Barbara Romain
(1948 – 2024)
Barbara Romain was a fearless, vibrant force in the world of visual and performance art whose resilience and innovation left a lasting legacy on the canvas and beyond. Born with an artist's soul, Barbara built her career on seeing the world differently—even as her eyesight began to fade. Diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa in 1984, she continued to create with unrelenting devotion, eventually becoming one of the most recognized legally blind painters in contemporary American art.
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She earned her BFA from the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts) and her MFA from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. Her award-winning work was exhibited at esteemed institutions including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Art Club of Chicago, the Holter Museum in Montana, Watts Towers Art Center Gallery in Los Angeles, and internationally at the ART BLIND exhibition in Cologne, Germany. Her final installations appeared at the Shiva Gallery in NYC and at the Marshall B. Ketchum University in Anaheim, California.
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Barbara’s creative journey was anything but conventional. After losing most of her sight, she redefined her relationship to painting, using memory, sound, and imagination to guide her hand. Her later works, often layered with musical structures and poetic text, were described as "visual music"—abstract, expressive, and infused with rhythm, color, and emotion. As she once said,
"Now, I am inspired less by what I see and more by what I hear, remember, and imagine."
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Among the deepest sources of inspiration in her life was her brother, Elliott Levin, the acclaimed Philadelphia-based free jazz saxophonist, flutist, and poet known for his electrifying improvisation and fearless expression. Barbara often painted to Elliott’s music, letting his wild cadences and poetic fire guide her palette. Their shared love of rhythm and experimental language infused her work with energy, spontaneity, and soul.
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In 2013, her creative metamorphosis was documented in the film "Can You See Me?", which captured her transformation from a sighted realist to an abstract painter working in the margins of vision. The documentary was a powerful testament to the triumph of the human spirit and the possibilities of creation beyond limitation.
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Barbara was also a dedicated educator and arts advocate. She taught at Columbia College Hollywood and was co-founder/co-director of Art Options, an interdisciplinary arts program for inner-city teens in Los Angeles from 1992 to 2007. She was the recipient of multiple Artist in Residence awards from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and the California Arts Council, as well as a Teaching Artist Fellowship from VSA Arts, an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
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Alongside her beloved husband, poet and publisher Christopher Natale Peditto (d. 2014), Barbara was deeply involved in Los Angeles’ underground poetry and performance art scene. Together they co-founded and performed in Gray Pony for The Poet Alive, a troupe that celebrated the works of street jazz poet Bob Kaufman through multi-voice stage interpretations.
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Through paint, pottery, poetry, teaching, and perseverance, Barbara Romain redefined what it means to be an artist. Her life’s work is a testament to radical imagination, emotional truth, and the enduring power of art to transcend physical boundaries. Her legacy lives on through the colors she laid down, the words she lifted up, and the communities she nurtured with vision beyond sight.
