Printmaker and Solarplate Artist - Barbara Mason
A printmaker for 40 years, I’ve been an artist all my life. Most of my work is non-objective, but I draw much inspiration from the cosmos and the natural world.
With regard to Solarplate printmaking, I always loved etching but hated the chemicals. I had children at home and taught a lot of other children, and I did not want the chemicals around. To say that the Solarplate printing process changed my work is an understatement. I can safely make intaglio work with no chemicals except tap water, a heady thing for a printmaker.
I continue to work, teach and encourage emerging printmakers. I am president of Print Arts Northwest (second stint), a regional printmaking professional organization in the Pacific Northwest. I teach several workshops a year in Portland, Oregon using Solarplate, and occasionally I travel to do a weekend workshop in another area. I have served on the boards of the Gordon Gilkey Center for Graphic Arts at the Portland Art Museum; Art in the Pearl; Crow’s Shadow Center for the Arts; the Washington County Museum; and Print Arts Northwest.
My work appears in the Portland Art Museum; Crow’s Shadow Center for the Arts; The Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence, Kansas; The New York Public Library Collection; the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette; and in the collection of Jordon Schnitzer, as well as numerous private collections.
