Barbara Eberhard has been hard at work creating her Gum Bichromate images because she has two solo exhibits during the month of May. At the Arts Place in Portland, Indiana Barbara is exhibiting her series An Alternate View.
“The idea for this series came to me on a train ride in Canada. Looking out the window, the rain was like tears falling down the glass. I began to think about all the windows we look out of in life, and how our windows are very different from each other’s.”
The series Gum on the Streets will be on exhibit at the Orland Park Library, 14921 S Ravinia Avenue beginning May 3rd. On Friday, May 4th, come to the library to “Meet the Artist” at 7:00 p.m.
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“Gum on the Streets represents the idea that during this time of mass communication, we are more alone than ever. Lost in our own thoughts as we are alone in the midst.”
Barbara prints her images with an alternative printing process of photography that dates back to the 1880’s. Gum Bichromate prints could be called “photographically controlled watercolors”. They are a combination of photography, watercolor and printmaking. Even though the image may resemble a color photograph, it is a fabrication of layers of pigment and hardened gum Arabic.
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“Working in Gum Bichromate enables me to become more engaged in the creation of my work. There is emotionality to the gum print, like images you remember from dreams or scenes from your memory. There is a mystery to the print that allows the viewers to find their own meaning in the image. For me Gum Bichromate is very meditative, hands-on manipulating and creating an image. While working on a print, layer-by-layer, day-by-day, I become intimate with the image as it ingrains upon my mind, and heart.” Each piece is an original.
Barbara is a member of Gallery Seven in the Historic Gaylord Building in Lockport, Tall Grass Association, and the Chicago Society of Artists. Barbara and her husband Steve were owners of Camera House West in Joliet. She currently teaches photography at the University of St. Francis, Joliet.
