Barbara Minas
I was born in Hammond, Indiana, and grew up across the street from the toxic Little
Calumet River. In the mid 1950’s my family moved to Arizona, where I attended Judson, a funky school with both cattle roping and polo. During the turbulent Civil Rights and Vietnam eras, I received a BA from the University of Arizona, and later, after my daughter Whitney and son Josh were born, I received an MFA from the University of Puget Sound. Tacoma’s Commencement Bay was put on the Superfund National Priorities List in 1983 due to widespread contamination of the water. I love walking and hiking, so my immediate surroundings have always affected the art I make.
From the 1960’s my work has dealt with a personal reaction to the destruction of the
natural environment, as experienced growing up in the industrial northeast corner of Indiana, as well as, living in the industrial town of Tacoma, Washington. I have also used satirical visual imagery to describe the plight of wildlife, i.e. animal suicides: rattlesnake attacking itself, giraffe with its neck as a noose, rhino goring itself. From the time I watched a nuclear bomb test in New Mexico, on TV in my grade school gymnasium, up to the present, I have made art about nuclear weapons. First, these were sculptures and assemblages, and more recently, they are paintings with explosions in the background, animals in the foreground.
Over the years I’ve exhibited my ceramics, paintings and mixed media assemblages in
gallery and museum exhibitions, including, Tucson Art Center, The Heard Museum and the Phoenix Art Museum in Arizona, and The Carnegie Institute, State Capitol Museum and Henry Gallery in Washington. I have participated in Hidden in the Hills Studio Tours.
In the mid 1990’s I began writing as a daily practice and my first short story was printed
in The Story Teller, published by the Society of Southwestern Authors in 2015. After
re-reading my travel diary from a trip to Europe with my sister and parents, I spent four years working on a humorous and informative memoir, now available on Amazon books and Kindle: Moscow 1959: A Week with Dad Behind the Iron Curtain.
Recently we moved to a 1957 home in the Cave Creek hills, where I continue to write,
and, am in the process of setting up my art studio. I live with views in all directions with my husband Mike Watt and our Dazy dog.
Dear Barb, congratulations!!! Amazing, powerful, the fire!!! Very strong. I like your art. Love, Cecilia
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