“Forget your personal tragedy. We are all bitched from the start and you especially have to be hurt like hell before you can write seriously. But when you get the damned hurt, use it-don’t cheat with it.”– Ernest Hemingway

The story of an artist’s career development includes life experiences that shape her perception of the world. Like most artists, Barbara has been drawing and painting for as long as she can remember. As a young girl she frequently wrote poetry, sharpening her observational abilities. Work as a newspaper photographer, correspondent, graphic designer, and web site designer further honed her skills.

The experience gained in these positions contributed to the organization and discipline which are essential in creating workmanlike paintings. Without realizing it at the time, those functions provided a solid foundation for work as a painter.

Barbara began her writing career as a correspondent for the now defunct Peterborough Transcript covering the town of Dublin, New Hampshire. With a population of less than 1,500 most residents knew the news before the paper came out on Thursdays.

She moved on to the other newspaper in town as a photographer and advertising designer with The Monadnock Ledger. She told the stories of small New England towns with her camera. She captured everything from the joyful face of a child at the school fair, to the proud salute of the graying veteran at Memorial Day parades. Space in a newspaper is limited, photos were usually black and white only, so these factors became part of the challenge to create interesting and informative material.

Barbara next graduated from newspaper work to magazines by working as a graphic designer for BYTE magazine, a McGraw-Hill publication. There were formulas to be followed, but there were also design decisions to be made during the magazine production process. Designer work involved producing graphic materials such as diagrams, charts, and graphs, and also artistically directing photo shoots to reduce the sometimes complex subject matter to a format more easily understood by readers. The role of a designer was to take the initially dry subject matter and portray it in a way that interested the reader, without being obvious or intrusive. It was an exercise in composition.

Her next career stop was Creative Director for Appropriate Solutions, a small software company. She performed design work for print media and web sites, and continued in the role of photographer as well. Creating an online newsletter allowed her to expand beyond the limitations of print newsletters. She could utilize color, and had more space to work with. The topic of the newsletter was cooking, so the photography centered on portraying culinary creations attractively. In this capacity, she had more flexibility and freedom of expression than what BYTE Magazine afforded her.

As one builds a career, the vicissitudes of life have a way of exerting an influence. Barbara juggled the roles of wife and mother to two sons along with her career, and then her mother’s health began to fail. She tried moving to part-time work, but eventually needed to give up employment altogether to spend the necessary time caring for her mother. It was a time of transition. Sadness and melancholy crept in while waiting for the next long drive, the next doctor’s visit, and the next sign that life was fragile. During that time, she returned to painting, a cathartic and healing experience. She then embarked on a new way of life.

While she had painted as a girl, Barbara now approached it with more dedication and purpose. She began with courses in drawing and watercolor. No longer having the brash confidence of youth, she approached her development as an artist more cautiously. During early classes, instructors said her composition was excellent. Then she realized that the design work I had done for years was basically just composition. she continued taking courses, but began to look for more specialized subjects, which led to workshops with master artists.

In August 2005, Barbara participated in the Monadnock Area Artist Associations, “Art in the Park” in Keene, New Hampshire. She sold several pieces, and was greatly encouraged. She was headed in the right direction, but had to work that much harder to improve as a painter.

A workshop with Alex Farquharson was the beginning of her efforts to take her work to the next level. His work with light was eye opening. In her efforts to improve, she continued to seek workshops with master artists. Kenn Backhaus gave a plein air workshop in upstate New York during the winter of 2007. Barbara found his work amazing. His focus on portraying colors accurately made a permanent impression.

In August 2007, Barbara received her first award, second place in the oil painting category at Manchester, New Hampshire’s “Art if the Park”. In June of 2008 and 2012, she received third place awards at the Beacon Hill Art Walk in Boston, Massachusetts. The combination of selling some paintings, and receiving awards further motivated her to apply for entry into juried art shows. Larger juried shows became part of her annual exhibitions schedule. These included shows in Mystic, Connecticut in August of 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012; Beacon Hill in June of 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2014; and New Hope, Pennsylvania in September of 2007, 2008 and 2009. Along with other non-juried shows, the summer circuit of shows became a routine.

The smaller juried art shows with limited space for participants was the next challenge. Starting in 2010, she was accepted into the Monadnock Area Artists Association juried art show. In 2011, the highly competitive biennial Juror’s Choice competition at Thorne-Sagendorf Gallery at Keene State College, Keene, New Hampshire accepted two of her paintings. She also qualified for the Newburyport Members Juried Show in 2013 and the March 2014 Newburyport Art Association Juried Regional Art Show in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

In May, 2013 Barbara opened an art gallery in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, named Color Notes Art Gallery. In addition to offering her paintings for sale, she conducted workshops, a summer art camp for children, and mentored a college art student as an intern in the gallery. She became the art teacher for a group of home schoolers and she organized a juried outdoor fine art show for the town. The list of non-painting jobs continued to grow.

The amount of time invested in the business of the gallery left little time for painting. After four years, she decided to move on and out. Between the endless work load and the equally wearing winters, Barbara decided to sell her property and head south.

Always, in the back of her mind, Barbara thought about writing. As an English major in college she her electives concentrated on writing, and had poems published in literary journals. The drive to write a book never left. But about what?

It was when Barbara and her husband started to plan a boat trip from Maine to Florida that inspiration struck. That was to be an adventure worth writing about. She took pictures and notes along the way to chronicle the journey. After some time to let it all sink in she started to write, and stopped, and started and stopped. Where to begin? How to begin? They are the questions that plague every writer.

After a number of false starts she continued writing regardless where the ultimate beginning landed. Three years and one pandemic later she completed her memoir, Uncharted: A widow’s journey back to life and love cruising the Intracoastal Waterway.

The project turned into much more than a story about a boat trip. It will be released on May 6, 2024.