Amanda Barrow was raised in the Mid-west by an Episcopalian priest and social worker, in an environment conducive to creativity and abstract thinking. In 1992, a Fulbright research grant provided an opportunity for her to live and work in India for 13 months. At present, she lives/works in New York, Massachusetts and Maine. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Boston and New York Public Libraries, and the Museum of the Book in the Netherlands, among numerous other places around the world.

STATEMENT

Recent travels in Asia, Europe, and New Zealand have enhanced my personal vision, leading me to dig deeper into the indigenous spiritual ambiance of the East in my artwork. Synthesizing these Eastern concepts with the Western visual language of my upbringing is my intention. I experiment with transparency and explore the inherent structure of my chosen medium. The resulting work presents a broad range of abstractions that utilize nature, architecture and the human body as my primary sources of inspiration.

CHAKRA SERIES

These monotype (one of a kind) prints represent my personal interpretation of the chakra system. I began studying chakras in October 2008, and was stirred by their mystery, and how the philosophy associated with them inspired me at such a deep level. I created 12 prints based on each of the chakras, beginning with number one up to number seven. Chakras start at the base of the spine, and continue upward throughout our bodies to a little bit above the crown of the head.

ASIAN WALL SERIES

The Asian Wall series is a body of work that is largely inspired by my visits to India and China. My continuing relationship with India began with a visit in 1986. I have since returned as a Fulbright research scholar in 1992, a New England Foundation for the Arts fellowship winner in 1999, and a Boston Individual Artist grants winner in 2001.

In 1999, I toured mainland China. During the above visits, I was particularly intrigued by the walls I encountered throughout the city and countryside. Through the overlay of posters, paint, graffiti, advertisements, and other artifacts of civilization, these walls told me their stories of past, present and even future, revealing the visual information they exposed on their two-dimensional milieu. My recent paintings incorporate this imagery through a variety of layering techniques utilizing found scrap paper, textiles from India, and fabric from my mother’s quilting collection. Additionally, the curvaceous Malayalam script of the South Indian state of Kerala is integrated into the composition. The resulting work reflects my impressions of the architecture, landscape, and people, synthesizing the abstract language of my own personal vision.