ARTIST STATEMENT

My portraits are project-oriented, often spanning years in production. They stretch from deeply layered multimedia collaborations and interactive collages, to the semi-abstracted water imagery of children with neurological challenges. The common thread that weaves and connects these various projects is the artistic inspiration to create, propelled by a need to share meaning. For my entire career as educator/artist, community worker, and professional photographer, I have attempted to integrate that creativity into a balanced process that remains at once aesthetic and civic. While beauty is inherent in the imagery, the civic embraces social engagement throughout production and dissemination of the art.

“Visually ambiguous and bold, her photographs are ongoing explorations of the abstract. They celebrate the expressive power, rhythm, and dimension of primary color and graphic line. The painterly, color-saturated surfaces of Barbara Tyroler’s water portraits pulsate with the rare beauty of an underwater coral garden.” –Curator and art critic Judith Turner-Yamamoto

ARTIST BIO

Barbara Tyroler is an experienced photographic educator and a professional portrait artist, utilizing her experience in both to integrate aesthetic form with social advocacy. She creates contemporary-style semi-abstracted imagery with emphasis on the figure, working on-site in private homes and artist studios, in therapeutic aquatic classes, and on college campuses. Long intrigued by water as backdrop, she began photographing with instamatic cameras incorporating black-and-white and infrared, color transparency and dye transfer processes. She now favors professional digital camera gear and cotton fiber prints. Her work is collected and exhibited in retail and non-profit galleries, private collections, and non-traditional venues such as educational research institutes, aquatic centers, waterfront hotels, and private beach homes around the world. She is the recipient of over 30 visual arts education grants.

“Barbara Tyroler, a photographer and educator of uncommon talent, pushes the boundaries of photographic imagery while also employing a wealth of creative techniques that are both sensuous and ethereal.” – Washington Post Photography Columnist Frank Van Riper