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Q: Would you talk about some of your early experiences with art?
Zebras in Chelsea A: I grew up in a blue collar family in suburban New Jersey. My father was a television repairman for RCA. For awhile my mother worked as a sewing machine operator in a factory that...
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Q; When did you start pursuing art as a serious profession?
“Answering the Call,” 58″ x 38,” soft pastel on sandpaper A: In the mid-1980s I was in my early 30s, a lieutenant on active duty in the Navy, working a soul-crushing job as a computer analyst on the...
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Q: What is your best time of day to paint?
The High Line – Barbara’s morning commute to the studio A: I have always been an early riser and a morning person, from my student pilot days when I’d be at an airport in New Jersey ready to takeoff...
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Q: What have you learned about the people of Mexico through your travels,...
A corner of the studio A: It didn’t take long to become smitten with these beautiful people. It happened on my first trip there in 1992 when Bryan and I, along with busloads of other tourists, were...
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Q: What is your earliest visual memory?
Arizona road A: I remember being in a crib at the house where I lived with my parents and sister, a two bedroom Cape Cod in Clifton, New Jersey. I must have been about two or three years old. The...
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Q: Who is your favorite artist and why?
Catalogue of Matisse’s late work A: I admire the work of many artists, but if I have to choose only one then I’d say Matisse. Whenever there is a Matisse exhibition in New York, I try to see it at...
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Q: Would you talk about your first solo exhibition in a commercial gallery?
“Big Deal,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 58″ x 38″ A: Although I had exhibited in a number of non-profit galleries in Virginia, Washington, DC, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York, my first solo in a...
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Q: When and where did you start your career in the visual arts?
In the studio, Photo: Maria Cox A: My journey to becoming an artist was circuitous. In the mid-1980s I was a thirty-something Navy lieutenant. I worked a soul-crushing job as a computer analyst on the...
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Q: Where did you grow up and what were some early milestones or experiences...
“The Sleeping Gypsy,” Henri Rousseau, oil on canvas, 1897 A: I grew up in a blue collar family in Clifton, New Jersey, a suburb about fifteen miles west of Manhattan. My father was a television...
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Pearls from artists* # 434
West Village, NYC *an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on. What do we carry forward? My...
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Q: How do you think about risk? What role has taking risks played in your...
Barbara’s Studio A: My journey to becoming a visual artist was circuitous, to say the least. Risk-taking gave me the life and career I enjoy now. The biggest – and scariest – risk I’ve ever taken was...
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Q: What is your earliest memory of wanting to be an artist? (Question from...
A charcoal self-portrait circa 1988 when I was a Navy Lieutenant A: I don’t believe I have any such ‘early memories.’ I came to art late and my journey to becoming an artist was circuitous, to say the...
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Q: When did you decide and what prompted you to become an artist? (Question...
Naval Officer Candidate Barbara Rachko, circa 1983 A: In the mid-1980s I was a thirty-three-year-old Navy lieutenant, working a soul-crushing job as a computer analyst on the midnight shift in a...
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