New works by Jody Barbaree

I like painting flowers and fruits, clouds and sunshine, balloons, plants, candles and such. I don’t always plan to paint these things but they always find themselves in my work. As an artist whose subjects are mainly instinctual, unraveling the reasons they occur can be tricky. But at the end of the day when the dust has settled and the paint has dried, I attribute my marks to childhood. Simpler times in general. Times when all I cared about was getting off the bus to watch my favorite cartoons and how much Captain Crunch was left. The subjects I paint are symbols of simplicity. Not only in shape but what they represent. I often add strange faces to those childhood motifs – sometimes freaky, sometimes friendly, often in between. These figures act as reminders of reality: Childhood ain’t always a fairy-tale and growing up can hurt. Change happens. Stress occurs and flowers wilt. But without those realities a sunny day might not be as sunny and a ripe orange might not taste so good. My paintings are reminders of childhood, change, and that without the occasional cloud there’d be no silver lining.