what called me North; to feel the glaciers and see them melting, to feel the beauty and pain of a planet changing at a blindingly accelerated pace.]

Choosing a creative or artistic path comes with many financial challenges. Any advice for those struggling to focus on their artwork due to financial concerns?

I’ve found it challenging at times but ultimately liberating to follow the path of an independent creative in the culture. It’s always been my choice to make sacrifices to answer the callings of my deeper life as an artist, and some of them have been financial but I wouldn’t trade this!!

My advice to others is there is a way, when we’re doing what we truly love, to make it work. Learning some practices to let go of our fear-based thinking and social conditioning can go a long way toward keeping one afloat in both the material realm and the emotional realm. Also, surround yourself with people who support you, even if it’s just other artists you know online, because there are so many of us making this particular journey with its particular struggles. We can do this, but we can’t do it alone.

General advice for artists:

Keep going and don’t be swayed by what you think others want to see or how you might be judged, or even how you’ve been schooled and what you think the rules are. You are here to be limitless with your art and creative process! Don’t let the competition scare you and as they always say, be yourself. That’s why you’re an artist. As an independent creative in the culture, you kind of have a lifetime “get out of jail free” card in the sense that you’ll be excused – and even respected – for doing unconventional things in unconventional ways. Stay with your heart and always let your art, your work, be your** unique voice in the world. I have unique intuitive gifts as well as art gifts and my creative guides always tell me to let my work “be as PLAY”, so have fun!!!

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?

While I participate in occasional gallery exhibitions and shows, I manage most of my sales myself which really works for me. You can find my work at www.rebeccabarfoot.com and on Facebook. Of course, every sale, referral, and opportunity to teach helps me continue on this path.

(Re location connection: I’ve had my work shown at Woman Made gallery in Chicago and do have collectors in the Chicago area.)

Contact Info:

Website: www.rebeccabarfoot.com
Email: rebeccabarfoot@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebeccabarfootfineart/