Barbara Romain

When I was diagnosed with a retinal degenerative disease in 1984, I questioned my ability to continue painting. I slowly transformed my thinking and techniques to incorporate my physical limitations as an integral part of my work.

Miy color palette has grown more vivid as my sight diminishes. I create original stencils to form iconic images as I can no longer easily draw recognizable forms free-hand.

I use text to form \"weavings of words\" which create multiple layers of information.

In my \"visual music\" paintings each layer is inspired by a feature in a particular song--e.g. the guitar line, the drums and finally the lyrics.

I am inspired now less by what I see and more by what I hear, remember and imagine.

Barbara was born in Philadelphia, PA where she earned a BFA from the Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the arts. She moved to Los Angeles and earned an MFA from Otis College of Art & Design.

After working for the Los Angelse Theatre Center\'s Theater as a Leaning Tool program, in 1992 she co-founded Art Options, an iinterdisciplinary arts education program for high risk teenagers. She received Artist in Residence Awards from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and the California Arts Council.

In 2007 she was chosen as one of 5 national Teaching Artist Fellows by VSA arts in Washington, D.C.

She has created public art installations at Watts Towers Art Center Gallery, the former Women\'s Building in downtown Los Angeles, a bus shelter in her Echo Park neighborhood, and numerous art exhibits and performances with Art Options.

Her award-winning paintings have been nationally exhibited in venues including The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The African American Museum of Art in Los Angeles, The Holter Museum in Helena, MT, the deYoung Museum, San Francisco and the Forest Lawn Museum, Glendale, CA.

Two recent solo exhibits include BAD EE ON THE GOOD FOOT, at the Art Around Gallery in Philadelophia, and WRITING ON THE WALL at the Satusuma Gallery in North Hollywood.

Barbara currently teaches at Columbia College Hollywood, a film school in Tarzan, CA.

Her paintings have been exhibited nationally in galleries