JURIED EXHIBITION PRESS DOSSIER · FULLERTON AND ANAHEIM · 2004–2018
SHARED VISIONS
Shared Visions was not a gallery show. It was an annual juried exhibition, “established in 2004” by the organizer’s own account, hung for a year at a time in the Eye Care Center of the Southern California College of Optometry at 2575 Yorba Linda Boulevard, Fullerton—a working clinic where patients, students and doctors passed the paintings every day. The college became Marshall B. Ketchum University in 2013; in 2017 the exhibition was renamed Sharing Visions, opened to artists of all disabilities, and moved to the university’s Ketchum Health facility in Anaheim.
Barbara was in it at least seven times. The Estate’s photographs place her at a reception in the first years with God’s Half-Witted Brother / In the Beginning, Bad Eye on the Good Foot and Twinkle on the clinic walls; her applications and the Portfolio’s exhibition histories carry the rest, through the six paintings accepted for the tenth annual in 2014–15 and the two that went on to Anaheim. Nothing was written about the show in the press that we have found. What survives instead is her own voice, answering the same three questions on every application form, and the calls and invitations that kept arriving.
THE VENUE
Eye Care Center, Fullerton
Southern California College of Optometry, 2575 Yorba Linda Blvd, Fullerton; Marshall B. Ketchum University from 2013. From 2017, Ketchum Health, 5460 E. La Palma Ave, Anaheim. Each edition hung for about a year, September to August, open during clinic hours.
THE EDITIONS
2004 – 2018
Documented for Barbara: 2004–05 · 2007 · 2010–11 (sixth annual) · 2012–13 · 2013–14 (ninth) · 2014–15 (tenth) · 2016–17 and 2018 (Sharing Visions). Juried on “originality of concept, expressive use of media, and artistic excellence”; from 2014 the jury also gave awards.
THE WORK
Sixteen paintings, seven editions
From the six-foot God’s Half-Witted Brother of 1993 to Frost Flowers and Octopus Garden, small canvases that went to three editions in a row. The 2014–15 jury took everything she sent: Where I live it’s Spring, Octopus Garden, Not a Blue Dog, Frost Flowers, Color Blind 2/28 and The Magic Mountain.
WORKS FEATURED
God’s Half-Witted Brother / In the Beginning, acrylic and marker on canvas, 48 × 72 in., 1993 · 2004–05
Bad Eye on the Good Foot, acrylic on canvas, 84 × 72 in., 2002 · 2004–05
Twinkle, acrylic on canvas, 48 × 24 in., 1999 · 2004–05
Kozmick Beatnik #1, acrylic on canvas, 28 × 22 in. · 2010–11
Hand Jive, acrylic on canvas, 36 × 24 in., 1995 · 2012–13
Sign, acrylic and collage on canvas, 15 × 30 in., 2005 · 2012–13
Young ‘Summer’ Love, acrylic on wood, 48 × 36 in., 1999 · 2012–13
Day of the Drum, acrylic on canvas, 36 × 24 in., 2005 · 2013–14
Dive, acrylic on canvas, 24 × 48 in., 2007 · 2013–14
For All We Know, acrylic, 36 × 24 in., 2005 · 2013–14
Where I live it’s Spring, acrylic on canvas, 36 × 24 in., 2009 · 2014–15
Octopus Garden, acrylic on canvas, 18 × 14 in. · 2014–15, 2016–17, 2018
Not a Blue Dog, acrylic on canvas, 36 × 24 in., 2012 · 2014–15
Frost Flowers, acrylic on canvas · 2014–15, 2016–17, 2018
02-28 “City Lights at Night” (Color Blind Mural), acrylic on canvas, 16 × 16 in., 1995 · 2014–15
The Magic Mountain, acrylic on wood, 36 × 24 in., 2003 · 2014–15
ARTIST STATEMENT
Barbara on the application form
As a lifelong professional visual artist, when I was diagnosed with retinal degeneration, it was necessary for me to transform my thinking and techniques if I wanted to continue painting. My color grew more vivid as my sight diminished. I am increasingly inspired by music and language. Texts and original stencils form the imagery in the paintings.
Now I am inspired less by what I see and more by what I hear, remember and imagine. I love the play of color and I use texts to form “weavings of words” where the viewer is invited to form his/her own poetry.
I use assistive technology for reading and using the computer. I use Access and other van disability services to get around. It has made life more challenging, but I still teach and paint and live life as fully as possible.
“I create original stencils to form symbols of images I can no longer draw freehand.”
— Barbara Romain, artist statement on her Shared Visions application, May 2010
THE RECORD · 2004–2018
What was written, printed and photographed
Filter by kind. Each box opens its source; grey boxes are held in the Estate archive and open on request.
RELATED
Portfolio: Frost Flowers · Octopus Garden · God’s Half-Witted Brother / In the Beginning · Bad Eye on the Good Foot · Twinkle · Where I live it’s Spring · Related dossiers: Bad Eye on the Good Foot, 2005 · Passionate Focus, 2003–2022 · Art Blind, 2013