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Eye on Artist: Barbara Earl Thomas

Join us for a talk by artist Barbara Earl Thomas on influences that inspire her work, methods and materials. Book sale and reception with light food and drink will follow.

Barbara Earl Thomas is a Seattle-based artist who has exhibited professionally since the early 1980s. Her far-ranging exhibits include the Seattle and Tacoma Art Museums, with solo national exhibits at the Meadows Museum in Shreveport, Louisiana and in the Evansville Museum of Art and Technology in Indiana. Her work is included in many public, corporate and private collections. Barbara is a graduate of the School of Art, University of Washington where she received her Master of Arts in 1977. She counts herself most fortunate to have had mentorships with Michael Spafford and Jacob Lawrence who have both influenced her work and life. Thomass early inspirations and paintings are well documented in Storm Watch: The Art of Barbara Earl Thomas, with a foreword by Jacob Lawrence and an introduction by Vicki Halper (University of Washington Press, 1998). She was represented for many years by Francine Seders Gallery in Seattle.

Thomas is noted for a social commitment to her community that is broad and inclusive. As an artist, she has a long and consistent practice of including the world in her art, and her life in the world. Through her administrative work in organizations such as the Seattle Arts Commission and Bumbershoot, she has given time and energy in support of individual artists in all genres. In 2012 she stepped down from the directorship of the Northwest African American Museum where she was instrumental in launching the museum and establishing the broad-based support that sustains it.

Barbara has received numerous awards - most recently the Yvonne Twining Humber Award from Artist Trust (Seattle), and has been nominated for the Genius Award from The Stranger. She is also a writer and lecturer who has published essays on a variety of topics, and monographs on artists such as Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, Joe Fedderson, Cappy Thompson, Alan Rohan Crite, and Julie Speidel.

Barbara's solo exhibition at BIMA, Heaven on Fire, spans 30 years of work. Included in this exhibition are paintings, prints, glass sculpture, paper cuts, and a site-specific installation including the artist's writings. Heaven on Fire is on view in the Feferman and Beacon Galleries now through October 2, 2016.