Nova Cynthia's Artist Wake Up Call:
"IN," by Nova Cynthia Barker,
Click on Photo to Enlarge: Epson Prints Archival Available on Demand
How My Story begins;
I come from a family of highly creative beings:
Dancers, Storytellers, Oral Historians,Theologians,
Designers, Quilt Makers, Tailors, Cabinet Makers, Farmers,
Writers, Poets, Sculptors, Folk Artists, Painters, Photographers,
Educators, you name it.
And Painting was just another of many creative pursuits
that were a daily part of my life: Poetry, Journaling,
Writing Short Stories, Designing, Sewing, Dancing with my
Mother, Sister, Grandmothers and Aunts and Play
acting with my Sister and Cousins.
I had never considered it as a Profession until one day,
at the age of nineteen, I saw O'Keefe's Red Poppy, Joshua Tree
and three other Imgages reproduced in Reader's Digest:
In that moment The Top of my Crown Chakra Opened up into
a Thousand Petaled Lotus: and I realized THAT
a Modern Artist could Translate what She saw around her
into a Visual Language Expressing the Spirit of a thing
rather than simply creating a copy of it. Which I found boring,
the real thing is more exciting I use to argue with my mom in
front of Rembrant's Paintings, it was only when I discovered
his tiny etchings that I saw the Spirit of Genuis in his work.
BOOMERANG!!!
Before then I thought all the Powerful Spirit-Filled Art
had been produced in earlier times and other cultures: Work I loved
and studied; Japanese Woodblock Prints, Russian Religious Icons,
Persian Miniatures, African and Greek Sculpture, Egyptian and American
Indian Artifacts. Of course, I also Loved Van Gogh, Maurice Pendergast,
and Chide Hassam; but I thought they had covered all that ground already.
Until O'Keefe, and then I knew that I to was an Artist Animal
like O'Keefe. And with that knowing I made a Vow to Create a
Visual Language of Symbols in Paint To Translate, Express and
Acknowledge The Essential Spirit Of Life
I Witnessed All Around and Within Me...
