As a young girl growing up in Seattle, Barbara found drawing to be her salvation from boredom on many rainy days. She practiced drawing everything around her from the models in her mother’s “Ladies Home Journal” magazine to the outrageous caricatures from her brother’s “Mad Magazine”. She became infatuated with the human face.
Barbara pursued her love for art at Arizona State University, earning a Bachelor of Fine Art degree, specializing in graphic design. She worked in the advertising field and was a freelance illustrator for ten years before returning to school to earn a master’s degree in education, specializing in curriculum and instruction.
Her teaching career began in 1992 as a high school art instructor in Glendale, Arizona. Her love for art took off in a way she never expected. Barbara found her gift through teaching. After her students won fourteen Congressional Art Competitions, she decided it was time to take her own advice and start entering contests with her own artwork. To her delight, she found immediate success. Barbara has won several local and international art competitions and has been published in several art books (i.e.: Strokes of Genius) and magazines (i.e.: International Artists Magazine). She is a signature member of the Colored Pencil Society of America and American Women Artists. Barbara continues to pursue her passion for drawing and painting as she embraces the exciting world of fine art and inspires other artists through workshops.
