Barbara Simcoe · Artist's Statement · 2006

My art works are about mediating the chaos of our culture and being a witness of this time. More and more I find myself to be at odds with contemporary life on a planet that is getting smaller and more violent by the day. For me, I work in an attempt to find centeredness and resolution in a precariously balanced world. My works are meditations on the hope that this is possible.

Meanings of my works have their sources in symbolic systems that deal with notions of intercession, healing and regeneration. The imagery of the feminine and light is prominent. I am not interested in the reality of appearance and so the settings are mysterious and somewhat surreal. I am very interested in eccentric spaces and so in all of my work I push the boundaries of the 'rules' of composition, often using extreme cropping as well as mixing perspectives and light sources. Much of my recent work has been influenced by a Fulbright experience in Eastern Europe during which time I began to generate most of the photographic images from which I work. I also became very interested in using people I know as models for the figurative aspects. My art works have suggestion of narrative but of a non-linear kind. I mean them to function as metaphors. I work with 3 basic media: oil painting, drawing and digital imaging.