Art Department Faculty Quadrennial Exhibition 2016 January 2016

Lynda Barry Assistant Professor UW–Madison Department of Art, since 2013 Interdisciplinary Creativity 2015 Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, University of the Arts, Philadelphia 1978 Bachelor of Arts, The Evergreen State College Recent achievements 2014–15 Holtz Center Outreach Fellowship 2015 Edna Wiechers Art in Wisconsin Award, UW–Madison Arts Institute 2015 Alternative Weekly Comics: The Exhibit, group show, Society of Illustrators, New York 2014 Push and Kicks Award for Excellence in the World of Graphic Books, Society of Illustrators, New York 2014 One! Hundred! Demons!, official selection of the Angoulême International Comics Festival, Angoulême, France 2014 Freddie Stories, Ignatz Award Nominee–Outstanding Anthology or Collection 2014 Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor (Drawn and Quarterly) 2014 Everything, Part I, solo show, Adam Baumgold Gallery, New York 2014 1st 20 Yrs., group show, Adam Baumgold Gallery, New York Artist’s statement All around the world kids look up at the full moon at night, and in its craters and shadows they find an image of what they are told is there. In western countries kids find the face of a man. In Asian countries they find a rabbit. But what if no one had told you what to look for? You would still see something. Pareidolia is one word for this, this tendency to find creatures and faces, meaning, and even monsters in clouds, shadows, and stains. This ability seems to be with us all of our lives. People who quit drawing a long time ago may have forgotten that satisfying drawings can be made this way, suggesting themselves from a stain or a shape. And once we spot them, we can literally draw them forward with very little effort on our part. We make a few clarifying lines, and there they are, arriving whole with personalities and certain dispositions toward the world. I use coffee stains to conjure some of these creatures that they may show me the path back to drawing, once so plain to me as child, sometimes to be long lost, but in fact only forgotten. Using the phenomenon of pareidolia in my drawing practice helps me remember the way. Work in the show Lynda Barry (American, b. 1956) Pariedolia, 2015 Ink drawings on coffee stains, 12 x 9 in., each of 12 Pariedolia–Catch Me and Claim Your Reward, 2015 Ink drawing on coffee stains, 12 x 9 in. (Illustrated) 8 Quadrennial 2016 | Faculty

Art Department Faculty Quadrennial Exhibition 2016 January 2016 | Page 24