Barbara Earl Thomas (born 1948) is a noted painter and writer, and was the executive director of Seattle's Northwest African American Museum from 2008 until 2013.
Video Barbara Earl Thomas
Early life
Thomas was born 1948, outside of the southern United States. He is a Seattle native, and one of the first in her family. A granddaughter of southern sharecroppers who migrated to Seattle. Her grandparents were skilled in handicraft, as was her mother. Fishing is a tradition Thomas's family brought with them when they migrated from the South, and continued in their new home in the Northwest. In 1988 Thomas's parents died in a drowning accident while fishing.
Maps Barbara Earl Thomas
Education
Thomas graduated from the University of Washington (U.W.) in 1973, then studied at the University of Grenoble in France (1976) before returning to U.W. to complete a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1977. She studied art under Jacob Lawrence, Michael Spafford and Norman Lundin while at the University of Washington and cites them as the artists "who demonstrated that art was something that you do as your life's work."
Career
Thomas was appointed deputy director of the Northwest African American Museum in 2005, before the museum opened to the public, and moved up to the position of executive director in 2008. Wanting to spend more time on her art, she stepped down from her full-time executive director job in January 2013 and has become NAAM's Deputy Director/Major Gifts Officer, a part-time post.
Artwork
Thomas works in many mediums, including egg tempera painting, cut paper, and linocut and woodblock prints. In 2013, she had a solo show at Paper Hammer where she displayed 14 prints from two series, The Reading Room and The Book of Fishing. Thomas has exhibited artwork at the Seattle Art Museum, The Tacoma Art Museum, The Whatcom Museum, and in museums and galleries throughout the US.
The Judkins Park light rail station, located adjacent to the Northwest African American Museum, will feature artwork from Thomas as part of Sound Transit's public art program.
Books
Storm Watch: The Art of Barbara Earl Thomas (published 1998 by University Washington Press)
Selected solo exhibits
- Art Center Gallery, Seattle Pacific University, "For Women Who Sleep With Crocodiles", 1983
- Francine Seders Gallery, Seattle: 1984, 1990, 1984, 1998
- Mitchell Museum, Mount Vernon, Illinois: "Talking Back to the Storm: New Figurative Work by Barbara Thomas", 1990
- Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Bellingham, Washington: "Barbara Thomas: The Fallen House", 1994
- Skagit Valley College, Mount Vernon, Washington: "A Fire in the Heart", 1995
- Seattle Art Museum: "Testimonies: Barbara Earle Thomas", 1998
- Bainbridge Island Museum of Art: "Barbara Earl Thomas: Heaven on Fire" (retrospective), 2016
Private and public collections
- Safeco Corporate Collection
- The Microsoft Corporate Collection
- The Seattle Art Museum
Awards
- 1998 & 2000: The Seattle Arts Commissions award for new non-fiction
References
External links
- Official Site
- Interview with Thomas
Source of article : Wikipedia
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