Barbara Earl Thomas facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Barbara Earl Thomas
Barbara Earl Thomas
Born	1948 Seattle, United States
Education	University of Washington, University of Grenoble

Barbara Earl Thomas (born in 1948) is an American artist, writer, and museum leader from Seattle. She is known for her amazing artwork and for helping run art museums.

Growing Up: A Creative Start

Barbara Earl Thomas was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1948. Her grandparents were sharecroppers from the southern United States. They moved to the Pacific Northwest in the 1940s. This made Barbara one of the first in her family born outside of Texas and Louisiana.

As a child, Barbara was always surrounded by family members who loved to create things. From the age of eight, she spent a lot of time drawing and painting. She would often copy pictures from newspapers and books. Then, she would give her drawings to her mother.

Education and Mentors

Learning at University

Barbara Earl Thomas was the first person in her family to go to college. She started with a general idea of what she wanted to study. Soon, she realized that art could be her main focus. She earned her first degree, a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), from the University of Washington in 1973.

In 1976, she studied in France at the University of Grenoble. After that, she returned to the University of Washington. There, she completed her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in 1977.

Important Teachers

While at the University of Washington, Barbara learned from famous artists. Her teachers included Jacob Lawrence, Michael Spafford, and Norman Lundin. She said they showed her that "art was something that you do as your life's work." These teachers became more than just mentors; they became her lifelong friends.

Career Highlights

An Artist and a Leader

Besides being a talented artist, Barbara Earl Thomas is also a writer. She has worked as an arts administrator, which means she helps manage art organizations.

In 2005, she became the deputy director of the Northwest African American Museum. This was before the museum even opened to the public. By 2008, she was promoted to executive director. She led the museum for several years.

In January 2013, Barbara decided to step down from her full-time director job. She wanted to spend more time focusing on creating her own art.

Exploring Her Artwork

Stories in Art

Barbara Earl Thomas uses many different materials in her art. She works with egg tempera paint, glass, and cut paper. She also makes prints using linocut and woodblock methods. Her art includes sculptures and large installations.

Her main goal is to tell stories through her work. These stories come from her own life and experiences. She also gets ideas from the world around her and from political events.

Art as Order

Barbara sees making art as a way to bring order to the world. In 1990, she said it was like trying to control chaos. A sad event in her life was when her parents drowned in a boating accident in 1998. Even before this, fishing, which was important to her family, often appeared in her art.

Art critic Michael Upchuch has described her art. He mentions "besieged human figures in loving embrace." He also talks about crows as tricky companions or predators. Books in her art are seen as places where the mind can live. Since the late 1990s, her characters have become more blended with landscapes, the sea, and the sky.

Where to See Her Art

Barbara Earl Thomas's artwork is part of the permanent collections in several museums. You can find her pieces at the Seattle Art Museum and the Tacoma Art Museum. Her art is also at the Whatcom Museum and in Washington's State Art Collection.

She also created a public art piece called "The Story House" in 2009. This artwork is at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. It is also part of Washington's State Art Collection.

Books About Her Work

• Storm Watch: The Art of Barbara Earl Thomas (published in 1998 by University Washington Press)

Selected Art Shows

Barbara Earl Thomas has had many art shows, both by herself and with other artists. Here are some of them:

• Art Center Gallery, Seattle Pacific University, "For Women Who Sleep With Crocodiles", 1983
• Francine Seders Gallery, Seattle: 1984, 1990, 1984, 1998
• Mitchell Museum, Mount Vernon, Illinois: "Talking Back to the Storm: New Figurative Work by Barbara Thomas", 1990
• Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Bellingham, Washington: "Barbara Thomas: The Fallen House", 1994
• Skagit Valley College, Mount Vernon, Washington: "A Fire in the Heart", 1995
• Seattle Art Museum: "Testimonies: Barbara Earle Thomas", 1998
• Bainbridge Island Museum of Art: "Barbara Earl Thomas: Heaven on Fire" (a show looking back at her work), 2016
• SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA: "Jacob Lawrence: Lines of Influence," 2017

Awards and Honors

Barbara Earl Thomas has received many awards for her contributions to art:

• 1998 & 2000: The Seattle Arts Commissions award for new non-fiction
• 2013: Mayor's Arts Award, Seattle
• 2016: Irving and Yvonne Twining Humber Award
• 2016: Washington State Governor's Arts & Heritage Award