Meet Parker Barfield

Today we’d like to introduce you to Parker Barfield.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
Growing up I had always been interested in art through classes in school and visiting art museums. However, my main passion was the outdoors, and I wanted to be a naturalist or environmental scientist working with plants and animals as a profession. In college, I spent two years studying marine science and worked both in the field and the laboratory before changing my major to art. Studying science and working outdoors taught me a lot about the natural world, however, after a few years, I realized that I was much more interested in investigating the natural world through artistic practice as opposed to scientific research. What I found was that my interest and relationship with nature needed to be explored through art in order for me to begin to fully realize the depth of my connection to the places, plants, and animals that I encounter outdoors. At this point, I have devoted myself to working in painting and drawing as a means to know and understand the natural world.

Please tell us about your art.
My art is an investigation into the profound ways that interactions with plants, animals, minerals, and places impact me on psychological and spiritual levels. Through painting and drawing, I am able to make these profound experiences visible and communicate the unique ways I see the natural world to others. In my paintings, I do not want to provide any definitive statements concerning psychology and spirituality, but I see my works as an attempt to explore how nature impacts humans on these deeper levels.

The style of my work draws inspiration from surrealist artists like Rene Magritte and early American modernist landscape painters like Georgia O’keeffe and Arthur Dove. In some works, I aim to achieve naturalism, while in other works I allow forms to be distorted and even amorphous or abstract. By painting the natural world in different ways, I am able to access different sides of my brain and tap into the deep feelings nature stirs in me. Additionally, my work challenges a conventional landscape view. Often my work confuses the vantage point and establishes an uncertain scale of the elements inside the painting.

When looking at my art, I hope that people will share some the profound feelings that I feel when I am in nature. I believe It is vital for humans to be deeply moved by the natural world. This makes us realize that, as the surrealist Rene Magritte says, “we see it as being outside ourselves even though it is only a mental representation of what we experience on the inside.” In other words, how landscape painting isn’t a representation of the subject of nature, it is actually a presentation of the profound natural processes inside our bodies and minds. Inside all of us is the most wonderful internal landscapes of the mind and spirit.

We often hear from artists that being an artist can be lonely. Any advice for those looking to connect with other artists?
I have found that finding and renting communal studios as helpful for artists. This provides people to be around when working and can keep you on track and not isolated. I would say look for places where people rent studio spaces and try to get involved there. Also, look for communities of people that do similar work to you. I think the community of like-minded people is one of the biggest, if not the biggest factor in sustaining artistic practice.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
People can see my studio and current paintings at Grant Street Studios the ASU graduate student facilities on grant street in downtown Phoenix. Studios are open to the public on first Friday. My solo show of the research I am doing at ASU will open in spring 2020.

My work may also be seen on my website www.parkerbarfield.com. One of the biggest ways people can support me is to contact me or discuss and share similar ideas and experiences related to my interests.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.parkerbarfield.com
• Email: parkerbarfieldart@gmail.com

Image Credit:
Parker Barfield

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