Photography is one of the most exciting media for creating art and documenting life. A good photographer's work can be just as interesting and visually appealing as a painting by one of the great masters. Add some unusual photographic techniques and you have works that truly stand out in a crowd of pictures. Someone who has mastered this art is Barb Vogel.
Barbara was raised in Ohio, in the village of Granville. After completing her school education, she attended Ohio State University, where she studied Fine Arts. For her Bachelor's of Fine Arts, she majored in painting. She then did a Master's degree where she focused on photography instead. Today she spends most of her time in Columbus, Ohio.
Alternative processes of photography are Barbara's specialty. One of these processes is encaustic work, which she used to create different photographic series. First she used film to take pictures with a shallow depth of field and out of focus, so that they would appear blurry. Next, the negatives were scanned in and the images printed. The printed images were then mounted and coated, after which she fused them in pigment and wax. The resultant images remind one of a dream world where nothing is completely clear and in focus.
Family is a major theme in the artist's work, as are friends. One series of encaustic work is called 'Portraits of Friends and Family' and features images taken spontaneously. Another series consists of family photographs that she printed on canvas. In each image, she placed the family members against a backdrop of a house. She then added memorabilia to personalize the image and fused everything in encaustic pigment to create brightly-colored, deeply personal pictures. This series is called the 'House Collage Series'.
Another series themed around Barbara's family is the series of fifty 'Portraits in Wood'. For this she made black-and-white photo negatives of family portraits and yearbook pictures of members of her family. Then she printed the images on emulsion-coated wood. The addition of oil paints added color, while carving into the wood created texture to make the pictures seem alive.
A series of simple, traditional silver gelatin prints resulted after a dare from a friend, who challenged Barbara to do black-and-white photographs. Columbus, Ohio was the subject and Barbara managed to create beautiful portraits of her hometown with its people. This inspired another series that captures the United States along a 2,209-mile highway known as US Route 1. The highway stretches from Fort Kent in Maine to Key West, Florida, so the abundance of pictures capture a richly diverse country.
Barbara has held many exhibitions of her work, mainly around Ohio and including a solo show at the Springfield Museum of Art in 2011. Her work has been receiving rave reviews and she has won numerous awards. One of the most recent was being awarded a residency at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont. The Ohion Arts Council sponsors this.
There will be two exhibitions of Barb Vogel's art in Ohio in 2013. The Ross Museum in Delaware will present 'Diverse' in March. This show will include works by seven female artists. Then The Works Gallery in Newark will present a joint exhibition in May. Barbara will show her work along with the work of Eileen Woods and Paula Nees.
Barbara was raised in Ohio, in the village of Granville. After completing her school education, she attended Ohio State University, where she studied Fine Arts. For her Bachelor's of Fine Arts, she majored in painting. She then did a Master's degree where she focused on photography instead. Today she spends most of her time in Columbus, Ohio.
Alternative processes of photography are Barbara's specialty. One of these processes is encaustic work, which she used to create different photographic series. First she used film to take pictures with a shallow depth of field and out of focus, so that they would appear blurry. Next, the negatives were scanned in and the images printed. The printed images were then mounted and coated, after which she fused them in pigment and wax. The resultant images remind one of a dream world where nothing is completely clear and in focus.
Family is a major theme in the artist's work, as are friends. One series of encaustic work is called 'Portraits of Friends and Family' and features images taken spontaneously. Another series consists of family photographs that she printed on canvas. In each image, she placed the family members against a backdrop of a house. She then added memorabilia to personalize the image and fused everything in encaustic pigment to create brightly-colored, deeply personal pictures. This series is called the 'House Collage Series'.
Another series themed around Barbara's family is the series of fifty 'Portraits in Wood'. For this she made black-and-white photo negatives of family portraits and yearbook pictures of members of her family. Then she printed the images on emulsion-coated wood. The addition of oil paints added color, while carving into the wood created texture to make the pictures seem alive.
A series of simple, traditional silver gelatin prints resulted after a dare from a friend, who challenged Barbara to do black-and-white photographs. Columbus, Ohio was the subject and Barbara managed to create beautiful portraits of her hometown with its people. This inspired another series that captures the United States along a 2,209-mile highway known as US Route 1. The highway stretches from Fort Kent in Maine to Key West, Florida, so the abundance of pictures capture a richly diverse country.
Barbara has held many exhibitions of her work, mainly around Ohio and including a solo show at the Springfield Museum of Art in 2011. Her work has been receiving rave reviews and she has won numerous awards. One of the most recent was being awarded a residency at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont. The Ohion Arts Council sponsors this.
There will be two exhibitions of Barb Vogel's art in Ohio in 2013. The Ross Museum in Delaware will present 'Diverse' in March. This show will include works by seven female artists. Then The Works Gallery in Newark will present a joint exhibition in May. Barbara will show her work along with the work of Eileen Woods and Paula Nees.