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Enameling is often associated with jewelry or small decorative objects, but I use vitreous glass enamel as a painting medium.  My “canvas” is copper, steel, or fine silver.  I apply colors using transparent overlays over opaque grounds and build my surface from successive applications of glass with multiple kiln firings for each piece.  My current studio is part of a large maker space at the Artisan’s Asylum in Somerville, MA where I have access to many shared shop tools in addition to my own enameling cubicle.  My inspiration is from places visited and imagined, and I work freely focusing on colors, textures and organic forms.

Formally educated in painting, I discovered vitreous enamel in a public high school teaching context in 1980, and my painting techniques using vitreous enamel are largely self -taught.  I continue to both paint in traditional watercolor and create jewelry.  Each medium has unique challenges of mastery, but my expressive style remains consistent.

My satisfying lengthy career as a public school visual arts educator has a significant impact on my own creative art.  I attribute some of my creative spontaneity to observing children at work.

I am a member of the international Enamelist Society and have academic degrees from Skidmore College and an MFA degree from Boston University. I have taken many workshops with masters of enameling, metalsmithing, and painting and continue to explore new possibilities.

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Education

  • Boston University School for the Arts, Master Of Fine Arts with a dual concentration in painting and art education
  • Skidmore College, Bachelor of Art in Fine Arts with a painting concentration.

Exhibitions and Galleries

  • The Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington
  • Enamelist Society Juried Exhibit, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon
  • Piano Craft Gallery, Boston, MA
  • NewTV Cable TV Studio Gallery, Newton Massachusetts
  • Artitudes, West Newton, MA
  • Filomena DeMarco Gallery, Somerville, MA
  • Newton, MA Free Library-one person solo exhibit
  • Arc Arts juried show Peabody, MA
  • Featured Artist Watertown, Ma Public Library
  • McGowan Gallery, Concord, NH
  • NH League of Craftsman, Concord, NH
  • Worcester Center for Crafts
  • Montserrat Collage of Art, Beverly, MA
  • Nave Gallery, Somerville, MA Metal and Fire: The Children of Vulcan
  • New Art Center, Newton, MA
    Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, Waterloo, Ontario
  • Boston University Faculty/Alumni Art Exhibit, Fuller Gallery, Boston, MA
  • City of Newton, MA Mayor’s Office.
  • Newton Cultural Center, Newton, MA
  • Mario’s Salon, Somerville, MA
  • Somerville Museum, Somerville, Massachusetts
  • Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College
  • Liberty Gallery Invitational Exhibit, Louisville, Kentucky
  • Carnegie Arts Center, Covington, Kentucky
  • Sarah Squeri Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
  • Columbus, Ohio Cultural Arts Center, Enamels Conference Exhibit
  • Newton, MA NewTV Cable television studio featured artist
  • Brookline Arts Center, Enamels: Facing the Future: juried exhibit
  • Arlington Center for the Arts: Art teachers’ juried show
  • Concord, MA Art Association

Awards and Recognitions

  • Fund for the Arts, Newton, MA – arts lottery grant to create enameled wallpiece.
  • Skidmore College Art Fellowship Program (three weeks in the Summer).
  • National Gallery, Washington DC, art teachers’ summer fellowship.

Barbara's enamel studio